MESSAGE FOR WEEK BEGINNING 1st January 2001

..the 'shock of the new' is wearing off.....

'A Happy New year to all visitors to this site'

Very quietly the idea of the codes put forward in my latest book (The de Bono Code Book) is taking hold and spreading. The 'initial shock' is wearing off and values are beginning to be seen. Some major corporations are ordering several copies of the book. Obviously, the whole book is quite a lot to take on board at once. But individual codes can be extracted and used in various departments etc.

Testing of new products often fails because the initial test is a poor test. If you put a bottle of a new drink on the table before some peoplpe they will reject it unless it is sweet. Yet new sweet drinks usually fail in the market. Imagin a group of people being asked to taste beer for the first time. They would be very likely to reject it. Marketeers now know this and are putting more emphasis on sampling. Leave a sample of the product in households and as they use it they come to evaluate it properly. I suspect the same phemomenon will apply to new codes. Use them in a sample fashion in a few defined situations and then evaluate their conveience.

Edward de Bono nmt
31st December 2000
Norfolk, UK