cover image Thinking in New Boxes: A New Paradigm for Business Creativity

Thinking in New Boxes: A New Paradigm for Business Creativity

Luc De Brabandere and Alan Iny. Random, $28 (352p) ISBN 978-0-8129-9295-3

Categorizing information is part of human nature, but in today’s rapidly evolving business climate, “pre-wired ways of thinking” can threaten an enterprise’s very survival. Boston Consulting Group executives Brabandare (The Forgotten Half of Change) and Iny suggest that thinking “outside the box” defies our natural tendencies and suggest that leaders, instead, should think “in the box,” but with a new mindset. In this entertaining and transformative work, the authors provide a framework and structure for creative thinking that even traditionalists can embrace. Through five steps—doubt everything, probe the possible, diverge, converge, and reevaluate relentlessly—they propose a sustainable creative process that will serve an organization in the long-term. Using examples from their research, consulting projects, and from major companies, the concepts come to life. Readers see how Generali Insurance, a 200-year-old Italian firm, used off-sites, interactive exercises, and brainteasers to create an Internet strategy, and how Netflix used reevaluation to reenvision and reinvigorate its business model. The book is both academically rigorous and highly accessible, with call-out graphics, charts, and optical illusions adding visual interest and illustrating concepts. Informative and practical, this is a must-read for anyone in a leadership position who dares to look at the world in new ways. Agent: Todd Shuster, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. (Sept.)