Page 123 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

el the years thousands Of organizations ha\ I"sed the

verbal checklist to create or enhance thousands ot products
and service. I have utilized it myself in writing some of the
most successful books in the college textbook market, includ-
ing The Management Challenge, an introductory management
text.54 One of my editors has found the checklist so useful
that he distributed it to the sales force to obtain suggestions
for subsequent editions.

Table 4.3 presents the Osborn verbal checklist. On the next
page is a form for you to complete, either as practice in using
the process or as an actual exercise in product/service improve-
ment. You may wish to add other verbs to the list. Some of the
verbs in the checklist do not apply as readily to services as
they do to products, but each of them should be considered.
Be sure to use the expanded definitions of these verbs as guides
in changing the product or service in question. If you feel es-
pecially creative, you can make up your own checklist—for
example, one designed strictly for services.

TABLE 4.3 The Osborn Verbal Checklist

Put to Other Uses? New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified?

Adapt? What else is like this? What other idea does this suggest? Does
past offer parallel? What could I copy? Whom could I emulate?

Modify? New twist? Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, form,
shape? Other changes?

Magnify? What to add? More time? Greater frequency? Stronger? Higher?
Longer? Thicker? Extra value? Plus ingredient? Duplicate? Multi-
ply? Exaggerate?

Minify? What to subtract? Smaller? Condensed? Miniature? Lower?
Shorter? Lighter? Omit? Streamline? Split up? Understate?

Substitute? Who else instead? What else instead? Other ingredient? Other
material? Other process? Other power? Other place? Other ap-
proach? Other tone of voice?

Rearrange? Interchange components? Other pattern? Other layout? Other se-
quence? Transpose cause and effect? Change pace? Change sched-
ule?

Reverse? Transpose positive and negative? How about opposites? Turn it
backward? Turn it upside down? Reverse role? Change shoes?
Turn tables? Turn other cheek?

Combine? How about a blend, an alloy, an assortment, an ensemble? Com-
bine units? Combine purposes? Combine appeals? Combine ideas?

Source: Alex Osborn, Applied Imagination, (New York: Charles Scribner's & Sons, 1953), p. 284.
Reprinted with the permission of The Creative Edge Foundation, Buffalo, New York.

108