Fresh Takes on Innovation

And what a party it was! We had great fun last week developing ideas for flying books with Artist Not Vital.

You can find pictures and all the ideas by visiting the special site we have created. Have fun!

Geoffrey Thomas attended the event as a lateral thinker. Read about his unique experience on his blog Group Brilliance.

At the IdeaFactory in Biel, we are today looking for ideas for a flying book. Sounds strange? Swiss artist Not Vital, who works in Switzerland, Africa and the US, had a great idea for an exhibition with flying books. But: How do we make the books fly? We are finding out today with the artist and 50 participants from Switzerland, among them children, teenagers, BrainStore clients and experts in aerodynamics. Come back and visit this blog to find out some of the solutions.

For everyone who works in the field of ideas and innovation, looking at the world with fresh eyes is vital. And who can provide a fresher look than kids? I strongly believe that being in contact with children is vital to the success of any venture that has to do with innovation. You do not necessarily need to have kids of your own, but you should get exposed to children regularly to see how a complete new look at the world can create new ideas.

At BrainStore, for instance, we have our own daycare called the “MiniBrains” that helps us do this. Everyone at BrainStore gets in touch with kids between one and nine years old on a pretty regular basis, and it is a lot of fun. Listening to children, their views of the world and their interpretation of the weird stuff that goes on on this planet is crucial for us. So the grown Brains spend time with the Minis, playing Lego, eating Fishfingers, discussing the universe in general.

You can learn so many things from children. And most of all, it is often hilarious. My 5 year old daughter Ella asked me at the Birthday party of my Grandfather, when a lot of black and white pictures were shown: “And since when is there color in the world?”, clearly analysing that, not always, has the world been full of color. Or my son, when explained that “this was a long long time ago, when your father was a child” stated: “Oh, during the middle ages?”.

Clearly, this is not only fun, but also very instructive for your own way you look at the world. So go out and get in touch with not only your inner child, but children in general.

Teaching economics to high school students can be tedious for both teacher and student. But these days are over: The Swiss National Bank, responsible for the money policy in Switzerland, has recently launched a website called www.iconomix.ch that offers a wide range of interactive, fun and exciting materials for teachers and students.

The National Bank has created a fabulous interactive teaching site here with tons of interesting materials that are not only available for teachers and students, but for anyone who wants to know how markets operate, how risks can be minimised, how prices are established, or, even more basic, why societies use money to pay for goods. Some materials are worksheets, but there are also very detailed simulations, games and group tasks to keep you going for ages. Enjoy!

BrainStore has been involved in naming the website. The winner name, “iconomix” is the German way you would write the word “economics” phonetically. It also reminds young people of characters from the very popular “Asterix” cartoons.

Eight years ago, an elderly lady walked into our IdeaFactory with a serious order for us: She wanted to create and advent calendar for her dog and needed an idea how she could actually put it into action. I mean: How does the dog know which door to open? Anyway. Back then we thought it was just plain crazy, but of course we helped the nice lady and she implemented the first advent calendar for dogs.

Today, everything can be found for the canine friend or for kitty cat. Really, believe me, everything. The pet industry is one of the seriously growing industries everywhere.

You can get, for instance, dog costumes

Christmas stockings for dogs

Pet insurance

but also apparel, houses, carrying crates, accessories, communication gadgets, toys, and many other things. There are numerous sites dedicated to pets on the internet, where you can order everything right to your doorstep.

Whether you think this is completely ok because you love your own pet like your own child or whether you think this is seriously deranged does not matter that much, because it’s a fact: Pets are and will continue to be an important industry. At BrainStore we have learned not to laugh at a private clients “strange” request but to anticipate that more, much more of the same will come in the future.

We are opening an Idea Shop in Germany! As of November 23rd you will find us in Frankfurt, in the lively part of Bockenheim at Leipziger Strasse 37, in a weird and wonderful courtyard location.

For the opening day on Friday we will be producing ideas with the citizens of Frankfurt for the city of Frankfurt on various squares & underground stations throughout the day. We shall tackle the challenging question “How will the Konstablerwache renew its charm?” – I don’t know if you know the square – it’s rather in need of a revamp and we’ll have some real work to do there.
In the evening, we will select the top ideas and will celebrate our first branch office in Germany in true Swiss style: our fondue experts will give Frankfurters a “cook your own fondue” crash course – we have sufficient backup supplies of Swiss cheese and wine to keep us going through the night!

Look out for news from BrainStore Germany!

The book The IdeaMachine that I wrote three years ago and was published by Wiley in German and English, is now available in Korean. The cover is a bit crazy, with an apple that has “swallowed” a goldfish. I wonder where they got this idea, but it looks very nice. The editor has changed many of the illustrations to fit the needs of Korean readers.

The BrainStore IdeaMachine just has run exactly 1000 projects. We have developed ideas for as varied a client base as car manufacturers, producers of agricultural products, retailers, fashion brands, chemical companies, construction companies, NGO’s, Government agencies, watch companies, banks, multinationals, individuals and many many more.

What unites these clients is that they are looking for great ideas in the shortest possible time and want to have ideas that take into account the diversity and needs of all their stakeholders. On www.brainstore.com/feedback you can view 100 statements of people (clients, freelancers, partners) who have experienced what the IdeaMachine can do.

Based on the knowledge from the first 1′000 projects BrainStore has now started building custom-made in-house company IdeaMachines, allowing companies to make better use of employee and stakeholder input. The outcome: Amazing results, fast, precise and from within your organisation.

Amnesty International’s Switzerland branch and BrainStore have come up with a claim for a campaign to raise awareness about human rights in China during next years Olympic games. The aim was to come up with a catchy phrase that is clear and outspoken, yet does not hurt the feelings of the Chinese population and the Olympic Community. The slogan”Menschenrechte aufs Podest” is used in Switzerland in the main three languages and translates to English as “Human Rights to the podium!”