Tag: Innovation

  • Mexican Food Principle

    Mexican Food is great, but it can teach us lessons far beyond gastrointestinal delight. I’m talking about the Mexican Food Principle.

    Mexican food’s great, but it’s essentially all the same ingredients, so there’s a way you’d have to deal with all these stupid questions. ‘What is nachos?‘ ‘Nachos? It’s a tortilla with cheese, meat, and vegetables.’ ‘Oh, well then what is a burrito?‘ ‘A tortilla with cheese, meat, and vegetables.’ ‘Well then what is a tostada?‘ A tortilla with cheese, meat, and vegetables.” -Jim Gaffigan

    When CBS News reporter, Amanda Schupak, was describing Google’s new modular phone she said, “It sounds like a taco truck. But instead of picking a filling, sauce and side, your choices are a camera, a speaker and an extra battery.”

    This is a metaphor we can all understand. There are basic building blocks to make something ‘delicious’. In the kitchen, it’s cheese, meat, and vegetables. In a smartphone it’s a touchscreen, WiFi, and bluetooth. Sometimes you want more or less of one or the other, but it’s never going to be bad. That’s the Mexican Food Principle.

    Mexican Food Principle

    Mexican food is great, but it is all the same, it’s almost a conspiracy. It’s almost like they had a meeting 200 years ago in Mexico City and one guy stood up and he was like, ‘Hey, the reason I got everyone here is pretty simple, I figured we could rename this one entree seven times and sell it to the North Americans. The French said it would be a good idea.” -Jim Gaffigan

    This is not a conspiracy, it’s standardization. Peter Drucker said the greatest invention of the twentieth century was container shipping. Containers allowed ships, ports, and equipment to move easier than the random assortment of crates and boxes that preceded it. But the Mexican Food Principle isn’t just for standardization, it can also be used to create new outputs from the same inputs.

    Taco Bell is for Closers
    Taco Bell is for Closers

    SmartBrief on Social Media editor, Jesse Stanchak first coined the term in May of 2013 when referring to the “Mexican Food Principle” of repurposing content. “It’s pretty simple: Mexican food takes the same core ingredients, mixes them up and packages them in different ways. You can do the same thing with your content. If you do a good job remixing and reusing your content, your audience won’t see it as leftovers.”

    Forbes’ contributor, Nadia Arumugam, calls the Mexican Food Principle of product development, “Breeding“, which, “Has been seriously neglected in previous brainstorming sessions for new product development.” James Altucher calls this process of coming up with new ideas, “Idea Sex“.

    Whether you’re trying to create a new breakfast menu item by using a waffle as a tortilla or a doughnut as a bun, you’re using the Mexican Food Principle.

  • How to Succeed and Grow through a Slow Economy

    Are your company leaders keeping an eye on the traffic patterns in the economy? Are they doing what most companies do during a down economy? Does your company have a culture of innovation?

    It doesn’t matter if your company has 10,000 employees or you are self-employed, the economy affects us all. How we react to it and lead our companies through it will determine our success or failure over time. Here are some things that successful companies do to succeed and grow through a slowed down economy:

    1. Don’t be afraid to change the company or it’s core products. I’m not talking about changing the dress code during the summer time or preventing overtime, I’m talking about examples like Scott Paper becoming a consumer products company rather than a paper mill or General Motors becoming a transportation company instead of a vehicle manufacturer. Listen to what your customers are asking of you. Mine your customer service data banks and don’t assume that what has worked for the last hundred years will work for the next ten.

    2. Create a culture of innovation and creativity. Leadership needs to be the most innovative and creative at all. It’s time to go back to what you learned in Kindergarten and stop being afraid to fail. Don’t kill the messengers. Reward those who speak up with new ideas even if they are bad. Things will beget similar things and ideas will beget new ideas. This is the essence of brainstorming, but glacial drift of a company’s mentality has a way of leveling off those who are non-conforming. Instead of being a hive of solidarity, consider being a greenhouse for growth.

