Innovation Experts Fill Curriculum Gap for Tomorrow's Creatives

CINCINNATI, Aug. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Studies suggest that up to 95 percent of today's employers give hiring preference to college graduates with skills to innovate, yet most colleges and universities haven't developed a specific innovation curriculum, leaving recent graduates and young professionals without formal tools that drive corporate growth.

Innovation experts and authors Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg are filling the collegiate gap in innovation curriculum by bringing their C-suite go-to method of Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) directly to computers and tablets. The SIT method, now used by Johnson & Johnson, GE, Procter & Gamble, SAP, and Philips, and many others was introduced in their book, Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results. Now their new web-based idea generation application, Innovate! Inside the Box, is ready to use in classroom and business settings.

Innovate! uses technology to bring to life the idea generation tools illustrated throughout the text, serving as a tech companion to Inside the Box. The web program is a comprehensive suite of thinking tools and principles. It was designed for students and young professionals, but is ideal for anyone seeking business solutions – even to the toughest problems.

"My experience with Fortune 100 executives inspired the development of this tool. Executives are hungry for all levels of their leadership to organize their thinking around tomorrow's solutions," Boyd said. "Innovate! takes the pressure off of being creative by doing the hard work for the user. This web program brings a worldwide innovation method to life and empowers anyone to come up with incredible ideas."

Developing a companion app to their book was the natural next step, particularly for college students and new professionals who rely on technology for organizing their work.  The web program allows the user to start with an existing product or service and then walks the user through five Systematic Inventive Thinking techniques, resulting in new, fresh solutions.

University students who tested Innovate! in beta form were pleased with its usefulness. "The tool acts like a wizard with notes, guides, prompts and dialog boxes. No need to use a notebook or post-it. You'll go through the process of breaking down your proposed object into components to get to your idea," said Sutanu Majumdar, a University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business 2016 MBA candidate. "It's a great tool if you are looking for a rapid process of generating, collecting and evaluating ideas. Once you have your solution, you can share it with your team through the app or on Twitter and Facebook."

For those who have yet to read Inside the Box, the SIT method uses five techniques that evolved through research that examined thousands of innovative products, demonstrating that creativity is teachable and accessible to anyone. SIT refutes the traditional view of creativity, which is typically considered as thinking "outside the box" to find big ideas. Based on their experience, both Boyd and Goldenberg insist that anyone can be creative when they practice the SIT method.

The web app is available at drewboyd.com. The intro price is $12 for an annual subscription. Customers can share their ideas they have generated using Innovate! Inside the Box via email or social media using the hashtag #InnovateInsidetheBox.

About Drew Boyd
Drew Boyd is widely recognized as one of the foremost global experts, trainers and thought leaders in corporate innovation methods and is known for his "Inside the Box" method. In his roles as CEO and leadership advisor on creativity and innovation, international public speaker and award-winning author – Boyd guides teams, global businesses and governments to deliver breakthrough results. He is also an award-winning professor at the University of Cincinnati, overseeing the master of science in marketing program and serving as an associate professor of marketing and innovation. 

Boyd is a 30-year industry veteran, including 17 years with Johnson & Johnson in marketing, mergers and acquisitions, and international development. He has worked with companies such as Macy's, Toyota and Proctor & Gamble and has been featured in numerous business publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Industry Week, Psychology Today and Strategy+Business.

About Jacob Goldenberg
Jacob Goldenberg is a marketing professor at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a visiting professor at Columbia University. He studies creativity, new product development, innovation, market complexity, and the effects of social networks. His research on SIT has been featured in leading scholarly journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, Nature Physics and Science. His work has been featured in a variety of popular media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe.

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SOURCE Drew Boyd

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