Friday, January 17, 2014

Tony Fadell - Entrepreneur, Designer, and Disruptive Innovator

Even before graduating in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan, Tony Fadell showed an entrepreneurial knack as chief executive officer of Constructive Instruments, a company that produced multimedia software for children. Upon graduating, he followed a rapidly rising career trajectory in disruptive consumer electronics. By the end of 2001, he had produced the initial concept and design for the groundbreaking Apple iPod, and he eventually became senior vice president of Apple's iPod Division.

Mr. Fadell cofounded Nest Labs in 2010 and currently serves as chief executive officer. His company devotes itself to reimagining mundane household products, with the goal of improving efficiency through elegant design. The Nest Learning Thermostat, for example, presents a simple and sleek interface and intelligently adjusts itself according to a homeowner's schedule.

Mr. Fadell is a proven innovator, and his views on disruptive technology are highly sought after. In a number of interviews and talks in recent years, he has stressed the relationship between a disruptive technology and marketing. At the 2013 LeWeb conference, in Paris, he noted that for a disruptive technology to be successfully pushed to market, the consumer must understand the problem that the technology is trying to fix, and how fixing it provides a genuine benefit. This education process should be the goal of marketing.

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