Kelley, Tom 1955–

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Kelley, Tom 1955–

PERSONAL: Born 1955; married; wife's name Yumiko. Education: Attended Oberlin College; University of California, Berkeley, M.B.A.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Doubleday, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: IDEO (design firm), general manager. Also worked as a management consultant for Towers Perrin.

WRITINGS:

(With Jonathan Littman) Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Jonathan Littman) Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity throughout Your Organization, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Tom Kelley is the general manager of IDEO, a design consultancy which focuses primarily on innovation and product development. Tom has overseen the company, founded by his brother David Kelley, since its start with twenty designers to a current staff of more than 350. Before joining IDEO, Kelley was a management consultant advising senior executives in North America, Asia, and Australia on organizational and operational issues.

With professional writer Jonathan Littman, Kelley wrote Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm in 2001. The book highlights the success of the company's work culture and environment and how they are able to produce what prospective customers want in a short period of time. Kelley, with Littman's assistance again, followed up this book with a second, Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity throughout Your Organization. While IDEO remains as the backdrop of this book, the focus shifts to the type of worker and specifics of building a team for a particular project or concept.

Reviews of Kelley's first two books were mostly positive. A critic in Publishers Weekly believed that Art of Innovation will attract attention as it is a "well-written, well-organized, and energizing guide." Another reviewer in Publishers Weekly evaluated Ten Faces of Innovation, commenting: "Aspiring business innovators and fans of Art of Innovation may find further inspiration in this handbook." Bruce Nussbaum also reviewed Ten Faces of Innovation in Business Week, calling it "funny, insightful, and chock-full of surprising examples." He went on to say that it "delivers some tasty morsels to managers hungry to boost their companies' level of innovation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Business Week, October 24, 2005, Bruce Nussbaum, review of Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity throughout Your Organization, p. 144.

Information Outlook, January, 2002, "Innovation Artist: A Conversation with Tom Kelley," p. 14.

New York Times, January 22, 2006, Glenn Rifkin, "A Galaxy Still Expanding."

Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2001, review of Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, p. 81; September 19, 2005, review of Ten Faces of Innovation, p. 57.

Research-Technology Management, January-February, 2006, review of Ten Faces of Innovation, p. 62.