Dr. William Duggan, Columbia Business School, gave the keynote address at Defrag 08 on strategic intuition. Strategic intuition is that flash of insight which enables the “Aha” moment or a series of connected dots enabling you to move forward. Covering the majority of his 2007 book, “Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement,” Duggan used examples from history (Napoleon, Steve Jobs, and Google), to discuss the four key pieces that enable strategic intuition to occur (examples from history, presence of mind, flash of insight itself and resolution).
A new movie shows strategic intuition at work.
Flash of Genius, is based on the true story of engineering professor and part time inventor Robert Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper only to have Ford, and then Chrysler steal his design and refuse to credit him for inventing it.
The title comes from an old U.S. patent law which said that in order to be granted a patent, the inventor had to be able to show that “the inventive act had to come into the mind in a ‘flash of genius’ and not as a result of tinkering.” For Bob Kearns, his flash of genius for the intermittent windshield wiper came on his wedding night when he hit himself in the eye with a champagne cork, and got to thinking about how the eye blinks only when it needs moisture, and then later, while driving in the rain, wondered what if there was a windsheild wiper that could behave like the human eye.
Was this strategic intuition? I think so. As T.S. Eliot said, “ Immature poets imitate; mature poetssteal. ” In a scene from the movie, we see this played out. During a trial, a Ford Motor engineer explains it. Bob Kearns didn’t really invent the intermittent windshield wiper because he didn’t create anything you couldn’t buy at your local electronics store. All he did, the engineer explains, was arrange those basic over-the-counter pieces in a particular order.
Aware of Duggan’s work on strategic intuition, I am looking forward to checking out Flash of Genius.
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