CHICAGO INNOVATION AWARDS

Sharing a vision: Archipelago chief still dreaming

Chicago Sun Times

The award program was founded by the Chicago Sun-Times and the new-product consulting firm Kuczmarski & Associates, Chicago. Putnam, 46, founded the Archipelago electronic stock exchange in Chicago in 1997 as an effective competitor to traditional floor-based stock exchanges. Last year, the New York Stock Exchange bought the publicly held Archipelago for about $10 billion, and in the process transformed itself from a member-owned club to a for-profit company with $12 billion in market capital owned by public investors. Following is an edited transcript of Putnam's keynote address to more than 500 attendees:

When I first learned that I was being given the Visionary Award, I was a little surprised that I was being called a "visionary."

I was more used to being called an entrepreneur, an innovator, a radical, "that guy who thinks he can create a new stock exchange, and probably some other colorful things that I'll just leave to your imagination.

I never really thought of myself as a visionary, so I looked up the word "visionary" in the dictionary (online of course), and found it meant a number of things including: "One who is given to impractical or speculative ideas; a dreamer."

And I thought there is some truth in that definition. Certainly my wife has accused me of being impractical at times, and I have had many speculative ideas -- some more successful than others.

But most importantly, I have been a "dreamer." Just like those of you being recognized here tonight for your achievements. After all, innovation often starts with a dream, a vision to do something differently -- and maybe even revolutionary.

2006 Innovation Awards nominees

Chicago Sun Times

Ten 10 Chicago-area companies and organizations have been named winners in the fifth annual Chicago Innovation Awards competition for products and services that include electronic finger-writing technology and environmentally responsible architecture,

The winners of the 2006 Chicago Innovation Awards, selected from more than 227 nominees, will be honored at an awards ceremony Monday, Oct. 30, at The Goodman Theatre in downtown Chicago. The winners are (in alphabetical order):

* 37 Signals, Chicago. This company offers a portfolio of unique Web-based tools, including tools for project collaboration and communication, for personal and business uses. The company's Basecamp, Backpack, Campfire, WriteBoard and Ta-da List products provide users a more efficient and simple way to perform their tasks.

* "Check, Please!" WTTW-ch. 11's highest rated program ever provides viewers the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions on Chicago's diverse restaurants. The program is going national on PBS stations, and its format has been copied by many other television stations.

* The Community Energy Cooperative, Chicago. This company's Energy Smart Pricing Plan is the nation's first residential, market-based, hourly electricity pricing program. The pilot program has demonstrated that real-time pricing can be an effective tool for reducing residential electricity bills and lifting the strain on electricity infrastructure. It will become generally available in Illinois in 2007.

* FeedBurner, Chicago. With its Feed Management technology, FeedBurner helps publishers of blogs and podcasts measure their audiences and sell ads, as well as enhance normal, everyday feeds so that publishers have the ability to distribute the feed for use in any RSS reader.

* Goettsch Partners, Chicago. Goettsch's architectural design services have won multiple awards for environmentally friendly buildings. The firm designed the first project in the nation -- 111 S. Wacker -- to receive the national LEED CS Gold rating, a national standard for sustainable design. The design and construction focus on flexibility, efficiency and economy with some of the latest office building technologies.

* LoggerHead Tools, Palos Park, Ill. Loggerhead developed the Bionic Grip wrench, a new, open-ended gripping tool that combines the versatility of an adjustable wrench with the functionality of a pair of pliers. This hybrid universal tool symmetrically distributes force around the workload-distributing force over 240 degrees.

* Motorola Inc.,Schaumberg. The company's finger-writing technology brings the convenience of text messaging and email right into the user's finger by using a smooth keypad on the phone with special sensors and cutting-edge, finger-writing recognition software. The latest Ming PDA phone that uses this technology has quickly established itself as the best-selling smart phone in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

* Ocean Tomo, Chicago. The intellectual-capital merchant banking firm has created Live Intellectual Property Auctions, the world's first such system for auctioning intellectual property rights.

