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Innovation – Developing disruptive ideas

Questioning the status quo is not that easy. Long-standing processes or business models are often too familiar and entrenched. However, such unconscious “thinking grooves” can often prove to be a serious obstacle to innovation in companies. The event entitled “Innovation – Developing Disruptive Ideas” aimed to use the “Business Model Canvas” (BMC) to show how existing “thinking grooves” can be overcome.

BMC is a method for visualizing a business model and the various critical success factors. Management and organizational consultant Dr. Reinhard Schmitt first introduced BMC. Where does BMC come from? What is the basic structure of BMC? Why is BMC also suitable for visualizing existing business models? These were the guiding questions.

With the help of the Mural tool, the workshop then used the example of a business model to simulate how this business model could be thought of differently. After this simulation, Andrea Veerkamp-Walz, VDMA Business Advisory speaker, and Dr. Schmitt introduced the “Intentionally Unreasonable” method, which essentially consists of deliberately twisting existing conventions into their opposite in order to detect disruptive ideas.

In concrete terms, the method was illustrated using the example of the exit games from toy manufacturer Kosmos. Convention until then: board games can be played repeatedly and are therefore kept by customers after use. Disruption: The board game can only be played once and is thrown away by the customer after use. The “deliberately unreasonable” method was then applied in small group work.
In the final discussion, it was concluded that disruption can open up new paths, but on the other hand can also be risky.

Organizer

The event was offered by ProduktionNRW. ProduktionNRW is the cluster for mechanical engineering and production technology in North Rhine-Westphalia and is organized by VDMA NRW. ProduktionNRW sees itself as a platform for networking, informing and marketing companies, institutions and networks with each other and along the value chain. Significant parts of the services provided by ProduktionNRW are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.