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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS lead, pencil top and packaging. The next stage is to list as many
attributes as you can under each dimension, as shown in Table 4.6.

Table 4.6 Attribute analysis for new pencil range

Material Finish Profile Lead Pencil top Packaging

Wood Natural Round Black With eraser None
Plastic Painted Square Coloured Without eraser Tin
Rubber Transparent Elliptical Eraser Square-cut Cardboard
Metal Textured Hexagonal Water-soluble Chamfered Plastic
Foam Striped Triangular Erasable Pointed Wood
Paper Printed Non-erasable With toy
Cloth Die-stamped Scented

By selecting one entry from each column, you can create an extremely
diverse range of new product possibilities from an apparent commodity
product. A particular attraction of the technique is that by forcing you
to break the product down into its constituent parts, you avoid viewing
the product as a solid single entity, creating instead a range of avenues
to explore.

One of the new products developed by Berol from exercises such as this
was the Karisma colour pencil range. Aimed at artists, this high-quality
range was finished in natural wood, with a chamfered top to maximise
the impact of the lead’s colour. The top-quality positioning was further
accentuated by the brand logo hallmarked on to the casing and by the
highly textured environmentally friendly cardboard packaging, which
came complete with velvet cloth to safeguard its precious products,
which were commodities no more.

‘cube-crawling’ Three-dimensional models are even more powerful
than their two-dimensional counterparts. A classical application of a
three-dimensional model is the Scimitar (Systematic Creativity and
Integrative Modelling of Industrial Technology and Research) approach
to new product invention and implementation, whose original
application in the Steetley Organisation by new products manager John
Carson is recorded by Tudor Rickards.100

Carson created a physical three-dimensional model, made of perspex
sheets supported by perspex rods, as a means through which to develop
new product ideas for the chemical industry. The model’s three
dimensions were the company’s raw materials, processes and markets
(see Figure 4.3). Calling to mind the multi-coloured Rubik’s Cube may
make it easier for you to imagine that each filled-in cube of Carson’s