The Idea Drunks at ?What If! : Idea Drunk

The Idea Drunks at ?What If!

Posted on September 11, 2007 - Filed Under Thought Starters, Cool Ideas, Inspiration

There is a company in the UK who’s sole purpose to educate people on how to have kick ass ideas and encourage innovation in companies. It’s called “?What If!” They are the people you hire when you want your senior management team to push the envelope and champion new ideas. Basically, they jump around and think of cool ideas. Or coach people on how to think of cool ideas.

To be honest, they have come out with some pretty cool stuff so far. The clients they list include Ikea, Red Bull and Google. Three organizations that have revolutionized their industries. Ironically, those are three companies that probably don’t require the help of an innovation consultant. They already know and value the potential of a good idea. They have already fostered cultures of acceptance and creativity.

In my opinion, the places that need this the most are those that don’t think that they need it. The companies that have yet to see the value in fostering an organically creative culture. Anyways, enough of my ranting. Here’s an overview of the ?What If! story:

The Problem

Back in 1992, Matt Kingdon and Dave Allan (both idea drunks) started to feel increasingly frustrated working within the bureaucracy of big corporate structures.

Both felt that big corporations had inefficient and damaging approaches to creative innovation, especially when it came to new product development.

Rather than just accepting the situation for what it was, Matt and Dave decided to do something about it

The Process

After several months of clandestine pub talk about setting up a creative agency, Matt and Dave had cracked the offer: to help super tanker corporates become innovation speed boats. Over a few months the start-up fund, of just £20,000 was scraped together.

Like everything in the early days the ?What If! name was developed as a result of an informal brainstorm session, whilst on a beach somewhere. Someone said they liked the word ‘if’, then someone else said ‘yeah, as in ‘what if’. And that was it.

The business opened its doors on Sept 28th 1992 in a rather dingy office. In the subsequent years the business has stuck to its mantra of “recruit superstars only” and has retained the original entrepreneurial, collaborative and creative ethos throughout all its offices by being a strongly values-led business. I want to work there. Sounds fun.

- Christian

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