The attention being given to the term 'innovation' - as it applies to business - seems pretty belated, to Jane. By its very nature, business needs to adapt an innovative style of operation. Without innovation, business becomes stale and ordinary, so much so it risks losing its ability to attract new clients and/or customers.

Today, Jane pays tribute to innovation in preparation of our upcoming trip to Fortune magazine's new Innovation Forum conference being held at the end of the month, in NYC. We like to think that other's attention to the promotion of innovation is a result not so much of the prevalence of this term to make it into MSM and blogs, but a result of CEOs finally adapting, and adopting, the kind of creative mindset that encourages and rewards innovation in the workplace.

That's what Jane thinks of when the word 'innovation' pops up in the conversation. We think 'creative.' We think 'out of the ordinary.' We think 'focus on being remarkable (thank you, Seth Godin).'

[Please take a moment to visit the links in our righthand sidebar. These are innovative folks from all over the U.S. who have stepped up to help Yvonne aka Jane get to NY for the Innovation Forum conference. We are indebted to them all - innovative small businesses on the leading edge.]

Here are a few remarkable, innovative ideas that might spark creativity at your end, in your quest to approach marketing to women online successfully:

1. Dogs that serve as reading tutors. As noted in this USA Today article, "Kathy Brake, a principal at Washington Grove [says], "For schools to raise reading scores, children must improve in pronouncing and comprehending words." What better way to do that than to have the children read aloud to a non-judgmental audience made up of - dogs? Inspiring.

2. Our good friend and Smart Marketing to Women professional, Andrea Learned, over at her blog, has a post on the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health -- citing its female-friendly design and layout. As Andrea so rightly points out, "Community development, commercial environment and interior design are greatly influenced by women - both in their involvement as professionals in those fields, and perhaps moreso in the likelihood that women will be the end consumers as retail or service customers/patients, office space securers or residential owners." There is innovation there, beyond the lines and angles in the architecture of the building. Learn more at this link.

3. If ever we have saved the best for last, it's now. We have been anxiously awaiting the right time to write about Natascha Yogachandra and that time has finally arrived! Natascha is 11 years old, and she's already accomplished more in her young life than anyone else Jane knows. This outstanding young woman is not only talented and full of innovation, she is supported by a father and mother who define innovation in ways the rest of us can only marvel at!

Natascha is the founder of Project Book Angels "based on the belief that all humanity are the children of God; they belong to the same family, to the same original race." She and her father, Nat (a personal friend, we admit it) and her mother, Debbie, feel so strongly about reading and books and providing these remarkable tools to children in underdeveloped countries, that they are living overseas...opening libraries, passing out books, and actively doing something to combat illiteracy, worldwide.

Would that more of us were so talented, innovative, and full of charity. But, since we're locked within our limited mindset of how to be truly innovative, Jane hopes those reading today will visit Natascha's site and buy a bracelet in support of her so innovative efforts.

There is nothing not to like about that.