* Sara Lee Corp., Chicago. Sara Lee's new Soft and Smooth Made with Whole Grain White Bread looks, tastes and feels just like white bread but is made from a blend of enriched white flour and whole-grain flour.

* USG Corp, Chicago. USG's Sheetrock-brand joint compound with dust control has a special patented formula that binds up fine residue during drywall sanding to form heavier particles that fall to the floor instead of clouding the air coating workers and customers' homes with fine dust particles.

Also at the Oct. 30 awards ceremony, the program's 2006 Visionary Pioneer Award will be presented to Gerald Putnam, chairman and CEO of NYSE Arca Inc. Arca, formerly known as the Archipelago Exchange, is the nation's leading electronic stock exchange, and provided the corporate platform that made the New York Stock Exchange a publicly held company. In addition to accepting the Visionary Pioneer Award, Putnam will deliver the program's keynote address at the ceremony.

Stroke of genius

Chicago Sun Times

Sending a text message in English, with only 26 characters, is almost as simple as dialing a phone. Chinese, with 13,000 characters, is another story.

But Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. has come up with a revolutionary new system that makes text messaging and e-mail available to the Chinese. It's called "finger writing," and it involves writing on a keypad with a fingerprint, and allowing software to help in writing text messages and e-mail on mobile phones.

The breakthrough technology aimed, at one-fifth of the world's population, has earned Motorola its third Chicago Innovation Award, the most of any Chicago area company.

Tom MacTavish, vice president and director of Motorola's Center for Human Interaction Research, said, "In the past, cell-phone users had to use Roman characters for text messaging, or nothing at all.

Existing text-input systems relied on mapping key-presses to characters or words. With mathematical permutations potentially running into the billions, mapping solutions were just not practical for Chinese."

Besides the sheer number of characters, each person put his own spin on the letters. Jian-Cheung Huang, director of the Motorola China Research Center, summarized the challenge: "1,306,313,812 people -- 13,000 characters in traditional Chinese, and everyone writes every character a little differently."

In addition, systems using a stylus on a touch screen, are expensive, and people often lose their styluses. But Motorola staff in Shanghai and the Chicago area cracked the code and found a way of composing text messages on a special key pad on which the writer traced out the letters. MacTavish said combining the keypad with finger writing meant that a dedicated keypad was not necessary.

Seizing opportunity

Chicago Sun Times

A wrench typically doesn't conjure up visions of 21st century innovation -- not unless you're Dan Brown.

The founder and president of Chicago-based Logger-Head Tools has improved on the age-old product. He created the American-made Bionic Wrench product line that's racked up millions in sales, successfully competing against companies that manufacture their tools in China, and that dominate the market.

Proving that innovation can be retroactive as well as forward, Brown's work on the lowly wrench has earned LoggerHead Tools a 2006 Chicago Innovation Award.

The company introduced its first product, the 8-inch Bionic Wrench, in May 2005. Designed for the tool-intimidated novice and professional tool users, it weighs less than a pound, and can replace 16 U.S. and metric wrenches.

Getting white bread over the health hump

Chicago Sun Times

These days at Sara Lee, it's past passe to describe something as "the best thing since sliced bread."

That's because the company's Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Made With Whole Grain White Bread is the best-selling sliced bread in the country.

Its success is expanding bread retailing nationally and has earned Sara Lee a 2006 Chicago Innovation Award. It was born in an attempt to appeal to the white bread consumers who shelled out $2.5 billion despite warnings that Americans must eat healthier or die sooner.

Peter Reiner, vice president of marketing for Sara Lee Brands; Ted Zimmer, vice president of the U.S. Fresh Bakery unit, and Andre Biane, vice president of bakery product development, set out to bake a healthy white bread.

"We started realizing these consumers were important because they were really the determining factors of getting into households that were heavy users of bakery products total," Reiner said. "There was a need for a more nutritious product. Why wouldn't consumers want more nutrition if there was no compromise on taste?"

