Part One: How to Win the Innovation Challenge

Part One: How to Win the Innovation Challenge

This is the 3rd time we've run the Thunderbird Global Innovation Challenge and I've seen hundreds of submissions and presentations by some of the most innovative MBAs in the world and...by some of the least.  In addition to my own observation, I've spoken with hundreds of judges, dozens of sponsors and countless experts on the topic of innovation.  This "how to" article is not a step-by-step guide to generating innovative ideas, it is however, intended to give you some direction, resources and advice...from my perspective. You'll also hear the perspective of Richard Caelius (a great guy), the winning team leader of the 2004 Most Innovative MBA Team in the World from Instituto de Empresa.

Part One

A) Select The Right Team
-Diversity: Recruit team members who are different in ethnicity, professions, life experiences, travel, age and gender.  Richard's post below has more tips on this particular topic.

-Synergy: Make sure you all work together well and are able to listen to each other's ideas. Prior to the competition, have your team leader sit down with your team and establish rules so that everyone gets a chance to participate and no one person dominates the ideation session. More tips on ideation techniques can be found in Dr. Andy VanGundy's post below on Tips for Generating Ideas. Dr. VanGundy has written numerous books on the topic of ideation.

-Killer Phrases: I would highly recommend teams visit Chic Thompson's home page, he's one of our keynote speaker's at this year's final round. His poster of killer phrases should be distributed to everyone on your team. In addition, his 4-step ideation process is extremely useful and used by some of the most innovative companies in the world.

1. Be Curious First
2. Add Creative Stimuli
3. Ask Great Questions
4. Think in Opposites

B) Ranking Your Sponsor Preference

-Passion is Key: Whichever question you choose, be sure your team is passionate about the sponsoring company, brand or industry .

-Research: Once you’ve ranked your 4 choices, then I recommend visiting the sponsors section on the Innovation Challenge web site, surfing their corporate web sites and familiarizing yourself with their businesses, if at all possible.

C) Read the Question Ten Times

-Framing Challenge Questions: We've used a process called Q-Bank, developed by Dr. VanGundy Ph.D., to frame each question.  In some cases, just one question took several weeks to structure.  We had countless conference calls with executives, combed through research, conducted surveys and analyzed the results to arrive at the question. The Q-Bank process is beneficial to sponsors because a properly framed question can generate a focused yet divergent pool of creative ideas.

Next, Richard will give you some insight into the factors that led to his team's success in winning the crown title of 2004 Most Innovative MBA Team in the World!