In May, I was given the great honor of being selected to serve as CEO and President of Perkins – a role that allows me to combine my passion for quality education, my experience as a parent of a student who attended the Perkins School for the Blind, and my many years of bringing innovation to organizations.
It’s an exciting time at Perkins, an institution with a 185-year track record of innovative education for those who are blind or visually impaired. It’s also a time of great opportunity as we look forward.
Before joining Perkins, I had been an operating executive, board member and advisor for many successful growth companies. Throughout this time, I learned that too many organizations forget how to learn from their customers – they offer solutions to yesterday’s problem, stop growing and lose their relevance. With this in mind, I launched Power Strategy to help mid-sized organizations with strategy, innovation and sustained growth. I also just wrote my first book, “The Curve Ahead: Discovering the Path to Unlimited Growth,” which outlines the reasons that growth companies stop growing, and what their leaders can do to sustain growth by discovering their next S-Curve.
Every organization – private or non-profit – needs an innovation process to remain relevant and achieve its objectives. Private companies tend to focus on revenue growth while non-profits focus on impact related to their missions. Either way, an innovative process is the way to achieve results by staying in tune with the changing needs of your customers or constituents.
It’s an exciting time at Perkins, an institution with a 185-year track record of innovative education for those who are blind or visually impaired. It’s also a time of great opportunity as we look forward.
Before joining Perkins, I had been an operating executive, board member and advisor for many successful growth companies. Throughout this time, I learned that too many organizations forget how to learn from their customers – they offer solutions to yesterday’s problem, stop growing and lose their relevance. With this in mind, I launched Power Strategy to help mid-sized organizations with strategy, innovation and sustained growth. I also just wrote my first book, “The Curve Ahead: Discovering the Path to Unlimited Growth,” which outlines the reasons that growth companies stop growing, and what their leaders can do to sustain growth by discovering their next S-Curve.
Every organization – private or non-profit – needs an innovation process to remain relevant and achieve its objectives. Private companies tend to focus on revenue growth while non-profits focus on impact related to their missions. Either way, an innovative process is the way to achieve results by staying in tune with the changing needs of your customers or constituents.
Helen Keller reading braille Perkins is famous for teaching Helen Keller, promoting literacy through braille, and taking its know-how to 67 developing countries. But there is still much work to be done. We want to address the stubborn problem of 75 percent unemployment among adults who are visually impaired. We want to take a fresh look at literacy solutions for the visually impaired – from braille to audio learning to voice recognition and other effective ways to read, write and communicate. And we want to track innovations in information technology, neuroscience, robotics and other fields to uncover new solutions to familiar problems.
In short, it’s my job to make sure we continue to search for our next S-Curve at Perkins.
In short, it’s my job to make sure we continue to search for our next S-Curve at Perkins.
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