“The experience culminates in each team creating a ‘breakthrough product’ and competing to win the customer’s attention and loyalty.”

Summary of the Experience

Participants in individual Innovation Consulting Companies (ICCs) learn about the once-great Idea Factory that has suddenly and mysteriously fallen on hard times. At one time, everyone wanted to work at the Idea Factory because it created such innovative products and services. However, something suddenly and drastically changed. It’s a mystery that needs to be solved! The simulation provides clues as to both why the products were so innovative in the first place, and how to find and keep innovation alive within the organization. Over the course of a fun, engaging, and competitive three hours, the Innovation Consulting Companies discover the three factors that drove the Idea Factory to success and what eventually led to its downfall. Each company leverages their learning to build an innovation strategy that will ensure the Idea Factory gets back to its once dominant, creative heights. The experience culminates in each team creating a ‘breakthrough product’ and competing to win the customer’s attention and loyalty.

The Idea Factory is an interactive and productive innovation experience. The lab component is designed to set the stage for creative breakthrough and involves participants learning and immediately applying ‘Practical Innovation Thinking’ to a fun and challenging, simulated product and service. They learn and apply ‘Innovation Tools’ to create opportunities for themselves, their teams and their company. The laboratory can be used off-the-shelf, as a three-hour workshop, or it can be customized in one or two formats to fit your organization’s specific needs. The exercises are enjoyable and engaging and are built from significant longitudinal research, with a focus on applied creativity, innovation and differentiation.

Debrief

Three-Hour Format: During the simulation, participants apply the innovation processes they’ve learned in a group exercise that requires them to pitch an idea for a breakthrough product and service to a prominent simulated company. Their ideas and lessons learned come to life as the facilitator provides a culminating debrief of the creative experience.

Customized One- or Two-Day Program: When customized for clients into a one- or two-day format, the Idea Factory becomes a creative and engaging ‘open-space’ simulation. It is designed to provide the tools for teams to turn their aspirations into creative products, processes and breakthrough innovations in real time. The methodology inside the Idea Factory is based on research into the holistic process of innovation that begins with empathy and ends with impact. It also includes the importance of storytelling and of being able to include others in new ideas and directions.