IC TRAVEL AGENT November 2013 | Page 5

One of my favourite topics to train on and it’s much easier than thinking outside the box. Thinking INSIDE the Box for a home-based travel seller is where tools and creativity come together. You just have to know what those tools are. Before we get to those tools let’s quickly explore the Thinking OUTSIDE the Box model. The phrase is a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to creative thinking, however it is overused by management consultants and senior management and an activity that can cost you an arm and a leg whether the plan goes well or not. Thinking OUTSIDE is often taken literally and interpreted to mean buying talent, new equipment and even expanding the premises. You get the picture. Very few companies or individuals think outside the box without spending money. Conversely the SMP model, Thinking INSIDE the Box, makes use of the existing tools and talents and here’s the key point: hardly any company makes use of all the tools and talent at their disposal. It’s true. When you ponder this for yourself, go back in time to when you worked for someone else, you will know that management hardly listened to the talent they had hired. Employees gave up ideas that never made it to the discussion table. It’s just one of those things inherent in corporate life. So you learn from this OUTSIDE the box thinking and you go INSIDE to find the gems. Let’s take a look inside that box that you have access to. Page 5