You can’t pigeon-hole them and they make many feel uncomfortable. Lateral thinkers often have a really difficult time in the world of work – where people think rationally and in straight lines. Yet their potential can be invaluable to companies. But what or who is a lateral thinker? What attributes distinguish them from others? Steinbeis experts look at the answers to these and many other questions surrounding lateral thinkers.
- Stefan Odenbach, project manager at the Steinbeis Transfer Center Technology – Organization – Human Resources, examines the definition of a lateral thinker and delves into the role lateral thinking plays in the development of innovations.
- Marcel Reiner, who works at the Steinbeis Transfer Center Infothek, looks at a specific example and examines how MeetNow! uses the overlaps between the unconventional and the creative to come up with successful ideas.
- Jürgen R. Schmid, founder and managing director of Design Tech, provides some insights into the world of a lateral thinker.
- Dr. Andreas Crivellin, theoretical physicist at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen (Switzerland), discusses the status of knowledge of particle physics, explaining why unconventional thinking is crucial when researching the fundamental laws of nature.
- In an interview Professor Dr. Bernd Jörs, director of the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Online Marketing Engineering & Business Analytics and a professor in information economy and online marketing engineering at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, explains why to teach, university lecturers must think laterally.
- Alexandra Rudl (bwcon GmbH) outlines why business enterprises need a corporate culture that allows every individual to think laterally, make mistakes, and learn from them.
- Dr. Philipp Liedl, managing director of STASA Steinbeis Angewandte Systemanalyse GmbH, explains how interdisciplinary lateral thinking can help companies manage huge volumes of data.
- Dr. Petra Püchner (Managing Director, Steinbeis 2i GmbH) and her colleague Saskia Heyde believe strongly that lateral thinking cannot work without awareness for and inclusion of the views held by other groups of people in society.