Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation
John Seely Brown is a visiting scholar and advisor to the Provost at University of Southern California (USC) and the Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge.
Prior to that he was the Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) - a position he held for nearly two decades. While head of PARC, Brown expanded the role of corporate research to include such topics as organizational learning, knowledge management, complex adaptive systems, and nano/mems technologies. He was a cofounder of the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL). His personal research interests include the management of radical innovation, digital youth culture, digital media, and new forms of communication and learning.
John, or as he is often called, JSB, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and of AAAS, and a Trustee of the MacArthur Foundation. He serves on numerous public boards (Amazon, Corning, and Varian Medical Systems) and private boards of directors.
He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals and was awarded the Harvard Business Review's 1991 McKinsey Award for his article, "Research that Reinvents the Corporation" and again in 2002 for his article "Your Next IT Strategy."
In 2004 he was inducted into the Industry Hall of Fame.
With Paul Duguid he co-authored the acclaimed book The Social Life of Information (HBS Press, 2000) that has been translated into nine languages with a second addition in April 2002. With John Hagel he co-authored the book The Only Sustainable Edge, which is about new forms of collaborative innovation. And in 2010, he authored The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion with co-author Lang Davison.
JSB received a BA from Brown University in 1962 in mathematics and physics and a PhD from University of Michigan in 1970 in computer and communication sciences. He has received five honorary degrees including: May 2000, Brown University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science Degree; July 2001, the London Business School conferred an Honorary Doctor of Science in Economics; May 2004, Claremont Graduate University granted him an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; May 2005, University of Michigan awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree; and May 2009, North Carolina State University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree.
Related Links: http://www.johnseelybrown.com/
Last Updated: Fri, Apr 16, 2010
| Category | Title | Author/Speaker | Organization | Length | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video | Building Scale Without Mass | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 04:54 | 04/2010 |
| Podcast | Collaborative Innovation and a Pull Economy | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 55:59 | 04/2010 |
| Video | Collaborative Innovation and a Pull Economy (Entire Talk) | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 55:26 | 04/2010 |
| Video | Exposing More "Surfaces" | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 03:41 | 04/2010 |
| Video | Material Science Start-ups in the Modern Age | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 01:31 | 04/2010 |
| Video | Pulling the Core to the Edge | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 03:44 | 04/2010 |
| Video | Shaping Serendipity | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 02:20 | 04/2010 |
| Video | The Business School of Extreme Aerial Surfing | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 06:02 | 04/2010 |
| Video | The Knowledge Economy of World of Warcraft | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 04:59 | 04/2010 |
| Video | The Old Institutions are Broken | John Seely Brown | Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation | 05:50 | 04/2010 |
John Seely Brown, Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation, argues setting up an organization where nothing leaks out, also means nothing can leak in. Moreover, industry ecosystems have balance and reciprocity, so being paranoid of taking part in the sharing of knowledge can be a detriment to an organization. Brown also asks whether new types of institutional innovations can allow companies to build scale without mass.
What can extreme surfing and World of Warcraft teach the enterprise? Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge and former Xerox PARC Chief Scientist John Seely Brown holds them as examples of the power of frequent benchmarking and full industry info-share. He also uses them to show how the core ecosystem can be made stronger by sharing knowledge gathered from learning on the edge. In addition, Seely Brown touches upon his theory of a monumental economic shift from a push to a pull economy as outlaid in his 2010 book, The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion.
What can extreme surfing and World of Warcraft teach the enterprise? Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge and former Xerox PARC Chief Scientist John Seely Brown holds them as examples of the power of frequent benchmarking and full industry info-share. He also uses them to show how the core ecosystem can be made stronger by sharing knowledge gathered from learning on the edge. In addition, Seely Brown touches upon his theory of a monumental economic shift from a push to a pull economy as outlaid in his 2010 book, The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion.
By appropriating knowledge and thinkers from a broader scope of learning - i.e. exposing more "surfaces" - John Seely Brown, Independent Co-Chairman from the Deloitte Center for the Edge, states that knowledge from outside a field of expertise can be banked and extremely valuable to stirring up innovation in one's own sector. He cites an example of one man who travels to a far-flung conference every year simply to strategize and learn to think outside his comfort zone. Taking an interest in energy (a field outside his own), he created programs and legislation that yielded effective results.
With just ten people and as little as $50,000, new garage-based enterprises that used to require hefty start-up costs and infrastructure can grow larger and more productive with fewer resources than ever before, says Deloitte Center for the Edge Independent Co-Chairman John Seely Brown. Entrepreneurs in the 21st century need to think about taking advantage of advanced tools like cloud computing and social media to progress at a pace - and with such lean, muscular resources - previously unimaginable.
Rather than trickling new innovations from the edge to the core, is it possible, rather, for the edge to dominate? The creative thinking of John Seely Brown, Deloitte Center for the Edge Independent Co-Chairman and former Chief Scientist of Xerox PARC, seeks to bring this flavor of creative thinking to the corporate world. He cites, as example, conservative business software solutions company SAP, and its internal transformation through a thriving social development network.
Success is based on more than just luck. By choosing the right kind of environment and cultivating the practices that will help find new ideas, one can take inspiration from unlikely sources. Furthermore, deep listening with reciprocity - meaning not only digging for good ideas from others, but offering them back in return - is a valuable skill to nurture. John Seely Brown, Independent Co-Chairman of Deloitte Center for the Edge, believes that this is the way that powerful and valuable relationships are built.
Entrepreneurship isn't just a sport; it's extreme. John Seely Brown, Deloitte Center for the Edge's Independent Co-Chairman, paid attention when suddenly five of the globe's top aerial surfers originated from the same place. Why the sudden regional success? Though fierce competitors, they all knew one another and collectively benchmarked from other surfers. They recorded and studied one another's achievements and flaws, and appropriated ideas from adjacent verticals, such as skateboarding, mountain biking, etc. Collectively, they improved their personal performance, and simultaneously built up the local ecosystem en masse. Seely Brown points out these passion-fueled tactics and suggests that entrepreneurs use this model to expand their personal performance and build success to benefit their business community.
Within the guilds of this popular computer game, real innovation is taking place. Thousands of new ideas happen daily through crowdsourcing. In addition, all performance is measured and critiqued, both as a group and individually. Guilds also work collaboratively on larger projects, allowing for radical, exponential learning and results. Deloitte Center for the Edge's John Seely Brown encourages business thinkers to use the practices of the game as a strategic model for building better innovation.
Over the last 65 years, returns on assets have decreased about 75 percent; indicative, says Deloitte Center for the Edge Independent Co-Chairman John Seely Brown, that the old guard of doing business is no longer viable. Whereas companies used to be guaranteed longevity if they made it into the S&P 500, nowadays many survive there only five or ten years. The 21st century is qualitatively different, says Seely Brown, with new technological institutional mechanisms forcing new business practices.