Jeff DeGraff

With over 25 years of corporate leadership experience, and as Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Jeff DeGraff is known as the "guru to the innovation gurus" at such Fortune 500 companies as 3M, Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, GE, Johnson & Johnson, LG, Pfizer, Reuters, Yahoo!, and Toyota. Credited for having created a broad array of widely used tools and methodologies for implementing innovation, his advice on how to pick, manage, and harvest winning ideas and business enterprises is frequently sought from the investment community.

The charismatic DeGraff began his career as a vice president at Domino's Pizza, where he was responsible for developing innovative strategies, communication and support technologies, and new business ventures. The title on DeGraff's business cards read "Dean of Innovation" and he helped spur Domino's meteoric growth during the '80s from a regional success story to an international franchise phenomenon.

DeGraff is now Executive Director of the Innovatrium Institute for Innovation in Ann Arbor, Mich. and a Managing Partner of Competing Values Company, a consulting firm that assists leaders in facilitating change, innovation, and growth. At Competing Values Company, he co-created the Competing Values methodology that integrates innovation with finance, strategy, management, and leadership into a robust business model that boosts the bottom line. The Competing Values Framework (CVF), the result of 25 years of research and testing, has been implemented by nearly 100 of the Fortune 500 and was recognized by Financial Times as one of the "40 most important frameworks in the history of business."

Focused on how to lead innovation as well as develop the culture, capabilities, and collaborative connections that result in revenue and market growth, DeGraff draws from his personal experience as a former business executive at one of the fastest growing companies in America. An in-demand speaker at both academic and business events as well as a thought leader at top innovation incubators and think tanks such as the Aspen Institute, DeGraff shares his expertise in over 30 countries and with many of the world's leading corporations in the automotive, biotech, consumer electronics, information technology, financial services, food service, and pharmaceutical industries.

DeGraff has written about innovation in numerous articles and books. He is the co-author of Creativity at Work: Developing the Right Practices to Make Innovation Happen; Competing Values Leadership: Creating Value in Organizations; and Leading Innovation: How to Jump Start Your Organization's Growth Engine.

He holds a PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.