Own the Future: 50 Ways to Win from The Boston Consulting Group

Chapter 38

Thinking in New Boxes

Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny

“Thinking in New Boxes” has become a book on creativity in business, to be published by Random House in 2013.

The ability to survive in a world of accelerating change and challenge calls for ever greater creativity in our thinking. But to become more creative, we need to understand how our minds work. Once we do, we will recognize that we must do more than simply think outside the box, as the traditional business manuals suggest. We need to think in new boxes. In this way, business leaders can marshal their companies' creativity and give them a real competitive advantage.

We Cannot Think without Models

We constantly simplify things in order to make sense of the world around us. Take three examples:

• How many colors are there in a rainbow? You will probably say seven. But why seven, when there are actually thousands? The fact is that thousands is not a manageable figure—so we are forced to simplify, and seven is what we have been taught.
• How many columns are at the front of the Parthenon? You are probably hesitating and might say anywhere from 5 to 10. Actually, there are 8. But to have an image of the Parthenon in your mind's eye requires only that you have a general grasp of the details.
• How many grains of sand does it take to make a pile? More than a few, obviously. But there is no exact answer because a pile is, ...