Get Fresh Minds

The Power of Positive Thinking in Innovation

When being creative, is it always better to listen to people who are older and wiser?

Today, a post on Phil Gerbyshak's Make it Great! blog started me thinking.  Phil writes about his experience growing up in small towns and how he had to fight to prevail over the misconceptions that people formed about his potential.

It's a great story, and every creative thinker should read it.

Why?  Because anyone who comes up with a radical new idea will most likely have to fight for it against hordes of unbelievers.

Consider some of the statements previous innovators have faced:

• "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." (Western Union internal memo, 1876.)

• "Who the h*** wants to hear actors talk?" (H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927)

• "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." (A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith founded FedEx not long afterwards.)

• "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." (Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.)

• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." (Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.)

• "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." (Drillers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859.)

• "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." (Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. [Higher School of War])

• "No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris." (Orville Wright.)

• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." (Attributed to Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.)

Luckily, those wise statements weren't listened to by stubborn inventors. They thought they could... they knew they could... and they did!

Just goes to show how good ideas can completely redefine how people view the world.

Any other examples?

And thanks again to Phil for starting this train of thought! I'm glad he didn't listen to the bad advice he received!

Fighting back when a competitor has a better product.

What should a company do when its competitor comes up with an amazing product that everyone wants?

With all  the hype and excitement about the upcoming release of the iPhone, AT&T's competitors appear to be tearing their hair out.

Sprint just issued a list of anti-iPhone talking points (pdf), while Verizon Wireless apparently decided to take the high road with a confidential internal memo telling employees specific ways to trash the iPhone's capabilities.

At this point, there is absolutely nothing Verizon or Sprint can do to stop the iPhone's arrival.  On Friday, no matter what, the iPhone is hitting the stores and certain customers will jump to get their hands on it.

So, Verizon Wireless and other providers have only a few options...

1. Spend a lot of energy personally telling customers everything that is wrong about the iPhone and why it will make their life miserable.
   
   Of course, this could backfire by making Verizon and Sprint look like sore losers.  Plus, with all the hype the iPhone is getting, customers probably won't believe the negative points.  Each conversation will take up a lot of time, tying up service reps and dragging down customer service for other customers.
2. Make it incredibly difficult for existing customers to get out of their phone contracts.
   
   This will keep their customer numbers up in the short term, but make their existing customers hate them.  Once those subscriptions are up... goodbye!
3. Tell customers about all the great options available at their current provider and get customers to upgrade their accounts.
   
   A positive, proactive option that might retain customers.  Done wrong though, this could backfire by making customers feel manipulated (remember the AOL unsubscribe phone call?) and sucked into a more expensive phone plan that still doesn't give them what they really want.
4. Offer irresistable bonuses to customers to lure them back to Verizon/Sprint/etc.
   
   Tempting and proactive, but could be very expensive for the company to lure back customers, and could upset the current customers who aren't getting the same deal.
5. Cut their losses, congratulate AT&T, carefully take note of the successes and failures of the iPhone and then come out with anew phone next year that completely blows the iPhone out of the water!
   
   Verizon and Sprint already know that the iPhone isn't perfect.  Which means that they also know what can be improved.  Instead of pointing fingers at all the iPhone's faults, they should be figuring out how to take advantage of them by coming out with a better phone.

Verizon and Sprint are facing a big choice this summer as the iPhone enters the market and changes customer expectations.  But it's also a big opportunity for them.  As Seth Godin wisely wrote today on his blog:

The iPhone is a gift for every cell phone marketer in the world. Why? Because it creates a problem where there was none before. Now, a cell phone is not just a phone. Now, a phone is worth spending money on. So, since Apple created that 'problem' in my mind, how are you going to solve it?

He has it exactly right.  The iPhone has just completely redefined the cell phone market.

It showed that people want phones that are better, do more, look good and are easy to use.  It is also showing that people will happily pay a lot of money for a new, innovative phone that blows the others out of the water.

It's a great moment for innovation in phones.

So, now the question is, who can come up with the next phone that everyone has to have?

"Verizon is Evil" photo thanks to www.gizmodo.com

Excuse me, do you speak English?

For most people, buying a new computer can feel like going into a restaurant and being presented with a menu in a different language.

My new laptop, is described on Best Buy's website like this:

Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor T5500; 1GB DDR2 SDRAM; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; 12.1" widescreen; 160GB hard drive.

Investigating further, I noticed that Best Buy helpfully clarifies some points:

12.1" WXGA active-matrix TFT-LCD widescreen display with TruBrite technology and 1280 x 800 resolution...Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 8-196MB dynamically allocated shared video memory...5-in-1 bridge media adapter supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card...Secure Digital slot supports SDIO...and built-in Intel® PRO/100 10/100Base-TX Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; V.92 high-speed modem.

Excuse me, I don't understand computer! Do you speak English? To be fair, Best Buy is not the only computer store listing computer specs in this way.  All of them do it!

