The New York City subway system is one of the oldest in the world. The first underground line from City Hall to the Bronx opened in 1904.

Today, the New York City subway is one of the largest and most complex systems of its kind, operating over 842 track miles, and serving the four boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. It operates 24 hours a day, serves 468 stations on 26 interconnected lines, and averages 5 million passengers each weekday.

Not impressed yet? Try this one. New York’s subway system carries more passengers each year than all the other mass transit rail systems in the U.S. combined.

Now for the downsides. A New York subway is far from the cleanest. It’s definitely not the sleekest. Its hard plastic seats are clearly not the most comfortable. And the smells that sometimes waft from the nooks and crannies of the subway stations are not the most pleasant.

But there’s something special to me about New York City’s subway. It has a bit of charm thanks to the mosaic tile art that you’ll find in each station. Some of the art dates back to 1904. The artwork is unique to each station and centers around the station’s name. Sometimes you’re treated to other little splashes of tile art like the pink hat I am “wearing” in the photo above.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Arts for Transit program oversees the subway art, which also includes sculptures, murals, and live musicians.

Some of my non-New York City friends turn their noses up at the thought of taking the subway in any city, especially in New York. They think it’s beneath them. Well, it is, literally of course.

What they are missing out on is what I and millions of other New York City subway passengers know. It’s the quickest way to get around the city. It’s the cheapest way to travel. And it’s the most green way to travel when you compare it to all of the above-ground options.

But it also provides an opportunity to experience art on a whole new level — that is, the art of the underground.

Seven of the country’s most respected business leaders have formed the American Energy Innovation Council, including luminaries such as General Electric CEO, Jeff Immelt, and Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates. Their message: the U.S. Government needs to “triple investments in clean-energy technologies to boost the nation’s economic competitiveness and protect the environment.”

We’ve heard similar calls for action on clean-energy investment in recent years from a variety of voices from business and academia. What makes last week’s announcement unique, however, is the coming together of major corporate leaders from disparate sectors around a common “business plan.” And the fact that it was announced against the backdrop of our nation’s worst oil spill in history adds further to the uniqueness of the moment.

The plan calls for a tripling in clean-tech funding in nuclear fission, solar, wind and fossil fuels. It also proposes the formation of an independent energy strategy board, which would develop an energy plan and oversee large-scale demonstration projects as part of the “New Energy Challenge Program.”

The Council recommends a $20 billion commitment over 10 years for the Challenge Program, which would “unleash significant private sector resources as projects are developed.” Additionally, it suggests that the Federal Government create Centers of Excellence to “foster multidisciplinary collaboration amongst scientists, universities, federal laboratories, and other public and private institutions.”

In addition to Immelt and Gates, the Council also includes: Chad Holliday, Chairman of Bank of America (and former CEO of DuPont); Ursula Burns, Chairman and CEO of Xerox; Norm Augustine, Chairman of Lockheed Martin; Tim Solso, Chairman and CEO of Cummins Inc.; and John Doerr, a leading energy venture capitalist and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.

The group clearly faces some stout headwinds in making the case to Congress and the Obama Administration to spend more federal money on energy research at a time of unprecedented budget deficits. Yet, we know that the barking dog is usually the one who gets fed first. And when you have seven notable best-in-breed barkers, it’s hard not to at least give the group and their plan a serious look.

At a time when the public is less inclined to believe our corporate leaders, I am ready to take these leaders at their word. They know the path to energy security will be long, and as Jeff Immelt puts it, “the world is not going to wait for the United States to lead. This is about innovation; this is about competition; this is about energy security.”

I hope someone listens and heeds the call.

Maybe it’s the proximity of Canada to the U.S. and the friendly sports rivalry between the two countries. Maybe it’s the beauty of Vancouver and the surrounding area, which I visited in 2007. Or, maybe it’s the fact that I still have nearly two feet of snow in my yard from the recent blizzard in DC that has put me in the Olympic spirit.

Whatever the reason, I’ve enjoyed the diversion from the bad economy, the political discord in Washington, Tiger Woods, and the late night talk show melodrama.

I admit, I feel a bit nostalgic when I watch the Olympic Games. It harkens back to a time in my youth when I dreamed of being a famous downhill skier. There’s something about watching the world’s best athletes compete their hearts out, not for a paycheck or a corporate sponsorship, but for the sole purpose of winning — and standing on a podium to proudly represent his or her country.

