Watts Wacker

Biography

Watts Wacker is one of the most celebrated and influential minds in modern business. Mr. Wacker -- lecturer, best-selling author, political commentator and social critic -- is one of the world`s most respected futurists. His uncommon versatility and vision has allowed him to help the world`s top corporations and organizations navigate the sea of change that is taking hold in the new millennium. He has been the futurist at SRI International, the legendary Menlo Park think tank, and spent ten years as the resident futurist at the preeminent social research organization, Yankelovich Partners.

As founder and director of FirstMatter LLC, Mr. Wacker has focused his attention on creating a new kind of think tank and he describes himself as a twenty-first century alchemist as well as ... "a cross between James Brown and the unknown comic, (the hardest working nobody in the business.)" His speaking style has created many references to Mr. Wacker as being one of the best storytellers alive today. His book, The 500 Year Delta was an international bestseller having been translated into ten languages and was an "editors choice" top five selection on the Amazon.com book list for 1997. "The Delta" was also selected for the NASA library. Watts` second book, The Visionary`s Handbook is required reading at many of the world`s finest business schools and received outstanding reviews. Both books were coauthored with Jim Taylor.

Recent work has included contributing, editing and ghost writing numerous books, broadcast commentary as well as magazine and journal articles. His third book, The Deviant`s Advantage received a tremendous reviewer response including from Time Magazine, Fortune, The N.Y. Times, and The Harvard Business Review. His fourth book, What`s Your Story? Storytelling to move markets, audiences, people and brands, was a finalist for advertising/marketing book of the year. Both books are co-authored with Ryan Mathews. Mr. Wacker and his "wizardry practice" has been featured in the media the world over. He has been labeled a "must quote" by the Associated Press.

Mr. Wacker was the original consulting pollster to the Fox News Division and directed the Time Magazine Poll, while at Yankelovich Partners he also managed the preeminent trends prediction service in the United States, for ten years. Mr. Wacker`s additional previous experience also includes management positions in the health, beauty, toy and food industries, and ownership and operation of two radio stations outside Corpus Christi, Texas.

Mr. Wacker`s matriculative background includes degrees from both Tulane University and the University of Texas in Austin as well as a research fellowship at The Institute for Constructive Capitalism. He has lectured at many colleges and universities around the world. When asked to state his most memorable professional accomplishments, Watts responds... "The most memorable work accomplishments? ... the two humbling events in my life... the renowned speaking series I`ve been privileged to speak at, and, having been selected as a `Significant Sig` by the national Sigma Chi Fraternity." Watts Wacker resides in Westport, Connecticut with his wife and partner of 31 years and one of their two children.

Publications

The Deviant`s Advantage:
How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets

Don`t consider yourself deviant? Well, that just may be a career breaker. Odds are the idea or product that will transform your business or industry tomorrow is out there right now, hiding in the shadows of the Fringe, raw, messy, untamed, and just waiting to be exploited. Trapping, taming, and marketing it is the key to burying your competition and staying ahead of your market.

Deviance is nothing more than a marked separation from the norm and is the source of innovation, the kind of breakthrough thinking that creates new markets and tumbles traditional ones. Positive deviation is an inexhaustible font of new ideas, products, and services. It`s the source of all creative thinking and dynamic new market development and ultimately the basis of all incremental profit.

The Deviant`s Advantage describes how deviance proceeds along a traceable trajectory from the Fringe, where it originates but has zero commercial potential; to the Edge, where word of mouth creates a limited audience; to the Realm of the Cool, where the buzz and market momentum really start to build; to the Next Big Thing, where demand is honed and intensifies; finally landing at Social Convention, the heart of the mass market.

Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker, two of America`s most respected futurists, trace the "Path of the Devox" (the voice, spirit, or incarnation of deviant ideas, products, and individuals), using it as a way to explain how and why:

Christian fundamentalism morphed from college Bible studies to Republican party king making

Reebok cares more about what`s on the feet of kids in Detroit and Philadelphia than what the so-hip-it-hurts set is wearing in New York or on Rodeo Drive

Napster exploded from an idea germinating inside a sixteen-year-old to a movement with 60 million subscribers that very nearly destroyed the music industry

Hugh Hefner went from America`s most public pornographer to a cultural icon with decidedly Puritan sensibilities

Mathews and Wacker also look at what happens to formerly deviant products and ideas after they are replaced by the next wave from the Fringe - how they morph into Cliche (where their commercial potential may actually increase), become Icons or even Archetypes, or fade into Oblivion, and how you can profitably manage even a fading concept.

Looking for the next big idea for your business? Then it`s past time to quit staring at the Social Convention for inspiration and start scouring the Fringes of society. Tomorrow`s breakthrough concept is lurking out there right now, in the mind of a deviant individual. Your choice is simple: find it and exploit it, or be buried by those who do.

Titles

The Consumer Agenda

The Economics Agenda

Technology Agenda

Governance Agenda

The Social Agenda

Business Subjects