The Eureka! Ranch
Where New Happens
We’ve all heard that change is hard. Especially in established organizations where there is already a set way of working. But it is not impossible.
We believe every organization can change and do new things that are meaningful.
The Eureka! Ranch is designed to give teams a break from their normal routines and free up their minds to think about the ideal future and the change needed to get there.
Innovation Engineering Blue Belt Certification
Are you ready to take your innovaiton skills to the next level?
Register for our online fundamentals course to earn your blue belt certification in 6 months or less.
With our course, you won’t just be learning the fundamentals of innovation, you’ll be working with a dedicated coach to immediately apply your new skills to solve real-world challenges. Our team of expert coaches will guide you through each lesson and provide personalized feedback to help you succeed. Our approach is unique because we believe that learning by doing is the most effective way to master new skills. That’s why we provide you with practical exercises and hands-on experience so that you can apply what you’ve learned right away.
Mission
Our Mission
1. Help People. Enable everyone to innovate and do new and meaningful things.
2. Help Organizations. Accelerate innovation success for sustainable growth.
Principles
Our Principles
1. Meaningful Uniqueness: Doing new things that make a difference is essential for the continued success of an organization.
2. Nothing Is Impossible: Our optimism and confidence are built on a solid foundation of having a system that allows for learning and change. With enough learning cycles, we will figure it out.
Our Services
Experts In Change
From the front end of innovation to tangible business results, we can help at every step along the journey.
Strategy
Manage innovation and maintain alignment to drive higher ROI from innovation. Learn More
Creativity
Eureka! experiences get teams to create more ideas and more unique solutions. Learn More
Education
Using a patented approach, Cycles to Mastery, to upskill learners. Learn more
Other Services
Competitive Analysis, Risk Assessments, Research Surveys, Sales Forecasting, and More. Learn More
Eureka! Experience
Leverage our systems and expertise to accelerate innovation at your organization.
Whatever the challenge, we are here to help.
Tools
Tools make it easier to create, communicate and commercialize meaningful innovations. Our Jump Start Your Brain platform allows you to activate and manage innovation at your organization.
Professional Development
Enable your team with innovation skills that they can apply to their work and your business.
Our History
1986
Eureka! Ranch was founded by Doug Hall to help companies be more creative and innovative.
1995
Jump Start Your Brain was published to teach people how to think more creatively in their lives and businesses. The book encourages people to break the rules but also gives them a proven process for success.
1999
The Eureka! Ranch was built in Newtown, Ohio, and designed to enable people to do new ideas and make meaningful changes.
2001
Jump Start Your Business Brain was published to give people a scientific way to leverage innovation and make more money for their businesses.
2005
Jump Start Your Marketing Brain was published to give businesses scientific advice and practical ideas for improving their marketing efforts.
2009
Innovation Engineering was first taught at the University of Maine to enable the next generation of leaders with the skills for innovation.
2011
Innovation Engineering Labs was released to enable companies with tools to apply Innovation Engineering principles to their ideation, project management, market research, and more.
2018
Driving Eureka! was published to teach leaders that systems are the driving force behind innovation success. Systems for innovation like Innovation Engineering encompass projects, collaboration, patents, research, and learning.
2019
Innovation Engineering Labs became Jump Start Your Brain allowing everyone at an organization to access the online training and be more successful with innovation.
Today
The Eureka Team continues to inspire established companies to do new and meaningful work. We look forward to partnering with your organization.
About Us
since 1986
Established in 1986, the Eureka! Ranch is known for its big ideas. When organizations realize that doing the same old stuff isn’t going to cut it anymore, they come to the Eureka! Ranch with their challenges and leave with an abundance of unique solutions and possibilities.
The Eureka! Team not only gets people to invent big, disruptive ideas, but also gives them the courage and skills to take action.
Their success is based on a scientific and data-grounded approach to creativity and innovation. Change is difficult, but not impossible, and with Eureka! Ranch’s system, change can become reliable and repeatable.
Before founding the Eureka! Ranch, Doug Hall was at P&G and got a record number of innovations shipped in a short period of time with a tiny staff and budget (9 products in 12 months with a team of 3). He did this by using a systems approach because of his knowledge of the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the inspiration for Lean, Total Quality and Six Sigma.
In the early days, we helped large companies like Nike, American Express, and Disney create big, disruptive ideas and published Jump Start Your Brain about how to be more creative. The Eureka! Ranch building was built in 1999 to host companies and get them out of their normal mindset to create more unique ideas.
While successful at the creation of unique ideas, we knew we needed to help companies commercialize disruptive ideas. This resulted in the publishing of 2 books on business and marketing of meaningful unique ideas and expanding our services past beyond the early stages of innovation.
While large companies need big ideas to grow their business, all companies need to innovate. To help more companies we trained a network of “Trained Brains” to facilitate the Eureka process with small and midsize manufacturing companies. Over time our innovation process and training resulted in the creation of the Innovation Engineering System and skillset.
Innovation Engineering was next taught to students at the University of Maine and has since expanded to more universities. Innovation leaders came to the Eureka! Ranch to learn the system and software was developed to make them more successful at applying the skills back at their organization. Over time, the Eureka! team has continuously innovated and improved our system for innovation, including the online tools and how we educate people.
Today the Ranch is led by CEO, Maggie Nichols, and a strong cadre of innovators, engineers, educators, and programmers, with founder, Doug Hall, remaining actively engaged as CIO and on special projects. We help organizations in 3 ways:
1) building their innovation pipeline,
2) improving their innovation process, and
3) training their people to think more innovatively.
We work with large multinationals, non-profits, and small and mid-size companies around the globe to help them think & act smarter, faster & more innovatively.
Working Together
An experience like no other
Working with the Eureka! Ranch is an experience like no other.
We know what it takes to be successful and will push teams beyond their comfort zones to do new, radical innovation.
Our methods are grounded in both scientific theory and real-world application. Every member of the Eureka! team has over 10 years of experience helping companies innovate. However, even with all of our knowledge and experience, we are still learning. We don’t know everything and when presented with an impossible challenge, we experiment, ask for help and fail until we succeed.
Working with us is not for everyone, but if you would like to see meaningful change and more success with innovation at your organization, there is no other team more qualified to help you succeed.
What our clients say about us
“This is a grueling, mind-melting, confidence-shaking experience for anyone who thinks she already knows how to innovate. Know-it-alls, be prepared to be humbled.”
TORI BRITTON
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER
WEBSTER ATLANTIC CORPORATION
“It was the single most important learning opportunity in my professional career.”
GARTH CORMIER
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
LIGHTHOUSE WEB SOLUTIONS
“PRACTICAL STUFF. Worth it’s weight and price 1000X over. It’s as important for companies at $1 million as at $1 billion. Credible because it’s supported with a ton of VERY HARD Data.”
TOM PETERS
AUTHOR