Chapter 7. Creating the Operating and Project Concepts

Technology is becoming a commodity: what matters are the application concepts. Concepts are every bit as important as finance, raw materials, labor and energy. It is not enough to rely on “me-too” copying or the haphazard use of creative intelligence. We need to take concepts very seriously indeed.

—Edward de Bono, Sur/petition

Competition has become a battle of concepts in the Information Age. A company’s ability to formulate superior concepts and to implement them successfully in a timely manner through transformational projects is tantamount to achieving the promise of information technology.