Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category
Monday, April 13th, 2009
by: Geoff Ficke
Since the beginning of time, until the middle of the 19th century the production of goods was conducted on an artisan, piece by piece basis. Over these many centuries the center of the individual’s universe was the local environ where commerce and enterprise were conducted on a small scale, often bartered basis. The idea of mass production was impossible to fathom. People predominantly lead lives of tremendous struggle and burden simply trying to subsist in an agrarian centric world with few hard goods produced other than tools, rudimentary clothing and dwellings.
In Europe in the Middle Ages the creation of guilds resulted in specialized production of goods. The members of a specific guild would concentrate on producing bricks, tool making, construction, metal work, shipping, etc. These were the precursor organizations to modern unions. They controlled who and how many could become guild members. The guilds fixed wages and prices. They were usually licensed or appointed by host governments in return for acceding to local laws, taxes and regulations.
In the early 18th century in France there began a movement among factory owners seeking to create more streamlined, profitable means of production. The idea of modern mass production was still almost a century away. In order to organize large scale industrial production sources of interchangeable, purpose built parts would be required. This did not yet exist.
In the late 18th century, French gunsmith Honore Blanc proposed to the French army that he mass produce muskets. To prove that he could perform as he claimed, Mr. Blanc arranged a demonstration for the armors of Napoleon’s army. Using batches of interchangeable parts Blanc quickly assembled a number of muskets. Still, at that time, muskets were built one by one, each piece turning out to have its own quirky character. Blanc had unveiled the elemental secret of mass production keyed by his use of interchangeable parts.
While acting as envoy to France during the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson visited Honore Blanc’s shop. Jefferson was a man of agriculture not industry. Nevertheless, he sent details of Blanc’s methods back to America and inadvertently helped accelerate the industrialization of his homeland.
The inventor Eli Whitney is credited with taking Honore Blanc’s techniques and applying them to mass production of machinery. Later these methods were the basis for the mass production of clothing, typewriters, stem engines, sewing machines and munitions among hundreds of other products. Whole industries were thus born and industrialization rapidly assumed preeminence as the preferred means of production.
What of Honore Blanc? By 1806 the French government decided that Blanc was a threat to the states control of the means of production and a threat to the old crafts (guilds, unions). The system of production he helped pioneer was shut down and outlawed. The French government made the inane argument that workers not crafting a complete product from start to finish could not produce harmonious products.
To this day governments all over the world fear the mobility of production. Local content laws are still common. Statutes, regulations, bureaucracies and taxes are levied to control, and often hinder, production of goods in the most efficient manner. Certain classes of workers are protected and assisted to the disadvantage of other laborers. Winners and losers are chosen by bureaucrats who have never produced a single widget.
The ability to interchange parts is the lynchpin of modern mass production and the success of capitalism. This system of production of goods has lifted billions of people out of poverty and misery. Government revenues are almost exclusively derived from the fruits born of mass production. And yet, government invariably cannot recognize the genius of entrepreneurial organization of the means of production, the system that has produced so much, for so many, so inexpensively.
Posted in Innovation
Monday, April 13th, 2009
by: Geoff Ficke
Recently I was ambling around the internet, researching lecture and article topics. I stumbled onto a Wikipedia site that at first seemed quite banal: Timeline of Historic Inventions. This link offered a chronological listing of historic inventions from the Paleolithic period, through the time of Christ, the Dark Ages, Middle- Ages and on to modern times. Perusal of the listing of inventors and their inventions was interesting on several levels.
First was the attribution that could be applied by geography for the specific inventions. Cement in Egypt, rice in India, the Trebuchet in China and hundreds more hugely important inventions could be assigned as having originated in specific ancient lands. Many of these geographic locales are recognizable today, while many others, though identified, have been lost with the passage time and the disappearance of their historical importance.
Second, many of the inventors are identifiable by name, even many of the most ancient ones. Attribution for creation of the encyclopedia is given to Speusippus, the odometer to Archimedes, the kite to Lu Ban, linguistics to Panini, and plastic surgery to Shushruta.
