Anna Muoio writes:
According to the creative people behind the BrainStore, an "idea factory" in Biel, Switzerland, it's possible to generate new ideas with as much rigor, and as much speed, as it takes to make products on an assembly line.
Where do great ideas come from? They come from right here, actually. At the intersection of Plankestrasse and Rueschlistrasse, in Biel, Switzerland (also home to Rolex and Swatch), there is a cream-colored industrial building -- a factory that manufactures and sells ideas.
You can't rely on rare flashes of brilliance -- "eureka moments" -- if you want to produce a steady stream of good ideas. Instead, you must approach the manufacturing of ideas with as much rigor and as much discipline as you apply to the manufacturing of assembly-line products. "Our idea factory has all of the elements of an industrial process," Mettler explains. "You can follow an idea from one step to another."
..."great ideas start with completely unrealistic thoughts." If you're serious about being creative, he argues, you've got to give yourself license to be playful.
With that in mind, whenever the BrainStore faces a truly big creative challenge, it calls in the big guns: kids. The BrainNet is a 1,500-person global network comprised mainly of young people aged 13 to 20 (some adult professionals are also involved), who help the BrainStore by scouring the world for new trends and offbeat sources of inspiration. "We're not looking for average ideas," says Mettler. "We're looking for crazy ideas. We use kids to find those ideas, because they know how to talk without letting their thinking get in the way."
The BrainStore mixes these young people with members of its client teams during creative workshops. "One of the ideas behind the company was to blend the professionalism of experts with the unbridled enthusiasm of kids," says Schnetzler. Adds Mettler: "We have 17-year-olds working on products and campaigns for such companies as Nestlé and the Swiss railway. It's cool for kids to be able to say, 'Hey, I was a part of that.' "