    3. Keep an eye on the future, not just the next payroll. Companies can be pac-managers too, knee-jerk reacting to any wave or fluctuation in the economy as it comes, but a macro view of the economy, realizing that precisely because it is a wave, what goes down, must come up, decisions need to be made about the future, not just the short term. This doesn’t mean staffing for an eventual, but currently non-existent work load, but being more fluid in the utilization of human capital and creating ‘pressure valve’ positions and opportunities for adaptable workers and ways to recognize and insulate top performers.

    If your interested in economics, you might also check out my post on Ex Forex about Vibration Economics.

  • Vibration Economics

    How managing a bad economy is similar to driving a car through a construction zone.

    Yesterday, driving with my family in the car, there were several times when traffic ground to a complete stop due to merging lanes in construction zones. Logically I knew this didn’t have to happen if everyone within the system both had access to all information (e.g. the left lane is closed ahead) and drivers were incentivized to slow down instead of attempting to pass each other and cause clogs up ahead. The fact that it does happen and continues to happen even with full access to information (e.g. signs, cones, traffic patterns, news radio, Internet access, and CB broadcasts) could mean that drivers are incentivized to slow down the entire system in order to make sure they get ahead first.

    In Mission Impossible III, Tom Cruise’s character explains his job as a traffic pattern analyst and how the act of one person’s brakes can send ripples through the entire traffic system. This is exactly what is happening in a lane-merging event when drivers are responding to brake lights and eventually stopping instead of everyone simply slowing down, merging, and passing through the lane at a reasonable rate. The less brake lights are used, the faster a group of cars will move through a slow-down event. This is because, again, of a lack of information. The driver doesn’t know whether the car in front of them is going to simply slow down and then re-accelerate or if it is going to come to a complete stop. They only have one metric to go on, the brake light.

    These ripples in the traffic system mimic other waves in science and finance. We know that by reducing the speed of the vehicle and braking less, we reduce the rapid stops and starts. By doing this we are not only reducing the amplification of the wave pattern, but also changing the the frequency. The wave goes from a high-pitched baby scream to a low bass wave. Once the frequency has been adjusted (e.g. less braking, more steady movement), over time, the speed of the vehicle can be increased. The most efficient traffic is one without waves at all, with cars constantly moving, all at the same pace, but this will never occur. While I would love to fix traffic slowdowns by implementing car-to-car communication systems or a third metric to the brake lighting system, I am simply using traffic as an metaphor for economics as a whole.

    It may sound counter intuitive to say that the fastest way to move through a downturn is to slow down, but that’s because it depends on how you decrease your speed. We know that brake lights cause other drivers to slow down which don’t use the brake lights such as simply letting off the gas or downshifting. Aware drivers or smart cars will also adjust in a more subtle way and while traffic may slow down overall, it may not stop and will certainly be in a better position to begin increasing speed once the bottleneck has been passed. If we could understand what the “break lights” in the economy were and how people respond to them, we may be able to help reduce their use and get the economy moving forward again with less starting and stopping.

    Examples of break lights in the economy are stock selloffs, layoffs, and inventory cuts. Speculators will sell a stock before they think it will go down, which then actually causes the stock to go down, which causes other investors to also sell until the price is enticing enough for people to buy back in. Companies will layoff workers in anticipation of a downturn, even if they are not currently experiencing one. And in fear of not being able to sell current inventory, companies will stop buying goods in order to not be ‘caught with the bag.’ These are all drastic measures that cause ripple effects in the economy, slowing it down and helping to cause the very thing they are trying to avoid.

    What if instead, companies simply ‘switched gears’ or ‘let off the gas’ during an economic slow down instead of braking? Wouldn’t these companies be best poised for re-accelerating in an economic up turn? Using the prior examples of stock, layoffs, and inventory cuts, here are some examples of what companies could do differently. Shareholders could simply hold stock and stop buying for a period of time in order to coast through a down turn. Companies could use any excess employees as salesman, research analysts, or focus groups for innovation to create new ideas or help find new customers. And instead of cutting inventory, companies could increase the diversity of what they buy in order to market to areas of the market that in a good economy didn’t make sense, but now does.