Another Chicago futures innovation

Chicago Sun Times

Chicago, known for its corn and hog futures, has a new claim to fame as home to a one-of-a-kind bank for intellectual capital.

Ocean Tomo, the Chicago-based bank, has quietly held the world's largest live intellectual-property auction of patents belonging to companies ranging from BellSouth to 3Com to Freescale Semiconductor.

An innovation in trading in a city that hosts the most innovative exchanges in the world, including the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Ocean Tomo's successful auction has earned it a 2006 Chicago Innovation Award.

Ocean Tomo's concept -- that intellectual property can be assessed a value -- got its start in 1988 when James E. Malackowski and four partners founded IPC Group, Inc. (now known as InteCap, part of CRA International).

Malackowski's belief that transactions could be appraised, and intellectual property given a value was groundbreaking when he started the practice. Today, it is commonplace.

Previous winners

Chicago Sun Times

2005

Abbott Laboratories: PathVysion, a new test and precise treatment for breast cancer based on a patient's genetic code.

Intelltext Inc.: Watson, an intuitive Internet browser that delivers contextually relevant information.

Laminar Technologies: TurboTap, ultra-high-performance productivity tap for serving beer.

Local Initiatives Support Corp.: Broadly based, multifaceted community improvement program that has succeeded where government programs haven't.

Millennium Park: Revolution in urban park design.

Motorola: RAZR V3 mobile phone.

Novarra: nWeb browser for Internet access on mass-market handsets.

Vibes Media: iRadio text-messaging platform for radio listeners and stations.

Solvent Systems International: Environmentally friendly, financially responsible Grease Gator Aqueous Parts Washer.

USG Corp.: Durock tile membrane that forms a unique protective surface on floors.

2004

Arryx: Unique process for unlimited numbers of microscopic/nanoscopic components.

Chicago Board of Trade/ Chicago Mercantile Exchange: Breakthrough organizational concept focused on clearing trades at both exchanges.

American Cancer Society: Comprehensive patient care information service.

Orbitz: Comprehensive travel management for business.

The introduction of something new

Chicago Sun Times

Chicago area companies presented more than 225 innovations in products and services in the fifth annual Chicago Innovation Awards program.

"The drive for innovation is burning brightly in the Chicago area," said Tom Kuczmarski, name partner in new-product consultancy Kuczmarski & Associates and co-founder of the award along with the Chicago Sun-Times. "We've seen hundreds of innovative ideas over the past five years of the Innovation Award program, but this year's crop truly was stunning."

The 10 Innovation Award honorees are profiled in this special section of the Chicago Sun-Times, and will receive their awards next Monday evening in a special ceremony on the main stage of the Goodman Theatre.

Dan Miller, business editor of the Sun-Times, said, "Since the award's debut in 2003, we've discovered that the key ingredient in innovation is the Chicago area itself. It provides the combustible material for innovators who make the flame and for the spark-makers in the companies who nurture it."

Green architectural design links ecology and economy

Chicago Sun Times

Can a new office building improve lives?

Claiming that it does sounds like an overheated sales pitch from a leasing agent, but that's precisely the goal of the design for a 51-story building at 111 S. Wacker.

Opened in 2005, it certainly improved the lives of its original investors because it sold this year for $386 million, believed to be a Chicago record on a square-foot basis, 43 percent above its construction cost.

The possible beneficiaries go beyond that, the building's supporters say. They include tenants that, because of how the building's systems work, could see a healthier, happier work force. And the argument can be made that 111 S. Wacker helps the planet itself.

It is the first office building anywhere, other than those designed for a single tenant, to receive special recognition for its environmental friendliness.

The building, designed by Chicago's Goettsch Partners, was the first to get a "gold" rating under a program called LEED. The acronym stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design in a program administered by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The achievement has earned the building and Goettsch a 2006 Chicago Innovation Award.