Third, and most interesting, is the sheer volume of inventions, most of great import and use to this day that were created in ancient empires that fell from great heights and lost most remnants of their glory. The mathematics discovered in the Middle East, the medicines and surgeries pioneered on the Indian sub-continent, the vast array of defense and engineering advances created by the Chinese, the foodstuffs, trade routes and tools from Africa are only a small sample of the amazing, wealth generating advances produced by old world societies. And yet, almost inevitably, each of the lands that germinated this amazing creativity evolved into modern times in greatly diminished status.
As you scan the Wikipedia site, “Timeline of Historic Inventions” you begin to see an accelerating scamper of inventiveness from “old world”, eastern centers to the “New World”, western hemisphere. By the Middle Ages creativity has begun to blossom and explode in the west, while the ancient centers of inventiveness for almost 4000 years seem to expire.
The western inventors seem to suddenly breathe a different air. Their technology becomes more commercial, more targeted to mass production and more advanced. The ancients gave us cotton, beer, paper and sails, all useful, important and still in great use. The moderns gave the world machines that revolutionized work and enabled scale and mass production to be levers of new industry and international trade. James Watt, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Johannes Guttenberg and Galileo Galilei are but a small group of inventors who revolutionized how societies produced goods, worked, ate, learned and enjoyed leisure (for the first time).
From the 15th century until the present day almost all of the great inventions were produced in the New World west. The formerly robust creativity of the ancient east has expired. The Indian and Chinese economies have rebounded from centuries of torpor to become modern productivity marvels, however, in almost every instance they reproduce product that is designed and invented in the west.
Why has the Middle East become insular, Africa largely a disastrous economic backwater, Latin America consumed by corruption and poverty and so many other areas of the world beset by poverty and unending misery? Despite the current economic struggles all countries face, does anyone believe that Canada, the United States and the democracies of the European Union will not lead the world in standards of living, prosperity, longevity and freedom for the foreseeable future?
The ability to invent is crucial. However, after crafting an invention, there must be a system in place to allow for commercialization of the invention and the pursuit of reasonable profit to reward the risks undertaken to penetrate markets. This means that rule of law, property rights; protection of intellectual property (patent/trademarks/copyright law) must be codified and enforced.
Capitalism in its various forms is still the greatest generator of wealth and opportunity ever invented. Czarist and communist Russia were full of inventive citizens who were stifled by a system that did not reward innovation. When these people emigrated to the west they created new industries (movies, cosmetics, apparel, technologies, television, etc.) that made them prosperous and benefitted society by providing employment and improving lifestyles.
All over the world there are innovators seeking to escape bondage or states of despair, make their way to the “New World”, and by utilizing our system create new products and industries. We all prosper from this drive to invent. The ancients were inventors of technologies, things of value and usefulness. Unfortunately, they did not reside in places and times where lasting “rules of law” were applicable. Without these basic protections invention, individuals and societies cannot flourish. Not ever!
Posted in Innovation
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke
During the Civil War years of the 1860’s the Seventh Day Adventists opened the original Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan. This religious group was keenly interested in healthy living and undertook some of the earliest research on the benefits of foodstuffs naturally derived from Native American crops. The result was their creation of the earliest breakfast cereals.
For the rest of the 19th century the Seventh Day Adventists consumed their breakfast cereals made from oats, corn, wheat and sorghum. They never really attempted to fully commercialize their recipes for these cereals.
Their original health institute became the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium. One of the doctors at the sanitarium was named W. K. Kellogg. Dr. Kellogg, a devoted follower of the Seventh Day Adventists, was keenly interested in healthy diet and the effect of diet on sick patients. While seeking a foodstuff to replace bread in the diet of his patients, he stumbled into an answer that created an iconic American industry.
Dr. Kellog was boiling a pot of water that contained wheat. His attention became diverted and the wheat overcooked, thus softening. He removed the softened wheat and let it dry. When he returned later he found that the overcooked wheat had begun to turn brittle. He began to break apart the wheat and it broke off into little flakes. Amazingly, the wheat flakes had a most enticing taste. Dr. Kellogg had accidentally invented the process essential to mass-produce wheat cereals and corn flakes.
Today we know the Kellogg Company as one of America’s great brand names and purveyors of numerous popular breakfast cereals. The Kellogg Company was later followed by C. W. Post and General Mills in making the prepackaged breakfast cereal industry one that is uniquely American.
