About Strategyn
Early in his career, Strategyn founder Anthony Ulwick worked on the IBM PCjr, a new computer product whose launch was anticipated around the world. It failed miserably. Rather than defeating him, that experience ignited within him a passion that still drives him today.
Anthony founded Strategyn in 1991 with a simple mission – to innovate innovation. He believed he could innovate the innovation process and transform it into a predictable business discipline. This was no small task, given that at that time, innovation was an ineffective, fragmented, and highly misunderstood process.
Together, Anthony and an extended team of Strategyn innovation experts worked to develop, test, and refine innovation theories and practices. In the mid-1990s, this effort resulted in Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI), an end-to-end strategy and innovation process that is built around the theory that people buy products and services to get jobs done. This patented process has an innovation success rate of 86 percent, making it the world’s most powerful innovation process (see track record study).
Over the years, many respected firms have adopted ODI. It has replaced VOC and QFD practices in many others. Using our process, companies have been able to create winning products, lower their development costs, and get to market quicker. Companies now use the process to ensure their growth strategies are tied to customer metrics. This enables them to grow with a success rate that is five times the industry average.
What do others think about our efforts to innovate innovation? Harvard Business Review named ODI "One of the Best Business Ideas of 2002." In 2003, our “jobs-to-be-done” thinking was cited by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in his bestselling book The Innovator’s Solution. He has since publicized the approach and advanced the theory in award-winning articles published in the Harvard Business Review and other respected publications.
Meanwhile, Strategyn has taken the jobs-to-be-done theory to new levels. Strategyn has spent the last nine years applying this innovation theory to advance every step in the innovation process, from market selection and understanding customer needs to concept creation and validation (see ODI-process).
Even though Strategyn has created a well-defined and effective process, it has not stopped its efforts to innovate innovation. As leaders in customer-centered innovation, we will keep you at the forefront of innovation theory and practice. Let us help you create the visionary growth plans that will enable your company to achieve its growth objectives.
