Innovative Model Joey Reiman has thought up stuff you've only dreamed about--and now he's going to share his secrets of innovation with you.

Charles H. Duell was a bad, bad man. No doubt you've heardhis famous quote: "Everything that can be invented has beeninvented." Duell made that statement in 1899, insisting thathis office be shut down just before he resigned as the U.S.Commissioner of Patents. You can't help but wonder how ourworld would be if his words had been true. In what would have beena much less wonderful life, think of what wouldn't have beenborn: E-mail. Television. Paper towels. The microwave oven. Catlitter. Defibrillators. Viagra. And Joey Reiman would never havecreated BrightHouse.

BrightHouse is one of those companies where innovation is therule, not the exception. Because many businesses get bogged down inbusiness, CEOs and management teams hire Reiman and his 12employees to come up with everything from new products to newmission statements. Because most of the ideas are confidential,exactly what Atlanta-based BrightHouse has done since its foundingin 1995 will have to be left to our imaginations, but clientsinclude Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific Corp., Home Depot andMcDonald's. Reiman, 49, and his team are paid big money--half amillion for a 10-week brainstorming session, and $50,000 for afour-hour quickie. BrightHouse is poised to bring in $10 million inrevenue this year, simply by doing what all entrepreneurs and theiremployees should do.

They innovate. They tinker, they think, they improve. Theydream. They understand that nothing is ever what it seems. Even afamous quote. Duell never said, "Everything that can beinvented has been invented." The person who started the rumorwas the first person to utter that infamous sentence. In fact,Duell kept his post until 1901 and remained interested in patentlaw until his death. He was an ally of innovation, and would haveadmired Joey Reiman, BrightHouse and its battalion ofbrainstormers.

The Process & Incubating an Idea

On the surface, BrightHouse appears to be made up of a bunch ofrich intellects who are really lucky. Because their clients spanthe globe and have cash to burn, BrightHouse employees get somepleasant perks. The BrightHouse team has held brainstormingsessions on yachts, beaches and mountains and in world-class spas.Small wonder COO Anne Simons admits, "Some people have theidea that we just lounge around all day."

They don't, but part of innovation is thinking, and becausethinking looks a lot like loafing, not many companies followReiman's lead. Who wants to pay employees who look likethey're daydreaming about last week's Six Feet Underepisode? Neither Reiman nor Simons fears that. "The people whoenjoy being here enjoy being intellectually stimulated," saysSimons.

Reiman's process of innovating involves four basic steps.Not that anything about BrightHouse is basic. The steps arecomplicated, and the process won't translate to all companiesbecause a lot is dependent on having a leader who has the drive andwhimsy to be creative. Alf Nucifora, a prominent marketingconsultant, facilitates many of BrightHouse's brainstormingsessions, known as "ideations." "A hell of a lot ofthe success is due to Joey," he says. "He's a shot ofadrenaline. He brings an edginess and a risk to the table, which Ithink is lacking in most corporations. I wish we could distill himand inject him into our veins."

But since we can't, here are the four steps: 1)investigation, 2) incubation, 3) illumination and 4)illustration.

Most companies probably already do Steps 1 and 4. Investigationinvolves analyzing the project, learning everything possible aboutit. The last step, which often takes BrightHouse nearly threemonths, is putting the knowledge together into a dynamic package.But businesses often ignore incubation and illumination.

Incubating anIdea
For every BrightHouse project, Reiman builds in three to four weeksof incubation, "where all we do-literally-is think." Infact, he's written a book on the subject, Thinking for a Living (LongstreetPress), and he's working on another one, Business at theSpeed of Molasses. "What happens when you ponder?"asks Reiman. "You have more insight, more discovery, morecompassion, more wonder. And the results all lead to, of course,more profits."

Before you contend that in a 24/7 world, careful thought isoverrated or impossible, consider this: "It takes a bambootree four years to take root; in the fifth year, it grows 80 feet.That is the power of the incubator," says Reiman. "So wesay to our clients, 'Wait a second, guys. If you really wantsomething great, something that's going to change the world, wehave to move slower, not faster.' The power of slow is oursecret weapon."

Reiman encourages paid sabbaticals. Employees cut out early onFridays during the summer, and during the incubation period,"the five bastions of thinking" are highlighted. SaysReiman, "We have this notion that there are five places leftin the world to really think: the john, the shower, the car, thegym and church or temple."

No, the BrightHouse staff doesn't shower together, but asReiman says, "We try to find places where we can relax. One ofthe things a lot of us will do is go fishing. Fishing is theperfect state to think. When you're fishing, two things arehappening in your brain: Your brain is on high alert in case a fishis around, but your brain is completely relaxed. So this climatethat we create is one of high relaxation and high attentiveness.That combination, we have found, is the time when you have the'Aha!' moment."

