"The Deviant's Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets," Crown Business, was written by Ryan Mathews (RetailWire BrainTrustee) and Watts Wacker. The futurists at First Matter, a trend-watching firm based in Westport, Conn., boasts an impressive list of past clients including British Airways, General Motors, Hallmark Cards, I.B.M., Marriott International, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, Sony and the United States Navy.
Mr. Mathews and Mr. Wacker say they recognize that not all deviance is good, reports the New York Times. "Of course, there is positive and negative deviance -- the former a force for transformation, the latter a source of unspeakable evil," they write. They focus on the positive kind, which they call "devox," and describe it as offering "an inexhaustible font of new ideas, products, and services and, in the end, is the source of all innovation, new-market creation and, for business, ultimately represents the basis of all incremental profit."
The challenge for business is how to recognize positive deviant ideas and move them toward the market. Language is hugely important in managing the fringe because it often defines what is acceptable in society. Language can change or even eliminate the obstacles that made a product's acceptability difficult. For example, Pfizer took "erectile dysfunction" and turned it into an openly discussed syndrome. The authors call this the "abolition of context."
Moderator Comment: Do most large organizations fully leverage the ideas of their own "deviant" thinkers? Does corporate speak and the group mentality require that companies go outside their own organizations to find consultants/advisors that will challenge the status quo?
No and yes.
Bringing ideas from the outside, however, does not mean you (the consultant/advisor) won't get ignored or canned for taking a position contrary to the group wisdom. Successful companies do not necessarily embrace alternative thinking but they generally don't run from it either (at least not before considering it). [George Anderson - Moderator]