The Madonna Inn, located in San Louis Obispo in CA is a fascinating hotel whose leadership apparently (fortunately) didn't get the memo on the concept of standardization.

The hotel houses 110 creatively decorated rooms, and each room is different. 

My favorite is The Madonna Inn's Caveman Room; if you're looking to get away Fred-Flintstone style, this room may be for you.

Caveman Room

Just think of the thought processes planners who developed this project as a fun way to differentiate their product from competitors' offerings. 

If this group's members were working with an idea bank–electronic or manual collection of ideas–I can't imagine how creative the ideas were and how much fun they must have had determining the criteria for building their hotel's rooms.

Fun and creativity aside, they still needed a solid process to bring their ideas through the project's stages and to completion.

Just in the early stages, they must have been thinking for a long time about what should they build.  Then they had to ideate about the theme of each room.  What would the theme look like, the selection of the wallpaper or bed style, and more.

This is a perfect example of how often sub ideation occurs within the bigger idea's ideation.  The broadest ideation includes the type of hotel.  Then sub-ideation occurs where planners are asking about what types of rooms to include, and then even further ideation includes the details for each room.

Finally, planners must coordinate the tactics (plans) and the execution of those tactics. Wild!

The Strategic Alchemist™ , David Goldsmith is President and co-founder of MetaMatrix Consulting Group LLC. Over the past 24 years David has founded or co-founded nine businesses ranging from distribution to manufacturing to advertising. In 1999, David sold his 14-year-old Syracuse, NY based Image Promoters, Inc. which he co-founded in 1986 to Proforma Associates, a 400-location franchise. He has been a consultant to various industries including telemarketing, high tech, logistics, retailing, hospitality, tourism, and manufacturing. Working with business owners, and corporate and mid-level management, David rapidly creates strategies that win in the marketplace.

www.davidgoldsmith.com