Thinking in New Boxes

Whenever a company’s leaders gather to brainstorm innovations, someone will urge the group to “think outside the box.” But that’s not enough, say Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny of the Boston Consulting Group. You must question your existing “boxes” – the categories into which you place information – and envision new ones. That’s what leaders of the BIC company did when they moved their thinking from one box (making disposable pens) to another (making all sorts of disposable products). Writing in an engaging, conversational style, Iny and de Brabandere outline five steps you can take to achieve more innovative thinking. They follow up with a scenario-planning application that invites you to think about how your company might prepare for an uncertain future. The stakes are high, they write, because companies either drive change or have change happen to them. getAbstract recommends this useful guidebook to corporate leaders at any level seeking fresh ways to spur innovation.