Fresh Takes on Innovation

After our very interesting project in Kuala Lumpur in December where we generated ideas on how to make this world a planet of entrepreneurs, we are now in Africa with the UNECA (UN Economic Commission for Africa) and the African Union.

The Conference lasts for three days and looks for ways how R&D in Africa can be boosted and collaboration North-South and South-South can be increased.

BrainStores task is to develop 15 - 20 ideas with the conference participants, who are members of Parliament of African States, Scientists, delegates of UNECA and other UN Organisations as well as representatives of other organisations and associations.

To read more, visit www.uneca.org/sciencewithafrica

We are having a great time here and are impressed with the diversity, hospitality and positive spirit of this wonderful continent.

Lift08 is a three day event to explore the social impact of new technologies. Entrepreneurs, investors, and private sector professionals gather in Geneva to talk about tomorrow’s most important trends.

A small delegation of our brains is at Lift08. Their workshop this afternoon, will provide an insight into Industrial IdeaProduction, highlighting the different steps «manufacturing - proto-industralization - industrialization - digitalization – virtualization» along the model of the world’s first IdeaFactory BrainStore.

We are looking forward to an interesting discussion with the participants.

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.

We’re having a very exciting pre-Christmas season this year. After celebrating our first branch office in Frankfurt only 2 weeks ago, a delegation of BrainStore staff is - as I am writing - constructing a mobile idea factory in the Kuala Lumpur Conference Center.

This morning, as the 3rd Global Knowledge Conference - better known as GK3 - will open its gates, our idea machine will start operating. Together with 120 Young Social Entrepreneurs from all over the world - and with the assistance of some 2′000 conference participants - we will produce ideas on how to make this planet a world of entrepreneurs by 2020.

We’re here since Saturday for last minute preparations - by now we know our way around the KL shopping malls (they’re huge!) and IKEA. But our favourite view are the Petronas Towers - simply stunning.

Conference participants have started arriving in the last 24 hours - the place is filling up and there’s a definite buzz. We’re slightly jetlagged and exhausted, but definitely excited about tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted!

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!

If you are looking for a new idea why not let yourself be inspired by the idea generator? It’s a funny new widget by the team at MonkeyBusiness Labs. Fill in or generate 3 words by pushing the double arrow button. Feel the inspiration and perhaps come up with a new idea!

Try it

When working with individuals who are not trained in creative problem solving techniques, you need to work with a variety of methods and triggers. One of the fun and efficient tools we invented at BrainStore is the BrainRace. For a specific question - e.g. “what would be a great new claim for this new coffee machine” a variety of subquestions is generated (e.g. “claims that appeal to wiches”, “claims that sound warm”, “claims that are scary” etc.).

Then, the participants get a clipboard and a form with ten lines to write down 10 ideas. Loud music is played, and the participants write down 10 (legible) suggestions on their form. When they have 10 suggestions, they have to run a defined parcours (about 50 meters) as fast as they can, until they reach the “control table” where their form is checked (are there 10 ideas? are they legible?).

If everything is fine, they get an “OK” stamp on their form and they get a second form, where they write another 10 suggestions.

Whenever there is a BrainRace going on in our IdeaFactory, a lot of the staff come down to our great yard (where this exercise usually takes place) and cheer for the participants.

What happens during BrainRace? The Brain actually shuts down, people focus on the competition and thus write down the first ideas that come to mind. This way, we collect subconcious and silly inspirations that can be very useful when later combining these inspirations to ideas.

BrainRace always is a highlight at every CreativeTeam and is a lot of fun as well as a good wake-up exercise in the morning or after lunch.

In a short but very funny video, David Ngo tells us about his thoughts on how to achieve true innovation in design. The keyword is process. Instead of waiting for a flash of brilliance, the design process applies several steps like needfinding, brainstorming, prototyping, formgiving and critiquing in order to come up with something that is new, functional and nice to look at.

These steps are pretty close to what BrainStore has been doing for almost 18 years: collecting inspirations, compressing them into ideas and selecting the ones worth going on with.

Via Swissmiss

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) has written an article about Innovation in Germany. It states that most companies in Germany are developing their innovation without listening or talking to customers first. Most companies highly underestimate the ability of consumers or B2B clients to participate in innovation, states the spokesman of the German Innovation Counsel, Axel Glanz.

At BrainStore, we have included target audiences, from extremes as far as children and senior citizens, into each and every innovation project from the last 18 years. We know that bringing together the insider view (company that wants to innovate), the target audience view and the complete outsider view (lateral thinkers, freaks and teenagers) helps come up with better and more market compatible innovation.