Try zoo if nothing else works

That's at least what the Procter & Gamble did. When the R&D department of the feminine-care business unit ran out of options they did the next best thing. Visit the San Diego zoo hoping the find solutions in the nature and mimic it.

"The zoo is developing a specialty in biomimicry, a discipline that tries to solve problems by imitating the ingenious and sustainable answers provided by nature. In a working session with the company, the zoo's biomimicry experts made an unexpected connection between P&G's problem and the physiology of a gecko. Other ideas came quickly, inspired by flower petals, armadillos, squirrels, and anteaters. (Full disclosure: Chip led a workshop with the biomimicry team on another issue.) By the end of the day, the working group had generated eight fresh approaches to the challenge. It was as if Ideo had opened an office on Noah's Ark.... "

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