The Imagination Challenge: Strategic
Foresight and Innovation in the
Global Economy by Alexander Manu
It's Not Just About Imagination & Play; It's About Insight Restructuring & Opportunity
Finding! Definitely Worth Pursuing!
Companies constantly present technological developments-new materials,
new mechanisms, and new ways to enhance existing products and
services. Yet these seldom lead to truly new ideas. Why? Humans are all
born with creative instincts, but in the interest of efficient and predictable
productivity, institutions such as schools and businesses routinely hinder
those impulses. The most innovative products and services, author
Alexander Manu argues, arise out of the behaviors of play--the ability to
imagine, without limits, the question What if…?

Manus engaging and inspiring book offers companies a wealth of practical
advice and tactics to unleash their full creative potential and break ahead
of the crowd. Manus provocative, insightful applied methodologies for
creating new business opportunities and transformative innovations gain
resonance from real-world scenarios and conversations with leading
innovators such as MITs Mitchel Resnick. Readers will learn strategies to:
Open their companies eyes to unseen opportunities Spark the
imagination and trigger the potential of product innovation teams Turn
inspired ideas into successful products and services.
Imagination Challenge is an AIGA
Design Press book, published under Peachpits New Riders imprint in
partnership with AIGA.
Personal Review: The Imagination Challenge: Strategic
Foresight and Innovation in the Global Economy by Alexander
Manu
I am always fascinated by the power of imagination.
With imagination, my mind becomes my playground. Coupling with
fantasy, it becomes my amusement park.
Naturally, I love to read books about enhancing imagination. Several old
classic books come quickly to mind:
- 'Applied Imagination', by Alex Osborn, the advertising guy who coined
"brainstorming";
- 'Imagineering: How to Profit from Your Creative Powers', by Michael
Lebouef - I love his premise: "You let your imagination to soar & then you
engineer it down to earth.");
During my corporate days, I had even read 'Corporate Imagination Plus' by
James Bandrowski, who asserted the importance of imagination in
strategic planning.
A few months ago, I have read 'Turn Your Imagination into Money', which
is actually a reprint of an old classic.
I reckon the most memorable personal experience in appreciating the
power of imagination is my first visit to the Disneyland World Resort in
Anaheim, California, during the eighties, to experience the imagineering
masterpieces of the legendary Walt Disney.
The joyful encounter was followed by further visits to The Tokyo
Disneyland in Japan & the Walt Disney World Resort (+ the EPCOT

Centre) in Orlando, Florida. In fact, I had revisited the latter after a gap of
ten years in 2000.
Following a stumble-upon on the net, I am now reading:
'The Imagination Challenge: Strategic Foresight & Innovation in the Global
Economy',
by Alexander Manu, a strategic innovation practitioner.
After perusing only the first few chapters, & particularly Chapter 11, plus
some casual browsing of the rest of the book, I must say this book
definitely ranks in a totally different league, when compared to all the stuff I
have already read earlier.
It's almost a scholarly exposition, although I detect that there is a very
playful streak in the writing, which is clear & succinct.
The first thing I got out of the book is the lucid distinction between
'imagination' & 'creativity' since most of us, including myself, tend to lump
them together.
Also, I get a better understanding of the apparently subtle difference
between 'strategic innovation' & 'tactical innovation'.
From the way I read it, the book is specifically written from a human user-
centred design perspective. This has to do with the author's original
design background.
Also, much of the material in the book is drawn from the author's
professional experiences, while serving as Research Director in the Beal
Institute for Strategic Creativity. [Currently, I understand he is the Chief
Imaginator with InnoSpa Consulting of Finland.]
I certainly appreciate the author's many key premises at the onset of the
book's beginning chapters:
- creative & innovative thinking creates (or recreates) value in a product or
service, but it is the power of our imagination that provides the quantum
leap in our thinking as well as experimentation to help build & enhance the
ultimate user experiences with our products & services;
- it's the ability to imagine without limits, & asking 'what if...?' questions
incessantly that will allow us to create innovative products & services;
- to trigger imagination, we need to become real kids again, as serious play
(to kids, play is never a task, in fact to them, play = work) is a powerful
means to unlocking our creative & innovative potential;

- it's our imagination that give life & meaning to technology;
- the best approach to designing wonderful customer experiences is
through the eyes of a kid, be curious about the world, about everything,
experiment, reason everything before drawing up conclusions, don't jump
on forms but rather define what the forms must do & how they interact with
users before deciding how they look;
- in the words of the authors, strategic innovation requires an
understanding of the underlying behaviours, desires & motivations of the
ultimate design solution;
- interestingly, more questions will come from the play instinct, as play is
exploring, searching, seeing things in a new light, communicating,
interacting, & more importantly, be-ing what we are from day one - born
with creative impulses;
- as organisations, we need to create an ecology of possibility or play
space, so to speak, to allow our people to explore the possible & to come
up with breakthrough solutions, & more importantly, to be play-wise & play-
ready;
- hands do not initiate play; the mind must do it first, so I reckon what
keeps our mind agile is how we use & stimulate it;
The book is packed with inspiring stories & illustrative anecdotes.
What I like most is the author's complete set of 8 flexible steps that can
serve as a framework for investigating viable opportunities, culminating
into what the author has designated as 'The Strategic Imagination Circle':
1) signal discovery;
2) emerging signals mapping;
3) imaginative questions;
4) points of departure;
5) future scenarios;
6) experience opportunity definition;
7) economic opportunity modeling;
8) post-signal learning;

At first glance, it seems complicated. It has taken me quite a while to
understand & digest how it works.
I can sense, to some extent, some of the stuff here, at least:
- in terms of "just playing around leads to great discoveries", correlates to
Michael Schrage's 'Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies
Simulate to Innovate', although the latter has a primary focus on
prototyping;
- in terms of "reading signals", correlates to the work of George Day & Paul
Schoemaker, who wrote 'Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals
that Would Make or Break Your Company', with the principal premise: how
good are you in sensing, interpreting & acting on the signals? [Please read
my review on Amazon.]
The only adverse comment I am going to make here is that the suggested
tools to be used at each stage of the 'Strategic Imagination Circle'
seemingly lack sufficient elaboration or amplification on the part of the
author.
Although I am still reading the book, I dare to say that it is definitely
worthwhile to pursue. It's not just about the power of imagination & the
wonder of play.
It's about insight restructuring & opportunity finding.
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