Episode 26 – Featuring Razi Imam & John Graf

Reinvention is one of the most oft-used words when it comes to business, as a means through which a struggling company can turn itself around, or a successful company can reach that elusive next level. Today on “Your American Story”, Raja talks with three Western Pennsylvania business leaders for whom reinvention played a role in their success. Razi Imam and Anumpam Singh are the co-founders of 113 Industries, a consultation firm that works with companies in order to incorporate open innovation into their business strategy. Both Razi and Anupam have embraced the idea of open innovation, or the idea that a company’s best ideas shouldn’t have to be exclusively from “in-house” staff and resources, but instead can be culled from the endless supply in the global thought marketplace. They talk to Raja about what is “open innovation”, and why it is a necessary tool for business to reach the next level. -For John Graf and his family, reinvention came through the radical transformation of their business, The Priory. The family took over what had once been a thriving priory (literally) for Benedictine monks that had fallen on hard times and waning relevancy and transformed it into a “triple threat” of a business (hotel, event facility, bakery) that has received national acclaim as one of the “best kept secrets” in Western Pennsylvania, and a must-stop for folks coming in from out of town. John joins Raja to discuss the remarkable story of how The Priory changed course to become a thriving enterprise.