Bold Group
Start with what everyone says “cannot change”.
Most stuck results aren’t short of budget or people. So we don’t start by spending more; we start with what you already have, and question the rules everyone believes cannot change.
What the methods are for
The usual fix, and where it really was.
In each case the obvious answer was on the table. The cause sat somewhere nobody was looking.
RetailNew stores took months to open
The usual fixPush the teams harder, add project staff
Where it really wasThe order of the steps
What came of it~67% shorter opening cycleClient-measured
ManufacturingOrders backed up; production blamed
The usual fixA bigger warehouse
Where it really wasProcurement’s volume-discount lot sizes, filling the warehouse
What came of itThe CEO cancelled the warehouse expansionOn receiving our report
AutomotiveWaste cost 180 million baht a year
The usual fixOne inspection, at the end of the line
Where it really wasWhere inspection stood in the line
What came of it฿135 million a year savedClient-measured, in its own accounts
DistributionThe warehouse was full
The usual fixRent or build more space
Where it really wasHow the branches ordered
What came of it50% more capacity from the same buildingClient finance feasibility figure
Clients are not named. Projections, models and feasibility figures are not measured results, and each case says which it is. Read the cases
Our core method
Why we look inside first.
Our core method is Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT), developed in Israel from TRIZ. Most approaches start outside your company and end with something to buy. SIT starts with what you already own, and changes its order, form or role. Most answers rebuild what you have.
Added when a situation needs itTheory of Constraints Eliyahu M. GoldrattTRIZ Genrich AltshullerStrategic foresight since 2005CIRCO TU Delft
For the curious: how SIT works
No time spent hunting a root cause. SIT does not begin with a problem statement. It came from studying how products actually changed as they developed, clustering those changes and finding the patterns that repeat. Those patterns became its five thinking tools: subtraction, multiplication, division, task unification and attribute dependency.
What it works against has a name: fixedness, seeing each thing only as what it already is. That is what keeps an answer hidden in plain sight.
Our analysisSIT’s thinking tools are pattern recognition. Applied to the resources you already own, the defined patterns predict where their unused innovation potential lies.
- Closed worldLook for the answer inside the system you already have: its people, parts, assets and data. Nothing is added from outside to get started.
- Function follows formChange the form first, then ask what job the new form could do. Most methods go the other way, from the need to the purchase.
- Path of most resistanceSet aside the first idea that comes easily. The obvious answer is usually the one your competitors already have.
- Qualitative changeLook for the answer that removes a problem rather than easing it a little.
- Breaking fixednessSee past the fixed idea of what each thing is for and how it must be done. That fixedness is what hides the answer in plain sight.
The first hour
Questions we ask before anything else.
The answers usually point to what everyone has been told “cannot change”.
- 01What result must change, and when would your board notice?
- 02Where does work wait the longest?
- 03Which team is doing well on its own measure, and costing someone else?
- 04Which rule was set for a reason that may no longer hold?
How an engagement runs
Five stages, every time.
Each service runs them at its own scale. A projection is a projection: nothing more is claimed until the change has run and been measured.
- 01
Define
The result, its baseline and the one person who decides
- 02
Challenge
Test what everyone treats as fixed
- 03
Redesign
A future state, designed with the people who will run it
- 04
Validate
The value case, with known, projected and uncertain kept apart
- 05
Mobilize
Owners, sequence and measures, ready to act on
Before we start
What we need from you, and what we will question.
Without these, an engagement produces a design, not a change. We would rather say so before we start.
- 01A sponsor who can decide
- 02Access to the people who know the work end to end
- 03Openness to an answer you did not expect
What we will question
Expect the brief to be examined. The cheapest time to question a plan is before it gets a budget.
- A technology chosen before the problem was understood
- A target with no baseline, and no one who owns the measure
- One department’s fix for a constraint that crosses departments
- A workshop expected to transform, without the conditions to implement
- Responsibility given without the authority to act
- An impact claim that cannot be traced to evidence
Start here
Bring us a result worth changing.
Bring the result you need, and the thing you have been told cannot change. You leave with a first view of where the answer may sit.
Teerasak WongpiyaCo-Founder and Managing Director
1 hour with a founder, in Thai or English, online or at your office. Your office can book it for you.