Daddy Daughter Innovation

As I move officially into an exciting new role on our Accenture Innovation team, I think so much of my dad - especially as Father's Day approaches.

He was my Innovation Inspiration who left me far too soon.

Educated and degreed in Germany, Zia was an exacting engineer with limitless curiosity. He seemed to know how to fix anything, and wasn't afraid to try.

Growing up in Qazvin, an ancient center of the Persian empire and the modern capital of Iranian calligraphy, he was molded by the muses of science, art and wanderlust.

Here, as a kid, using his emerging engineering prowess, he figured out a way to wire his home - then his town - to electricity.

He chased his dream of becoming a mechanical engineer, leaving Iran for Germany, where Kodak chose him to be an apprentice and brought him to the United States to help with Kodak's innovation at their Rochester, NY headquarters. (The Kodak apprenticeship program is still alive and well in New York state - as is the company!).

It was his dream to come to the United States and become an American. I have his drive for innovation to thank for being a first-gen American.

While at Kodak, his passion for photography, film and editing grew and he would teach me to edit audio and Super 8 film. I still remember his meticulously produced and documented annals of our family growing up - complete with opening title slates that he'd lay out with little plastic letters.

Later, he moved to Xerox - becoming part of the Xerox innovation team that led the development of ink jet printers.

My dad's innovation journey in the late 1950s Germany - to Xerox and Rochester, NY 1960s - 1970s - to moving our family with Xerox to near Dallas, Tx in the 1970s were pre pre pre internet days. These were the days of ARPAnet -- the granddaddy of the internet -- and the days that led to so many innovations that became ubiquitous (audio cassette tapes, the computer mouse, the video game console and more).

As I read this great book about the innovation roots of GenAI and more - Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World, I think about my dad as this same type of maverick who looked at everything differently - always thinking how can I learn about this problem and try to solve for it and make things better?

Throughout his career journey and later when he took early retirement in his 50s, his relentless Energizer Bunny-energy and curiosity of an 8-year-old child, brought on innovations of another kind: He became a citizen diplomat who created a Sister City relationship with our Dallas suburb and a city in the Soviet Union, teaching the citizens of Plano, Tx all about Ivanova, USSR as he traveled to pre-Glasnost USSR - and sharing Texas with citizens from there who he'd bring to the US.

Just one month before he passed away at the age of 87, he led a tour group of American citizens all across China with Friendship Force - started by Jimmy and Roslyn Carter - an organization dedicated to creating cultural understanding via home stays.

As I take on my new role working with emerging technology partners to help our clients, I think more and more about the lessons my dad taught me about innovation:

??Learn 24/7. (Or with every waking moment). He was a lifelong learner up until his last breath. He influenced me to learn and shape shift into four careers thus far: network television news, Web 1.0 startup - building pre e-Commerce sites for Fortune 100 brands, IT services marketing, technology innovation partnership - consulting. I love learning and will never stop.

??Build relationships as if your life depended on it. My dad and his little Persian mom before him were the best damn networkers you could ever meet. When I was 10 years old, I would translate my grandmothers tales from Farsi - writing them in English for her - then photocopying her missives on the little Xerox photocopier my dad got her in her apartment - and help her send them out to every new English-speaking friend she would meet. My dad did the same. In the many countries and continents he'd visit, he was building a global network of friends who taught him about so many cultures. Every country, every culture has its own complexities that expanded his world view and made him ever more adaptive, communicating and relating whether he was in Beijing, Baku or Boston. Then, he'd make these cultures accessible and vibrant for his American friends.

??Be beyond resilient. As a young boy, my dad saw Soviet tanks thunder into Tehran during World War II. Later in life, he saw members of his Faith community persecuted in Iran. He never let age or perception of inability hold him back. He had a constant need to be on the move - in a constant state of motion. He was the personification of Newton's First Law of Motion describing the principle of inertia - where he was a body in motion that stayed in motion. His trait led me to take big breaks and chances in my career: busting into the Soviet Union with a not-quite-ready visa during a coup which led to a breakthrough reporting opportunity (and my engagement in Red Square - side bonus! :), teaching myself to produce for a new medium (this new thing called the internet) in the early 90s and enter a heady Web 1.0 work world, seeking out my new boss and team after onboarding in a VR headset at Accenture with 65K global teammates - then moving to immersive applications and worlds partnership management.

Thank you, dad, for being my Innovation example and guiding light.

I'll look up at the stars on this Father's Day night like you loved to do and think of you.

Happy Father's Day.

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