Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Cracking Creativity


Creativity is not black magic, it is a basic developed skill.

Would you like the cheat sheet?
Cracking Creativity
by Micheal Michalko

http://eastbook.com/cracreate.html

What is possible - possibleness

The Pot What is possible

What is Possible (The Pot)
The Washing Machine

Our Client, a smaller Chocolatier, had a great success. The owners' creativity produced a new product that sold at 100 times anything they had made before. A wonderful problem - How to multiply volume dramatically, quickly and with no loss of their distinct quality.

What was possible and their creativity had been demonstrated, but in production the problems seemed stone age. We lost 3 of 45 days of production because the chocolate molds were not cleaned and dried for the next day.

One person said "Why not clean them in bunches instead of all at once?" A good idea.
The next person said "Why not buy a few extra and rotate them?" Another good idea.
Melvin said "I have been asking for a washing machine for a year!"

Can we afford this?
Dishwasher - $4,635 plus installation

vs. the sum of these costs

2 people washing molds at $9 per hour x 2 for 48 hours per week each $864 per week
PLUS
profit on 10% added capacity $910 per day or $4,665 per week
PLUS an occasional Profit on one day's lost production $6,000 per day

We bought the washing machine and put a brass plaque on it dubbing it "Melvin"

http://chocolatepotpourri.com

Do Something Different - Change your Environment

Meeting a client for lunch today, at a great Chicago spot called Kiki's Bistro, I was one hour early. Although I have had dinner there 20 times, I never had lunch. The ambiance was different and wonderful. The new experience helped my brain unscramble and it was easy to do an hour of thought work. The Country French lunch was the same price as a commercial Pizza in this city. http://kikisbistro.com

what is possible -possibleness

Learning from Others

"I learned from the talents of John Belushi and Bill Murray, it was best to find the smartest people in the room and hang around them"
Harold Ramis writer, actor, director, producer of NPR in November
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000601/