Dr. Kellogg spent the rest of his life seeking to create healthy products that would improve and extend life. However, the accidental discovery of the process necessary to produce dry cereals is his great legacy. Every day millions of people all over the world start their day with a tasty, nutritious bowl of cereal that owes its provenance to an overcooked pot of wheat.
Many great inventions and product improvements owe their existence to accidents, mistakes that open new doors and plain dumb luck. The key to commercially profiting from these errors is to always keep an open mind in the face of the unexpected. Dr. Kellogg was looking for a new type of bread. His mistake in overcooking a pot of wheat has contributed to making his name one of the most famous in the world.
Posted in Innovation
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke
Today we know Gillette to be one of the worlds most successful and highly respected consumer product brand names. The Gillette safety razor is ubiquitous in homes all over the world. The Company is now owned by Proctor & Gamble and continues to introduce new shaving innovations on a regular basis.
King C. Gillette was a travelling salesman, a bit of a bon vivant and a very ambitious entrepreneur. During his travels he fortuitously made the acquaintance of William Painter. Mr. Painter was the inventor of the Crown Cork bottle sealer. His invention was the impetus for the Crown Cork & Seal Company, hugely successful to this day. The inventor was almost messianic in his belief that the key to any successful invention was the ability to repeatedly re-sell the product to the same users. Mr. Gillette became enamored of the concept of “planned obsolescence” and began his quest for an invention that he could commercialize.
One day in 1895 while shaving Mr. Gillette had an idea. At that time shaving was an ungainly affair. The process required a bowl of drawn water, soap, brush, and a straight razor that needed to continually be stropped to maintain sharpness. King Gillette’s brainstorm was to design a razor that held a disposable steel blade. He would sell the razor as a fixture and the blades as refill products, over and over to the same customers.
There was a technical problem, however, that Gillette had to overcome. At that time it was considered near impossible to create a small metal blade that would hold a sharp edge for multiple shaves and be inexpensive. It took six years and the engineering skills of MIT graduate William Nickerson to create the technology to mass-produce disposable razor blades.
King Gillette was nothing if not dogged. However, it took the entry of the United States army into World War I to popularize the Gillette Safety Razor.
Mr. Gillette’s company was able to secure a contract with the government to distribute Gillette Safety Razors to every soldier. By the end of the war 3.5 millions razors and 32 million razor blades had been distributed to soldiers in the field.
When the Armistice to end the war was signed and the American soldiers returned home they imported the Gillette shaving habit with them. There was immediate demand created across the country for Gillette products. The future success of the company was assured and the Gillette brand became a cornerstone of the American consumer product marketplace.
My consumer product marketing consulting firm reviews hundreds of products each year. Recently we had the opportunity to analyze a wonderful beauty product accessory. The inventor had done a wonderful job of crafting the prototype and the features and benefits of the item were of excellent utility. However, the item was a one-time sale. There was no consumable, resale item included in the offering.
We advised the inventor of this obvious, limiting deficiency in the project. Retailers are reluctant to carry single items. Sales would initially spike and then dramatically slow as market penetration occurred. We offered to create a liquid “activator” product to be used in conjunction with the implement. The “activator” would be the razor blade, the hardware implement the equivalent of the Gillette razor. The “activator” was inexpensive to produce, had huge perceived value, completed and embellished the marketing story and offered retailers and the inventor the opportunity for a steady repeat sales stream. The product is now sold in thousands of beauty salons across the United States and in Europe.
The Gillette sales model is now so common that we take it for granted. “Planned obsolescence” is ubiquitous and insures brand loyalty for many years. The key to building a successful brand that consumers treat as generic is often to mate a fixture or implement with a consumable item. Gillette often gives away the razor to insure that the consumer must purchase their proprietary razor blades or cartridges. Ambitious entrepreneurs should always seek to extend their products reach by incorporating King Gillette’s model.
Posted in Innovation
Friday, November 7th, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke
One wintry night in 1933, Percy Shaw found himself driving his automobile on a remote country road in England. The night was moonless; the fog hung densely and there was a persistent mixture of rain and snow belting against his windshield. The road was little more than a lane, with no signage, no shoulders, winding and curvy. Any error in judgement would be very costly indeed.
