Fresh Takes on Innovation

I visited www.eternit.ch today. Eternit is the market leader in the roofing and façades sector in Switzerland. The company also acts as an important partner for fireproof and aesthetic interior fittings and design products.

Mr Daniel Hauri, who is responsible for the sales of garden and design products kindly showed me the production and explained the process of fibre cement, which is fascinating.

In the factory in Payerne (in the French speaking part of Switzerland) the company produces roof tiles and wall claddings in different forms and colors, but also gardening pots and design objects like the Guhl Chair (by Willi Guhl, Swiss Designer 1915 – 2004).

What impressed me is the way the company has expanded it’s product portfolio from typical building elements to design objects.

But what truly convinced me today about eternit was a very simple and meaningful marketing idea that was presented to me by Daniel Hauri.

“Because the design products section grew significantly over the last years, we had to hire new workers for our manufacturing process here in Payerne. As the demand rose, the quality (the gardening pots and design objects are produced largely by hand) was getting a bit below standard. We searched some ideas on what we could do and found a very simple solution: A sticker with the personal signature of the person who made the object can now be found in every finished object. It was great marketing in the shops because people realised that the object was actually produced by a person, but it also helped us raise the quality standards, because suddenly the workers went to the shops as well and searched for the pots and objects they had made”.

What I really liked about this idea is the fact that one idea worked perfectly to solve to issues at the same time: Quality and Image.

Thank you, eternit and Daniel Hauri, for sharing this idea with me.

At Brainstore, we have a special liking for ideas that incite controversy.  Whenever we see an idea that half the groups hates, we know it’s a good one.  Even if that idea isn’t adapted, by simply including it in the discussion, we can often open up the group’s thinking to totally new horizons.

A recent article from the New York Times is one of those ideas.  In it, the author proposes that if we want humans to travel to Mars in the near future, we should send them on a one-way trip!

While it sounds like an awful idea at first, the article points out that there are benefits to sending astronauts only one-way.  It would be significantly cheaper and would move up human-travel to Mars by decades (at least).   It could even be staffed by  aging scientists who dreamed of going to space their entire lives, thought their chances were over and who would be thrilled to “boldly go where no one has gone before”.  It would let astronauts build-up a sustainable colony on Mars where other humans could eventually live – and the technology to make the return journey could be built there for future two-way travel.

See how considering a “ludicrous” idea can actually lead to new paths of thinking?  The first idea might never pan out… but by simply considering it, we end up looking at the challenge from a new angle.

I will say it right away that I have no statistics (yet) to prove my case, but I have a very strong gut feeling that what I am about to say is abolutely true yet not enough recognised with policy makers throughout Europe. I invite each our blog readers to contribute with whatever research material they can find to back this assumption.

Here goes: The most innovative countries in the world invest heavily in their education system, that is to say daycare, preschool, K-12 and higher education. It is NOT the countries that put the emphasis on strenghtening only the higher education.

Also, the most innovative countries would probably need to be those that already foster skills like problem solving, creative thinking and collaboration in the early childhood years.

I am very interested in learning about statistics and materials that back this gut feeling as well as schooling concepts that tell us something about how innovative kids that went through such systems become. Please contribute and we will share the results with you.

I learned about this amazing project while visiting the annual conference PINC in Holland. It is a grassroot movement from Estonia, one of the three Baltic states.

A small group of young people wanted to do something about the incredible amount of illegal waste being dumped in forests everywhere in the country. Mostly they wondered why no one seemed to care. They wanted to solve the problem, but also get people engaged in solving it.

Thus, the project “Let’s do it” was born. Four people decided that they would clean up the mess, in just ONE day, motivating a large portion of the population to participate in a day of cleaning up the forests. Only three full time employees managed to motivate 600 volunteers to participate in the project. They mapped the whole waste with help of GPS and cell phones. Celebrities participated in a campaign – for free! And 50′000 volunteers helped clean up all the mapped territories in just one single day. 10′000 tons of waste were gathered in one single day. Wow. It is truly amazing what people can achieve when they work together for a common cause!

What I like most about this project is that not only did the Estonians get rid of their illegal waste in forests, but they have started an ongoing dialogue about sustainability and ecology that every single Estonian at least heard about, but more likely participated in.

decompose the problem to solve it!

Today I attended a meeting of a small company that wanted to find a solution on how to find new clients. They were trying to have a brainstorming session on this question and (not much to my surprise) started struggling with it, becoming entangled in a very unstructured discussion. Soon they were so deep in the jungle of their problem that they were unable to find a way out.

What had happened? It is fairly simple: They had been staring the problem in the face without looking at it with more distance. This is a typical mistake when people try to generate ideas. But what is the solution. Simple, buit it needs a fair amount of training: Instead of trying to solve the question, first de-compose the question and work on subquestions.

