More comments on “If TRIZ is so good…”

More comments on “If TRIZ is so good…”

The original article, by Brian Campbell, was in the April 2002 issue of The TRIZ Journal. Comments by several others appeared in the April and May issues.

Ellen,

First of all, thanks to you and Michael for you great work on the Journal. Keep it up.

Second, to answer the question "If TRIZ is so good..", it is the exact same question that has been vexing the Value Engineering community for years. Like TRIZ, VE is a proven, powerful way to solve problems and come up with innovative solutions. Although the TRIZ methodology delivers a higher level of innovation, these tools have the same aims. And the answer to the "golden question" is also the same -

The reason why TRIZ (and VE) are hard to sell is that you are selling TRIZ (or VE).

The grim reality of the business world is that we measure success in financial terms, not in terms of how clever our innovation is. Therefore, focusing on a methodology (however clever or potent) is irrelevant to the scorekeeping Of complete relevance is the business result that TRIZ or VE deliver. Selling this is much more interesting to those who keep score.

Robert Orlean
Orlean Technical Solutions, Inc.
e-mail: r.orlean@orlean-tech.com