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Nir Ben-Lavi, president of Inovent Applications. |
‘Corner shot,’ a gun created by applying inventive thinking. It shoots around corners and is manufactured and sold by Israel’s weapons industries. |
JERUSALEM – Imagine the following: Jerusalem, one hot afternoon. 500 activists who oppose the evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements draw together to stage a spontaneous demonstration. As the protest starts to gather momentum, police arrive at the scene to monitor the situation and, if needed, disperse the crowd. Suddenly, a brawl erupts between a small group of protestors and several police officers.
This peaceful demonstration could in a matter of seconds deteriorate into a violent fracas. Although there may be only a handful of hotheads who wish to see things getting out of hand and clash with police, emotions are running high and other demonstrators could just be sucked into the riot.
This is the type of scenario that the national headquarters of the Israel Police is currently analyzing to come up with creative solutions that would help handling severe civil disobedience while minimizing the number of potential casualties.
Nir Ben-Lavi is the president of Inovent Applications – an Israeli firm that developed the theory of Applied Inventive Thinking (AIT) used for creating new out-of-the box solutions which improve organizations’ productivity through systematic analysis of the existing conditions and with the use of in-house knowledge.
Ben-Lavi proposed to the police a new approach to solving such situations. “What would almost every Israeli demonstrator have with him during the protest?” he asks and immediately answers: “a set of keys, maybe a placard and a cellular phone.”
“Let’s take this data and turn it into part of the solution for this explosive situation,” he said. “By utilizing existing technologies, the police can easily find the name and number of anyone who has a cell phone within a given parameter. Now, if police send all the owners of the phone numbers in the area of the demonstration a personal text message reading ‘this is the Israel Police – you are taking part in an illegal demonstration, please leave the area immediately,’ most of those protestors would stop in their tracks and disperse knowing they are exposed in person.”
Ben-Lavi said that studies have shown that “once an individual is singled out in a mass, using this method or even through surveillance cameras, he will be less likely to break the law.” This is just one example Inovent has come up with in its extensive cooperation with governmental establishments and institutions as well as with other leading organizations and industries.
By applying AIT, organizations and companies can also enhance their productivity and hence reduce costs considerably, Ben-Lavi said. Since its creation some five years ago, Inovent has worked with many of the leading companies in Israel’s private sector and prides itself on its great successes.
When working with an organization “we don’t invest in researching for new knowledge or more funds. We take the existing materials – man power, knowledge base and strengths – and by sharply focusing on the root problems of the company, we implement the AIT algorithm for their solution,” he said. This work pattern will yield new inventive results whenever applied by the organization.
Ben-Lavi gave the example of a factory that develops products for the improvement of the performance and fuel consumption of diesel engines. By searching for new combinations of the existing chemical materials used in the production process, Inovent reached three major results, Ben-Lavi said: “A dramatic reduction in the quantity of pollutants emitted from the vehicles, a considerable reduction in gas consumption as well as the improvement in engine performance.” This meant, in turn, that companies that apply the new product such as bus operators or trucking companies could cut their fuel expenses by almost 20 per cent.
The many examples Ben-Lavi offered reveal that regardless of the field of operation, its location or the initial impediments, by applying the AIT approach the route to higher effectiveness and new solutions is identical. The secret lies, according to the president of Inovent, in acquiring a new methodology and reshuffling existing thought patterns to yield new, innovative results.
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