Teaching Heineken in the Places Other Business Schools Can't Reach

The Red Hats that Edward de Bono famously uses to represent intuition share their name with the Rode Hoed (Dutch for “red hat”). Once a hat shop, it was later the gateway to a big secret. Tucked away in the streets of Amsterdam, hidden inside three different houses, is the largest remaining secret church in the Netherlands. Dating back to the 17^th century, when the Remonstrantist branch of Christianity was outlawed in the country, the followers kept this huge church secret from the authorities. Today it's a discussion centre, and this year it played host to the annual Heineken Idea Contest.

Every year Heineken challenge their best and brightest to come up with ingenious and inventive new concepts, with the cream of the crop being presented at the Heineken Innovation Experience (INEX), where they go through a workshop to transform them from interesting thoughts to truly radical breakthroughs. Learning consultant Wiebe Buising and community manager for innovation Lois Ding invited Prof Eddie Obeng to help with this process. Eddie worked with Heineken in the chief focus stage, with an emphasis on engaging commitment and using the R.A.B.B.I.T. Model^TM to improve ideas rather than kill them. The participants thought that Eddie's SlizedBread^TM strategy for achieving focus was the best thing since... well, you can probably guess, and the 5 Bunny Hops^TM approach helped jump the hurdles standing in the way of innovation. It seems very appropriate that a building that used to house a secret was now the place to reveal the secrets of innovation.