Exercising Initiative: Exploring Innovation and the Innovation Process (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781530839940)

Roger Appeldorn grew up on a farm that shaped his multidisciplinary technical skill and inspired his creativity. He was fascinated with lenses and on his sixth birthday, he was given a small telescope which was just barely powerful enough to view a few craters on the moon. At the age of ten, he constructed his first telescope using lenses and components he obtained through comic book advertisements and salvaged materials from the farm. This developing interest in optics guided him throughout his education, working career and personal life. He is an avid photographer and has his own observatory in the mountains of Colorado. He graduated from Pipestone High School, MN in 1953 and attended Hamline University graduating with a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics in 1957. With the encouragement of his college advisors and mentors, he continued his education by auditing post graduate courses at colleges and universities in the Twin Cities area. In 1955 while attending college, he found a job at the 3M Company that helped finance his education and led to a forty-one year career. His passion with optics proved to be a valuable resource for inventing and innovating new technologies and products. He has 33 patents, developed a new to the world technology known as micro-replication and established several new businesses. Examples are 3M overhead projectors, projection transparencies, optically programmable traffic signals, and products based upon the micro-replication technology He founded Optical Systems, one of 3M's largest and fastest-growing businesses, which manufactures and sells optical films that make electronic displays brighter, more colorful, easier to read and saves energy. In 1971 Roger was elected to the prestigious 3M Carlton Society, the company's highest recognition for scientists who have made extraordinary contributions. He was awarded the Hamline University College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Achievement Award in 1997 and the ASM International Engineering Achievement Award in 1993. He promotes innovation and encourages employees to overcome their inhibitions to innovate and to exercise their initiative. He has traveled extensively giving lectures about the innovation process titled Creating a Climate for Innovation. He is currently working to teach the innovation process to undergraduates at Hamline University. Roger is retired and divides his time at his homes in Minnesota and Colorado and may be contacted by E-mail: rhappeldorn@yahoo.com.