Systematic Win-Win Problem Solving in a Business Environment’, paper presented at 7th European Association of Creativity and Innovation conference

TRIZ research has shown that the strongest solutions and ideas are the ones in which the problem or opportunity owner has successfully challenged the conflicts and trade-offs that others have assumed to be fundamental. Classical TRIZ includes a Matrix that enables owners of technical problems to quickly identify the inventive strategies used by others facing similar design conflicts. The paper describes the creation of a brand new Contradiction Matrix tool aimed specifically at business applications of TRIZ. The tool is believed to offer problem solvers the same ready access to the best of other business solutions, and as such offers a previously unknown problem solving capability. The new tool has been constructed from the analysis of a large proportion of the published knowledge on businesses that have successfully challenged the win-lose contradictions their competitors had not recognised or assumed were not challengeable. In all, several hundred win-win cases have been identified and included in the analysis. The paper describes some of the most well known of these cases- and how they have influenced the structuring and content of the new Matrix. A short final section of the paper describe