Acclaimed author Malcolm Gladwell, whose book, The Tipping Point, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, has written a new book that references Herman Miller's Aeron chair in explaining how first impressions affect decision-making.
In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Gladwell argues that the difference between good decision-making and bad has more to do with focusing on key details than on how much information one can process quickly.
He references the Aeron chair as an example of how first impressions can threaten to derail innovation. When introduced in the early 1990s, the Aeron drew largely negative reviews among focus groups. "The chair was so new and unusual that they weren't used to it," Gladwell writes.
Tempering their response to traditional market research, however, Herman Miller's development team followed their instincts for innovation, changing the global marketplace's understanding of ergonomic design and performance and creating the company's best-selling office chair ever. "What once was ugly has become beautiful," Gladwell says.
A profile of Gladwell and Blink appears in the January 2005 issue of Fast Company magazine.
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