- Stanford University's d.school's top lecture on creativity
- Amazon Bestseller in the Economics and Management category
- The first collaborative work by authors selected for the 2023 Thinkers50, the Oscars of the business world.

“Your organization needs a burst of creativity!”

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nike, Disney…
From giant global corporations to agile startups
The most creative problem-solving method proven in business settings over the past decade.

In the dog-eat-dog world of business, where today's success doesn't guarantee tomorrow's survival and maintaining the status quo often means extinction, how can we emerge victorious in this cutthroat competition? Jeremy Utley, an innovation mentor to giant global corporations and a master of organizational creativity, and Perry Clayban, founding professor at Stanford University's d.school, known as the cradle of entrepreneurial innovation and creativity, offer their answers in their new book, "The Idea Barrage."
They explain the innovation methodology that increases the production of ideas within an organization, overcomes crises, and creates an overwhelming gap with competitors in the market through an indicator called "ideaflow."

Filled with case studies from a diverse spectrum of organizations, from a startup that created customized nail stickers to the semiconductor giant Fairchild Semiconductor, "Idea Blitz" is a panacea for business problems.
It covers virtually every business challenge you'll face in real life, from launching new businesses, measuring customer preferences, improving your supply chain, and acquiring new customers, to scientific methods for boosting creativity across teams and entire organizations that would otherwise shut down simply by brainstorming.
This book, packed with creative and practical problem-solving techniques that have captivated leaders and middle managers around the world, will serve as a valuable guide to the unpredictable world of business.

Creativity can be learned.
In the process, you will also learn how to properly support the creativity of others.
This means that you too can build or manage a world-class company with creativity and innovation capabilities.
To do this, we need to throw away all the old myths about creativity.
Creativity is the art of problem solving.
Just as creativity is needed to paint or write poetry, it is also needed to conduct mergers and acquisitions.
In business, creativity is as basic and practical as double-entry bookkeeping.
Creativity fosters and accelerates what we want to achieve.
---「Intro.
If your organization desperately needs a burst of creativity right now,

Ideaflow is a concept and approach to creativity.
The great thing about Ideaflow is that it dramatically reduces the pressure and stress of the entire idea generation process by increasing the number of ideas generated.
While increasing the probability of success, it also minimizes costs and risks.
Whether you want to develop your creativity or launch a full-fledged innovation lab at a Fortune 500 company, this book will help you solve the "problem of problem solving" once and for all.

---「Intro.
If your organization desperately needs a burst of creativity right now,

Ideaflow is a useful proxy for measuring overall innovation capacity.
Because whether you can pour out ideas like a flood when needed has a lot to do with whether you maintain healthy creativity overall.
It's a kind of barometer, so to speak.
A barometer can't tell you where each cloud is, but it can tell you when a storm is coming.
Just as Perry's focus on "selling products" led to a halt in employee input, a decline in idea flow suggests a larger problem with the organizational culture surrounding creativity.

---「Chapter 1.
From “All the world’s problems are problems of ideas”

It's brainstorming time.
As expected, such a large meeting is sandwiched in the middle of an awkward afternoon.
It's a time when everyone's energy is likely depleted.
The worst thing is scheduling a meeting right before work hours when everyone is just thinking about going home.
As everyone glances down at their phones, wondering, "Why am I here?", the worsening traffic congestion on the way home from work inevitably causes a grimace.
(Omitted) Considering the possibility of appearing foolish or ignorant if you interject a word in an unfamiliar matter, it seems risky to make even the slightest unusual or ambitious statement.
It seems safer to just keep quiet and go along with other people's opinions.

