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The Deviant's Advantage is the natural outgrowth of our approach to business at our company, FirstMatter. As futurists we are constantly challenged by our clients to identify the trends that warrant deeper investigation and the larger patterns of social change that lie beneath them. The belief that there are two “truths” at work that business and the society need to pay attention to, the superficial, empirically verifiable aspects of change – fashion, art, innovations in science and technology, new political ideologies and faith systems, etc. – and a greater, for the most part unexplored source of innovation.
It has become de rigueur for businesses to dispatch armies of cool hunters, trend spotters, consultants on the “now” and yes, even futurists, out to the edges of society scouring the margins of culture for the next breakthrough idea, the next youth craze, the latest “in” colors, flavors and textures, the next celebrity, musical style or tribal gathering spot. Sadly, novelty is a highly perishable product. Whatever is “in” can be quickly counted on to soon be “out”. This ensures that trend spotting will always be a growth industry.
Trying to understand the dynamics of innovation led us to some interesting conclusions. First, we decided that even the most avant-garde products were already fairly established by the time the trend spotters found them. This suggested to us that there was a pre-market that remained uncharted, a headwater if you will of the river of innovation. What would happen, we wondered, if you could intercept innovation at that headwater rather than waiting for it to float downstream, becoming diluted at every step along the way? Wouldn't that represent a considerable advantage? And, we wondered, why hadn't anyone else figured this out?
We labeled the space where innovation first becomes noticeable as the Edge and promptly proceeded to leap over it to see what was on the other side. What we found was the Fringe, the wellspring of deviance – defined as any variation from the norm – and the primal soup of innovation. We quickly understood why so few businesspeople go there. Life on the Fringe is unstable, unpredictable, sometimes downright frightening and by and large unprofitable. The deviant's whose fervid imaginations are the breeding ground of raw innovation don't care about markets, or P&L's, or even acceptance. They are consumed by their own mania, obsessed with their own vision of the truth and passionately committed to the object of their often single minded compulsions. In short, they don't care about deals, or “productizing”, test markets, marketing schemes or media buys. They're in love and love isn't commercial, at least at this stage of the game.
We established a path we believe innovation follows from the Fringe, to the Edge and onto other stages leading to mass market Social Convention. Let's stick with the love metaphor for a moment. At the Fringe love has a decidedly autoerotic character, the lover and the love object being generally one and the same. At the Edge we found first true love – a relationship based on shared passion without concern for the future. At the next stage, which we called the Realm of the Cool, we discovered promiscuity – the vaguely indiscriminate sharing of love with a benignly commercial subtext. At our next level, The Next Big Thing, genteel promiscuity gives way to calculated dalliances undertaken with a jaundiced eye toward future enrichment. Finally at the mass-market stage, which we call Social Convention, love has become a cash and carry commodity.
Put in more conventional business terms the Fringe is where innovation is born; the Edge is where the innovation builds its first audience; the Realm of the Cool is where it gets its first media coverage and where the initial market potential emerges; the Next Big Thing is where latent market potential begins to expand; and Social Convention is where full market potential is realized.
The idea of looking to the other side that had led us to the Fringe gave us some other ideas. Was there, we wondered, a place beyond Social Convention? The answer is yes. We found four unique stages that we called Cliché, Icon, Archetype and Oblivion. To return to our love metaphor Cliché is the long-faded ingénue, sitting alone at the bar her face obscured by a mask of makeup, her blue hair reflecting the dull bar lights, sipping her gin and mourning lost love while still hoping somebody will walk through the door to rescue her life. The Icon level represents the ideals of love, stripped of their individual characteristics. Archetypes transcend the merely symbolic quality of the Icon and define love for us. And Oblivion? That's the black hole that swallows up the majority of loves.
Again, from a business perspective, there's still a lot of market potential in Cliché, just ask William Shatner or any member of the army of Elvis Impersonators. Being an Icon isn't always bad work either as John Wayne demonstrated. Achieving Archetype status is a complex goal and one that probably has to be assigned from the outside, by the market itself. As for Oblivion? Well, what can we say?
It's been a fun journey, one we're anxious to share with you.
"Deviance" Is Watchword in New Business Book"DevianceBookTitle" is a book by a pair of futurists that suggests the importance in contemporary business of embracing "edgy" ideas, products and people; it was won at auction by editor Ruth Mills at Crown Business.She bought world rights in the book from D.C.-based agent Rafe Sagalyn, prevailing over four other publishers -- not with the highest bid but partly because one of the co-authors, Ryan Mathews, already has a book with Crown, "The Myth of Excellence," which appeared in June, 2001.His co-author on the new one, which Mills expects to publish in September of 2002, is Watts Wacker; both men are with the edgy consulting firm FirstMatter. |
Kudos for The Deviant's Advantage“Not your typical business book fare, and not organized or presented in the way you'd expect. I think, though, that's exactly the point the authors are trying to make. Mutation isn't pretty or predictable either.”
“The Deviant's Advantage is a seminal work. As time goes by, I believe it will come to be viewed on a par with McLuhan…”
“The Deviant’s Advantage exceeds all expectations and I recommend it because everyone should walk on the wild side—at least once in awhile.”
