Mar 1, 2023
Tony is the pioneer of Jobs-to-be-Done Theory and the inventor
of Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI), a powerful strategy and
innovation process with a documented success rate that is 5-times
the industry average. Tony has been granted 12 patents for his
game-changing innovation practices, which result in products that
help customers get a “job” done better. http://strategyn.com/
Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of
International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management,
Northwestern University says, “I call Ulwick the Deming of
Innovation because, more than anyone else, Tony has turned
innovation into a science.”
Tony began his career with IBM’s PC division in 1981. Witnessing
the failure of the PCjr, Tony was inspired to develop a better
approach to innovation. Since founding the innovation consultancy
Strategyn in 1991, he and his global team of ODI practitioners have
led strategy engagements with over one-third of the Fortune 100,
helping them generate billions of dollars in revenue growth.
In 2002, Tony introduced Harvard Business Review readers to ODI in
the article Turn Customer Input into Innovation. HBR recognized ODI
as one of the best business ideas of the year, declaring it one of
“the ideas that will profoundly affect business as we forge ahead
in today’s complex times.”
Tony is the author of the original Jobs-to-be-Done book, What
Customers Want, his recent release, JOBS TO BE DONE: Theory to
Practice, and additional articles on ODI published in HBR and MIT
Sloan Management Review. Through his involvement in hundreds of
innovation initiatives, Tony has helped companies reinvent
underperforming products, create new business models, and build and
implement company-wide innovation programs. His work is cited in
hundreds of publications.
As an innovation thought leader, inventor, author and speaker, Tony
Ulwick has changed the way academics and executives alike think
about growth strategy and product innovation.