The Idea Assessment of the Five Samurai

The Idea Assessment of the Five Samurai supports the decision at the interface from the fuzzy front end of innovation process and the project phase. It is a final revision of a selected idea before starting the realisation and the consumption of tangible resources. The five samurai are guards for the following strategic and future oriented positions:

The deciding committee (5-7 people) reflect on the selected idea from the same perspective (for example the persprective of the blue samurai: Who is stakeholder of the solution in our own organisation? Are there any cannibalistic effects to our own other products and services? etc.) in limited time of approximately 6 minutes. In the next round the committee changes to the next Samurai Guard and so on. The biggest advantage of this procedure is the use of parallel thinking. Parallel thinking on the same object is very powerful in collecting positive or negative arguments from different person in a very short time from divers departments and organisational levels.

A further advantage of the assessment is the use of the wisdom of the old. Miyamoto Musashi lived as Samurai (the most famous sword fighter) in medieval Japan (1584 – 1645). Based on sword fighting strategies he wrote the famous “Book of the Five Rings”. With his work he is known as the initial founder of “Kaizen” and Lifelong Learning. This principal strategic wisdom has been proofed over centuries.

To use these consideration in modern innovation process enhances the probably of success of ideas or helps to avoid failures if the idea assessment brings out obstacles and barriers which could not get over.