---「Chapter 3.
From "The Secret of a Team That Overflows with Ideas"

If we look at successful innovation cases, this idea ratio appears repeatedly.
The same goes for how Taco Bell's Insights Labs developed the mega-hit Doritos Locos Taco.
Initially, Taco Bell started with about 30 core recipes and created a "huge number of variations."
Each and every one of them needed to be tasted.
How many variations did product development manager Steve Gomez try before perfecting this game-changing new product? Speaking to a journalist, Gomez said:
“If I said 2,000, you’d think I was exaggerating, right?” The reason Taco Bell is recognized as the embodiment of innovation in the fast-food industry is because of this ideaflow.
“I come up with 50 idea concepts a month,” senior marketing manager Cat Garcia told this journalist (who is also responsible for the beloved Double Decker Taco).
“We review between 300 and 500 ideas a year during the planning stage.
After selecting and selecting them, only about 20 to 30 are actually released.
“A lot of them get discarded in the middle.”
---「Chapter 3.
From "The Secret of a Team That Overflows with Ideas"

"The coach would always sneak into the locker room and steal our shoes," Phil Knight, then a track and field player, later wrote.
'The director took several days to take the shoes apart and sew them back together, returning them with slightly changed shapes.
Then we had to either run like deer or bleed.' Bowerman, the track team coach, had a laboratory and mice.
The ultimate goal of all these prototypes was 'lightness'.
'Shaving one ounce (28.3 grams) off a pair of shoes is equivalent to 55 pounds (24.9 kilograms) less per mile (1.6 kilometers),' the coach said. Cutting weight meant trying a huge variety of alternative materials.
Bowerman has used everything from kangaroo skin to cod skin to track the effects on athletes' running times.

---「Chapter 5.
From “Designing Tests That Elicit the Voice of the Market”

By hiring someone who is good at their job but has no experience with the industry in particular, you can leverage their beginner's experience.
When Marvel makes superhero movies, they often hire directors from other genres, like comedies (Taika Waititi for Thor: Ragnarok and Peyton Reed for Ant-Man) or thrillers (Jon Watts for Spider-Man: Homecoming).
Marvel has mastered the art of making special effects-driven action movies, so why would they need someone with the same expertise?
---「Chapter 7.
Among the eight tools that will help you discover fresh perspectives,

A good question is specific.
For example, think of a white object.
What came to mind? How quickly did it come to mind? Now, think of a white object commonly found in the refrigerator.
Do you notice the difference? The first question is a flurry of ideas that come to mind here and there.
eye.
hmm….
white bear.
Paper? The second question sparks a flurry of ideas.
Should milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, disposable containers, eggs, and white bread also be white?
The more specific the frame, the stronger the flow of ideas that emerge.
A good frame sparks curiosity.
Once interest arises, the brain works hard to solve the problem and the flow of ideas increases.
A compelling question can make it difficult to 'stop' new ideas from coming to you.
On the other hand, boring questions produce no results.
Curiosity cannot be faked.
Unless you're really interested in a problem, don't expect creative solutions.

---「Chapter 9.
From “Managing Curiosity Intentionally and Strategically”

There is a study that interviewed 40 scientists over 30 years.
Among the interviewees were four people who later won the Nobel Prize.
The researchers wanted to find out what factors, from personal habits to research techniques, contribute to problem solving and creativity over the long term.
Ultimately, the factor the researchers found to be strongly correlated with long-term success was how these scientists spent their time "outside" the lab.
Things like hobbies, travel, and artistic pursuits.
More input equals better output.

You can't revolutionize the pickle business by eating only cucumbers all day.
The more 'distant' the input sources, the more valuable and interesting the combinations become.
Don't try to find meaning (don't think 'I'll know it when I see it'), just think that everything has meaning.
Look at the world closely, without prejudice, and let your mind make connections.

---「Chapter 10.
From “Creating a Clash of Creativity”

Creativity is the art of possibility.
When faced with dilemmas and deadlines, who hasn't been tempted to just push through as usual? When we're under pressure, the last thing we want to do is consider more options.
But as the first-year middle school student said at the beginning of this book, creativity is 'having the first thing that comes to mind, but then trying more.'
If we want to achieve great things, whether in business or anything else, we have to do just that.
Creativity isn't just about solving problems; it's about coming up with the best ideas I can.

---"conclusion.
From "Let the ideas flow like a flood"