How to manage innovation – from one of its most successful practitioners.

Highlights

Innovation management. There isn’t a business in America that doesn’t want to be more creative in its thinking, products and processes. Tom Kelley knows how to foster a culture of creativity and develop processes for continuous innovation.

Tom is the general manager of IDEO, the widely admired design and development firm that brought us the Apple mouse, the Palm V and hundreds of other cutting edge products and services. Fast Company listed IDEO as number five in its 2008 list of The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Books. Tom has written two outstanding books on innovation:

The Art of Innovation describes IDEO’s "deep dive" approach to successful product creation, focusing on brainstorming and teamwork as invaluable tools.

The Ten Faces of Innovation reveals ten unique strategies for making sure that good ideas make it to market.

A genial and entertaining speaker, Tom gives business leaders tools and insights for managing innovation gleaned from the experience of IDEO and other successful design teams.

Tom was named the first-ever Executive Fellow by the dean of the Haas Business School, University of California Berkeley, and received the 2009 Kellogg Award for Distinguished Leadership from the Kellog School of Management, Northwestern University.

IDEO

Experience. Few people have Tom Kelley’s depth of experience managing innovation and design. Working with his brother, IDEO founder David Kelley, Tom has helped manage the firm as it has grown from 20 designers to a staff of more than 500. During that time, he has been responsible for such diverse areas as business development, marketing, human resources, and operations.

Philosophy. IDEO has proven over and over that everyone can contribute creatively to a project, that innovation can be made a cultural way of life in an organization. Tom has mastered the methods for bringing this about.

Recognition. IDEO has won more awards in the last decade than any other design firm. A full half-hour Nightline presentation of its creative process received one of the highest ratings in the shows history. In 2007, IDEO won a stunning seven International Design Excellence Awards, cosponsored by BusinessWeek. Fast Company magazine named IDEO number five on its list of "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies."

The Books

The Art of Innovation takes readers behind the scenes of IDEO to reveal the strategies it uses to turn out hit after hit: a focus on teams, an atmosphere conducive to free expression of ideas, and a battery of tested techniques for incubating ideas.

Nothing is more effective at stifling innovation than the devil’s advocate—the role that allows an individual to raise questions that end up killing a project without claiming personal responsibility. In The Ten Faces of Innovation, Tom shares ten approaches developed at IDEO for fostering new ideas while heading off the naysayers. These alternative roles give managers and team members new ways to contribute to the success of great ideas.

Topics

Growth and Renewal with the Faces of Innovation
MMBeyond the standard innovation tools • Beyond the usual suspects • Beyond the Devil’s Advocate
The Art of Innovation
Problem Solving
Failing Your Way to Success
Designing the Future

Credentials

• General Manager of IDEO
• Named first-ever Executive Fellow, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
• Kellog Award for Distinguished Leadership, Northwestern University
• Delbert J. Duncan citation as U.C. Berkeley’s top marketing scholar

Websites

Haas Executive Fellow, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
The Ten Faces of Innovation
The Art of Innovation