There is a financial crisis in Denmark, but these crisis present excellent opportunities to discover how to turn hardship into success.

This was the focal point of the iKRAFT event on March 3rd 2009 where we had an interesting afternoon in the SIF Lounge at Silkeborg Stadium. And the subject matter wasn't soccer, but lectures and workshops with the aim to generate creative ideas.

The creative conductor of the day was Morten Hejlesen from Innovation Lab in Århus, and he told vividly and visually about how easy it is to be trapped in the past and focus on products and services for one's best customers. And he explained how a new angle to innovation is to invite the company's new products to a job interview.

Afterwards he focused on tools and methods which we, during a sparkling workshop, tried out for ourselves. We had a product and a non-customer and was faced with the task of developing our product to the point where it became valuable to our non-customer, thus turning him into a potential customer.

It was highly remarkable to see the number of exciting and different products that could be developed by simply making different people work together for an hour. There's food for thought in that.

A major benefit was that tools, methods, and inspiration could easily be taken home and implemented in one's own company.