But Best Buy is currently redefining their in-store marketing to appeal to "Jill".  A recent Washington Post article about this, In Retail, Profiling for Profit, writes that

"Jill" is a  code name for a soccer-mom type who is the main shopper for the family but usually avoids electronics stores. She is well-educated and usually very confident, but she is intimidated by the products at Best Buy and the store clerks who spout words like gigabytes and megapixels.

So, if "Jill" is one of their ideal target markets, why are they still throwing around the gigabytes, megapixels, and unexplained abbreviations?

Best Buy could solve this issue with one very cost-effective and easy-to-implement modification to their stores: a simple translation sign or flier that explains the different computer terms in ways that "Jill" can understand.

For example...

• RAM = How fast your computer goes.  The Vista operating system requires at least 1GB to operate well, but people who open a lot of applications at the same time will probably prefer 2GB or higher.  Games operate best at 4GB.
• GB = How many files (documents, photos, music, etc) you can store on the computer. Also measured in GB, but much higher than RAM.  40GB is at the low-end for storage space, and users who have a lot of photos or music files will want 100GB or higher.
• And many more.

Take some of the pain out of it for "Jill", keep her from looking stupid in front of her kids, and make sure she gets the right machine for her needs so she feels positive about Best Buy.  Plus, it would help your employees serve customers better by answering the most basic questions, and demystify the computer buying process for all of us out there who don't speak "Computer Science".
 
All it takes is a simple sign.  Is Best Buy up to the challenge? And can you think of any more ways Best Buy could make their stores user-friendly for us regular buyers?

(One quick kudos to Best Buy for widening their customer focus--it's more than the other computer stores are doing!)

A product I'm desperate to buy.

As I wrote yesterday in The easiest way to become a creative thinker, not all of their ideas have to be revolutionary for someone to practice being creative.  In fact, some of the simplest observations can lead to ideas that have value.

For example, as someone who does a lot of typing on her laptop, I've noticed that it's really painful to use a small keyboard for extended periods of time.  This is really frustrating because it's impossible to concentrate for extended periods of time--even when I have large projects to do.

In my experience, an ergonomic keyboard is the only thing that has really helped when my arms start to hurt.  Using one relieves all my pain and prevents further injury.

But there's one huge problem with ergonomic keyboards...

They're HUGE. Enormous.  Gigantic.  Bigger than my laptop!

To me, this seems like the producers of keyboards have a very narrow profile for their target market: a person with a permanently-placed computer.

That seems like a very short-sighted view that is blinding them to a potential opportunity.  What about the laptop users who desperately need relief for their wrists, but have a laptop because they want to be able to move around? Those monster keyboards simply aren't portable.

This wouldn't even be a difficult product to make.  The current ergonomic keyboards are full of special keys (over 50 extra beyond the essentials.  All a keyboard manufacturer would have to do is to crop the keyboard down to the bare minimum, and perhaps add the ability to fold.

Is this a revolutionary idea that would reshape the computing world?  Of course not!  But would it fill a real consumer need? Yes, both heavy laptop users wanting to prevent carpal tunnel and desktop users with limited space would be very interested.  I know this because I'd buy a portable ergonomic keyboard in a heartbeat!

Can a new idea be too far ahead of its time?

In 1972, my grandfather invented the color copying machine.  Don't believe me? It's true.  Unfortunately, he doesn't get any credit for what is now a multi-million dollar industry.

There's a simple reason for this. 

When my grandpa and his co-workers designed the first color copier at 3M in the early 1970s, they were on the leading edge of printing technology. 

In fact, their invention was so innovative and forward-thinking that it was a complete and total failure in the marketplace.  No one wanted it.  No one.

It didn't take 3M long to ditch the color copy machine.

Then, four years later, Xerox came out with their color copy machine. (Ah, you know where this is going? Wrong.)  That failed horribly as well.

Why?  Because in the 1970s, most companies didn't even have color printers!  No one had anything of color to copy!

Luckily, Xerox was willing to let the underachieving color copier limp through years and years of lackluster sales until businesses actually became interested in it.  And when demand did pick up, Xerox was ready to take full advantage of it.

Today, the color copier is a common fixture in business, schools and government buildings.  People even have color copiers in their homes.  Although Xerox doesn't make all the color copiers on sale today, they still carry plenty of name recognition.

So why did 3M lose out? They were first to market, but they had created an invention without considering their potential customers. 

Yes, in the 1970s, it would be very cool and leading edge for businesses to be able to make copies of colored document in house.  Unfortunately,  when it came to writing out the purchase reports, the demand simply wasn't there.  Businesses could not justify spending thousands of dollars to buy a machine that they would use only a couple times a month.

This is a problem that is rampant today as well.  Technical companies and engineers work really hard to create ahead-of-their-time features without checking to see if anyone is ready to buy.

Tell me, do you know of any new and amazing products or product features that are technologically impressive, but don't fulfill an existing need? Fingerprint scanners on personal computers, anyone?