Rethink: A Business Manifesto for Cutting Costs and Boosting Innovation

TENRethinking at Cranium

“If life doesn’t offer a game worthplaying, then invent a new one.”

–Anthony J. D’Angelo

BACK IN 1997, Richard Tait was a dynamic Scottish immigrant working for Microsoft in Seattle and amusing friends with his unwavering ability to lose at Scrabble. After a particularly humiliating defeat, Tait asked himself, “Why isn’t there a game that gives everyone a chance to shine?” He convinced Whit Alexander, an old friend, to help him develop a board game that would challenge multiple talents and let all the players win. They called it Cranium.

A decade later, the inventive partners were comfortably seated atop an organization that had sold more than 22 million games, books, and toys in 40 countries and 10 languages. Their ...