Why Conceptuate.com

Introduction - Points from Frans Johansson's book "The Medici Effect":

Deep knowledge within the disciplines is not required for "intersectional" or cross-over innovation. Directional innovation within a discipline requires deep knowledge and this is the most common and usually easiest innovation. Directional innovation is product or service improvement and is common of course. Intersectional innovation creates new fields, disciplines, or industries. Intiri Designs will be a new industry category. There is nothing like it.

A field or discipline is a subject that a person can spend a lifetime working in.

"The intersection [of concepts and processes] represents a place that drastically increases the chances for unusual combinations to occur." When working across numerous disciplines there are billions of potential combinations of models, concepts, and processes.

"Innovators are often self-taught. They tend to be the types that educated themselves intensely. They often have a broad learning experience." "They broke down associative barriers because they did one or more of the following things:

Exposed themselves to a range of cultures.
Learned differently.
Reversed their assumptions.
Took on multiple perspectives."

The story

In the mid-1970's Jim brought construction and workflow concepts from Pacific Gas & Electric's General Construction division to his father's Preston Pipelines, a small underground pipeline company based in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, California. Jim was in college majoring in business administration with a concentration in accounting and university level business knowledge was unusual in this industry at the time. The exposure to case studies in other industries brought more concepts to Preston Pipelines.

Concepts from PG&E and other industries that he crossed over into storm, sewer, and water pipeline construction created a sustainable competitive advantage for Preston Pipelines that took the company from a few employees and pieces of equipment in the early 1970's to the hundreds by the late 1980's. Other than the availability of backhoes this industry had developed little for decades. At the time Jim did not understand the business value of using cross-over ideas from different industries to build new conceptual frameworks, business models, and processes.

His next encounter with developing new business conceptual frameworks began in the summer of 1981 as a CPA preparing tax returns at what is now KPMG, a world-wide accounting firm. Jim successfully prototyped the use of desktop computing for CPA work and while everyone in the office recognized the value the partners refused to buy a few desktop computers and move to the next step. They wanted to wait for the New York office to invent the new processes, which they weren't doing.

In mid-1982 Jim quit KPMG and started his own firm with the goal of developing a completely computerized accounting firm. At the time there were a few firms with mini computers doing bookkeeping services, most firms were sending their tax returns out to be processed on mainframe computers, and a few accountants were experimenting with spreadsheets and word processing. Jim's firm became his lab for developing a new conceptual framework for CPA firm work. He also began working with programmers from numerous software companies to develop the first industry specific desktop computing applications for dozens of his client's industries.

The famous media philosopher Marshall McLuhan developed the concept that a new medium requires new ways of doing things. Jim felt that accountants shouldn't transfer their manual ways of working to desktop computing. Instead a new framework and processes were needed. Figuring those out took years of research, prototyping, and trail and error.

At first he was doing more lab and development work than paying work but by 1990 his productivity was twice the national average for CPA's in small firms and he was able to spend 45 to 60 days a summer on his cabin cruiser in Prince William Sound, float rivers in Alaska for weeks, and travel the world including two months a year in Mexico exploring Mayan ruins and archeology. This was his lifestyle goal after Preston Pipelines and he achieved it with developing new concepts that worked.

While all CPA firms eventually moved to desktop computing most of them did no more than computerize their manual processes. When Jim left public accounting in 1995 most firms had not achieved the productivity that was possible. Those that did adopt Jim's processes reported outstanding results.

Currently Jim is working full time crossing over concepts from various disciplines to develop new business projects. He has skills to produce useful work in over 50 disciplines and this may be a first in history. It was never possible until the past few years.