As Mr. Shaw slogged along he suddenly came upon a rise in the road and was startled when a small Morriss Minor automobile appeared right at the crest of the grade. The approaching car was headed directly at his vehicle. He was on a slight curve, it was pitch dark, the road was slick and unmarked. In the split second he had to make a decision a small housecat scampered across the road. The headlights of Mr. Shaw”s car illuminated the eyes of the cat, and the reflection from those iridescent orbs provided Percy Shaw with just enough perspective to gage his distance and edge safely around the Morris Minor.
As Percy Shaw gathered himself after his close call, he began to think about what had occurred. Why were roads of the time so dangerous? What had just happened that he could take advantage of in a way to help all motorists? He became motivated to improve road safety for every driver everywhere. But how?
The reflection from the cat’s eyes was the key to the solution Mr. Shaw sought. He began tinkering in his garage workshop. After a number of attempts, he perfected the first “cat’s eye road reflectors”. Today, the ubiquitous illuminated reflectors implanted in roadbeds and placed strategically along roadside rights of way are part of the driving experience that we take for granted. They provide safety and guidance at night, and in horrid weather conditions. In the 1930’s they were considered an amazing safety advance.
The British Government immediately endorsed and implemented the installation of the reflectors on roads across the British Isles and then across the Empire. Millions of Percy Shaw’s “cat’s eye road reflectors” enhance driving safety around the world to this day. Mr. Shaw was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and profited mightily from his invention. He was always most proud of the safety benefits his simple invention had provided mankind.
Modern entrepreneurs and inventors can take a simple lesson from this seemingly elementary invention. Percy Shaw was not thinking about inventing the “cat’s eye road reflector” that stormy night in 1933. An event occurred that made him consider possibilities. He sensed a need. He addressed that need. He profited from his answering the need he had identified, and all motorists realized the benefits of his inventiveness.
Creative entrepreneurs are always seeking to offer products and services that provide improved features and performance benefits not available in current items. The simplest of ideas and concepts are often the most commercial. The example of Percy Shaw’s invention of the “cat’s eye road reflector” is a wonderful template for aspiring inventors.
Opportunity can appear at the most unexpected moments. Be aware, be flexible and be opportunistic if you want to enjoy the fruits that come to successful innovators. The market always is open to new, novel products.
Posted in Innovation
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke
We take the simplest devices for granted in our modern technologically advanced world. We turn a tap and water is delivered, hot, temperate and cold. We hit a wall switch and darkness is overcome by light. We open the refrigerator door and peer into a compartment that contains climate controlled stored foodstuffs. These conveniences are omnipresent in the developed world in the early 21st century.
And yet, we reflect little on the simplest, most important inventions that make all forms of product possible. Consider the humble screw. Yep, the little fastening vehicle that is ubiquitous in every tool-box, do it your self pre-pack, or kitchen catchall drawer. The ability to affix two opposing elements or surfaces together and insure that their attachment is permanent is essential to the structural integrity of virtually every non-consumable product we use today.
No one knows who invented the screw. We do know that wooden screws were in use during the time of Christ. They were widely used in the Middle East in pressing grapes for wine, olive oil production and woodworking. The applicable uses for screws really did not change much until the 18th century. Englishman James Ramsden invented the first “screw cut lathe” to mass- produce steel screws in 1770. This advance made screws more economical and their usage in industrialization processes began to increase exponentially.
In the 1930’s, Henry Philips, in response to the booming automobile industry’s need for closer tolerances, invented the Philips Head Screw. This square headed screw was a significant advance as it enabled machine tools to apply more torque to the screw head, thereby providing much tighter fit and finish between conjoined parts.
Billions of screws are now used every year in millions of applications. Screws of all sizes and metallic composition are essential to every product that we manufacture. As useful and universal as the common screw is in our lives, we never really reflect on it’s importance, it’s efficiency, it’s economy and what the world would be like without these ingenious little linkage devices.
There is a contemporary lesson here. The simple screw has made life easier and more comfortable for every consumer. Jobs are created to produce screws, distribute screws and utilize screws. Prosperity is enhanced by the usefulness of this simplest of inventions.
