Idea Generator: Tools for Business Growth
By Ken Hudson
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Idea Generator - Ken Hudson
KEN HUDSON has a PhD in organisational creativity. His thesis explored the notion of ‘designing a continuously creative organisation’.
Ken has also worked in senior roles for over 15 years in marketing, advertising and management consulting. He formed his own innovation consulting business in 2001 called The Idea Space. Ken has worked with many leading brands, including Heinz, Wrigley, Colgate, Kellogg’s, Unilever, Disney, DuPont and Nestlé.
He also teaches Marketing Creativity, a subject he designed, at the University of Technology, Sydney.
He can be contacted at www.ideaspace.com.au
Tools for business growth
KEN HUDSON
First published in 2007
Copyright © Ken Hudson 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218
Email: info@allenandunwin.com
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Hudson, Ken.
The idea generator.
Bibliography.
ISBN 978 1 74114 958 6 (pbk.).
1. Creative ability in business. 2. Industrial management.
3. Marketing. I. Title.
658.401
Internal design by Kirby Stalgis
Set in 10/14 pt Berling by Bookhouse, Sydney
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Introduction
Conclusion
Notes
Further reading
To Margot—my partner in life
To Charlotte and Molly—my inspiration
To Bill, Margaret, Ray and Gloria—my mentors
This book is also dedicated to the friendship and sage advice of another idea generator—Dr Paul Leinberger
INTRODUCTION
The business world is moving at an ever-increasing pace. Product life cycles are getting shorter and shorter. Consumers and retailers want better products, sooner. Shareholders demand higher performance and faster results. Employees expect a better work/life balance and want their bosses to act in a responsible and sustainable way.
But just as managers are facing these spiralling pressures they are being given fewer people, a smaller budget and, perhaps most importantly, less time. As a result, many managers and leaders feel stranded or ‘stuck’. They know intuitively that what has worked in the past will no longer work in the future. Their business school education no longer equips them with the tools to address the realities of a changing marketplace.
The biggest challenge is to look at these issues from a fresh perspective. For example, by redefining the circus experience, the Canadian troupe Cirque du Soleil has been able to achieve great success. It was not bound by what a circus had been, but what it could be.
I call this process ‘becoming unstuck’—moving beyond a rigid view to a more dynamic and productive one. Changing your mindset enables you to out-think and out-imagine your competition. And to achieve this goal you need a new set of tools.
The Idea Generator provides practical, effective tools that will improve the productivity of your thinking. The tools in this book can be learned by anyone, at any level, regardless of role or education and have been tested over a number of years in hundreds of workshops.
The Idea Generator model
In most situations there are two elements: the problem (the challenge, goal or opportunity you are currently dealing with) and the way of ‘seeing’ this problem (your lens, mindset or perception).¹
I have called the current problem ‘P1’ and the current lens in use ‘L1’. If you always use the same problem or P1 and you view this problem with the same lens or L1, it should not surprise you when you obtain the same outcome.
For example, if your P1 is how to increase customer satisfaction, and you continue to look at this problem with the same L1—it is the responsibility of the customer service manager—then the outcome will probably not vary considerably from last year’s results.
If you need a different and potentially better outcome, there are two key strategies.
1. Change the problem (what I call P2)
Let’s continue with the previous example. If you change the problem to ‘What would it take to make our customers feel more passionate about our business?’ (P2), this immediately leads to different ideas, such as inviting customers to solve their own complaints or encouraging customers to visit the business and meet the staff.
2. Change the lens (what I call L2)
Another key strategy is to look at the problem with a new lens (L2). For example, what if you looked at the previous problem from a purely financial point of view? You might decide that trying to improve customer satisfaction for every customer is uneconomic. From a financial perspective, it may be better to dramatically improve the service for your profitable customers and reduce service levels for the unprofitable customers.
In both of these examples, the twin thinking strategies of either changing the problem and/or changing the lens have opened up an array of new ideas and possible solutions. My experience is that the process of shifting from P1 to P2 and/or L1 to L2 is one that can be learned by anyone using the range of tools outlined in this book.
Here is a real-life example of this approach.