Tony Buzan has achieved the status of

'guru', an accolade accorded to very few.

He has worked with corporate entities
and businesses all over the world,
academics, Olympic athletes, children of
all ages, governments, and high profile
individuals in teaching them how to
maximize the use of their brain power.

He is the inventor of Mind Maps®, the most

powerful 'thinking tool' of our times. The
Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates recognized
its importance in his article entitled 'The
Road Ahead – How Mind-Mappers are taking
our information democracy to the next stage'
which recently appeared in Newsweek Issues.

A prolific author, he has written – to date –

94 books, with sales in more than 150
countries; his books have been translated
into more than 33 languages. His latest titles
are Age-Proof Your Brain, published by
Harper Thorsons in 2007; and The Buzan
Study Skills Handbook, published by BBC
Active also in 2007.

One of his recent books, The Ultimate Book of

Mind Maps, published by Thorsons in 2005,
bears testimony to his universally famous
invention, and how their use can boost
creativity and change lives for the better.

The Pocket-sized Buzan Bites, published by

the BBC in 2006, is a series of three
distillations on Mind Maps, speed reading
and memory – perfect for busy people who
want to learn these exciting concepts and
techniques quickly.

Tony's techniques are also taught via a global

network of Buzan Licensed Instructors in
Asia, Europe, the Americas and Australasia.
Guru Interview: He is a familiar celebrity on Radio and TV,
both in the UK and globally, with a long list of
credits to his name. His name is synonymous

Tony Buzan with all things cerebral and his knowledge is

widely sought after by a media and public
perennially eager to learn practical advice on
how to improve brain function.
Widely recognized as the world's
Guru Interview | Human Resources

leading authority on how to use the

brain more effectively, Tony Buzan
speaks to Emerald Management First
about Mind Maps, mental literacy,
and intellectual capital.

