The Story Behind Need 4 Speed
During the economic downturn back in 2010, our global partners identified a need for a niche team building product with a focus on efficiency, cost saving, time management, and developing a culture of sharing best practices.
Here at HQ, we rose to this challenge and set about brainstorming how these business issues could be explored in a fun context, while also offering a level playing field for review and reflection.
After locking ourselves away in our ‘ideas shed’, we rattled our brain cells, bounced ideas around, and settled on some form of construction/reconstruction exercise with the added constraint that activities should be table based and instantly engaging for all participants.
Exiting ‘the shed’ with a firm brief in hand, we split up and set about individually scouring the market for a tactile, high-quality construction toy to base our concept around. Ever aware of our strategy - to offer consistent team building games on a global scale, the challenge was on to source a widely available product. This search proved harder than we thought, and we had already ruled out Lego, an option we all felt had been ‘done to death’ in the training world.
Keep your “Eyes WIde Open”
Another of our team building mantras in developing products is ‘keep your eyes wide open’. The Eureka moment came to me, while looking for my nephew’s birthday present. Suddenly, in a small shop down the cobbled streets of Lewes, East Sussex, I unwittingly found myself holding the solution - Automoblox Cars! “This is it!”, I shouted triumphantly, while bemused shoppers gave me a safe distance.
The solution I found was a tactile, contemporary, award winning educational toy. One that gave us the right level of complexity for a new game. From that point on we formulated a clever game structure, and supporting software that has ensured Need for Speed remained one of our top ten selling business games for the past 10 years.
Need for Speed proved to us that even in times of austerity, business still perceives team building to be important providing that they see clear ROI. With an increasing awareness of the importance of a sharing culture, and agile teamwork, we foresee Need for Speed remaining relevant for many years to come.
