This is a great article on the origins of Pop Idol. It’s interesting enough given the TV format dynasty it’s spawned, but what really caught my eye was this line:
It was not the work of market research, he points out: “This was not the product of a strategy meeting, it was experience and instinct.”
While careful strategy and structured thinking is of course necessary, I believe that really good ideas spring forth unexpectedly – apparently from nowhere. The challenge in today’s left-brain, back-covering culture is getting support for ideas you know are absolutely right but can’t easily prove why.
This snippet of Apple’s Jonathan Ive talking on Stephen Fry’s recent series in the USA is short but revealing. Ive talks with touching sincerity about how fragile ideas are and how easy it is to snuff them out. Evidently Apple aren’t one of those companies.
