Co-author: “Innovate Like Edison,” and Chairperson of the Edison Awards Steering Committee
A great grandniece of Thomas Edison, Sarah Miller Caldicott has been engaged in creativity and innovation throughout her life. Inspired by a family lineage of inventors dating back five generations, Sarah began her 25-year career as a Marketing executive with major brand-driven firms including Quaker and the Helene Curtis subsidiary of Unilever. Sarah worked in both domestic and international management capacities in bringing innovative products to market globally including Degree, Finesse, and Suave.
Concerned that America was losing its competitive edge just as the new millennium dawned, Sarah began examining Thomas Edison’s innovation methods. Following three years of research at Rutgers University with Dr. Paul Israel – the world’s leading expert on Edison today – Sarah released a groundbreaking new book offering a first-ever analysis of Thomas Edison’s world-changing innovation methods. Entitled Innovate Like Edison: The Five-Step System for Breakthrough Business Success, Sarah’s book identifies the Five Competencies of Innovation™ which spurred Edison to generate a record-breaking 1,093 U.S. patents, and pioneer 6 new industries in less than 40 years. Sarah’s book reveals how individuals, teams, and organizations can use Edison’s timeless innovation methods to create competitive advantage today.
Innovate Like Edison has been featured in The New York Times, and endorsed by Fortune Small Business, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, 800-CEO-READ, and the National Press Club. It has also been translated into 3 languages, and serves as a textbook at leading universities including Northwestern University, the McCormick School of Engineering, and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Sarah is President of her own Chicago-based consultancy, The Power Patterns of Innovation, offering guidance to companies seeking innovation success in the global economy. Power Patterns works with individual project teams and divisional groups to initiate change in the broader organization. The resulting grassroots shifts in innovation mindset and behaviors yield long-term, more sustainable outcomes.
In addition to her guest appearances on PBS television, the Fox Business Network, and NPR radio affiliates, Sarah has been featured in the New York Times. Sarah has recently hosted the 14th annual Edison Awards•, a series of honors recognizing today’s top Innovators as well as product Innovations in 10 categories mastered by Edison himself. The Edison Awards are intended to reinspire America’s innovation leadership in the global economy.
As award-winning speaker, Sarah has inspired audiences nationwide with her message about advancing America’s innovation competitiveness, including: Google; Microsoft; Motorola; Coldwell Banker; Hewitt Associates; The Brookings Institute; the Society of Manufacturing Engineers; CPA America; Innovate Michigan; the American Marketing Association; the National Association of Electrical Distributors; the Society of Human Resource Managers; National Association of Female Executives (NAFE); the Association for Women in Communication (WIC); the Chicago Executive Learning Exchange; the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Northwestern University; the Illinois Institute of Technology; the McCormick School of Engineering, and Chautauqua Institution.
Sarah received her BA from Wellesley College, where she was named a Wellesley Scholar. Sarah also holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She has two college-age boys, Nicholas and Connor, and resides in Oak Park, Illinois