It boggles the mind to think about the thousands of hours and years of practice that many athletes invest to become the best at what they do. And more boggling is that all that work may come down to a mere 60 to 120-second performance.

What drives a person to work that hard for a reward only of recognition?

The Olympics are unique in this regard. A company or organization could never, ever replicate this level of drive and dedication from its employees. Employment is work. It is a compulsory activity whose purpose is to make a living, provide for one’s family, and ideally save towards retirement.

With that said, there’s a lot that a company could learn from the Olympic ideal. Creating a healthy, competitive environment is a good thing. Rewarding those employees who excel and distinguish themselves is a worthy exercise and will drive increased performance across the ranks.

A corporate culture that celebrates achievement, both of individuals and of teams, is one that will lead to long-term success. It also creates an environment where employees are more likely to enjoy their work, and not dread coming to it.

Seek to ignite a fire within your employees. Light a cauldron that can serve to fuel creativity and innovation. I bet you’ll like the results and the golden opportunity it will provide your company to best your competitors.

With its cover entitled, “Your Next Big Idea: Spotlight on Innovation,” the entire edition of December’s Harvard Business Review magazine is dedicated to business innovation. A number of the articles go right to the heart of New Lantern’s founding principle: employees, if properly motivated and stimulated, are a company’s single most important innovation source.

As HBR’s editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius puts it, “Genius CEOs can’t do all the work of innovation – and in truth, people and culture both matter a lot.”

In one of the lead articles, “The Innovator’s DNA,” authors Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen, highlight the five “discovery skills” that “separate true innovators from the rest of us.” These skills include: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Experimenting, and Networking.

The authors interviewed 25 innovative entrepreneurs, and surveyed over 3,000 executives and 500 individuals, who had started innovative companies or invented new products. They charted these individuals against the five discovery skills and found a high correlation among leading innovators.

For example, under the “Associating” skill, entrepreneur Frans Johansson cited the importance of the “Medici effect” when it comes to innovation. He was referring to the Medici family of Florence during the 15th through 17th centuries, who helped usher in a “creative explosion” by bringing together successful people from wide ranging disciplines such as: sculptors, scientists, poets, philosophers, painters, and architects.

According to the article, “as these individuals connected, new ideas blossomed at the intersections of their respective fields, thereby spawning the Renaissance, one of the most inventive eras in history.”

Likewise, many leading innovators seek to spend time around a network of thought leaders and individuals from a variety of different perspectives in an effort to “extend their own knowledge domains.” For example, they attend conferences such as TED, Davos, and the Aspen Ideas Festival, which brings together artists, entrepreneurs, academics, politicians, adventurers, scientists, and thinkers from all over the globe.

Kent Bowen, who founded the innovative ceramic composite company, CPS, cites this credo which he asks his employees to follow: “The insights required to solve many of our most challenging problems come from outside our industry and scientific field.”

Finally, the authors make the point – as we have made in numerous blog posts on this site – that whereas innovative thinking may seem innate to some, “it can also be developed and strengthened through practice.” They note that corporate executives should “put aside time for you and your team to actively cultivate more creative ideas.”

Let New Lantern design an innovation program for your company that would make the Medici family proud – and in doing so, put you in the best position to make your next big idea a reality.

As business executives across the globe seek to chart an improved course in the wake of this past year’s economic meltdown, I call your attention to a new book on leadership that may serve as a helpful guidepost — Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

Love Leadership is written by John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, America’s first nonprofit social investment banking organization. The book debuted at #8 on the “CEO Reads Top 10 Best Seller List,” and has been featured in Business Week and the Washington Post.

At the age of 26 in 1992, Bryant started Operation HOPE in Los Angeles in response to the LA riots based on the premise that his community needed a “hand-up not a hand-out.” Operation HOPE seeks to “eradicate poverty in our lifetime” through financial literacy education of inner-city and under-served children and adults.

Bryant himself grew up in Compton and South Central Los Angeles, CA and was homeless for six months at the age of 18. It is this humble background that Bryant has drawn upon to make him one of the most charismatic and successful philanthropic-business leaders of our time.

Bryant has advised the last three Presidents on the importance of financial literacy as one of the most effective tools to address poverty. Bryant is a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum, where he spoke at WEF’s closing session in Davos, Switzerland in February 2009. Operation HOPE’s major partners include a Who’s Who of global corporations, such as: Wells Fargo, Toyota, Microsoft, E-Trade, ING, and Citigroup.

