Anthony (Tony) W. Ulwick is the founder and chief executive officer of Strategyn, LLC. an innovation consulting firm based in San Francisco. He is the creator of Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI).
Ulwick began working on innovation strategies in 1980 while working at IBM. In January 2002, Harvard Business Review published Ulwick's article âÂÂTurn Customer Input into Innovation,â which outlined Ulwick's innovation concept of âÂÂoutcomes that customers are seekingâ that encourages companies to develop products to fulfill what their customers are trying to accomplish.
The Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) method outlined in the Harvard Business Review received Harvard Business ReviewâÂÂs distinction as one of the seven best âÂÂbreakthrough ideas for todayâÂÂs business agendaâ in 2002.
In 2005, Ulwick explained his theory in the book âÂÂWhat Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and ServicesâÂÂ.
In October 2016, Ulwick released a second book â âÂÂJobs to be Done: Theory to PracticeâÂÂ.
Ulwick founded the innovation consultancy Strategyn in 1991. Today the firm has offices in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Strategyn has worked with corporations including Bosch, Colgate-Palmolive, Hewlett-Packard, Ingersoll Rand, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Microsoft, and Motorola to implement ODI. The results of a 2010 innovation track record study indicate that 86% of the projects using Strategyn's innovation methodology were rated as successful by the sponsoring company.
Ulwick is the author of the following publications: