Page 80 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

that resulted; "Federal hxpre. "Federal kyre.

in turn, led the group to think of bar codes and optical scan-

ners, which were perceived as a possible solution to the prob-

lem: differentiating among home equity loans. The bar codes

could be used to inform customers of the status of the loan

at any point in the approval process. Later the bank insti-

tuted 24-hour approvals for home equity loans, which left

this solution without a problem, but the free-association tech-

nique had been used effectively.

At Campbell Soup Company, product developers began by
randomly selecting the word "handle" from a dictionary.
(Organized random search is described later in this chapter.)
Through free association the word "utensil" was suggested.
This led to "fork." One participant joked about a soup that
could be eaten with a fork. The group reasoned that you
couldn't eat soup with a fork unless it was thick with veg-
etables and meat and Campbell's Chunky Soups, an ex-
tremely successful product line, was born.'

Now try free associating, starting with a one-word summary

of your problem on line 1. On line 2, write down the first

word that comes to mind after looking at line 1. On line 3,

write down the first word that comes to mind after looking

at line 2. Continue until you have ten word v % for LA tO
thirty is even better.) VC0\0\e-.PA '

1. 6-6t_C\r A la.

2. ‘Ct. i0C(S1_ 2a.

3. k7`13--c 3a.
4a.
4. ayce__

5a.

6. `rf\CAQ ba.

7. 7a.

8. y QVaira , rDn 8a.

9.ULAU__: 9a. 101
CREATIVE
10. fC.De_D A- 10a.
PRQI34EM
SOLVING
TECHNIQUES

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