Many entrepreneurs and inventors seek to improve life and profit commercially by creating new innovative products. The lesson we can all learn from the plebian screw is that sometimes the most valuable, most useful concepts are the simplest. It is not necessary to re-invent the transistor or discover a new system of water desalinization to profit. Looking into your universe of work, family or play and finding a simple improvement that will benefit consumers is the easiest path to commercial success.
In my consumer product development and marketing consulting company we review hundreds of product submissions each year. The best, most commercial are inevitably the simplest. They offer the most utility for the greatest number of consumers. These concepts typically do not require re-educating the consumer, which can be a difficult and expensive proposition.
So keep it simple and apply the simple “screw” test to determine simplicity, facility, cost effectiveness and applicability. This is a wonderful template that can be transferred from an ancient product to modern inventions to determine prospects for success.
Posted in Innovation
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke
Any visitor to modern Egypt, or viewer of a travelogue on this amazing country is awed by the antiquities visible everywhere. The Sphinx, hundreds of pyramids and mausoleums, temples and statuary are testament to the brilliance of this 4000 year old culture. These relics have survived the ravages of time, weather, wars and invasions.
Almost entirely forgotten, however, is the ancient Egyptian fetish for personal health and cleanliness. We know from written records and paintings that they were very keen to promote health, wellness and hygiene in ways that were amazingly advanced for the time, and would be considered modern today. Unfortunately, after the glory of the pharaoh’s faded, these habits were forgotten for centuries and, particularly in Western Europe, people lived in filth for ages.
An example of ancient Egyptians interest in cleanliness is their oral hygiene regimen. Egypt is an arid, windy, sandy country. Dust was omnipresent and was often blown into their foodstuffs. Grains were ground for flour between stone wheels and bits of the stone would become mixed into the final product. We know from examining mummies that their teeth were ground down almost to the gum line from a lifetime of chewing this gritty diet. The pain must have been unbearable.
Halitosis is most prevalent when tooth and gum disease is present. The Egyptians perfected the art of perfumery. For treatment of halitosis they would chew fragrant herbs and rinse with a concoction of warm water, a drop of perfume and an herb cocktail. They also practiced a form of dentistry, using needles to pierce and bleed abscesses. Priests acted as doctors and dentists.
More than half of all ancient Egyptian babies died before the age of five. Women were very protective of their bodies as soon as they became aware of their imminent pregnancy. We know that they utilized a very clever pregnancy test, thousands of years before the red/blue urine test modern women buy at pharmacies. Wheat or oat grains were collected, and the ancient Egyptian woman would urinate on the seeds. If the seeds sprouted, the woman knew she was pregnant and would adjust her personal regimen to prepare for the precious moment of childbirth.
There are many more examples of practical, but advanced hygienic procedures that were used 4000 years ago to pamper and protect the human body. And yet, a millennium later, virtually none were in wide use in most of the world. What happened?
Climate, demographics, social mores and superstitions are a few of the reasons historians and anthropologist’s offer as evidence for the loss of ancient healthcare techniques. Today, we believe that living in advanced modern societies we will improve and perfect new care techniques and each subsequent generation will live better, healthier lives than previous generations. Unless we learn the lessons of history there is no guarantee that we might not revert to a Dark Age lifestyle.
Currently there is a world economic crisis. If we had studied and learned from past economic calamities much of the pain being suffered by the worlds economy could have been mitigated. The fact is we often ignore or forget the lessons of the past. The bubonic plague of the middle-ages would most assuredly have been mitigated if society had utilized hygienic procedures perfected by the ancient Egyptians and Romans. Manias like Holland’s 17th century tulip-mania, South Africa’s milk culture scheme, Ponzi schemes, and countless modern recessions and the great depression all germinate from the same seeds: greed, fear and a lack of historical perspective.
Societies do forget. Governments do forget. Groups and individuals do forget. The ancient Egyptians gifted the world with many advances in engineering, construction, science, health care and art. These lessons were largely lost in subsequent centuries. Some, such as the mystery of the erection of the pyramids, have never been rediscovered. It behooves us all today to rekindle an interest in history and ancient creativity.
