Presentation Summary - "Elegant Ideas"

It’s counter intuitive, unconventional, but undeniably powerful: the best ideas are those that are intentionally open to interpretation and leave something to the imagination. They exploit the seductive power of “the missing piece.”

In this talk, Matt draws on the most compelling stories of individuals, teams and organizations to demonstrate how when ideas and strategies are intelligently chiseled to allow customers to add their own touch and actually participate in the emerging situation, the outcome is an irresistible simplicity – the elusive “know it when you see it” that leads to “gotta have it” – in business, work and life.

Biography

Matthew May is the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing and Elegant Solutions: Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way, the Elegant Solutions blog, and The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation (Free Press, 2006), which drew on his over eight years of experience as a former senior advisor and master instructor at Toyota. He has contributed to or written for Strategy & Business, Across the Board, The American, The Wharton Leadership Digest, Quality Progress, Consulting to Management, The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press, and USA Today. Matt is the director of the consulting and education firm, Aevitas Learning & Innovation and holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a BA from Johns Hopkins University.