Published on: Friday, August 26, 2011

Chief Eccentric Officer

Posted By: Anthony Vlahos
Filed Under: leadership, innovation, anthony vlahos, eccentric, creativity

Comments (14)

Eccentric. Derived from the Greek: ek�out of + kentros�center.

When you're off-center, when you're one step ahead of the curve, stray from the norm, you're eccentric — and quite often, superbly successful.

Next month marks the 45^th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek, which followed the interstellar adventures of Commanding Officer James T. Kirk and the crew of an exploration vessel of a 23^rd century galactic "United Federation of Planets" — the Starship Enterprise. The show was not just fantastic, it was strange and somewhat off. It lives on in endless reruns and multiple remixes.

Eccentricity in the corner office here on planet Earth? Hardly unusual. There's the headline-making:

Richard Branson crossing the Atlantic in a hot-air balloon
Ted Turner challenging Rupert Murdoch to a boxing match
Mary Kay Ash giving pink Cadillacs to top sellers in the company
Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne who, after announcing a $14.2 million third-quarter loss in 2005, took responsibility with the words "My bad"
Larry Ellison searching for the fountain of youth
Steve Jobs trying communal living
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who anonymously complimented his own hairdo on a Yahoo message board

On bringing his yak (that's yak, as in big furry animal) to work a few years ago, Cirqe CEO Jim Harding remarked, "It was just hanging in the office while we were trying to get some work done. It's unusual, but it's what I do."

Here's the thing: Any amateur can fake a cool aura, briefly attract attention, sound better than he really is. What professional eccentrics — Chief Eccentric Officers — do for a living is not be eccentric (or charismatic, or weird), what they do is make things other people love. Chief Eccentric Officers begin by asking:

How do I lean on the center to nudge it over?
How do I come up with a really cool way to do something?
How do I do something new — something other than "what I'm supposed to do"?
How do I ~~boldly go where no one has gone before~~ break the status quo?
How can I be so much better that all the hype is secondary?

Amateur eccentrics remain so for this reason: They never dangle far enough from the center's ledge. They hold back. Sabotage. Have another meeting. Instead of making remarkable new things, they make excuses: "I couldn't possibly..."; "the critics will make fun of me..."; "we might have to change this..."; "the boss won't let me..."; "I'm going to get in trouble."

Coming up with the cool ideas isn't the hard part. The hard part is actually making the idea work. This past week the department store Barneys announced the holiday season is getting a makeover — Lady Gaga style: The singer and her team are going to reinterpret Santa's workshop and put it on display at the posh retailer's Madison Avenue store. Barneys isn't collaborating with Gaga because she's out there. They're teaming up because she hears her own inner voice with great clearness, and delivers her best work. Gaga will make something different and have an impact. It's pretty much guaranteed.

The world thinks eccentricity in great things is genius, but in small things, only crazy. Not true. The world needs eccentricity anytime, anywhere it can get it. We need it, the little spark of madness, or else we never dare cut the rope and be free.

The empirical formula for calculating the eccentricity of orbiting planets goes something like this:

Where e is the eccentricity, b is the semi-minor axis and a is the semi-major axis. What makes someone eccentric is less clear. Eccentricity abounds when and where there's real individualistic character, commitment to breaking through, courage, virtue and humility. It's also clear you can be completely off-center and still hit the target, practically every time. Maybe the formula is getting so far out one day you won't come back at all. Walking away until the center disappears.

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Anthony Vlahos's avatar Anthony Vlahos
Tony Vlahos is the Chief Marketing Officer at ExecuNet. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/tonyvlahos.

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Posted by Lori Rodriguez
09/02 @ 09:03 AM

Steve Job's greatest innovation is Apple itself. He baked a unique and powerfully successful way of thinking into Apple's DNA. The same thinking that goes into Apple's products.

How long will it last? Look to the classic Prisoner's Dilemma game for the answer. If Apple keeps hiring only like-minded cooperative design-thinkers, they'll do very well for a long time. Lose their way in hiring and Apple will lose its edge.

Posted by Jay Neuman
09/01 @ 08:38 PM

I think Steve Jobs as a good example of eccentric success is a great one. Conversely, the nail that is sticking up gets hammered down first. In the end, which approve is successful seems to really be more dependent upon the audience it is for.

Posted by Ganesh Lal Moondra
09/01 @ 06:36 PM

Why many times? It is so most of the times. In fact they are so deeply engrossed in their passion that they just cannot perceive any thing else. Therefore the rest of the society think them different.