Posted in Innovation
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke
This weekend my wife and I took in a movie. The film was preceded by a movie trailer touting a soon to be released production based on the invention of the “intermittent windshield wiper”. Such a topic for a big budget Hollywood movie would seem to be awfully mundane. However, the trailer was a very interesting glimpse of a subject that has deep meaning for every entrepreneur, inventor or dreamer.
Robert Kearns was a university professor and an engineer with a passion for tinkering. He had lost the sight in one eye when a champagne cork had popped squarely into his eye. In 1963, while driving in a heavy rainstorm he noticed that the steady, constant pace of the wiper blades sweeping water from the windshield caused his sight to lose focus.
At that time windshield wipers only worked at a single rate of speed. As mist, or light rain occurred the driver had to manually tune off and on the unit to control the speed of the blades. Kearns had stumbled into an opportunity to address a fairly basic, but needed improvement to an already existing automobile safety feature.
At home in his workshop, Mr. Kearns created a prototype of his “intermittent windshield wiper” system. Once perfected, he filed for patents and began to approach the major American car companies seeking to license his invention. He demonstrated the unit for Chrysler and Ford, and provided each with proprietary data on his device. After internal discussion both advised Robert Kearns that his device was of no interest and they would pass on the opportunity to license.
Much to Mr. Kearns shock and chagrin, he was amazed to discover that in 1969 the Ford Motor Company began to sell an “intermittent windshield wiper” as a featured accessory on their new models. The technology was remarkably similar to his prior art. Thus began a legal odyssey that would consume Robert Kearns life, his fortune and his health.
This is where this tale has ongoing importance to anyone seeking to commercialize a new product or invention. The invention of the original mechanized windshield wiper was the birth of a “divergent product”. The invention of the telephone, the television, the radio, or the internal combustion engine gave birth to “divergent products”. They created alpha opportunities. The addition of color to televisions, answering machines to telephones and clocks to radios are examples of “convergent products”. “Convergent products” are simple product enhancements that are often extremely valuable as wealth generators. Robert Kearns “intermittent windshield wiper” is a wonderful example of a “convergent product’.
He had not invented the windshield wiper but had created simple performance elements that motorists found would add safety, comfort and simplicity to driving in varied climatic conditions. Unfortunately, he had not fully insulated his invention from predatory commercial vultures.
Patent law is an extremely specific practice. There is a reason patent attorney’s typically handle no other categories of legal work. The Kearns vs. Ford Motor Company patent suit was arduous and tortured. The patent law principal of “obviousness” was the center of the dispute. Ford claimed that the Kearns invention was “obvious”, a device made up of pre-existing components. Simply put, Kearns argued that it was his organization of these elements that was truly novel and that his unit was not “obvious” until he invented it.
It took until 1995 for Robert Kearns to prevail. The case is considered a landmark. The instance of a single person taking on a huge, international corporate behemoth, and winning, was amazing, exciting and myth shattering. Ford paid Mr. Kearns $30 million. Robert Kearns spent $10 million on legal fees to fight the case to successful conclusion.
There are many lessons here for inventors seeking to commercialize their ideas and products.
Utilize Non-Disclosure Agreements
Seek professional legal assistance to file patents, trademarks, copyright
File Trade Secrets
Detail every meeting and phone call with a written re-cap to each person attending
Save every dated receipt for FedEx, phone log, etc.
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Build a production quality, working prototype of the invention-DO NOT CUT CORNERS HERE!
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Include 3D Computer Assisted Design Art (CAD) with all legal filings
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Always assume that others are working on similar inventions and protect your interests
We look at hundreds of inventions and new product submissions each year in our consulting business. A fair percentage of these presentations have real commercial value and could be successfully marketed. Most however, will never see a store shelf because the creator will not take appropriate steps to protect and commercialize their opportunity.
Robert Kearns did. He had a simple idea for a “convergent product”. He took appropriate steps to protect his invention. When he was ripped off, he took up the fight. Because of his success and courage, it is now much easier to fight and win against the “big guys”.
Each of us sees or experiences opportunities almost everyday, in our work or personal environment. Most of us aren’t paying attention or do not recognize opportunity when it appears. For the few that do, and have the courage to act, will be rewarded by a marketplace that craves new products and concepts.
