No one gives us problems to solve anymore!

Shortly following his impactful experience with the designer problem solving session, Garry inquired about receiving training in Simplexity Thinking. Since he was a graduate student, I made it easy for him to attend a week long executive training session solving real corporate problems at our headquarters near Toronto. 

He enjoyed the experience immensely and on his return to New York City, he invited me for a visit with him to engage with senior partners at an advertising and communications firm with whom he was connected. They told me that their clients were increasingly uncertain about how to continue to grow their businesses. “In the old days, General Motors would come to us and tell us what do do; for example ‘run some focus groups to evaluate our new product and send us the results’. But nowadays, they often ask us what they should be doing instead. Our marketing team is used to being successful in delivering what they are asked. However, clients are no longer coming to us with their problems; we need to be more innovative in finding their problems for them. Rather than giving us a precise problem to solve, customers want our help in discovering the right problem they should be solving.”