Fresh Takes on Innovation

This map by reporters without borders shows the countries without free internet activity. It is an impressive image that made me look. The map is part of an advertising campaign for reporters without borders done by the famous “fabrica” ad agency. This map is a great example on how an idea can be visualized in a simple and capturing way.

What needs to come first: A great culture that allows for innovation and makes sure people can contribute to new ideas from within the organisation (and ideally also from without) or a great process that makes sure the organisation can capture all relevant ideas for different topics from various sources such as stakeholders, experts, lateral thinkers, innovators and internal staff and build on those ideas?

What will eventually lead to better innovation? There are different “schools” and beliefs on this question. Ideally, we believe, you have both. A great culture where it is normal and expected to contribute, as well as a process that can capture these contributions in a transparent, fair and collaborative way. If you do not have either, we would always suggest to start with the clear process and to drive the innovation culture with this process instead of the other way round.

What are your beliefs and ideas about the issue of culture and process? Do you see other drivers and needs? Let us know!

Have you already heard about shnit? It’s the famous Swiss short film festival. This year, shnit came up with its 6th edition with a firework of short films, covering reams of topics and genres. I had the honour to present a special prize at the shnit Awards Night 2008.

BrainStore’s special prize was an IdeaPackage, worth 30′000 Swiss francs. The winner is Lisa Blatter with her short-film «Nachglühen» (Afterglow) which was chosen to be the best Swiss production in 2008.

Already busy with a new project, she couldn’t appear in person, but was completely overwhelmed when she received the message that her film was chosen. Being asked how she feels and what she is going to do with the prize she answered:

«I’m an observer of beautiful, sad, funny or just spontaneous moments. A collector. But still on search for a story to keep my protagonists grounded. They are still roaming. Together with BrainStore, I’d like to get an impulse for my next major film project.»

BrainStore will help Lisa starting up her next big project. Together we will develop 10 great ideas in a half-day workshop with 12 participants. Cut!

Once again, the versatility of our mobile IdeaFactory was put to the test. After Kuala Lumpur, Düsseldorf and Addis Abeba, its latest mission was Hamburg. Once again, we left Biel to make the seemingly impossible possible.

We captured the Cap San Diego, the largest sea-worthy museum freight ship worldwide, and renamed it without further ado BrainShip. The pop-up feature being part of our mobile IdeaFactory, this proved to be the only right name for the ship.

During two days, we produced ideas for OTTO, the largest mail order business worldwide.

The ship has never seen anything like that before: smoking heads, animated discussions and OTTO’s decision makers racing against teenagers – what a sight!

After these two successful days aboard the Cap San Diego, we’re already planning the next step, the BrainPlane: idea production in the Airbus A 380.

The Internet includes an elusive quantity of information. If we visited each existing URL on the Internet for only 10 seconds, we would be busy doing so for roughly 317,098 years.

Google and Yahoo search engines let you browse through this enormous amount of information as quick as lightning. And by using social bookmarking service providers such as Mister Wong and Delicious clever discoverers can find the information looked for in no time.

Based on a content analysis of social bookmark service providers, I have listed and summarized the most interesting websites on the subject of ideas, trends and future in a Google Custom Search. That is about the same as analyzing how many guests go to which restaurants. The best results however are not compiled in a list but in a search engine based on Google’s technology!

The result is a niche search engine to track trends, future and innovative ideas!

I suggest you begin searching for new business trends right away or start your discovery of exciting ideas from a land faraway.

Niche Search Engine to Track Trends, Future and Innovative Ideas:

Custom Search

For more informations see:
- We knew the web was big…
- Google Custom Search Blog

Where our hands brought us to
In the course of history, human beings have changed the world as no other species. Apart from our intelligence, our creativity and our mind, human tools are mostly our two hands. They are the ones executing our intellectual superiority!
Dolphins form the cognitive spearhead in the animal kingdom. Where else would be those cute water mammals today if they had been able to use their resources and to craft tools with their hand-like fins?

Handcraft in the computer age
A modern design studio uses a mixture of precise handcraft and modern computer technique. Black-and-white and color sketches still are done by hand with pen and paper. Once scanned, they can be refined and changed on the computer with an electronic stylus before the drawings of front back and side are processed by the modelers. A team of „sculptors“ then starts to create a clay model.

IdeaFinding by hand
If hands are involved in intuitive idea finding methods, they supply our brain with very many inputs. They boost brain associations in search of new ideas. They are construed to the activation of the unconscious, of knowledge you would not think of. This method is supposed to leave dreary routines. Idea finding by hand activates the potential of entire groups and forms the basis of the following compression phase of the handmade ideas.

A new disease is haunting the economic universe… Innovationea! However, just like with many other unknown epidemics nobody knows what they’re actually dealing with, what to do about it or how to get rid of it. It’s Kind of scary, sometimes!

But Swisscom realized that there already exists a recipe on how to deal with that new virus: Keep on innovating – along a structured, focused, simple 8-step-plan – always following the ancient rule “Offense is the best defense”.

Nadja Schnetzler, co-founder of BrainStore, explained in brief how to innovate successfully. So don’t be afraid of the virus – just innovate! Success can be that simple…

Read the full article on page 3 (in German)!

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.

The Global Humanitarian Forum, chaired by former UN president Kofi Annan, aims at being a unique platform to address key humanitarian challenges. The Forum was launched in October 2007 and aspires to build a stronger global community to better meet the needs of the poor and vulnerable.

The first annual conference of the Forum at the beginning of this week in Geneva focused on the humanitarian challenges of climate change. In the aftermath of Myanmar’s Cyclone Nargis and in view of the ongoing global food crisis, the Forum’s President Kofi Annan called together 300 leaders from all sectors of society worldwide to urgently address what he calls “the human face of climate change”: the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations are affected by ever more violent storms, drought and floods.

The Annual Meeting 2008 pooled the expertise and experience of an uncommon combination of leading people from across sectors. They worked to develop creative solutions and boost action to meet the urgent needs of those worst affected by climate change.

In solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable, the Meeting will place climate justice high on the agenda as the guiding principle in the international response to climate change and as the basis for any future global climate agreement.

BrainStore will take part in the project “Give climate change a human face” by conducting several idea finding workshops to come up with practical solutions which will help the vulnerable communities in the affected regions.

See more information on the forum on their website