Ours is a most complex world, to say the least.

And our ever more complicated lives beget equally complex questions. And these complex questions, in turn, require new ways of thinking.

So we decided to create an organization that would foster new ways of thinking about business, consumers, products, behavior and everything in between.

We began by recruiting a diverse group of people - artists, sociologists, designers, anthropologists, economists and so forth - to join our tribe. Next, we decided to give our little baby a name, and that name is Tinderbox.

A Tinderbox is a toolkit that allows one to easily and reliably start a fire. The Tinderbox was critical to the development of civilizations because it gave humans the power to control the flame.

Our Tinderbox is all about harnessing the power of the past to move forward with confidence, purpose and reason.

Tinderbox is not a gang of artists with black clothes and expensive, designer eyeglasses.

Tinderbox is not an office full of creative types bouncing balls off of walls.

Tinderbox is not a wizard offering mystical predictions of the future.

Much like our ancient ancestors, we firmly believe in the need for a disciplined, practiced way of getting things done.

Our discipline looks very carefully at the nexus of culture, innovation and trends to better understand today's consumer and business environment, as well as make reasoned inferences about the future.