Dan Heath
From BookJive
|
|
|
| Born: | |
| Died: | |
| Residence: | Durham, North Carolina |
| School: | University of Texas,Harvard Business School |
| Contact: | |
| Website: | |
Contents |
Brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath are the co-authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.
[edit] Biography
It is a drawing of a giant squid leaning over the serving side of the counter of a sushi bar. An oriental chef stands next to him and a customer is seated on a stool in front. The caption reads, “He feels he can do more good working within the system.” This was the winning caption in the 2005 New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest written by Dan Heath, consultant, researcher, speaker, trainer, editor, marketer, entrepreneur, and stickinator. According to Dan, it was one of his proudest moments, which gives an idea of the type of person he is.
Born June 6, 1973, Dan Heath grew up in Houston and Austin, Texas and attended the University of Texas at Austin where he received a BA in the Plan II Honors Program. For as long as he can remember, Dan has been taking chances and following his interests. As an undergraduate at the University of Texas’s ACTLab (A unique group of international and interdisciplinary artists, teachers, techies, and hackers that situate their work at the hotly contested intersections where technology, art, and culture collide), most of his classmates were focused on robotics and cyborg theory. Dan was producing a multimedia physics notebook. It was the peak of the CD-ROM-era, and Dan was hooked.
After graduation, he began working with a professor on the development of interactive messages about cervical cancer. At the same time, and for reasons he cannot recall, he applied and was accepted at a law school. The financial backer behind the cervical cancer project bet Dan $100 that he had an offer that would keep him out of law school. Dan Heath is many things, but he is not a lawyer.
Funded with the initial investment, in 1996 Dan launched Thinkwell, a company that produces innovative new-media college textbooks that incorporate new approaches to learning—multimedia rather than print, interactive rather than static, engaging rather than encyclopedic. It was a slow start and nearly failed but in 1997, with the addition of new financing, Thinkwell launched its line of next-generation textbooks and continues to be highly successful. Dan was Editor-in-Chief of Thinkwell, managing the editorial and marketing departments, and served on the company’s Board of Directors. He won several Addys (sponsored by the American Advertising Federation, it is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry for the industry) and a NewMedia Invision Award for his marketing campaigns.
In 2001, itching for something new, Dan enrolled as a research fellow to Harvard Business School where he earned an MBA. While there, he developed cases for the Entrepreneurial Management unit and co-authored ten HBS case studies on entrepreneurial success stories, such as London’s Innocent Drinks and the infomercial geniuses at Idea Village. Those case studies are now in use in business schools across the United States.
Although it was not the mystery novel he always thought he would eventually write, in 2007, Dan, along with his brother, Dr. Chip Heath, a professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, wrote Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die which explores the six traits of “sticky ideas”: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotional appeal, and a story. The book was built upon the diverse research both brothers had accumulated through their professions after they realized that they were both pursuing the answer to the same question—Why do some ideas succeed and others fail? The book, published by Random House in January 2007, has remained on the best-seller list.
Currently, Dan is a Consultant at Duke Corporate Education, the world’s number one provider of custom executive education. His role includes designing and developing training programs, serving as teacher and facilitator, and managing client relationships. He has designed and taught executive educations programs for such clients as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Dow, and Nissan. He has taught and consulted on the topic of “making ideas stick” with audiences from organizations including Nissan, Fannie Mae, and West Point.
Professionally, Dan is exceedingly successful. Personally, he is down-to-earth and committed to having a good time—living day-to-day, having fun, and not taking himself too seriously. During an interview, Dan was asked about how working with his brother Chip worked out. His answer? “Well, in school, Chip was the guy who turned in his papers a week early so he could relax and listen to Supertramp records. And I was the guy who popped 4 No-Doz and started his paper at 3am the night before it was due. So you can imagine some of the tensions we had to work through.”
One needs only look at one of Dan’s online public chats to understand his lighthearted humor. ([1]) Dan’s attitude towards life is further exemplified in what he calls his (sort of) second proudest moment—the time he spent driving the “Brainmobile”.
Designed by Blue Genie Art Industries of Austin, Texas, the Brainmobile is a fiberglass and metal “brain” camper shell made for Thinkwell. The vehicle traveled across the nation twice, visiting college campuses and roadside attractions along the way. Dressed in a bright orange coverall, Dan was the first driver. He refers to the Brainmobile as “Thinkwell’s answer to the Wienermobile.” (Oscar Mayer Foods Corp.’s hot-dog shaped vehicle) “We wanted a promotion to spread our message to college students in a disarming way. It’s just impossible not to be amused by it.” The Brainmobile is one of Dan’s many “sticky ideas.”
[edit] Books
|
|
|
