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Case Study: Imaginative Thinking in Action 143

manual.... He drew my attention to the fact that only “senior
executives” were to be accountable for “creating strategy.” The per-
formance criteria for “managers” and “associates” said not a word
about strategy. Vibrating with indignation, he accused his employer of
being uniquely stupid in having excused 99 percent of its employees
from any responsibility for strategic thinking.
Surely, no other company would be so backward as to assume
that only top executives could create strategy. Yes, I assured him, he
had a right to be indignant. But no, his company was far from unique.
—Gary Hamel

Other nomenclature includes data bombs, freight trains, and canaries.
Besides adding some fun to a difficult work environment, the code language
helped ODD to establish its brand and group identity and to track the
adoption of its ideas. Realizing that it was a small group with a big mission
and enormous territory to conquer, ODD’s distinctive approach to corpo-
rate branding quickly made it appear much larger and much more influ-
ential than it actually was. For the record, data bombs are statistics with
disturbing implications—for example: Skype, the software application that
allows the making of free voice calls over the Internet, rapidly gained tens
of millions of daily users since its launch in 2003. (Its total user accounts
are currently in the hundreds of millions). Freight trains are trends heading
your way that are going to flatten you. The already happening decline in
prices for long-distance telephone calls was, at the time, a freight train that
4
was about to run over AT&T. Canaries are scouts—people who uncover
information and detect danger—in various corporate environments ranging
from meeting rooms to senior executive quarters. Anders—the Swedish
intern who was ODD’s secret weapon—was a specialist in “being in the
right places the wrong time” (that is, serendipitously gaining access to audi-
ences and information).

THE END OF ODD (BUT THE LEGACY REMAINS)

Whereas ODD struck a chord with some executives, others viewed the
group and its increasing influence with intense hostility. ODD was losing
a number of its undercover supporters too, as many of its best allies left