Here's an Idea!

Mary Ellen Heyde

Vehicle Line Director of Lifestyle Vehicles
Ford Motor Co.
Dearborn, Michigan

At Ford, we always try to hire people from diverse backgrounds. We do that because we realize that good ideas come when people with different perspectives work together on the same problem.

If you have a diverse workforce, then you know that the customer's point of view will always be represented. When we created the Windstar minivan, we had a lot of women both on the design team and on the marketing committee -- which was good, because the Windstar is used mostly by women. On Take Our Daughters to Work Day, kids give us feedback on our products. We also have a car-lease program for our employees, and we ask the spouses of the lessees for their thoughts about various cars. If we didn't get that kind of input, then we'd miss out on good ideas.

For example, with the Windstar, we created what we call "sleeping-baby mode" for the overhead light. One of the women on the Windstar electrical team has young children, and she said that her car's overhead light always wakes them up after a night drive. So, when we designed the Windstar, we provided an option for having only the floor lighting turn on when you open a door.

Mary Ellen Heyde (mheyde@ford.com) was responsible for the engineering and planning of the 1999 Windstar, and oversaw the development of the "Windstar Moms" advertising campaign. She has been in charge of the Windstar, from concept to customer, since 1995. She is also the product manager for three other models: the Mercury Villager, the Ford Mustang, and the Ford Thunderbird.

Vinton Cerf

Senior Vice President for Internet Architecture and Technology
MCI WorldCom, Inc.
Ashburn, Virginia

I'm a proponent of the jujitsu method of innovation. Jujitsu teaches you to take advantage of your opponent's momentum. I like to take advantage of what already exists -- to grab the intellectual momentum and then use it to advance an application into the mainstream. When Robert Kahn and I were creating TCP/IP (a set of protocols that makes it possible to link various networks around the world), we decided not to require the networks that support it to change in any way. Instead, we took advantage of what already existed, and we avoided adding another layer of complexity.

People often take the view that standardization is the enemy of creativity. But I think that standards help make creativity possible -- by allowing for the establishment of an infrastructure, which then leads to enormous entrepreneurialism, creativity, and competitiveness.

When it comes to innovation, the question is not how to innovate but how to invite ideas. How do you invite your brain to encounter thoughts that you might not otherwise encounter? Creative people let their minds wander, and they mix ideas freely. Innovation often comes from unexpected juxtapositions, from connecting subjects that aren't necessarily related. Another way to generate ideas is to treat a problem as though it were generic. If you're experiencing a particular problem, odds are that other people are experiencing it too. Generate a solution, and you may have an innovation.

Vinton Cerf (cerfs-email@wcom.com), together with Robert Kahn, devised TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), a set of standard protocols that serves as the common "language" of the Internet. TCP/IP enables networks to communicate with one another and to share information through "gateways" that process information according to a single standard.

Twyla Tharp

Dancer, Choreographer, and Director
New York, New York

In much of my work, creation comes from studying relationships between movements and dancers. It also comes from believing that even the most outrageous associations can be valid. Creativity requires quite a lot of faith -- not just in yourself but also in the knowledge that you have the right to proceed, even when you may not know exactly what you're doing.

You also need to have faith that life is composed not of alien or segregated elements but of related components. Creativity comes from having an inquisitive mind, from being easily bored, from wanting to challenge the status quo. It comes from people who look for alternatives.

My parents were successful businesspeople -- precisely because they embodied those qualities. They had faith in their ability to see broad and profound connections. They started out on dirt farms in Indiana, and, having built business after business (a car dealership, drive-in movie theaters, a construction company), they ended up in southern California. They put four kids through college at a time when it was very difficult to do so.