For instance, if you are trying to find new clients, here are just a few examples of what you might want to look at:
- potential channels of communication
- different target audiences
- strengths in working with current clients
- totally whacky ideas on how to get meetings with potential clients
- ideas for mailings
- how are other companes finding new clients
- etc.

The difference is that you first look at subquestions to your greater problem, and that gives you the possibility to build great ideas using that raw material.

Another issue is who you involve in the generation of ideas, but this is yet another subject that we will need to discuss later.

There is an African saying: If you want to eat an Elephant, you have to cut it in small pieces. It’s the same with ideas, really.

Look at this video about a project for Zappos Showroom done by Stanford design students. What I like about this way of showing an idea is that it actually shows the full interactivity of a future website by using simple, everyday materials and a narrator. The idea is immediately understandable and you can much better understand it than if it were presented with stills or screenshots. And I bet that doing it was fun, too!

In our daily work with clients, we are often asked what the difference between creativity and innovation is, or when a creative invention or idea actually deserves to be called an innovation.

There are many ways to explain, but I have never found a better collection of explanations than on the blog Lateral Action by Mark McGuinness, a creativity and innovation consultant. He actually took a short article by cartoonist Hugh McLeods blog gapingvoid and has peppered it with his own thoughts.

It makes for great reading and really helped me with the very important distinction between our inner force (Creativity) and the (hopefully) successful result of this creativity (Innovation).

If indeed we can harness creativity and ideas and develop them in a way so they can become truly great ideas with additional value, then, and only then, the result is innovation. And then it is more than just the buzzword many use today without really knowing what it is all about.

By the way, Hugh McLeod also has coined the expression “Create or Die” which I find to be very appropriate for our current economical times.

The hamster wheel powers the paper shredder on top of the cage. This way the hamster creates his own shredded paper in his cage.

Source:tomballhatchet.com

The current economic situation is probably bringing a completely new approach concerning innovation in the future. As a historian, you may postulate that systems normally innovate when facing crisis. Times, when a fast development into a certain direction is seen as the only possibility to survive, normally bring fast and ground-breaking ideas – which in fact are highly depending on luck and the right decision under pressure.

It is said that one should never change a working system. Using the very same working system for a longer time brings additional fear of failure and a conservative ethos. Closing eyes, ears and mind to anything new and risky may, speaking of the worst possible case, cause complete “idea-blindness”. Because a system never works ceteris paribus, a complete blockade of the system in a constantly changing environment is unavoidable – unless the change is not forced from in- or outside (looking at Europe: this mechanism, indeed, made the triumph of concepts like democracy and liberalism possible!).

Speaking of economics, the free market normally makes innovation happen. Enterprises survive by adapting fast to market situations, which makes them way more flexible. If the framework stays the same or develops in a predictable way, innovation may be looked at as a relatively slow but constant process.

The current unbillable situation of the world economy has to be looked at as a chance as well. An emphasis on new ways and possibilities in innovation will give companies and hopefully even nations the possibility to establish procedures, which allow fast reactions but also long-term innovations. In times of globally linked economies, innovation culture and capacity has to be looked at on a bigger scale – the output of companies and societies on global markets is not only defined by the production of goods and services, but also by the production of – yes – ideas.

Here at BrainStore we believe that good ideas are created in unusual surroundings. During our workshops we try to encourage this by enabling our clients to step out of their everyday life and try something new. However, if you aren’t exactly looking for a particular inspiration and aren’t in current need of ideas or solutions, you might still be in search for some everyday surprises. This can be done quite easily. Why don’t you try one of the following suggestions?

1. Swop to the other side of your bed. Believe me, you and your partner will be surprised how interesting it is to wake up on the “wrong” side of the bed. It’s going to make your day!

2. Change the order of your kitchen drawers once a month you. It will take you a while to get used to the new setting. Once you start grabbing the saucepan automatically again it is time for a new arrangement!

3. Use a different deodorant. You will be reminded of the change of routine about a hundred times a day. This helps your brain setting up new neurological “highways”…

4. Change the setting of your living room furniture. A bit like the suggestions above, it includes a physical workout at the same time – never bad, always inspiring and above all, lots of fun!

5. Go flying, climbing, diving, bungee jumping… For the more courageous among you it can be extremely inspiring to try something completely new – such as a tandem paragliding jump, rock climbing, diving, a bungee jump – whatever you always wanted to do and never dared. DO IT NOW. I cannot explain the inspiring potential of my first flight and the adrenalin when I was a few hundred feet above the ground for the first time, all by myself… Tempted? Look here: http://www.chilloutparagliding.com/

General rule: Once you discover routine in your everyday life – CHANGE IT!