Tag: idea acceleration

Automatically seeing a problem as “negative” can prevent you from getting the facts both positive and negative to an issue. As creative consultant Man Min Basadur says, our negative perceptions cause us to avoid problems rather than to seek them out.

“We will seek only the facts that support our preconceived negative view, leading to inadequate and off-target problem defining,” Basadur says. Continue reading “Be aware of negative attitudes towards “problems””

A creative idea was needed to stop elephants damaging traffic-counting devices during a study in a nature reserve on roadkill. Motorists speeding in the nature park were monitored with the use of traffic-counting devices but the elephants discovered them and took a liking to the devices.

If you were faced with a similar challenge, what idea would you come up with to prevent the elephants damaging the traffic-counting equipment? Continue reading “Creative ideas needed to stop elephants destroying traffic-counting devices in game park”

A couple previously in “marketing” opened a local restaurant-coffee shop with good intentions but after 18 months were forced to sell it. What went wrong?

Strangely enough, it’s simple. They decided they knew what customers wanted. It’s a common mistake. But costly.

In the last few months you could see that things were going wrong. They put exotic items on the menu, attracted the wrong beer swilling crowd, drunken and obnoxious, took away the specials and started charging for Wi-Fi unless you spent a minimum of R50. Continue reading “No matter how creative you are, second-guess customers at your own peril – 8 golden rules”

A small business owner has bought a second-hand restaurant-coffee shop that the previous owner failed to run profitably. So, you might think, what can the new owner do that is going to be different? Has he got new ideas?

The short answer is that the new owner has several ideas on how to turn the business around. I can tell you he’s wasting no time. He’s already clearly defined his market and in the first week is making big changes.

How does this relate to you? Continue reading “How valuable is “creativity” in your life?”

A consumer goods company that came up against an economic downturn decided to turn to the creativity of its employees to reduce internal waste. The company took this action rather than bringing in an external consultant who would most likely have introduced employee retrenchments.

The result: employees identified close to 30 waste points and saved the company a potential $12 million, according to a case study reported in an industrial management journal. Continue reading “Creativity comes in handy during a downturn”

A UK insurer will provide policyholders with a device to generate video footage of a crash using Google’s virtual mapping service.

The device will communicate to the car insurer how the customer was driving, including the speed, location and direction of impact, acceleration and braking immediately before and during the accident, according to an article in the Financial Times. Continue reading “New idea helps car insurance “spy” on your driving to reduce claims”