I can not wait to see the movie.
Posted in Innovation
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke
In 1930, a young engineer was sent by his supervisor to spend time working on the floor of a Minneapolis auto body shop. The reason for the working visit was to review the performance of his employer's principal product, industrial grade sandpaper, in actual use as a car door was being sanded. The young mans name was Richard Drew.
While in the repair shop, young Mr. Drew was exposed to a rougher work environment than he was used to. The floor of the shop was loud, dirty, and, well, quite profane. A good deal of the profanity was related to the difficulty the repairmen experienced while attempting to perfectly match paint panels and striping to auto bodies. They quite simply had no rudimentary tool, other than a steady hand and line of sight to make perfectly smooth straight lines that did not overlap.
Richard Drew was curious and began to consider options to simplify the process of crisply painting multiple color paint to auto bodies. His invention was ingenious, elegantly simple, and is a standard in every “do-it-yourselfer's” toolbox to this day. He created “masking tape”. There is almost no paint job done in a home or business that does not employ masking tape to protect and finish edges.
Arthur Fry was also seeking a simple answer to a personally vexing problem. Mr. Fry was continually losing his place in his church hymnal when he attended Sunday services at his church. He hated bending, or “dog earing” pages. He did not want to mark or damage the hymnal in any way. Book-mark's would simply fall out of the hymnal.
He was also, a Minneapolis area resident, and decided to seek a solution in his place of employment. Mr. Fry went to a colleague, Spencer Silver, who was working on a type of new glue with minimal adhesion properties. He borrowed a bit of Spencer's prototype glue and applied a bit to the edge of a small square of paper. When applied to paper, the glued square attached snuggly, but was easily removed without damaging the host paper.
In the 1970's, Fry and Spencer's employer, trademarked their invention and began attempting to market the product. At first there was little consumer interest. Then in 1979, almost ready to give up, the Company decided to widely sample the product in office supply stores. The response was overwhelming. The Post It Note was born.
Masking tape and Post It Note were commercialized internationally by the giant (today) 3M Company of Minneapolis. Employees Richard Drew, Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver had invented much needed and valued consumer products that have generated billions of sales and profits for 3M. However, all three were all simply employees of 3M.
In most Company's, certainly mature ones, employees sign releases that assign all rights to their work product to the employing Company. Drew, Fry and Silver had signed such releases and were rewarded accordingly by 3M. However, they were rewarded as employees, not entrepreneurial inventors. A bonus and a raise will always be appreciated, but there was no profit participation available for their great advances.
These men were working and creating on the Company's time, using Company resources and had released all rights to their work to 3M. They had good jobs, working for a great Company – but – had no further claim on the profits generated by their creativity.
Imagine the wealth and fame that these inventors might have enjoyed if they had commercialized these products themselves. Not every one has an entrepreneurial constitution. In fact, most people should not leave gainful employment to pursuit the chimera of launching a product or business. However, the opportunity to create the next masking tape, or Post It Note is seized everyday, here in America, by someone.
As an entrepreneur you totally expose yourself to the vagaries of the market. As an employee you enjoy a corporate cocoon with protective layers of resources and assets readily at hand. But think about it. If you could invent the next new product advance, with hope of commercial success, would you be pleased with a bonus and a raise – or – seek the opportunity to fully harvest and control your product and your destiny? I know what I would do.
Posted in Innovation
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
by: Geoff Ficke,
Two business announcements this week reconfirm the unbelievable pace of change the world business climate is undergoing. Visionary fashion designer Liz Claiborne died and her Company announced that it would sell or close 16 divisions. And, pioneering retailer Leslie Wexner announced that his firm, Limited Brands, Inc. would put up for sale the Limited and Limited Express chains.
The nature of retail, like most other industries, has undergone radical change. Big box category killers like Staples and Best Buy have evolved into dominating international success stories. Tesco, WalMart and Carrefours offer enormous scale, one stop shopping unimaginable a generation ago. Specialty retailers such as Wet Seal, Aeropostiale, Abercrombie and Fitch, L’Occitaine and Talbots attack specific niches.
