Ok, enough of Steve Jobs. So how about A.G. Lafley, from Procter and Gamble? From Business Week Online:
In his new book, The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation, P&G CEO A.G. Lafley explains the difference between the two methods: “Business schools tend to focus on inductive thinking (based on directly observable facts) and deductive thinking (logic and analysis, typically based on past evidence),” he writes. “Design schools emphasize abductive thinking—imagining what could be possible. This new thinking approach helps us challenge assumed constraints and add to ideas, versus discouraging them.”
Again, this is from the C E fracking O, which makes a world of a difference in my view, as it symbolizes and expresses a profound understanding of design’s differentiating value, not limited to vapid “look we got user experience with our lickable buttons, rah rah” silliness. The fact that this guy groks the different flavors of creative thinking and has supported company-wide design workshops for various departments, this speaks well of Lafley’s commitment to cultivating a good design practice and culture in what presumably is a design-deficient yet bureaucratically process-laden company.