Toby Scott was in to visit us for this morning's Juice breakfast. Beginning with a powerful video on the increasing rate of change and our somewhat slower rate of response to it, he immediately captured the audience of entrepreneurs and academics. He spoke of the powerful effect that using design to drive strategic thinking has on SMEs - increasing product demand by 250%! Unfortunately only 15% of Irish SMEs are doing just that. A salutory lesson for us. The key message from my perspective was that to be truly innovative you must ascertain latent unmet needs and that this is best done by walking in the users (all users!) shoes. And all users means everyone - in the case of a rubbish bin it includes those who empty the bins, those who sit on the bins post-pub, the vandals who want to light a fire in the bin, the people who install the bins, those who clean the street around the bins - oh yes, and those who put their rubbish in the bin. A load of rubbish? I think not. See http://www.pentaclethevbs.com/ for more info on Toby.
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