Consolidation, bankruptcy and liquidation have allowed fewer and fewer national department store and supermarket chains. Macy’s has consolidated nationally after absorbing numerous regional department store chains such as Lazarus, Bullocks, Burdines and Marchall Field. W.T. Grant, Montgomery Ward, AyrWay, Venture and Gold Circle are only a few examples of once strong groups that no longer exist.
The Limited began in 1963 as a single clothing store in Columbus, Ohio. Leslie Wexner saw an opportunity to create an amazing retail growth story by replicating designer clothing designs, mass producing offshore and selling tailored business clothing to the rapidly emerging population of female businesswoman. He became a billionaire by leveraging and extending The Limited to numerous additional store brands including Limited Too, Victoria’s Secret, Henri Bendel and Bath and Body Works.
Despite the huge past success of the ready to wear concept pioneered by The Limited stores, times change and Mr. Wexner reacted accordingly. Work patterns have changed, women’s fashion taste, always fickle and subject to unexpected trends, have become even more unpredictable. His decision to sell the chain is prudent and will result in a stronger Company with redeployment of assets and full concentration applied to faster growing divisions. The decision to spin off his alpha divisions may have been difficult from an emotional standpoint, but future success requires staying ahead of the curve and Leslie Wexner will always strive for maximum success.
Ms. Claiborne built her eponymous fashion house by creating high quality, suits and ready to wear that women loved for their cut, tailoring and detail, all the while keeping prices affordable. Though she had retired some years ago from active management, she and her husband remained involved in consulting on fashion direction for the Company.
Nevertheless, as always, things never remain the same in retail. Department store consolidation has enabled groups like Macy’s to create in house private label brands that produce much more profit than designer brands like Claiborne, Polo and Nautica can offer. As more store space is dedicated to private label store brands the designer labels have to reinvent themselves. In the case of Liz Claiborne, 16 divisions will be jettisoned and total focus applied to the namesake men’s and women’s brands, accessories, shoes and fragrances.
These are only two examples of successful, well managed, mature Companies adjusting to the business realities they confront. W.T. Grant did not react to change and died. Thousands of independent stores have not reacted to change and they no longer exist. Local and regional chains that did not adjust to market realities are gone.
Ice houses, barrel makers and bicycle manufacturers are non-existent today, though they thrived in the 19th and early 20th century. Dozens of auto manufacturers folded in the past century and the remaining “Big 3″ are in real trouble because they have not adjusted to market realities. Numerous airlines have failed, been through bankruptcy or been purchased by stronger, better-managed lines. Change is inevitable and is best confronted and embraced, not fought.
Every day in my consulting business we are introduced to people offering products, services and business opportunities seeking a way to successfully commercialize their offerings. Invariably, the dream of the entrepreneur is to secure placement in WalMart. Yes, the same WalMart so scorned by so many as a small business and small town killer. I often think that the people so opposed to WalMart would be proponents of home delivered ice instead of refrigeration if alive a century ago.
These Luddites can not recognize that WalMart is only the latest, most significant, agent of change. Does WalMart put mom and pop stores out of business. I contend they do not. Business owners that do not recognize the change that WalMart represents, adjust accordingly and create new services that offer real value for their customers do close. Failure is never pretty, but is usually accompanied by solid reasons and an unwillingness to change.
WalMart has spent billions of dollars trying to perfect a ready to wear clothing business. They have failed to date miserably. WalMart has grown a huge food business, however, traditional chains such a Kroger and Safeway are more profitable and growing faster. They have added organic food departments, exciting bakeries and deli’s and a much broader range of products than WalMart. They evolved, changed and keep a step ahead of WalMart.
Thousands of small, independent clothiers, florists, grocers, butchers, pharmacies and auto repair shops do compete successfully with neighboring big box retailers. They do so by offering goods and services that are highly targeted, providing better customer service, a faster shopping experience, customizing offerings, home delivery and personalizing the buyer/seller relationship. These successful small retailers do not like the big bullies, but they recognize reality, confront the changes they face and compete. They do not whine, sit idly awaiting disaster or quit. They work smarter and compete.
Change is coming, always. It is good. We all live better lives because of change. Our children will as well. If we do not embrace change we will be left behind to perish. This is true for people, companies, organizations and societies.
Posted in Innovation
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