Memorable Moments in Chicagoland Innovation
About This Series: The story of innovation in Chicago is best told through the experiences of accomplished local visionaries. All innovators are blessed with imagination, drive and at least a bit of serendipity. In this 10-part series, we will showcase how inspiration turns into execution and the creation of new systems. These stories are only the beginning.
Featured Chicago Innovator: Howard Tullman, President and CEO, Flashpoint Academy
Like most serial entrepreneurs, Howard Tullman makes his living thinking and acting slightly ahead of the times.
Two years ago, shortly after opening up the doors to Flashpoint - The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Tullman would explain to parents of prospective students that digital, interactive and gaming technologies would soon be critical elements of education, sales and even medical rehabilitation programs.
“They all looked at me like I was crazy,” said Tullman, adding that, after the release of Nintendo’s Wii Fit device, “everyone in the world now understands what we were saying. That’s how fast new technologies are understood and adopted today.”
As President/CEO of Flashpoint, Tullman believes his primary job responsibility is “looking six months over the horizon” to identify the skills and especially the technologies that tomorrow’s industries will require. He is currently focusing on the I-Phone application platform and several versions of augmented reality.
Tullman, an internationally recognized art collector and venture capitalist, has founded at least a dozen businesses. In his view, everybody is or should think of themselves as entrepreneurs.
“People are adopting my idea of ‘You, Inc’, he said, “which simply means you and you alone are in charge of and responsible for your future.”
In Tullman’s world, professionals today must possess both specialized skills as well as the ability to effectively collaborate with others across multiple disciplines which are all being mashed together today in the new digital economy.
“The model for the best organizations today is like a symphony orchestra where a group of talented people who are experts constantly work individually to hone their skills and then together to practice their craft and create extraordinary results,” he said. “Individually, the players cannot produce or perform a masterpiece. It’s the effort of the group working seamlessly together that creates the beauty and the emotion of the ultimate performance.