    In fact, most successful companies already do this. Ford Motor Company outlasted hundreds of other car manufacturers not because it was better, but because it was willing to change. Groupon was originally an online collective action and fundraising company called The Point, which pivoted and began offering discounts via email. Google continually innovate and pays it’s engineers to create side projects and yet continues to grow in spite of the economy. Compare this to the pharmaceutical industry that has increased advertising spending over research and is now in crises as their development cycle has run it’s course. Another example is Southwest Airlines, which for most of its history did not layoff it’s workers and remained profitable while it’s peers went through bankruptcy proceedings. Layoff alternatives like early buyouts, early retirements, across-the-board budget cuts, hiring freezes, and eliminating overtime pay only serve to hurt the top performers – the rest of the company is only there for a paycheck anyway. It all comes down to proper management and leadership.

  • Innovation Comes from Customers

    Innovation comes from customers…or so Harvard thinks.

    Aha moments rarely come without some sort of problem you are trying to solve and there is no greater ‘problem creators’ than your customers. Twitter is a perfect example of this. They will think of things you never thought of and use your products in ways you’ve never imagined. Learn to harness this phenomenon and you’re on your way to having a more innovative company.

    For example, imagine you have a customer who wants software that allows appointments to be setup online. “No one has it” he says, but he wants it. So an innovator would make it, have it made, or find it, and then package it and sell it to other sites. That’s how innovation from the customer makes your company more innovative.

    But you have to execute.

    It’s easy to create a plan, the hard part is executing it. One trap a lot of companies (people) fall into is creating the structure around innovation or a new project in the hopes that once the structure is in place the new product will almost make itself. “After [that] it’s just ‘plug and chug’,” they say. Executors know that you have to do the plug and chug part too even if that means hiring out or outsourcing to do so. The plug and chug-level work should be a matter of following procedures in a well-defined structure. The creators, designers, and innovators at a company usually like to create the structure, but have trouble filling it in. Either learn to get around this psychological gap or find someone else to finish/maintain the job for you.

  • The eReader Revolution

    How eReaders (also written e-Readers), which are digital readers for eBooks (also written e-Books) have taken over the tech news and gadget landscape? From Amazon’s Kindle™ which was first released on November 19, 2007 to Barnes and Noble’s nook™ which was first released November 30, 2009 to Apple’s iPad which was released April 3, 2010, there clearly is a revolution going on in how books are read, purchased, stored, and shared.

    The first chart shows the dramatic rise in news articles related to ereaders starting in 2009. This chart also highlights the differences in spelling of the different terms for ebook readers. While there is no official way of spelling it (both ereader and e-reader are acceptable), Google Trends clearly shows that “ereader” is used more often or is more popular. In general I think that if hyphens can be avoided, they will be, just as in “e-mail” is more often written as “email.”

    The second chart shows the steady rise of Amazon’s Kindle, followed by the nearly identical rise of Barnes and Noble’s Nook an Sony’s Reader. Other ebook readers like the Que and Alex don’t yet register in comparison to the traffic of these other major players, but if you compare Apple’s iPad against this chart, it makes the Kindle look pathetic in comparison.

    Now these are mostly news trends and not necessarily a reflection of popularity or quality, but it does highlight a tipping point in the use of ebook readers that happened at the end of 2009, about a year after the market crash in 2008. Despite a recession and a bad world-wide economic situation, consumers have still went out and purchased not just ebooks and ereaders, but e-reader accessories, which can sometimes equal or cost more than the ereader itself. Nook covers, for example, average around $25 each.

    How about you? Do you own an ereader or plan on purchasing one in 2010? Answer in the comments below.

  • Sacrifice for the Greater Good?

    I saw a film last night about sacrifice.  Sacrificing the lives of a limited number of people in order to save an even greater number of people.  President Obama also lifted the stem cell reseach ban which prevented human stem cells from being destroyed and researched for possible future organ growth.  Again, sacrificing the lives of a limited number of people in order to save an even greater number.  They both raised some interesting questions in my mind.

