Wacker Watts - The Deviants advantage: how fringe ideas create mass markets

CONTENTS

To Sierra, who reminds me every day that life is good,
and Priscilla, who proves she is right.
Ryan Mathews

To my favorite kind of deviant:
the Fanatic and the most deviant person Ive ever met,
my late mother, Jane Clarke Sewell.
Watts Wacker

Praise for
THE DEVIANTS ADVANTAGE

The Deviants Advantage is a seminal work. As time goes by, I believe it will come to be viewed on a par with McLuhan.

LEE MORIN, M.D., PH.D., 412th human in space

Ryan and Watts have crafted a fascinating read. They clearly understand the dynamics of change in the world of business today and challenge the reader to think about how to create, anticipate, or respond to change effectively. Those deviants!

DAN C. SWANDER, president and COO,
International Multifoods Corporation (Multifoods)

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 changewe must embrace the devox to successfully meet the two biggest challenges faced by marketers todayinnovation and relevance. The Deviants Advantage offers provocative insights for business leaders determined to seize competitive advantage and stay ahead of the pace of change. Its a great read.

CAROLYN CATER, president, Grey Global Group
Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Where do breakthrough ideas come from? Where do you look to find the next great 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, youve got to spend time on the fringes of society. The spot-on lesson: Dont be afraid of deviantsembrace them! They are creating the future before it arrives for the rest of us.

ALAN M. WEBBER, founding editor, Fast Company

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 in between breakaway success and spectacular failurewhich is precisely where conservative, non-deviant businesses usually end up.

SCOTT BEDBURY, author of A Brand New World:
Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in
the 21st Century and CEO, Brandstream

In The Deviants Advantage, Watts Wacker and Ryan Mathews offer insights and ideas that are truly out of the box. But make no mistaketheir unorthodox theories connecting the concept of deviance with innovation and creativity ring true for many businesses.

O. BURTCH DRAKE, president-CEO,
American Association of Advertising Agencies

The Deviants 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.

ROBERT I. SUTTON, professor, Stanford University,
codirector of the Center for Work, Technology and
Organization, and author of Weird Ideas That Work

Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker will challenge both the right and left sides of your brain. The opportunity to harness genius is all around you but requires dramatic stretching of peripheral vision to bring the fringe into focus. If you havent yet made the observation that everything, including time itself, is accelerating, you most certainly will after reading The Deviants Advantage. But youll also be challenged to examine new dimensions of your potential for personal development by coming to understand that business doesnt exist in isolation. Its part of our overall culture. A new breed of leaders is embracing the apparent contradictions of our society and harnessing what seem like emerging aberrant concepts to shape the future.

RANDY J. ROSE, president, Energizer Battery, Inc.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ryan and Watts would both like to thank the deviant publishing team that helped make this book possible. Wed like to begin with John Mahaney, the godfather of Crown Business, who took a risk on an unusual idea and nursed it lovingly until it was a real book. Wed also like to thank Johns right-hand deviant, Shana Wingert; Will Weisser; and the rest of the Crown Business team. A special word of thanks to Ruth Mills, who first believed, and to Rafe Sagalyn of The Sagalyn Agency for once again making the sale.

A special note of thanks to Priscilla Donegan, who triumphed over jet lag and sleep deprivation just long enough to correct errors of both grammar and judgment. We would also like to thank Steve Barnett and Howard Means, who agreed to review the manuscript before it had been whipped into syntactical submission. A special note of thanks to Alan Webber of Fast Company magazine, who defied the fates to further this project.

Wed also like to acknowledge the help and support of the FirstMatter team: Mary DeVito, the Queen of Our Universe and perpetual cat herder, who keeps us focused and the business running; Darrell Stewart, who once again delivered research support above and beyond the call of duty; and Michael Strother, who continues to suffer (primarily) in silence at our collective ineptitude with technology.

On a personal note, I would like to acknowledge that this book might never have happened without the patience, love, and support of Sierra Maria Mathews. No daughter has ever done a better job of watching over a father. This book literally would not have been possible without her understanding and grace. An encore thanks to Priscilla Donegan for making this, and everything else positive, possible. And, while this book is dedicated to the women in my life, I would be remiss if I didnt thank the three young men who make it so interesting, beginning with my son, Gabriel, who continues to delight me as he fashions his vision of the world, and Adam and Zack Fischer, who have tolerated my presence better than most people do.

Also a quick acknowledgment to the Motor City posse, who have supported me and my family over the course of this book, beginning with the Oben familyMary Jo, Stephanie, Marlee, Sarah, and Gabbyfor the extraordinary kindness they have selflessly demonstrated to me and most especially to Sierra. Thanks also to the Yung family of ShogunGary, Maggie, Barry, Ann, and Dianefor great sushi, great friendship, and shelter against the storm. And continuing thanks to my chosen Motor City family: Rob Abate, whos shared the music since we were twelve; Rick and Sheila Kelpin, who have taught me so much about courage and loyalty; Maximum Bob and Rose Leahey, who have proved its possible to go on no matter what happens; Mike Himes and the gang at Record Time; Simon Bennett and the tribe at Nami and Ronin; Gerry and Kate Dunn for a friendship and love so deep its passed to another generation; Mr. Pete Traskal, Tara Olynyk for the smiles and support; Mark Dikowski of Ariels Enchanted Garden, Detroits best florist; and Rick Jackson, still the friendliest soul in the Detroit Airport. And, of course, that special wink and a nod to WTB and PTH because the world needs a little magic more than ever.