IDEO Exec Tom Kelley, MBA 83, Named First Haas Executive Fellow

If you attend a meeting at IDEO, watch out for the occasional piece of flying foam rubber. So cautions Tom Kelley, Berkeley MBA alumnus and general manager of the renowned Palo Alto product design firm. The flying pieces of foam are an IDEO-created toy called the Finger Blaster, projectiles launched like rubber bands that fly well over 100 feet. And the firm isn't afraid to use them.

"Sometimes people just need to let off a little steam or, in a good-natured way, fire off a warning shot to someone who's getting...a bit too self-important," says Kelley. "If you have a culture in which people laugh easily at themselves, you have a much freer flow of ideas and insights."

Creating that free flow of ideas is the shared mission of Tom Kelley and IDEO. Kelley has advanced the cause with two acclaimed books: The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation. Both books, written by Kelley with Jonathan Littman, earned spots on Small Biz Magazine's recent shortlist of the best books on innovation.

University of California Haas' First Executive Fellow
His renowned expertise in innovation makes Kelley, MBA 83, the ideal candidate to take on a newly created role: that of Haas School Executive Fellow. This new position brings the wisdom and experience of respected executives and thought leaders from a variety of fields to bear on the school's Leading Through Innovation initiatives. Executive Fellows will serve as advisors to the dean, faculty, and staff. These top thinkers will also share their trailblazing ideas and approaches with students by participating in events and programs throughout the school year.

"Innovation involves launching lots of experiments, so I am very pleased to be the first to take on something that is new both for me and for Haas," says Kelley. "I'm looking forward to contributing to innovation at a business school that is already world class."

Kelley applauds the Haas School's emphasis on Leading Through Innovation: "Top business schools have done an excellent job of developing the left-brain, analytic capabilities of their students," he says. "This is all to the good—the world certainly needs analysis. But if you want to prepare the leaders of tomorrow, you have to give them tools that go beyond analytical ones. Equip them to apply design thinking to some of their challenges and they'll have a broader array of tools available to them."

Right-brain Breakthroughs
Design thinking, as Kelley and the folks at IDEO see it, is an approach to problem solving that engages the right brain as well as the left, drawing upon intuition and empathy and borrowing liberally from non-business disciplines, such as anthropology. "Design thinking shifts even how you define the problem," says Kelley. "It means asking, 'What do people seem to need?' Rather than 'How do we increase market share?'"

At IDEO, founded by Kelley's brother, David, this approach has taken a company known for creating the original Apple mouse and moved it beyond product-design powerhouse. IDEO can now just as easily improve the patient experience in a hospital or help a Fortune 500 company reinvent its own creative process as design a best-selling toothbrush for kids. That's because, as Kelley notes, "Innovation can transform the entire culture of organizations."

Making a Difference by Design
In addition to imparting wisdom at Haas, Kelley, through his work with IDEO, hopes to share the benefits of design thinking with the national governments, nonprofits, and large corporations that deal with some of the biggest issues facing humankind. "We are increasingly of the opinion that not just business problems, but world problems, could be served by some right-brain-collaborative approaches," says Kelley. "What has happened at IDEO is that we did product design—thousands of times. Having done it thousands of times, we developed the confidence in our tools to see how they could be applied to services. Now, we've gotten to this point where we can synthesize the techniques, the mindset of creative work, and apply it even more broadly—to world issues."

Kelley says IDEO has cast an aspirational eye on improving public education, increasing sustainability, and improving the quality of life in developing countries. He is thrilled to be a part of these efforts and sees connections to his work with the Haas School.

"At IDEO we've seen a general trend over the past five or six years of young people being increasingly interested in the legacy their generation will leave the world," Kelley says. "This concern leads to the desire to help your clients or company create lasting and meaningful value, which leads to preparing the next generation to do the same—through education—all of which leads to preserving the environment around us so that the cycle can continue."

Envisioning a better world is the understandable outcome of a two-decade immersion in the inner workings of creativity. For Kelley, it is work that, as he describes it, has shown him time and again the power that comes not from merely "doing innovation," but from "being innovation."