Systematic Inventive Thinking (company)
Systematic Inventive Thinking is a privately owned international innovation company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices/affiliates in seven countries. Since 1995, SIT has worked in 73 countries and with more than 1000 companies in a wide range of industries.
The company's work is based on the SIT innovation methodology, which it is named after. At the core of the work is the idea that all innovations share common patterns. Based on these patterns, SIT has designed a structured method called Systematic Inventive Thinking®. Systematic Inventive Thinking® applies a series of creative constraints that leads one to think and act differently. The SIT proprietary inventive thinking strategy helps businesses reassess business models and business strategy and sharpen their company product offerings and ROI.
History
The SIT methodology is based on Genrich Altshuller’s TRIZ engineering discipline of structured problem-solving. Ginadi Filkovsky began teaching TRIZ and adapting it to the needs of both Israeli and international hi-tech companies. Jacob Goldenberg and Roni Horowitz joined Filkovsky, focusing their research on developing and simplifying the methodology. In 1995, they met Amnon Levav and jointly started to expand the method to other fields. Haim Peres and his partner, Haim Hardouf, then proposed to Horowitz, Filkovsky, and Levav to set up a company to commercialize the method, eventually naming it SIT.The company opened its main office in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1995, and over subsequent years opened six additional offices in Australia, Austria, Chile, China, Colombia, and the UK.
Methodology
SIT's 5-layer innovation toolkit, also known as the Ripple Model, is a comprehensive approach to organisational innovation, giving organisations the tools, principles, and skills they need to innovate from within.Thinking Tools
At the heart of SIT’s method and the innovative toolkit is one crucial idea: inventive solutions share common patterns. Focusing not on what makes inventive solutions different, but on what, if anything, they might have in common, led to the development of The Five Thinking Tools: Subtraction, Multiplication, Task Unification, Attribute Dependency, and Division.Principles
Principles allow the user to utilize the innovation toolkit and apply the tools, ensuring that time is effectively used and that ideas are implementable and impactful.Facilitation
Most SIT programs are conducted for teams, not individuals. Therefore, a range of facilitation skills are needed to complement the content of the innovation toolkit. These skills are specific to the setting of the innovation workshop.Project Management
Project Management provides guidelines and techniques for utilization of the innovation toolkit. Like a traditional business process, this ensures that the innovation process is properly managed.Three Pillar Model
The three-pillar model is SIT’s model for organisational innovation. It consists of work on results, skills, and structures. The model provides the framework for innovating by providing activities, facilitation, and plans that build a culture and practice of sustainable innovation in the organisation.Products and Services
Industries
SIT has worked on projects in the food & beverage industry, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and education industries. Global clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Bayer, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, and Philips.The SIT methodology is also taught at universities. The "Design Your Innovation Blueprint" course, taught in partnership with Columbia Business School Executive Education, helps participants learn how to plan, develop, and implement self-sustaining innovation via a three-day course. Participants acquire the tools needed for innovative thinking and learn how to design and manage innovation processes.
Core Offerings
- Organisational innovation: The primary application of the SIT method is in building a practice and culture of innovation. This is done by creating a plan of action and supporting it in all aspects of the transformation process. The three-pillar model, SIT’s organisational innovation model, is utilized in this process and consists of three innovation pillars, which, when combined, provide the framework for innovation.
- Problem Solving: Approaching and resolving difficult technical, commercial or organisational problems in new ways.
- Strategy: Identifying alternatives to a company’s or team’s current marketing, human resources, sales, go-to-market, development pipeline, and other strategies.
- Productivity: Making work processes more efficient by applying innovative thinking to reduce non-value-add work.
- NPD: Developing new products, services, processes, lines, or categories.
- Communication: Creating novel and effective ways to communicate internally and externally.
Additional Units
- SIT’s Online Academy: SIT launched its Online Academy in late 2017. The Online Academy offers an introduction to the SIT methodology via three different courses; ‘Innovate with What You Have’, ‘Process Innovation is in Order’, and ‘The Innovation Multiplier’. The courses include videos, activities, and practical assignments.
- SIT4 is the social innovation unit of SIT. It is a social business with a double bottom line: being profitable and creating social impact. This is accomplished by utilizing the resources of SIT and providing services to clients at a reduced cost.
- Open-i offers unique open innovation programs, connecting companies and organisations from around the globe to the Israeli innovation ecosystem. By co-creating an inspiring and result-oriented experience, Open-i bridges the gap between closed innovation ideation and open innovation solutions, targeting both innovation goals and innovation strategy. This is accomplished via a facilitated journey, complete with SIT methods, workshops, and lectures.
Research & Publications
- "Creative Problem Solving in Engineering Design", a thesis by Roni Horowitz.
- "Finding Your Innovation Sweet Spot”, a Harvard Business Review publication, written by Jacob Goldenberg, Roni Horowitz, Amnon Levav, and David Mazursky, is a comprehensive article that defines how SIT methodology, and more specifically, the Near Far Sweet model, can be utilized in new product development. Finding the innovation "sweet spot" requires a balance that leads to viable ideas. The NFS principle ensures that ideas generated will be sufficiently removed from the current situation, while nevertheless close enough to our core competence in order to be feasible. The SIT thinking process uses the FFF procedure and the five thinking tools in order to generate new forms. These forms, if unrestrained, might lead to "far" ideas. The "closed world" condition, for example, acts as an inhibitor, making sure we don't wander too far away from the original product. This combination of opposite forces keeps us ideating in the sweet zone.
- "Creativity in Product Innovation", by Jacob Goldenberg and David Mazursky, describes an SIT technique that can be utilized to improve creativity in product design. Providing several templates, the book demonstrates how the method can be applied and gives examples of its application by Philips Consumer Electronics, Kodak, Coca-Cola, and many others.
- "Systematically Creating Coincidental Product Evolution: Case Studies of the Application of the Systematic Inventive Thinking® Method in the Chemical Industry" demonstrates the necessity of an unconventional innovation methodology within the field of new product development. The article shows how the SIT method has been successfully applied in the chemical industry. The article includes an overview of the method, together with case studies from the industry.
- "Cracking the Ad Code," published in 2009, examines the application of SIT in the field of advertising. Written by Jacob Goldenberg, Amnon Levav, David Mazursky, and Sorin Solomon, the book presents the reader with over 100 case studies and advertising examples. The book dives into the secrets of inventing new creative campaigns as well as practical tools that allow for the quick production of ideas. Cracking the Ad Code is a useful tool for students and advanced learners alike in the fields of advertising, marketing, communication, and management.
- "Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results" by Drew Boyd & Jacob Goldenberg is the most recent book applying SIT methodology. The book explores the breakthrough innovations that have occurred with the application of the methodology. The main premise is that the traditional attitude toward creativity, i.e. to think outside the box can hinder creative thinking as opposed to allowing it to take place. Instead, it is more effective to work “inside the box” and utilize an approach in which one works within the constraints of what is familiar to them. It has been translated into 13 languages.