Our first challenge on the Squared program was to 'create an online business'.

We were given just six days to come up with an idea and put together a pitch which we believed would persuade a panel of entrepreneurs that our business was worthy of investment. It was a great experience and the results were fantastic but we were faced with a number of problems along the way.

Above all, I believe the biggest difficulty was finding something which hadn't been done before. Apple were spot on with their 'there's an app for that' tagline because there's quite literally one for everything. Of course I already knew this to an extent but it was really brought to light as we found ourselves repeatedly responding to ideas with 'it's been done'. After a couple of days of solid brainstorming it was starting to feel as though we were attempting the impossible and we desperately needed a fresh approach.

Thankfully, a turning point was just around the corner! Midway through the week we attended a lecture on creativity which delivered the following message; build don't break. This simple yet invaluable piece of advice transformed our entire thought process and ultimately saved our project 1. By building on ideas and always saying yes, we immersed ourselves in a positive and inspirational environment which proved to be far more effective for generating ideas. Banning the word 'no' meant that we could no longer just dismiss suggestions but instead develop them, finding ways of overcoming any potential issues.

The importance of the 'build don't break concept' was demonstrated through a simple exercise in which we split into pairs and labelled ourselves 1 and 2. All the 1s (including myself) left the room and we were told we had three minutes to come up with a creative idea for a poster promoting the Olympic Games before pitching it to our partners. What we didn't know was that in our absence, all the numbers 2s had been told to respond negatively to our idea and to provide multiple reasons why it wouldn't work. Afterwards, we were asked how we felt and the general consensus was 'pretty shit'. We found that it's incredibly difficult to remain enthusiastic about your idea when faced with somebody who repeatedly puts it down and so it leaves very little room for creativity. Therefore, I believe that despite the need to be realistic when pitching in front of clients, the initial stages should have no such restrictions. A premature voice of reason or realism can crush a big idea completely when perhaps all it needs is a little tweaking.

By approaching the challenge with this in mind, my group found that we were no longer hindered by the 'it's been done' syndrome. Rather than pointing out this (rather obvious) fact, all members of the team contributed to ideas which eventually differentiated them from other apps already out there. Furthermore, we discovered that many of the apps on offer are riddled with flaws and so we should not be put off pursuing an idea because it has been attempted before. Instead, we should be encouraged to provide a much improved service for a consumer need that is evidently already in existence. Just look at Instagram, for example. This basic photo editing app is far from ground breaking; there are hundreds of apps out there which offer similar services but Instagram has become such a huge success because it provides a faster and better quality service than any of its competitors. Therefore, in a world where there is an app for everything, we need to look at ways of improving those already available as well as conjuring up completely new ideas.

After a challenging but brilliant week, we were all extremely pleased with our final app and wish that it really existed so we could start using it right away!

Chiara Lelizzari
Rotational Graduate at MEC (London)