Page 75 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

to problem solving within an appropriate
ramtational ailture, these processes can help an organiza-
tion solve its problems more effectively than its competitors,
including the problem of how to obtain a sustainable com-
petitive advantage. Firms such as Frito-Lay, Xerox, and 3M
provide extensive training in these processes and attribute
substantial profits to their utilization by managers, profes-
sional staff, and other employees.'

A positive feature of most of the techniques described in this chap-

ter is their appeal to individuals with an analytical bent as well as
to those with an intuitive orientation. Most of these processes
rely on step-by-step procedures that fit readily into the ra-
tional problem-solving models used by most managers, pro-
fessional staff, and other organizational problem solvers.
Even those that at first seem entirely intuitive, such as the
excursion technique (one of my ten favorite processes), when
practiced by analytically as well as intuitively oriented
people, will quickly reveal their value.

Every individual is likely to feel more comfortable with cer-
tain techniques than with others. In part this stems from the
types of problems that a person faces most frequently and is
also a function of personality characteristics such as
problem-solving style. For example, I have used these eight
processes:

27/1. Analogies and metaphors
29/3. Association
37/11. Direct analogies
47/21. Mind mapping
51/25. Personal analogies
53/27. Product improvement checklist
57/31. Rolling in the grass of ideas
62/36. Verbal checklist for creativity

(both personally and with clients) much more than the oth-
ers, but I have used almost all of them at one time or another.
Your personal preferences and problem-solving situations
will help guide your choices. Table 4.5, at the end of the
chapter, contains a quick guide to my favorite individual and
group alternative generation processes.

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