Interview by Alistair Craven

Emerald Management First | © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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You developed the concept of the Mind Map in
the late 1960s. How has your concept grown and
developed over the years?
Tony Buzan:
The first explosive growth for Mind Maps occurred
in 1974. I had been teaching the new concept in
schools, Universities and businesses for six
years, and the BBC, after investigating what I had
been doing, requested a half hour programme on
the topic. After Mind Mapping the contents for
the programme, the Director of Higher Education
at the BBC said that the Mind Map made it look
more like a 10-part series than a simple half hour
programme. I agreed! In 1974 the 10-part Use
Your Head Series came out, accompanied by the
Use Your Head book. This series was repeated at
least twice a year from 1974 to 1989. The book,
according to the BBC, became a “modern
classic”, and now approaches sales worldwide of
2 million.
“Most current methods of
handling information are based
on the 19th Century linear,
verbal and monotonic model.
This worked comfortably for the
Industrial Age. It does not work
comfortably in the age of
knowledge, creativity and
intelligence.”
I have continued to travel around the world
lecturing and appearing on radio and television,
it being recently estimated that more than 3
billion people globally are aware of the Mind Map
Concept. In China, in 2005, I presented a one-
hour television programme on the brain, Mind
Mapping and Memory which was viewed by an
estimated 350 million people. Six weeks ago, in
April 2007, a feature “Celebrity Talks” programme
on Vietnamese Television, addressing the same
question, was seen by 80 million people.
A check last week by my webmaster on Google,
unearthed 126 million pages referring to Mind
Maps alone. The growth and the development at
the moment is, as you will have sensed,
meteoric!
How can Mind Mapping help in the world of
business? Can you provide us with a specific
example?
Tony Buzan:
Mind Mapping is especially useful in the modern
business world, which is increasingly becoming a
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thinking, service and creative world. In business,
the number of uses for Mind Maps is identical to,
and as multiple as, the uses for thinking. In
business, Mind Maps are being used for project
planning, brainstorming and creative thinking,
knowledge management, speech preparation and
presentation, strategic thinking, negotiation,
continuing personal development (CPD), meeting
preparation, all forms of learning and problem
solving. Indeed Bill Gates, in a recent NewsWeek
feature, stated that Mind Maps were “the road
ahead – taking our information democracy to the
next level”.
There are many examples, the most recent of
which is the May/June 07 issue of Time
Magazine, which features Al Gore on the cover.
In the contents of the feature article there is a
photograph of Al Gore with his project Mind Map
in front of him. The article points out that he uses
Mind Mapping to help him keep control of his
thoughts.
You claim that in virtually every Fortune 500
company, there are a number of people who are
either doing Mind Mapping or helping others do
it. In this setting it takes the form of a note-
taking technique. Can you explain a bit more
about this?
Tony Buzan:
The Mind Map is the thinking tool that reflects the
internal thought processes of the human brain.
When human thinking is externalized in its pure
form, this becomes a Mind Map, and is a note
that reflects the brain’s own thinking processes.
In the Fortune 500 companies, an increasing
number of individuals are using this technique
for all the purposes I mentioned in response to
your first question. These thinking processes are
now being greatly aided by the new Mind Map
software to which I shall return shortly.
Is Mind Mapping particularly popular within
certain regions or cultures?
Tony Buzan:
Yes. This is not so much regional or type; it is
attitudinal. Mind Mapping is popular in
companies or countries which are cutting edge,
which are focusing much of their resources on
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learning and thinking skills, and which have
realized the significance of creative thinking and
innovation in gaining a competitive edge in the
modern world.
These companies and countries, of which there
are an accelerating number, include Microsoft,
IBM, Oracle, HSBC, Con Edison, Reckitt
Benckiser, and Hewlett Packard etc. Among
countries: China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia,
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Korea, Australia, Germany, England, Scotland,
Mexico and the United States of America.
In the 1950s it was estimated that we used
around 50 per cent of our brain capacity. Some
estimates today have reduced that figure to an
incredible 1 per cent. Where do you stand on this
debate? Is the apparent under- utilization of our
brains indicative of a general failure somewhere
in our education systems?
Tony Buzan:
I stand with the 1-per centers!
In answering, let me first clarify an area of public
confusion. In daily life we are using much of our
brains much of the time. The “percentage
debate” is not simply about which brain cells are
being used. The debate is fundamentally about
how efficiently we are using the equipment we
have. This can be refined even further by linking
the efficiency to the vital cognitive processes of
learning, creativity, and memory. It is easy to
demonstrate, by measured difference, that
performance in these areas can be improved by a
factor of 100.
With reference to our education systems, it is
important to realize that our formal education
institutions are on average less than 150 years
old. They are, in the context of the evolution of
the human race, babies! Until a mere 20 years
ago, information on the brain was in very short
supply, and therefore could not be properly
integrated into educational systems. With the
recent sudden explosion of brain information, we
are already seeing a very rapid uptake and
application of this information in education
systems.
As an example, in the last 8 weeks I have lectured
to educational groups fascinated by these new
advances in countries as wide ranging as the
Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam,
Singapore and, most recently, in Scotland. I
believe that within the next 10 years we will see a
global education shift in which all schools will
have a mental literacy module incorporating
information for the student on the brain, learning,
thinking, creativity, memory skills, speed reading
and study skills, and the application of these
mental literacy skills to all subject-areas and to
all aspects of learning.
This will bring about a tectonic shift in education
and the positive future of our planet.
You are quoted as claiming that the world is
“historically mentally illiterate”. How did you
arrive at this opinion?
Tony Buzan:
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Mental literacy refers to the knowledge of the
brain’s physical and mental function, and to the
application of this knowledge to all aspects of
life. Put in another way, mental literacy refers to
having the “correct formulae”, the proper
operations manual for the brain. Historically we
have not known the correct formulas, and have
gone down many brain cul-de-sacs and wrong
turnings.
One simple and recent example is the use of
lined paper for linear verbal note taking as a main
method for enhancing learning and memory.
Because the brain is based on imagination and
association, this method is diametrically
opposed to what the brain needs. Being
diametrically opposed, it creates many of the
learning problems and difficulties that virtually all
students experience today.
One of your books, Head First, claims that every
one of us possesses “multiple natural
intelligences”. Can you elaborate on this?
Tony Buzan:
In the beginning of the 20th Century a French
educationist, Alfred Binet, came up with the very
clever and new idea of measuring human
intelligence. It gave rise to the IQ (Intelligence
Quotient) test. At the time IQ was based, and
remained based for 90 years, on primarily words
and numbers. These intelligences do exist, and
are very important. In the last 20 years we have
discovered that there are other intelligences, and
these are the intelligences that my book, Head
First, introduces and discusses. The additional
intelligences include:
Creative, spiritual, personal, social, physical,
spatial, and sensual.
You have served as consultant to many
multinational organizations, including Hewlett
Packard, IBM and BP. What has surprised you
most about the way in which today’s
organizations deploy their Intellectual Capital?
Tony Buzan:
Nothing!
I had always thought that when the human brain
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acquired information appropriate to its more
successful use, it would make the best use of
that information. The appropriate use of
intellectual capital is an accelerating global
business trend and will lead, as John Naisbitt
predicted in his book Mega Trends 2000, to the
growing realization that economic growth will be
seen as limitless. How is this possible? By the
simple equation:
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Business is becoming increasingly based on
creativity; ideas are the ‘new products’; the brain
has an infinite capacity to create; therefore,
business growth has an infinite future.
Your Buzan Centres worldwide form part of a
global network organization designed to turn
blue chip companies into “Thinking and Learning
organizations”. How do you set out to achieve
this aim?
Tony Buzan:
My Buzan Centres help create thinking and
learning organizations in a number of ways:
Training
Through a global network of Buzan Licensed
Instructors (BLI’s) we provide courses on
learning, thinking, memory, Mind Mapping on
computer, creativity and innovation, project
management, and presentation and
communication skills etc. These are done as
either public courses or in company courses.
Books
Buzan Centres have the full range of my own
books, as well as training manuals based upon
those books.
Special Events
Buzan Centres arrange conferences based around
the concept of the brain, learning and creativity.
Memory Championships
These Memory Championships can be described
as “decathlons of the mind” in which competitors
test their “memory muscles” in 10 memory
disciplines. These Memory Championships are
often accompanied by a Memory Festival. For
further information see:
http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com
Products
Buzan Centres worldwide provide and distribute
a growing range of brain-friendly products,
including Mind Mapping materials, brain
exercising games and Mind Map Software.
Can you tell us a little about your new
iMindMap™ software?
Tony Buzan:
Ever since I invented Mind Maps in the early
1960s I have dreamed of a Mind Map software
that would allow anyone to produce a Mind Map
on the computer that was indistinguishable from
a Mind Map produced by hand.
This turned out to be a task apparently as difficult
as splitting the atom! I worked with many
companies and many iterations of proto-Mind
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Maps on computer, each time getting closer, but
never achieving “the real deal”. I was fortunate
to make contact with an educational
businessman and computer expert, Chris
Griffiths, who, this year, finally, with his
“Manhattan Project” Team, solved the insoluble!
The result is Buzan’s iMindMap, software that I
predict will change the way in which the world
thinks.
We often hear the term “information overload” in
business today. How can your methods help to
combat this problem?
Tony Buzan:
Most current methods of handling information
are based on the 19th Century linear, verbal and
monotonic model. This worked comfortably for
the Industrial Age. It does not work comfortably
in the age of knowledge, creativity and
intelligence.
As one example: standard linear and verbal
organization techniques contain only 10 per cent
of information that is relevant for the brain in its
thinking processes. This means that they are 90
per cent inefficient. Using Mind Maps and other
mental literacy techniques, all thinking becomes
more efficient, condensed, refined, rapid and
clear. One businessman said that before he had
learned Mind Mapping and mental literacy skills
it was as if he were driving through his life with
the windscreen caked with mud. When he
learned how to use his brain appropriately, he
said that it was as if a windscreen wiper had
suddenly, with one sweep, cleared away the
mud, and for the first time in his life he could see
clearly. Mind Maps and mental literacy
techniques give you that new clarity. They also
give you a much greater control of your thinking
processes, and therefore a much greater control
of your life.
Finally, what interests you outside of your
professional life, and why?
Tony Buzan:
My main interests include:
• Art because it feeds my eyes, mind and
soul.
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• Physical activity and sports, especially
rowing, swimming, running and the
Japanese martial art of Aikido. Each of
these gives me extreme pleasure in the
sheer activity and play of the sport, as
well as providing me, as a wonderful by-
product, robust muscular and aerobic
health.
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• Animals and animal intelligence. Ever
since I was a child I have been
enthralled by the astonishing
intelligences of our fellow travellers.
They provide me with constant
bemusement, entertainment,
amazement and awe.

• Astronomy. The beauty and dimensions

of our universe provide a feast for my
aesthetic sensitivities, and a constant
humbling perspective on my and our
place in that Universe.

• Friends. For every reason imaginable! □

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