    Why can’t we just have everything that we want, all the time?  Why must there be a cost associated with such a great good as saving human lives?  What other costs do we have with the good that we want for ourselves and our loved ones?  Well, if we decide to get married, then we put away the complete freedom to to what we want with our time.  We now have to share our time (among other things).  The same things happens when we have a child, and another child, and another child.  For every new relationship that is added into the family, there is a trade off of the kind of time that can be spent with other members of the family.  For many people, having children is the goal of the marriage, but that same goal can end up poisoning the marriage, since the kind of time spent working on the marital relationship changes so drastically.

    Time is limited.  We cannot just add something new without subtracting something current, in most cases.  Any changes that we make to our live will be adding or subtracting something.  When we subtract something, usually we see the replacement as greater than what was subtracted.  But, that doesn’t mean that thing that was subtracted is without value.  In fact, it may be something of HUGE value.  We just have to understand what is truly important to us on a core level and always work toward the greater good.

    Be careful sacrificing things for others, it may not be your place to do so.  Even so, we have to be willing to accept the consequences.  Go on and see what your changes will cost, and if it is worth it.

  • A Rainy Day is the Best Time to Sell and Umbrella; How to Become Successful in a Recession

    Now that America is in an Awakening, we need manufacturing more than ever.  Start in the ground.  What raw materials do we have to work with?

    • Fossil fuels for energy (hundreds of years of coal, at least ten years of oil, and some natural gas to boot)
    • Copper (a third is still in the ground, a third is in use, and a third is in landfills – we’ve got to go remining)
    • Iron (used to make steel and the first Industrial Revolution, it will be used again for the Awakening).

    Lets start with US automakers.  GM, Chrysler, and Ford.  Go Rockafeller and bring it home, vertically.  Fire the unions, convert unused factories into foundries or merge with a metal manufacturing company such as US Steel.  Second, convert other factories not needed for road vehicle manufacture and begin making locomotives or “mag lev” transportation.  BE TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES, NOT AUTOMAKERS.  Consider partnerships with GE and Boeing (and get your head out of your ass).

    America needs a SWOT analysis and to act as a cohesive whole to make the Awakening work.  What tools does America have to work with?

    • Large amounts of energy – dams, wind, nuclear, coal, natural gas, wave, thermo, and solar.
    • Large educated workforce – we might not be the best educated, but we are a smart population.
    • Willing workforce willing to innovate – Americans are bred to take risks, that’s how we got here

    US financial industry, you were like the son who asked for his inheritance early only to squander it, but we took you back, even threw a party for you under a big TARP tent.  Start lending.  Take a risk.  Be entrepreneurial, invest in those who need investment, and give hope a chance.  If you fail, you already know America will be there to catch you when you’re too big to fall.

    The construction industry, you were the straight man, emerging in the Awakening as the “victim” of the collapse.  Its time to use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.  Lets renew our inner cities and small municipalities.  Stop all new construction until existing buildings are repaired or in use.  We’ve got to right the ship.  The immigrants are leaving the country.  You’re losing your workforce and potential new home sales.  There are enough lead-paint, 16-gauge, non-grounded fire traps in America’s small towns to keep every home builder in business for a decade if not a generation.

    So how can you become successful in a recession?  Same as always:

    1. Stop doing what doesn’t work and resolve to be open to change.
    2. Write down a dream or a goal (ask yourself what you want to have, become, or do).
    3. Build a team – surround yourself with like-minded individuals with similar goals.
    4. Pick a distribution channel (Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, your own website).
    5. Figure out who your target market is (who your customer will be).
    6. Pick a product or service (something to resell, rebrand, license, distribute, or sell).
    7. Find out how much it will cost to make or do and what you will charge for it.
    8. Test with your target market (if successful, go on, if not, start back at #1).
    9. Let people know about it (promote through trade magazines, or online through PPC).
    10. Create procedures so that you can sell your business and start another.

    I highly recommend three books for those who want more detail on how to start a successful business in good times or bad: