Gregg Fraley, Creativity & Innovation Consultant, Speaker

KILN Continues to Innovate Innovation Services

May 4, 2013

A peek at the contents of an IdeaKeg Single.

I’m off to the FEI show (Front End of Innovation) in Boston this week. In my view it’s the most serious innovation conference in the world, and the USA edition features speakers and participants from a who’s who of international organizations.

I’m particularly interested in hearing Denise Morrison CEO of Campbell Soup about their use of culture in the innovation process, and also Nelson Farris of Nike about corporate storytelling. It will be great to catch up with Idea Management System vendors like CogniStreamer, and innovation service firms like Ideas To Go and Maddock Douglas. They’re always doing something new.

I’m glad the show is in Boston. After the recent troubles it feels appropriate that a conference dedicated to positive change is taking place there.

I’m at FEI to represent KILN USA — the new branch of what has been until now a UK-based firm. KILN is announcing a new version of it’s IdeaKeg subscription service at the show. I’ll post the official release below with details about IdeaKeg Single.

KILN continues to innovate in the innovation services arena. Yes, I’m a principal of the company, so, this is hardly objective journalism. Still, show me another innovation consulting company that is offering what KILN offers. Does anyone else have a service like IdeaKeg? Can any other organization offer a kinesthetic and whole-brained process for turning global trends into new strategies and breakthrough ideas for your organization? We’re also rapidly becoming known as the go-to firm for training in innovation process and corporate storytelling (Kate Hammer’s StormForms is getting rave reviews, book her now or you’ll be talking 2014).

IdeaKeg Single, the new offering, is for organizations looking for a “power tool” to accelerate breakthrough thinking — on a one-time basis. Until now, KILN’s IdeaKeg was only available as a yearly subscription. This new, more affordable option, is ideal for organizations who already have a well articulated front-end-of-innovation process. IdeaKeg Single is a bit like adding hot pepper flakes to a pizza — it’s the same pizza but it has a lot more excitement!

If you are attending FEI, please come see me and give me a business card. I’ll get your name included in a contest to give away an IdeaKeg Single. Or, if you want to enter the contest through the web, click here.

***************** News Release *************************************

KILN launches IdeaKeg(tm) Single

Teams of all sizes can now conduct idea generation sessions with real objects of cultural relevance

Chicago, IL (May 4, 2013) – The first-ever 3-dimensional cultural insights stimulus box is now available to in-company teams and external facilitators for single-session use. Innovation catalyst company KILN will announce IdeaKeg Single at Front-End-of-Innovation Conference in Boston, MA 6-8 May 2013.

IdeaKeg Single offers teams a tangible, affordable, fun way to use KILN in Away Days and Brainstorms. You can run a whole workshop using IdeaKeg Single or include it as an exciting element in a broader agenda. In IdeaKeg Interactions, you’ll quickly find you ask bolder questions and generate your best ideas.

In an IdeaKeg Single, subscribers receive a box via Fedex that contains 7 cultural artifacts from all aspects of life. Each item represents an emerging trend, or is highly provocative as stimulus for ideation. Online materials (including a short movie) demonstrate how to use IdeaKeg effectively.

The new IdeaKeg Single provides a number of benefits to team leaders and group session facilitators.

IdeaKeg Single is multi-sensorial. Teams using IdeaKeg get to grips with cultural shifts and behaviour changes in a tangible form. This drives “breakthrough” thinking. Physical objects are plainly better at provoking new ideas than trend decks.

“The contents are inspiring” – senior research manager, major food manufacturer using IdeaKeg since 2011.

IdeaKeg saves time. KILN curates the collection, ensuring relevance. Our highly qualified team spots trends, makes sense of them and shares them in the form of physical objects. Users never have to read more than 300 words to make sense of an object.

Huggies “Little Swimmer” Inventor Paula Rosch observes: “Many companies have that ‘eccentric’ person whose office always looks like a museum store, shelves and desks filled with every imaginable item, from bath salts to kaleidoscopes to nanos. This individual has a knack for monitoring and collecting popular culture, from design to technology, giving it shelf space and allowing time for it to percolate into a valuable connection or idea. Not surprisingly, this is the office where a lot of the ideas come from.”

IdeaKeg Single fills the gap if your business doesn’t have that in-house eccentric.

KILN models creative thinking. Each IdeaKeg Single includes poster-sized mindmaps containing trigger questions and leaving space for teams to add their own. By posing questions before generating ideas, teams can be bolder and more creative without needing extra time.

“The KILN System has been used by large companies with established early-stage innovation processes since KILN launched at the Front-End-of-Innovation EMEA conference in Berlin in early 2011,” said Gregg Fraley, co-founder and Chief Solver of Kiln Ideas Ltd. “Now that our operations have scaled, we can offer IdeaKeg editions on a one-off basis. This means Away Day organisers and innovation process facilitators can bring the power and the fun of IdeaKeg interactions to the groups they run.”

For USA purchasers, IdeaKeg Single is priced at US $2,999 including shipping. To get IdeaKeg Single, please register your interest with KILN at http://kilnco.com/contact/ or email ignite@kilnco.com

A Prize Draw is underway, with one lucky winner receiving IdeaKeg Single at no cost. To enter, please meet Gregg Fraley at FEI 2013 or email your name, role, company name, email address and work telephone to ignite@kilnco.com

Entries must be received by 9 May 2013 Midnight Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

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For further information, please contact:

Gregg Fraley KILN Chief Solver

Expert in Creative Problem Solving and Early Stage Ideation

+1 888 553 1002

+44 20 3318 5728 (in the UK)

ignite@kilnco.com

About the Company:

KILN was founded in 2010 in London, United Kingdom to provide unique products and experiences to improve company innovation efforts. We believe that every successful innovator scans the world, articulates a solution in order to solve a problem or meet a need. We also believe that work should be fun, the sense of touch is under-used in most people’s working lives, and when we’re adults it takes serious commitment to play.

Early uptake for the KILN System has been in North America. At the request of a Fortune 100 entertainment company, we opened our services division in summer 2011.

We are pleased to announce that from 2013 Gregg Fraley is operating KILN USA on a full-time basis from his base in Three Oaks, Michigan.

Comments

The Innovation State of the Union

February 13, 2013

President Obama made mention in his state of the union address that he wishes to expand the National Netowrk for Manufacturing Innovation concept. I wholly applaud the idea, AND, there might be a more fundamental challenge that needs addressed first. I’ve made the acquaintance of a thought leader with her finger on the pulse of where the nation sits in terms of technological readiness to innovate. Her name is Pamela Menges, and she’s President of a high-tech start up in Cincinnati. She’s also a professor at the University of Cincinnati in their Engineering department. Steve Jobs once challenged Obama to find him 30,000 engineers so he could build a plant in California. That challenge remains a big one, and again,

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When Culture Matters…for Innovation

December 4, 2012

Back in those glory days at the University of Cincinnati, I was assigned a lovely little textbook to read for Freshman English class called “The Elements of Style” (by E.B. White and William Strunk). In a nutshell it’s all about how to write clearly. It provides succinct advice with spot-on examples. It’s a smallish book which easily fits into your jacket pocket. I read it, used it, and have refferred to it hundreds of times over the years. I treasure that slim little book. I’ve just found a similar treasure — but having to do with cross-cultural communications. It’s official title is When Culture Matters, the 55 minute guide to better cross-cultural communication, by Indy Neogy.* True to its title,

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Innovate On COQ

July 23, 2012

Guerilla Innovation Chapter Four Innovate on COQ Doing “COQ ” (rhymes with Poke) will get you somewhere. If you want to be an innovator you have to create something new — and how do you do that? COQ. COQ stands for Curiosity, Observation and Questions. This COQ is not illegal, but it is rare and precious. Innovator’s should live in a constant state of COQ. Not a COQ “high” a COQ aware. How do you discover that niche, that point of difference, that special value that customers will pay for? COQ that’s how. An innovator has to be Curious beyond measure. Yes, an innovator has to know something at the start, that’s why reading everything you can get your hands

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Even a Pizza Shop Has a Point of Difference

July 16, 2012

Guerilla Innovation, Chapter One, Point of Difference Innovation begins with a desire to create something. When you use your creativity to make something, to actually be innovative, it has to have a point of difference. Even a pizza shop has some point of difference right? Thin crust, deep dish, by-the-slice, or even, the only pizza shop in Three Oaks, Michigan. Those are minimal points of difference but in the pizza business that might be enough. At the heart of it, Innovation is all about new and different. Or at the very least, significantly better. You’ve got it in mind you want to start a business, and maybe you have a firm idea of just what you’re going to do and

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Reshoring – Why It Makes Sense

July 12, 2012

It’s a shame that the reshoring trend (of manufacturing back to the USA) will take years to be realized. I’m a fan of course, I’ve written about it here before. Like many trends, it’s emerging in dribs and drabs; and some dispute it’s even really happening. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to raise funds for new manufacturing ventures in the USA. It’s a sad truth today that VC’s are more interested in funding the next iPhone app than a start-up that actually makes something. It’s also not good that the most likely candidates for reshoring — high tech equipment intensive/low labour requirement operations — are very expensive to set up. The business case can be hard

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Innovators: News is Not New

July 3, 2012

I find it amazing how much people are absorbed in “the news” and it’s political slant or bias. All of it is pretty much useless to innovators beyond basic awareness of current events. The news I’m referring to is information that is relayed to us by the mainstream media; the TV and radio networks, and newspapers. Web news, such as you might find on Google or Yahoo also is in this category of general news providers. I’ve got no issue with someone who scans these outlets now and then to see what’s being reported, in fact, I think to be culturally literate, one must. But focusing on this stuff too much will clutter your brain with useless poop. News is

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How Reshoring Happens

June 12, 2012

Briefly noted: The New York Times ran an article this morning about how Starbucks is moving manufacture of pottery mugs to a small shop in East Liverpool, Ohio. This is notable because it’s another example of “reshoring” — that is, bringing manufacturing from China and other cheap (aka slave) labor markets back to the USA. This is how restoring the economy happens, one job at a time. Kudos to Starbucks for being a good corporate citizen, and doing something that is just plain smart as well. Sales from the mugs will help support Starbuck’s Create Jobs for USA Fund. I’ve blogged about both reshoring and the Create Jobs for USA program here before — nice to see it’s an active

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32 Opportunities For Brilliant Mash-Ups

June 6, 2012

The New York Times does a very cool thing every year — they publish an amazing list of innovations about to happen –”32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow.” Not sure which is most interesting, maybe #20, the non-hangover alcohol — now that’s innovation I can appreciate. All kidding aside, beyond the wow factor, this list is an opportunity to do some creative “conceptual blending.” Conceptual Blending is essentially a mash-up of two very different concepts — to create something entirely new. It’s a great shortcut to breakthrough innovation, essentially you “steal” a great idea and make it your own by adapting/combining it to your industry or challenge. You can do it yourself — here’s the drill: Have a challenge

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Keeping Your Employees Happy on a Shoestring Budget (Six Ways!)

May 24, 2012

One of the great things about going to conferences like FEI is the people you meet. Orin Davis might be the most interesting guy I met at the conference. He studied with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — and yes, knows how to pronounce the name. We got talking and he mentioned the piece below, and asked if he would like to guest post on the blogg. Delighted to present this very practical and well thought out piece on employee happiness (an essential key to innovation). Now, Orin, next guest piece is on hypnosis okay? The following is by Orin C. Davis, Ph.D. One major issue that companies face, especially during a recession, is the perception of having to choose between saving money

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