:gulp: " The best way to predict the future is to invent it" Allan Kay (programming pioneer) … We tend to forget it sometimes. Not that we have to invent for the sake of it. But we definitely need to work with our client partners to invent with them their future. To push them not to fall asleep on a status quo (which might be so comfortable sometimes) but take the exploration route. 10 missed opportunities for them mean at least 100 new successes... for their competitors. And since our future is intrinsically linked to theirs, inventing their future is inventing ours.

there aren't many new ideas any more !... well maybe, but there are ways to approach and tackle the ideas. Very often the client doesn't like or buy into an idea we know is good, they tried it before, it "old hat"... Package the idea....sell it like a product, package the concept ready ready for customer consumption. To often we deal in dry process ideas, but these can be given a fresh look.It's not the customer dialogue program, it's "Ford Active", it's not the pre-natal to school mailing program, it's "kidcare+" Even our clients are humans, push their emotional buttons with packaged, branded ideas, change the spin on a tried and trusted idea!.....anyone seen the "new" James Bond by the way?

Funny you mention James bond -- we had a conversation yesterday with a group telling us about the newest trend -- placing products in movies and games -- I called up Sean Connery -- my generations JAmes Bond -- Rolex; Aston Martin..ad nasuem -- as you say -- embrace great thinking -- even antique... and make the package fresh and new --

Your comments made think about a recent “technological innovation” – the iPod. An iPod is not innovative if you look at it from the perspective of its basic functionality, delivering musical entertainment to its user (not to exclude other uses, but iTunes is what made iPods fun for most users initially). Music boxes have been around for well over a hundred years. Improvements in a loose evolutionary continuum ultimately led to the iPod (although I would argue 8-track tapes were a huge step backwards – nothing better than hearing a loud click in the middle of your favorite tunes). This example only points to the fact that the creativity sought by our clients may involve revolution or it may also include evolution. One idea leads to another, etc. Each step may not look particularly innovative compared to the one preceding it. When you skip the innovations in-between and go from music box to iPod there is a huge leap. The challenge to all of us is to look to “leap” from the past in order to create a better future. Btw - having a body that is closer to 50 than it is to 30 I wish your statement were absolutely true with regards to the inevitable process of aging :P

Being over 50...I live for that statement -- so much for fantasy!!! To your pointteh I-Pod is a great example -- Think on this one -- I consider Napster one of the great frauds of the century -- it was hailed by the media and investors as a great innovation -- yet it was really about giving music away for free -- if I offered the latest hits by the greatest artists and made them available on old fashioned vinyl records for free -- there would be line from here to the moon and a run on record players....