Achieving Illumination

If innovation sounds nebulous, it is. As author Mark HenrySebell says, "Innovation has no road map, so you can't setup a lot of systems and procedures. You can have guidelines, butthey have to be loose ones."

For instance, few companies abide by the rule that all ideasshould be considered. Sebell found it such a problem that he wrotea book, Ban the Humorous Bazooka--and Avoid theRoadblocks and Speed Bumps Along the Innovation Highway(Dearborn Trade). The "humorous bazooka" refers to aderogatory comment that shoots down an idea. "Consensusbrainstorming is a killer," Sebell says. "It feeds on thelowest common denominator."

Does this mean you shouldn't brainstorm with your employees?No, but brainstorm with creativity--and compassion for whatinitially seems like a strange idea. In addition to ideating forclients, Reiman also has ideations to devise internal strategiesfor his own company. In these ideations, there isn't anyhumorous bazooka. Reiman always does whatever he can "toencourage the free flow of ideas," says Bradd Borne, an EmoryUniversity professor of anthropology and one of Reiman'silluminaries. "Unlike some CEOs, he's completelyunthreatened by really smart people."

Reiman invites a diverse crowd into his ideations--say, anastrologist, a physicist and a psychologist to discuss lifeinsurance. "If he's working with an auto manufacturer,he'll bring in an anthropologist or a sociologist--people whothink beyond the borders of what you would expect, and you canreally get into some fertile territory," says Nucifora.

Anybody could theoretically run an ideation. Even if youcan't pay an anthropologist for his or her time the wayBrightHouse does, you could spring for lunch. If the professorisn't interested, maybe a graduate student will be. Anyone,including your sculptor brother-in-law, or your retired engineerneighbor, could be a valuable addition to an ideation. And mix yourgroup with the lowest employees on the company ladder and thehighest in your management team.

You don't want too few people in a session, says Nucifora,but more isn't merrier either. Twelve is optimum, thoughNucifora has facilitated successful ideations with as few as sevenpeople and as many as 16. The mix is most important. "The roomthen builds on itself," he says.

While the guidelines are loose, structure is still important.Working in four-hour blocks is key, says Simons, "because inthat first hour, everybody's getting to know each other. In thesecond, people start talking about things that are important, andthe fertile ideas come in the third hour. Then there's anincredible burst of ideas if the first three hours have gone theway it should. After that, people are done. You can't squeezeany more out of them."

Culture of Creativity

Shira White interviewed more than 100 highly creative thinkers,many of them in the corporate world, for her latest book, New Ideas About New Ideas (PerseusPublishing). She says if there's a common denominator amonginnovative entrepreneurs, it's this: "They tend to havecreative lives, even when they're out of the office."

Reiman does. He is an adjunct business professor at EmoryUniversity, where he finds many--but not all--of his illuminaries.He's into yoga. He has horses in the barn near his house. Incollege, he studied and worked for Italian film director FedericoFellini. A voracious reader, he often hands out business books tohis staff. But mostly, he looks at the world through multicoloredglasses. Even brainstorming isn't brainstorming. He calls it"heartstorming."

When BrightHouse ideates, Reiman has one guiding principle:Think with your heart as much as your mind. "If you canactually impact the world, make a dent in the universe, dosomething that resonates with the hearts around the world, theprofits will come," promises Reiman. "It soundshigh-flying, and it is. It's soaring."

Much of it comes down to caring for the customer, whichisn't all that innovative. Or is it? "Consideringwhat's happened with 9/11, Anderson, the Archdiocese,Enron--the world is a lot more cynical," says Reiman."People are looking for beacons to lead them, and if companiescan really identify and articulate their core purposes, people willfollow." That's why we remember Henry Ford today, and whypeople in the 22nd century will be talking about Bill Gates.

But if nothing had been invented after 1899, there would havebeen no Ford or Gates, and we would have been stuck on the edge ofgreatness. Our movies would still be grainy black and white, andHenry Ford wouldn't have created a car everybody could afford.Ford understood what Reiman says is a valve at the heart ofinnovation: "It's not just about coming up with newproducts. It's about understanding culture, and even somethingas large as a country."

Indeed, that's why Reiman always asks his clients: If yourcompany were gone tomorrow, what would the world lose? And theiranswer had better be focused and nothing less than profound."History only has room for one sentence," Reiman likes totell his clients. He pauses and then asks: "What's yoursentence?"

Geoff Williams is known around the world for being an icon ofinnovation, a creative god, and the man Steven Spielberg andStephen Hawking turn to when they need inspiration. This is thelast time we let him write his own biographical notes.

Contact Sources

• Brighthouse LLC
  (404) 720-1007, jreiman@brighthouse.com
• Creative Realities Inc.
  (800) 446-2210, mark@creativerealities.com
• Nucifora Consulting Group
  (770) 952-2112, www.nucifora.com
• Traction Plus
  (817) 685-7184, russk@tractionplus.com