Alex F. Osborn

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Alex Faickney Osborn (born May 24, 1888 in Bronx , New York City , † May 4, 1966 in Buffalo , New York ) was an American author and advertising specialist. He is the inventor of creative problem solving and brainstorming .

Life

In 1909 Osborn did his bachelor's degree in philosophy , only while working in the advertising industry in 1921 did his master's degree at the University of Hamilton, USA, where he later (until 1939) also taught himself. One of his students is Charles Hutchison Clark . In the meantime he worked as a reporter for the Buffalo News .

In 1919 he founded the advertising company BDO together with Bruce Barton and Roy Durstine, which has been called BBDO since it was merged with the Batten Co. in 1928. After Durstine, Osborn took over the management of the company in 1939, which he handed over to Barton in 1946.

In 1954 Osborn established the “Creative Education Foundation” and installed the first institute for creative problem solving at the University of Buffalo.

Act

Working in the American advertising industry since 1919, over the years he discovered that the work meetings tended to slow down rather than encourage employees' creativity. Using four rules, he developed a procedure that should give employees the freedom to come up with new ideas. In the shorter German translations these rules were:

  • Do not criticize!
  • The more ideas the better!
  • Complete and improve already existing ideas!
  • The more unusual the idea, the better!

Osborn also developed the Osborn method or the reverse method for business and private problem areas:

  • What else can I use it for? Can I use it differently?
  • Does the problem suggest other ideas? Is it similar to anything else?
  • What can be changed? Which properties can be redesigned?
  • Can something be enlarged, added, reproduced?
  • Can something be made smaller, removed, shortened?
  • What can be replaced Which conditions can be changed?
  • Can the order or structure be changed?
  • Can the idea be turned into the opposite? Can the process be reversed?
  • Can ideas be combined or people connected?

A detailed list of questions is known as the Osborn Checklist ; based on these questions - distributed on cards and drawn at random - through various aspects of the problem analysis.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Osborn, Alex F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Osborn, Alex Faickney (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and advertising executive
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , United States
DATE OF DEATH May 4th 1966
Place of death Buffalo , United States