Tim Brown

Snapshot: Tim Brown is CEO of IDEO, based in Palo Alto. Asked in a Fortune Magazine profile to explain his style of work, he concluded by saying: “Try to stage accidents: I loved the library at the Royal College of Art because it didn’t have a logical system, at least none I could figure. When looking for a book on Islamic decoration, you’d find it by one on seashells. And you’d find all sorts of things with it. That’s the value of an accident. The more you encourage serendipity — say, by bringing together different people — the more you’ll get rich answers. The more you put a group together that sees the world the same way, the more conventional the outcome. We try to put teams together that have varied backgrounds — not just disciplines, but life experiences.”

Organisation: Formed in 1991 through a merger of three design firms, IDEO is a design consultancy based in Palo Alto, California, with other offices in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich and Shanghai. The company helps design products, services, environments, and digital experiences. It has also become increasingly involved in management consulting. IDEO has won more of the BusinessWeek/IDSA Industrial Design Excellence Awards than any other firm.

Website: www.ideo.com.

Volans in a word: “Agenda-setting.”