“In The Deviant's Advantage, Watts Wacker and Ryan Mathews offer insights and ideas that are truly 'out of the box.' But make no mistake – their unorthodox theories connecting the concept of deviance with innovation and creativity ring true for many businesses, especially the advertising industry.”
“These may sound like glossy-magazine headlines, but upon closer inspection, they reveal the authors' keen and thoughtful analysis... As the pace of change becomes ever faster, it's important to focus on the fringe, lest you'll lag behind.”
“An organizational culture committed to “thinking out of the box” can sustain competitive advantage...”
“Leave it to Wacker and Mathews to bring much-deserved honor to deviant thinking and to insert it into the business world. They not only question several fundamental business norms but they pretty much condemn them to that vast purgatory that exists inbetween breakaway success and spectacular failure -- which is precisely where conservative, non-deviant businesses usually end up.”
“...could have a "Future Shock"-style impact on the general reader.”
“Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker have made a compelling case that will challenge you to think with both hemispheres of your brain and in a multi-dimensional fashion. It's not just that nearly everything in our lives seems to be accelerating (it is), it's also that the opportunities to harness genius are all around us, but require dramatic stretching of our peripheral vision to bring the fringe into focus.
If you haven't yet made the observation that everything around us, including time itself, is accelerating, you most certainly will after reading The Deviant's Advantage. But, well beyond this reality, you will also be challenged to examine new dimensions of personal development potential. The old adage was "it's not just what you don't know, but what you know to be true that isn't any longer, that will kill you". Ryan and Watts add a new twist, which is, "What was once true in isolation, will be significantly different in combination with other once true components."
While many within the current generation of business leaders grapple with the reality of paradox in their business lives, a new breed of leaders who have embraced apparent contradictions, and harnessed aberrant concepts are emerging, and will lead in the future, within a world of devox.”
“Where do breakthrough ideas come from? Where do you look to find the next brilliant business concept, the next box-office bonanza, the next Broadway smash, the next social revolution? As this fun, insightful, and brilliant book makes clear, if you want to be ahead of the curve of change, you've got to spend time in the fringes of society. The spot-on lesson: Don't be afraid of deviants -- embrace them! They are creating the future before it arrives for the rest of us.”
“Skilled raconteurs, the authors are at their best when chronicling the progress of deviant ideas like Las Vegas and Hello Kitty.”
“Once again Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker have given us an enlightened vision which allows us to see future marketing opportunities through a tuned-in view of the present. Mathews and Wacker ask us to do more than just embrace change -- we must embrace the "devox" to successfully meet the two biggest challenges faced by marketers today -- innovation and relevance. The Deviant's Advantage offers provocative insights for business leaders determined to seize competitive advantage and stay ahead of the pace of change. It's a great read.”
“The authors offer a useful counterpoint.”
“Ryan and Watts have crafted a fascinating read. They clearly understand the dynamics of change in the world of business and force the reader to think about how create it, anticipate it, or react to it. Those deviants!”
“...Mathews and Wacker do a fine job of explaining how companies and individuals can harness and exploit the power of [innovation]...
Salient anecdotes and intuitive leaps of faith abound, but also sufficient empirical stuff to anchor their discourse and suppositions.
It's all very audacious and stimulating, but is it useful and valid? Too early to tell, but the book is a fun and thought-provoking ride, nonetheless.”
“...Mathews's and Wacker's intriguing book is a fun mix of business savvy and social commentary that will surely appeal to the Fast Company crowd.”
“The Deviant's Advantage is the best book ever written about how companies can benefit from strange new ideas and the oddballs and misfits who dream them-up. Mathews and Wacker write so well that, although I should have been doing other things, I kept turning the pages. They provide compelling stories and arguments about how and why companies can benefit from fringe ideas and people, but at the same time, warn both companies and people of the hazards of embracing deviance.”
“The authors turn a provocative idea into sound business reasoning with an abundant collection of examples and anecdotes.”
“Engaging... often humorous... the authors take an anthropological approach to corporate innovation that is refreshing.”
“In their new book, The Deviant's Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets, the duo explain... It's often the "oddball" ideas... that make fortunes for enterprising companies.”
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Letter to Fast CompanyMarch 8, 2002 To the editor: The envelope-pushing cover of FC 56 brought a whole new meaning to the concept of 'no pain, no gain.' Seriously, your freak-show image grabbed this reader's attention, even as it positioned Watts Wacker's incisive new idea set perfectly. Every student of business has watched "radical" ideas migrate to the mainstream. What Watts offers is a way to parse this phenomenon and anticipate the next wave a little sooner. Right on task for Fast Company, too. As we were reminded in THE INNOVATOR'S DILEMMA, marginal ideas quickly become mainstream even when we're not paying attention - witness the televising of Ozzy Osbourne's domestic life, or the collective yawn that greeted the coming-out of Rosie O'Donnell. Few companies can rely on old strategies to maintain their competitive edge. That's especially true for magazines, of course - and, for that matter, book publishers. Bravo to your editorial team for showing the way. Adrian Zackheim |
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