Sunday, March 30, 2008

Failure = Better Ideas

I came across a quote in a Business Week that I love. The article (full article here) talks about IBM Research Director John Kelly's strategy for research and development. In it is this quote from Kelly:


"If we don't fail a third of the time, we're not stretching enough."


He lives by the first step of having more ideas.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Ideas in reverse

In Business Week Mag this week, there's an article about changing video games into movies. See the full article here.

They talk about the usual formula for a video game: take a popular movie or sports figure, make it a video game, and sell updated versions every few years.

With flagging sales, video game company Electronic Arts is trying a new approach. They are encouraging employees to think big. Create a video game that can later be converted into comics, books, movies, cartoons, TV shows, etc. "The next Batman or X-men franchise in reverse," says the article.

This is an interesting way to get inspiration for new ideas. Take a formula that works, and reverse it.

How could you reverse your current processes?

How could you reverse the processes of your competitors to gain an advantage?

Monday, March 24, 2008

Microsoft gets personal

Looks like I'm not the only one advocating the value of a personal touch when it comes to customer service. Here's a fun example from Microsoft, as told by Seth Godin.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

More ideas than you can shake a stick at

If you get stuck and need some quick idea inspiration, you might try visiting Alltop. This site, recently launched by Guy Kawasaki and others, gives you the top stories from the web's most popular sites and blogs. It's divided into several topic areas, and has way more info than you'll ever have time to read.

Right now, my favorites to browse are Egos and Food.

Friday, March 21, 2008

They have lots of my money - now they can have lots of my ideas

Starbucks just introduced My Starbucks Idea. This is a website for Starbucks fans to offer ideas and give feedback on the ideas of others. Here's the idea I just posted:

"I think you should sell free drink coupons in addition to gift cards. They would make nice small thank you gifts. I feel kind of silly giving someone a $3 gift card, but a free beverage coupon would be nice."

I'm interested to know how Starbucks will use the ideas generated on this site, and how they will let us know about them. We'll have to follow their blog to see.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Listen to ME, your customer!

When you want to make an impression on customers (and subsequently get them to listen to your ideas) don't underestimate the value of a personal touch. It's quick and powerful.

Take my dental surgery office for example. I went in this morning to have my two bottom wisdom teeth taken out. I have to admit that I was absolutely freaking out. I was scared to death that for some reason they weren't going to give me enough medicine to knock me out and I would wake up in the middle of the procedure.

I cried tears of terror in the waiting room (yes, I know I am a giant weenie). When the nurse called my name to take me back to the operating room, I pulled myself together. Then, unfortunately, when we got to the room, she made the mistake of asking how I was. More tears.

"I'm actually a nervous wreck," I said. Prepping the surgical equipment in a business like fashion, the nurse barely paused to tell me that it would be no problem. I'd fall asleep and wake up in the recovery room. Then she walked out.

A few minutes later, the doctor and friends came back in, and continued prep. They hooked me up to some monitors, started my IV, put on a blood pressure cuff. More terror tears from me. They strapped my arms to the chair (eek!). At this point, I am really trying not to go into full blown sobs. I turned to them and begged, "You promise that I will not wake up in the middle of this? Please?" I got a barely discernible nod.

Let me pause at this point to acknowledge a few truths:

  • I do know that wisdom teeth extraction is a low risk, routine procedure.
  • I'm sure that my doctor and his staff have performed hundreds, if not thousands of these.
  • They probably had many more scheduled for the very same day and were very busy.
  • My fear of this situation was completely irrational.

Unfortunately, none of the above made me feel any better at all.

What would have made me feel better? If one of them would have taken 30 (or dare I suggest 60?) seconds to stop what they were doing, take my hand, look me in the eye, smile reassuringly, and tell me that they would take good care of me and everything would be just fine.

A small gesture like this would have made all the difference in how I will talk about them and their practice to potential patients in the future.

What 30 - 60 second personal touch can you add to make an impression on your customers?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

No raining on your idea parade

Sometimes people won't like your ideas. Even the good ones! And it will be hard. But don't let it get you down. Just keep coming up with new ideas, and eventually you'll hit on one that will work.

And if you really think that rejected idea is worth something... hold on to it until the right opportunity to use it comes up.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Toyota: a perfect story of ideas, part II

By the time Sakichi Toyoda was in his 60s, his loom company and tireless drive to innovate had established him as one of the most important figures in business.

He had not only made vast improvements in the looms themselves, but had put in place a collaborative, open environment for ideas that would later become one of the hallmarks of success for his automotive company, Toyota. Sakichi believed that the best ideas came from people working directly within his manufacturing environment, and encouraged everyone to have ideas.

More new ideas

Japan had a major earthquake in the early 20s that damaged many of the country's railways, making it difficult for its citizens to travel. Given this tragedy, and exposure to the road systems and affordable cars they had seen in the US, Sakichi and his son Kiichiro got a new idea. A Japanese auto manufacturer.


Time out! Yes, there was a need for cars, but all the Toyodas' expertise was in the textile industry! Yes, but Japan at this time had no expertise in high level machine design and manufacturing. None!

Of course the Toyodas didn't let yes, but murder their ideas. They sold their loom business (for enough money that they could have sat back and been really fat and really happy for the rest of their lives and beyond, by the way) and used the proceeds to start exploring a Japanese automobile.

They worked with a team who had no previous automobile design experience and produced their first prototype in 1935. They established Toyota Motor Company in 1937 (adapted from their last name, Toyoda) and the rest is history. Toyota hasn't lost money since 1950. 1950!


Ideas win.


Thanks for telling me the story, Dave Magee. Read the book (How Toyota Became #1). You'll enjoy it.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Toyota: a perfect story of ideas, part I

Here's a great story of ideas from the book, How Toyota Became #1 by David Magee:

Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota, started life as the son of a carpenter who lived several hours outside of Tokyo. The small village in which he lived depended on the textile trade. Each day, Sakichi would watch his mother and the other women of the village toil over their looms. This was in the late 1800s, and the machinery they used was physically taxing and difficult to operate.

Sakichi, hoping to ease the women's physical strain, searched for ways to make the job easier. He developed a new loom for them - one that made the chore much easier. But he wasn't satisfied with that. He spent his days observing the women and his nights developing new and better looms.

Time out - what if Sakichi had fallen prey to our old enemy "yes, but?"


He could have wanted to improved the loom, but killed all of his ideas with a, "Yes, but these women have done it this way all their lives" or a "Yes, but I'm just a kid" (he was only 23 when he got his first patent).


Instead, he looked past these obstacles and eventually acquired more than 100 patents based on his improvements. He understood the first rule of having ideas.

And he didn't stop there.

Even though his looms were a dramatic improvement for Japan (and his company was the among the most prosperous in his region), looms in Europe and the US were better. He traveled to Europe to study looms in the UK (he understood that the best ideas weren't his). And while he was there, he not only got ideas to continually improve his textile operations, he got new ideas about how to run a business.

But how did he get from looms to the #1 car company in the world?

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Letting go of idea ownership

I just finished Seducing the Boys Club by Nina Disena. Great book. One of the things she talks about is how everyone wins with collaboration. She references an excellent quote from Ronald Reagan:

"It is unlimited what we can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit."

Sometimes, when someone takes one of your ideas and runs with it, it can be hard to let it go. It's hard not to find yourself thinking -hey! that's MY idea!

Just take it as the ultimate compliment and remember that more and greater ideas are born when everyone contributes.