Een zeer interessant groepswerk werd aan de studenten van het Stanford technology venture program gegeven. Ze moeten in groep in 2 uur met 5$ zoveel mogelijk geld verdienen.

Een knap staaltje out-of-the-box thinking was dus zeker nodig. Alleen al voor dergelijke groepswerken denk ik er soms over na om nog een bijkomende managementcursus te gaan volgen! Hieronder de video en bij read more de spoiler met hun oplossingen.


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She teaches a class at Stanford and offers each team $5 of ‘funding’ in an envelope. She tells them that once they open the envelope, they have 2 hours to make as much money as they can.

She cites three teams’ approaches:

1) First team opens a free stand that offers to check peoples bike tire pressure for free, then charges $1 to inflate if necessary. This team changes midstream to accepting donations instead of charging, and makes more money. Lauded for rapid iteration.

2) Second team makes lots of reservations at local restaurants, and then sells them to people waiting in line for same restaurant. Didn’t use the $5 at all. Lauded for realizing that the $5 constraint was artificial, and that using it constrained their thinking.

3) Third team skipped the exercise, and sold their 3 minute class presentation time as a advertisement to a local company. Made the most money. Instead of presenting, they recruited. Lauded for realizing that the 2 hours was also artificially hampering their thinking.

She hands out two artificial constraints, and then praises the teams who ignore the constraints. “Thinking outside the box” is a great skill and all, but basically all these teams are doing is finding creative ways of breaking the rules. It means the puzzle isn’t “make the most money in 2 hours with $5″, it means the puzzle is “find out how far you can stretch these rules without being disqualified”.

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Marketing strateeg en docent (Thomas More/UHasselt). Sinds 2002 reeds techblogger. Marketing strateeg en privacy officer als freelancer en daarnaast ook gewoon papa thuis. Schrijf je in voor de Dailybits nieuwsbrief.

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iCan-t Internet
14 jaren geleden

Inderdaad een beestig interessante oefening! Out of the box denken is nooit slecht…