Page 49 - Free the Idea Monkey

THE BIRTH OF AGENCY OF INNOVATION® SERVICES
Our firm is an Innovation Agency. We pretty much made up this

category when the Monkeys running our company recognized that
the industry we had started in (marketing) was a weak platform for
inventing new things. Our ideas, our “kids,” were not making it out in
the real world. While our competitors were bitching about “the good
old days” (they still are), we created a new type of business model
and process to address our client’s need for a single set of “parents”
to help insights turn into industry-changing ideas.

We’ve created a company devoted to the mission of driving
industry-changing ideas to market. We now have parenting teams

managing a proven process
that efficiently discov-
ers needs; brainstorms
products, services and
business models to meet

those needs; brands the
best ideas; and launches them into
market. We’ve helped make (liter-
ally) billions of dollars for clients like
McDonald’s, Allstate, CNH, SCJ and GE. We’ve enabled the brilliance
of Idea Monkeys through a process and business model that moves
from insights into new products.
So our real business is finding Monkeys, managing Monkeys and
coupling them with activators and process. (I’d call it “Monkey busi-
ness,” but that would be annoyingly predictable.)

THE MONKEY NEEDS YOU AS WELL
As much as you need the Idea Monkey, that’s how much the

Monkey needs you. The Monkey cannot act alone. He needs actual-
izers in every department to take what might be just a raw thought
and form it into something that is executable. He needs a yin for his
yang. He needs (Ring)leaders. I learned that lesson the hard way.

34 MEET THE IDEA MONKEY