Curt Bailey, President of Sundberg-Ferar was invited by Suzanne Levine, Executive Director of the Greater West Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce to speak at their Leadership Luncheon held at Andiamo Bloomfield. Represented among the crowd were many CEOs and leaders of West Bloomfield’s healthcare, educational and social services. Introduced by Fox 2 News’ Roop Raj, Curt gave an inspiring presentation on “Barriers to Innovation”: The reasons why we often fail to truly innovate, and what it is about a design studio like Sundberg-Ferar that overcomes these barriers.
The Greater West Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce encourages community and business in the greater West Bloomfield area including Sylvan Lake, Keego Harbor and Orchard Lake. The chamber hosts many networking and community events each month including monthly “Mix and Mingles” at local businesses to encourage connections and growth.
For more information on the GWB Chamber click here.
The event began with a lovely reception where we got to experience first-hand the warmth and closeness of the West Bloomfield community. Many warm hellos, hugs and handshakes were exchanged as chamber members and guests trickled in. We were also greeted warmly and the group proved to be a warm and fun audience for Curt’s presentation.
Roop Raj, reporter/anchor for Fox 2 News Detroit introduced the audience to Curt and also let us know about the Detroit news he covers at 5:30 and 6:30 every night that takes an in-depth look at “unique enterprise stories” in business, education and sometimes social issues. Before anchoring with Fox 2 News Detroit, Roop Raj was an anchor for NBC News in New Orleans before and during Hurricane Katrina, and he also won awards for his coverage of the city in the aftermath of the storm.
For more on Roop Raj click here, and for more on Fox 2 News click here.
Curt had the audience enraptured from the start as he discussed frustrations, observations, and insights drawn from his 30-plus years of first-hand experience working with companies to create innovative products. Many heads in the crowd nodded sincerely as he recounted pivotal stories from his career. Audible exclamations of wonder came from the audience as they realized how Curt’s real life examples of companies who have both failed and succeeded in innovation apply to their own experience.
Curt’s presentation delivered definitive moments of insight to all in the audience. As Curt’s presentation drew to a close, the audience gave an overwhelming ovation. His presentation was a wonderful example of how the design thinking and industrial design that we do at Sundberg-Ferar helps any business thrive through creating innovative strategies, services and products. And, as Curt says about Sundberg-Ferar, “you won’t find any other independent industrial design studio with our 84 years of experience in designing consistently innovative, cross-category products”!