Michael Michalko - Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck

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Copyright 1994, 2006 by Michael Michalko

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Michalko, Michael, 1940
Thinkpak : a brainstorming card deck / Michael Michalko. Rev.
p. cm.
1. Creative ability in business. 2. Creative thinking. I. Title.
HD53.M534 2006
658.4063dc22
2005036197

ISBN: 978-1-58008-772-8
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60774-705-5

Cover design by Nancy Austin

v3.1

Dedicated
to the memory of
my brother

George W. Michalko

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,
God calls a butterfly.

Contents

What Is Thinkpak?

Thinkpak is a brainstorming tool. It is designed to break you out of your habitual way of thinking and produce a wide variety of fresh thoughts that will lead to new insights, original ideas, and creative solutions to problems. It will change the way you think.

SCAMPER

Everything new is really just an addition to or modification of something that already exists. Whenever you want to create a new idea, product, service, process, breakthrough, or whatever you need, Thinkpak will help you take your subject and change it into something else. Alex Osborn, a pioneer teacher of creativity, first identified the nine principle ways of manipulating a subject. They were later arranged by Bob Eberle into the mnemonic SCAMPER:

Substitute something.

Combine it with something else.

Adapt something to it.

Modify or Magnify it.

Put it to some other use.

Eliminate something.

Reverse or Rearrange it.

Suppose you wanted to improve the ordinary metal paper clip. You could substitute plastic for metal and add color, creating plastic clips that would allow clipped papers to be color-coded, thereby putting the clips to another use.

Thinkpak contains idea-triggering questions based on these nine principles. The questions are designed to focus your attention on your subject in different ways and give you different means of interpreting what you are focusing on. These different ways of focusing will break your habitual thought patterns and let you look at your subject in fresh ways. Youll generate a quantity of ideas quickly, including ideas that you wouldnt have otherwise considered. Once you apply the Thinkpak questions to your subject or situation, ideas begin to appear almost involuntarily.

APPLYING SCAMPER TO A HAMBURGER

Ray Kroc was a middle-class high-school dropout, a former piano player, and a real-estate salesman who sold paper cups for seventeen years. In his fifties, Ray Kroc left the paper cup business and hit the road selling a little machine called the Multimixer, which could make six milkshakes at a time.

One day in 1954, a hamburger stand in California ordered eight Multimixers. Curious, Kroc drove his dusty little car out to investigate. He was stunned by the volume of business that Dick and Maurice McDonald were doing. They had unwittingly hit on the concept of fast foodhomogenized, predictable items that are quick and easy to prepare. The McDonalds had simplified, economized, and minimized the hamburger stand.

Kroc and the McDonalds formed a partnership that allowed Kroc to find new sites, and open and run them. What followed was not instant success but obstacles and challenges. Ray Kroc became a billionaire because he identified the right challenges and manipulated existing information into new ideas to solve them.

Following are some of the challenges he faced and how the SCAMPER principles helped to shape his ideas.

Substitute

Problem: The McDonalds proved to be lethargic business partners. Kroc was worried that they might sell out to someone who didnt want him around.

SCAMPER Solution: Substitute a different partner. Kroc was cash poor, but he was determined to buy out the McDonalds. Kroc raised the $2.7 million asking price from John Bristol, a venture capitalist whose clients (college endowment funds) realized a $14-million return on their investment. The next substitution was to go public, which he did in 1963, making many investors rich.

Combine

Problem: Ray Krocs first hamburger stand was planned for Des Plaines, Illinois, but he couldnt afford to finance construction.

SCAMPER Solution: Combine purposes with someone else. He sold the construction company half-ownership in return for constructing his first building.

Adapt

Problem: Ray Kroc was interested in developing a new twist on the food business, but he lacked ideas.

SCAMPER Solution: Adapt someone elses idea. Kroc was amazed at the volume of business the McDonalds were doing by selling a hamburger in a paper bag here, or a helping of french fries there. Krocs big idea was adapting the McDonalds simple merchandising methods to create a brand new conceptfast food.

Modify

Problem: The french fries made in Krocs first stand in Illinois didnt taste like the originals; they were tasteless and mushy. He tried the McDonalds recipe again and again, to no avail. A friend finally solved the mysteryKroc stored his potatoes in the basement, while the McDonalds kept theirs outside in chicken-wire bins, exposed to desert winds that cured the potatoes.

SCAMPER Solution: Modify the storage area. Kroc cured the potatoes by installing large electric fans in the basement.

Magnify

Problem: A number of franchise owners wanted to expand the basic menu.

SCAMPER Solution: Magnify the burger and add new items to the menu. He created the popular Big Mac by way of a $10 million Build a Big Mac contest. Later additions included the Egg McMuffin, Filet-o-Fish, and Chicken McNuggets.

Put to Other Uses

Problem: Kroc needed to develop other sources of income.

SCAMPER Solution: Put McDonalds to use in the real estate business. Krocs company would lease and develop a site, then re-lease it to the franchisee, who would have to pay rent as well as franchise fees. Today, 10 percent of the companys revenue comes from rentals. In the 1960s, Kroc also bought back as many of the original sites as he could. While this policy initially accrued huge debts, it gave McDonalds the upper hand against competitors, who periodically faced massive rent hikes.

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