The Proximity Paradox

April 27, 2020
In this invigorating debut business guide, Varricchio and May, co-owners of the UpHouse marketing agency, propose that “proximity” to a challenge can often directly interfere with one’s ability to solve it. At a time of intense competition for customers and pressure to innovate, the authors find that the kind of long-held and intimate experience with a market that many consider an asset is actually killing the original thinking needed in business. The authors go on to discuss how an outside perspective can jump-start ideas insiders would never have conceived. They explore the downside of efficiency (namely the monotony it nurtures), and the benefit of shaking things up to create “distance,” or a fresh perspective. Varricchio and May discuss how to create distance from the org chart, to avoid the rigid stratification of responsibilities they experienced firsthand while working at big ad agencies. On a similar note, they urge businesspeople to gain a perspective independent from the industry they operate in, with “its... code of accepted activities and behaviors” dictating what ideas are and aren’t acceptable. Marketers and those tasked with innovation will find this work full of food for thought. It’s a much-needed perspective on how to escape inside-the-box thinking.

December 13, 2019

Since Alex Faickney Osborn introduced the notion of brainstorming in his 1953 book Applied Imagination, the concept has been applied to many fields. In their first book, May and Varricchio, co-owners of the marketing agency UpHouse, follow in the tradition of Osborn. Here, the premise is that those closest to a product are generally the preservationists of the status quo rather than the inventors of a new design. The authors cite several examples of classic innovation, including descriptions of skunkworks projects, along with the genius of manufacturing company W.L. Gore and Associates. The authors are less adept at explaining the longevity of modern companies; they also place importance on garnering new customers instead of focusing on retention, which should give pause to technology-based companies. For the more academically oriented, the endnotes provide plenty of recent research and online resources, which should have strong appeal. VERDICT A respectable business work recasting vintage techniques that may be compelling to a more scholarly audience.--Steven Silkunas, Fernandina Beach, FL

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