Ganesh Lal Moondra

Posted by None necessary
09/01 @ 05:39 PM

Apple was never dependent on Steve Jobs. I've served as vendor to some extraordinary people at Apple with equally stellar ideas. The ability of management to listen to those people is what Apple's future may hinge on.

NOTE: 2nd attempt. There will not be a third or returning effort.
Reason = captcha

Posted by Charlie Gottenkieny
09/01 @ 05:31 PM

Steve Jobs is successful because he isn't really an engineer at heart. He is an artist. I once heard a famous designer say that "If you need instructions to use it, it's a poor design." Think of the iPod (Has anyone ever read the instruction manual? Is there one?) The iPod is an elegantly intuitive device that was conceived by an artist/visionary. Yes, it took engineers to make it work, but the artist was the driving force behind it. The same goes for the iPhone, the iPad, the mouse, and all of the other things that have made Apple great.

How will Apple succeed in the future? Realize the full potential of their great pool of talent, preserve their culture, keep the great engineers around to turn dreams into reality and, most important, bring in artists to create the dreams! You can't clone Steve Jobs, but you can learn from him.

Posted by James Easterlin
09/01 @ 04:18 PM

In my opinion, the odds that Apple will continue to produce leading edge products without Mr. Jobs are close to zero. Look at the example of Sony, where a similarly atlented CEO, Akio Morita, dreamed up all kinds of brand new products (remeber the Walkman). Once he retired, the pace of innovative, new prodcuts fell dramatically. Look at Soney today. The good news for Apple is that it will lose its edge gradually.

Posted by Jim Stikeleather
09/01 @ 03:58 PM

I think it is actually very simple. The perceived eccentricity (versus faked weirdness) comes from the first question an eccentric asks when discovering an idea - "Why not?" rather than "Why?". Everyone have genuine eccentric thoughts - that is why they are railed against constantly in church, school and society - conform!. The eccentric does not filter their judgement until the idea has time to stand on its own merits. Anyone can be a successful eccentric - they just need to shut up and listen to themselves.

Posted by Nate Candelaria
09/01 @ 03:40 PM

The big Apple ball is rolling really well - I don't expect they'll be dropping it anytime soon. The fan base is strong and loyal.

Posted by Isaac Abiola
09/01 @ 03:22 PM

How well do you think Apple will innovate in the future without Steve Jobs?

The simple answer to this question is how long will the new management stick with the existing culture that encourages innovation in the company? For every idea that becomes money printing machine there were thousand others that became money pits (failed miserably in development phase). I think under Steve Job risk taking is highly encouraged and tolerated. Failure is allowed and treated as a cost of getting new idea.

Under the new management, will someone leading the development of a new idea that did not eventually pan out be thrown under the bus? Every employee is watching.... The moment someone is thrown under the bus watch out. Others will be less inclined to get involved in risk taking activities or ideas that can take the company to the next level. I therefore encourage the new management to encourage and promote further eccentricities in the company.

Posted by Sergio A. Viero
09/01 @ 03:18 PM

Dear Colleages:

I think Mr Jobs is an out of the common professional, and it will be hard for Apple to find a talent like, probably they will need a team of talented people to do that, the important think is what he have done for the progress of humanity.

Posted by Charles Shillingburg
09/01 @ 03:02 PM

I don't know about being eccentric, but I do think people who successfully develop new products and services have a different way of looking at things and doing them. They see the interconnection between aspects that others don't see. They also are more positive and resilient in the face of adversity and work at success until they get there.

Posted by Kim Marino
09/01 @ 02:34 PM

Being Eccentric with big vision should be a requirement for the job. Steve Job's is great and will be missed, but there are many great visionaries out there.

Posted by CapeTownDentist
09/01 @ 02:33 PM

If parallels can be drawn I think we'll see something similar to what happened at HP after the founders passed on. The infrastructure and ethic has been instilled and with luck, will remain. <a href="http://capetowndentist.church-square.com">Cape Town Dentist</a>

Posted by James Tighe
09/01 @ 02:24 PM

I think Apple will do ok, after while Jobs was the leader of the band and gave it direction he left the arrangments up to the band. A fellow by the of IVE was the one who thought up the iPhone (thats why it called "i"phone and not "j"phone for jobs. But what Jobs did was surrond him self with smart people and got them thinking. Then when they had an idea he made them make it better. If Jobs is no longer around I expect the company will not fall apart, indeed many companies did better after the founder was gone. Jobs was very important but so were the people he fostered there and as long as they continue to think in his foot steps things sould be A-OK! (now how old am I).