| Issue 43 |

Times 10 – A Problem Solving Tool

The thinking tool that we will describe this time is a tool to overcome mental blocks and to solve ongoing problems. Here is an explanation of how this tool is used:

Times 10 – Instructions for Use: 

• Define an operational or managerial problem that you wish to solve, in quantitative terms. For example:

• Increase sales by 20% this year
• Decrease the inventory by one million dollars
• Resolve open customer service tickets within one day

 

• Drastically change the quantitative goal (such as times 10). For example: 
• Increase sales by 200% this year
• Decrease the inventory to nothing
• Resolve open customer service tickets within one hour
   
• Try to resolve the new problem and reach a new, more ambitious goal. For example:
• Increase sales by 200% this year. Perhaps acquire additional companies? Enter new domains? Export to new countries?
• Decrease the inventory to nothing. Maybe manufacture only what has been ordered? Maybe work according to the mass customization method?
• Resolve open customer service tickets within one hour. Perhaps work in small and multi-disciplinary teams? Perhaps categorize 80% of service tickets as those that can be resolved on the spot and train all the customer service telephone representatives to do this, and only pass the remaining 20% to the more specialized employees?
  

Even if you did not manage to resolve the more challenging problem with the more ambitious quantitative goals, it’s nothing to be concerned about. The important point is that constraints increase creativity, and challenging goals will lead you in more refreshing thought directions, and to more ingenious and creative solutions. Therefore, by using the Times 10 tool when you work towards solving the easier problem that you originally started with, you will most probably succeed in solving it with ease.

• Information on Solving Technological Problems workshop appears here (page 15 of Hebrew PDF).
• Information on Inventive Thinking workshops appears here.
• For articles on Systematic Innovation: click here.

Compass – Financial Consulting, Fundraising and Assistance for Companies in Financial Distresst

The global recession is threatening the survival of numerous companies both in Israel and abroad. These companies need to respond to the recession quickly by breaking conventions and habits, but they are not always prepared. Crisis management requires a completely different approach than regular management. Strategic priorities change.

dramatically when a business confronts a crisis that is threatening its very survival, when it fears it will not be able to uphold the commitments to its suppliers, and that it will be sued by creditors in the upcoming months. Since crisis management is not a routine condition, many managers are inexperienced with it, and do not know what to do in order to ensure the success of their business, or to minimize damages as much as possible.

Therefore, we have recently founded a sister company called Compass, which provides financial consulting and guidance for companies experiencing financial distress. These services include, but are not limited to, fundraising from various sources, assistance vis-à-vis banks and investors, obtaining a composition of creditors prior to and during legal proceedings, legal advice, and more. Concurrently, Compass also provides ongoing financial and strategic consulting, guidance during mergers and acquisitions, and obtaining financial opinions for courts of law.

Compass is headed by Mr. Avi Azoulay, Mr. Shaul Eisenberg’s former assistant. He was engaged in mergers and acquisitions and managed industrial plants. Avi has a wealth of experience in recovering companies and managing dozens of distressed companies, appointed by various courts of law as a Special Manager and Trustee in various legal proceedings, such as suspension of proceedings, liquidation, and receivership.

Please visit Compass’ website to find out more about the company, and contact us when the need arises.

• Compass’ website: www.compass.org.il
• A practical guide for companies experiencing financial distress: here: click here
• To contact Compass: Send an email to info@compass.org.il or call 09-9585085

A Sharp Message

 

 
Activation logic requires that the potential customer perform a small experiment, during which he learns about the existence of a specific problem, or about some successful solution, and is convinced from the outcome of the experiment that the important problem or the proffered solution is necessary and essential.

In the adjacent ad, the reader is leafing through a posh culinary magazine, and suddenly encounters an entire-page photograph of a thin slice of prosciutto. When he continues to leaf through the pages (and performs the experiment), he sees the other side of the same slice of prosciutto.

A gourmet cook, who has undoubtedly prepared and eaten prosciutto in the past, knows that this is a particularly tasty delicacy, and is probably salivating at this point, staring at the tantalizing, paper-thin slice of meat that he is currently holding in his hand. He knows that the thinner and more transparent and redder the prosciutto, the better the quality. The glossy photograph leaves no room for speculation – this is indeed a choice piece of meat.

 “Mmmm… too bad I don’t have such a knife at home”, he says to himself. “Next time I go shopping I’ll look for it, and celebrate with a choice piece of meat from the local deli.”

This is a precise, clean, clever and persuasive ad, with no superfluous words. A very sharp message indeed.

Another example of advertising using the activation logic was published in a previous issue of this section

• For Information on the Creative Advertising workshop see page 18 of the  booklet of Strategy and Marketing workshops (Hebrew, PDF file) or contact us.
• We would be happy to receive more interesting advertisements Please send them to ari@zooz.co.il.