David Gergen, former senior White House advisor to four Presidents and now Director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, describes Bryant this way: “I have watched John Hope Bryant dazzle audiences from Harvard to the World Economic Forum. Now he pours his compassion and charisma into the pages of this book, delivering a powerful message about rediscovering our humanity.”

According to Don McGrath, Chairman of Bancwest Corporation: “In this book, he (Bryant) gives us a recipe for personal success driven by a simple notion: treating others with respect and dignity creates true long-term success. This message and his strategies for living it couldn’t be more timely as we address the failures of leadership that created today’s financial crisis.”

In Love Leadership, Bryant lays out his “Five Laws of Love-Based Leadership” — Loss Creates Leaders, Fear Fails, Love Makes Money, Vulnerability is Power, and Giving is Getting. As he puts it, “Leaders give, followers take. Giving inspires loyalty, attracts good people, confers peace of mind, and lies at the core of true wealth.”

Business leaders who understand and deploy these principles are most likely to succeed. Leadership based on fear is a short-term tactic that produces unreliable results, and can serve to damage the organization over time. Conversely, employees who are appreciated and respected will perform at a higher level under all conditions over the near- and long-terms.

Leaders who embrace the principles of caring and respect, will indeed love the results.

John Hope Bryant

TED’s tagline is “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Through several global conferences and other various programs, TED seeks to bring together some of the world’s leading innovators to share ideas and stimulate new thinking. Its annual gathering in Long Beach, CA – the TED Conference– boasts over 1000 attendees, who hear from 50 speakers in 18-minute blocks of time over a four-day period.

Its sister international conference, TEDGlobal, also now occurs annually, and just wrapped up in Oxford UK. One of the speakers at TEDGlobal 2009 included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Other speakers included leading artists, designers, technologists, scientists, inventors and economists. The theme for TEDGlobal 2009 was “The Substance of Things Not Seen,” which focused on “the hidden forces shaping our future.”

TED provides $100,000 prizes each year to three finalists whose work truly exemplifies innovation and far-reaching impact in its areas of focus. This year, TED also started a Fellows program which picks 50 Fellows from a wide array of disciplines who attend either the TED conference or the TEDGlobal conference. The goal of the Fellows program is to “bring together world-changers and trailblazers, who have shown unusual accomplishment.”

The 2010 TED conferences are already sold out. So your chances of ever attending one of their conferences are slim at best. But that’s not the point. The point is that you can and should create your own innovation program within your organization. You should seek to expose your employees to leading innovators and thinkers. You should encourage and celebrate idea generation and exchange. You should motivate creativity and inventiveness through rewards and incentive-based programs.

Most important, you should find ways to identify and cultivate the talent that exists within your employees, and single out those who clearly show promise. Otherwise, this talent and all its potential will go untapped, and your company and its bottom line will miss an opportunity to benefit. Worse yet, if you don’t give this potential talent the appropriate attention, you risk losing it to competitors.

New Lantern can help your company establish its own innovation program – one that will make you and your shareholders proud. Now that’s an idea worth spreading.

If ever there was an industry in need of turning on its head, it’s health care. But the health care industry is not alone. Most industries and businesses could use a fresh coat of disruptive innovation — now more than ever. We are witnessing a near unprecedented upheaval in the global economic markets, and businesses in every sector are under tremendous strain. Corporations should use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reassess themselves from the inside out, and leverage this overall climate of disruption to seek out and embrace change and more innovative approaches.

Is our current organization and structure best-suited to take on and weather the current economic crisis? Should we re-examine our business models, methodologies, and approaches? Are there more efficient processes we can deploy to achieve our business goals? Are we fully leveraging the latest technologies? Are there changes needed to our product or service lines? Are we effectively leveraging the talent of our employee base? Are we effectively mitigating the anxiety that has engulfed our employees in this volatile economic period?

Corporate executives and managers should be asking themselves all of these questions — and more. Disruption across the globe already has us surrounded. Turn this disruptive climate into an innovative opportunity to put your organization on a stronger and healthier course for the near- and long-term.

What’s a company to do? You can start by applying the same advice that Warren Buffet recently gave to investors. Invest. Now more than ever, companies should be investing in the employees they want to keep — the talent and human assets that will enable the company to pull out of a slump faster than its competitors. In most cases, all the talent that a company needs already exists within its own ranks. It is simply not being mined and nurtured effectively.

Walls, doors, and artificial boxes dictated by org charts typically get in the way of creativity and innovation. Show employees that you consider them a valuable resource with some modest investment in innovative leadership training and events that will surely pay dividends in the near-term.