Page 159 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

83/19. LOTUS BLOSSOM TECHNIQUE, OR THE

MY (MATSUMURAYASUO) METHOD

Yasuo Matsumura, president of Clover Management Re-
search in Chiba City, Japan, developed this technique, draw-
ing upon the idea of a lotus blossom but adding mechanics
similar to those of the spreadsheet program Lotus 1.2.3. "
The petals of a lotus blossom cluster around a central core
and spread out from that point. By creating windows simi-
lar to those used in spreadsheets, portions of an idea board
can be sectioned off in such a way that a central theme is
used to derive ideas in surrounding windows, which in turn
become the centers of new sets of windows. The process
goes like this:

1. A central theme, idea, problem, issue, etc., is written in the
center of the MY lotus blossom diagram. (See Figure 5.1.)

2. Participants are then asked to think of related ideas or
applications or solutions, issues, and so forth. These ideas
are then written into the circles located in the center of the
diagram and surrounding the central theme (labeled A
through H in Figure 5.1).

3. These ideas then become the basis for generating addi-
tional lotus diagrams. For example, A would have a set of
eight boxes surrounding it. So would B, C, and so on.

This method serves the Japanese culture well, especially
when it comes to generating new applications of existing
technologies or products, something the Japanese excel at.
U.S. firms would do well to emulate their efforts.

An example of how this technique might be used follows:
Assuming that the central theme is superconductivity and
the issue is commercial applications, then items to go into
circles A through H might include magnetic levitation trains,
energy storage, electrical transmission, and computer board
wiring. If electrical transmission was written in circle A, it
would also be the core theme for the box immediately below
circle A. Participants would then be asked to think of eight
applications of superconductivity in electrical transmission,

144