Why Not? - battery operated electric toothbrush

While some people think the path to innovation is indescribable, we believe that creative thinking often has a simple, recurring structure.
Most original ideas are not completely original, but the result of two basic problems: the problem of finding a solution and the solution to the problem.
Both methods have their own advantages.
If it looks weird, think about the TV game show.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and find the right answer in danger!
Start with the answer and look for the right question.
Once the problem is found, how do you find a solution?
It's a good start to look at your customers.
You can accept the imperfect Rube Goldberg solution that people have discovered and improved, instead of inventing a new solution from scratch.
But there are limits to consumer observation.
Although the unexpected response of consumers often indicates that there is a problem with the product, there are many problems that customers can't solve themselves.
This is because of the real
The world has limited consumer resources.
So another tool is to ask an unconstrained consumer how to solve this problem.
We call this method "what will cross do ? "
"As a short name for the solution to imagine that price is not the target.
These may allow you to find an affordable solution.
In his time, Howard Hughes had a Croesus-
For example, spend money to find a solution to the problem.
Imagine, 1966, you're Hughes.
You sometimes have a desire to watch Bogart's old movies.
Unfortunately, VCR has not been invented yet. What do you do?
Hughes bought a Las Vegas TV station and used it as his private video recorder.
As long as he wants, he will call the general manager of the TV station to tell him what movie to put that night.
As far as we know, there are a lot of Casablanca and Malta Falcons playing at the station.
In this spirit, what will our "Croesus do?
"The first thing to do is imagine a customized, very expensive solution.
We didn't think the solution had to be practical at first.
Instead, we have to ask: is there any solution?
Question: must wait at the customer service number.
Donald Trump or Bill Gates won't spend much time waiting.
When the phone is answered, they leave an assistant online and call them.
Mortals can't afford a personal assistant.
Is there a way for ordinary people to follow this "personal assistant" strategy? Well, yes.
Why doesn't the airline call you back instead of waiting to talk to the airline customer representative?
With the caller ID you don't even have to enter your number.
Waiting to wait is not only a pain for the caller, but also an expensive expense for the company --free line.
At present, huge sums of money have been spent on transferring telephone support centers to lower levels of technologywage countries.
We invite airlines and others to consider applying a bit of technology on issues that make your customers less angry.
Question: family cash management.
There is almost no interest on your checking account, but you may have to pay a mortgage of 6%.
Why don't you take all your cash and pay your mortgage in advance?
That way, you can make an extra 6% with your money.
Unfortunately, this suggestion is impractical.
You need some cash to pay bills and emergencies.
If you put all your money in your mortgage, you won't be able to get it back when you need it.
A modern croyce-
Or any big company. -
Liquidity issues can be addressed by hiring an assistant to use money market funds and reserve credit lines for complex cash management.
Ordinary people can only get the same result if they spend too much time adjusting the balance back and forth.
But what if the bank is willing to help?
What if the bank establishes a mortgage/check consolidation account that only charges the homeowner a net liability fee?
A person with a $200,000 mortgage and a check balance of $10,000 can charge mortgage interest for just $190,000.
If you are a retail banker, your first reaction is to reject the idea.
Your profitability depends on the customer who has a certain amount of idle cash balance.
Why give the homeowner an easy way to narrow the check balance or pay high upfrontrate mortgages?
But think about all the time that customers are now wasting in order to manage their cash.
Wouldn't it be possible to price the combined account as before to make the bank as profitable as before, but the client is still happy because he has removed a lot of paperwork?
On 1997, Richard Branson's Virgin Bank, in partnership with AMP and Royal Bank of Scotland, provided the Virgin one account, which withdrew the cash balance from the mortgage debt.
Your salary is deposited into this account electronically.
Any check or credit card charges you pay will be deducted from the account, thereby increasing your outstanding mortgage.
By the end of 2001, Virgin One had 70,000 customers.
Today, it is a very successful mortgage product in the UK.
This idea is worth the money.
In July 2001, RBS acquired a total of 50% of Virgin and AMP shares for $0. 15 billion.
The combined account finally came to these shores.
Wells Fargo launched a similar product in October 2002 and claimed it was its most successful product launch.
Sometimes it doesn't help to start this problem.
Solve the process by identifying the problem.
This problem must be solved first.
It is only when we find a better way that we will recall that we realize that there is a problem that needs to be solved.
Use existing solutions to find a new application.
Solution: roundthe-
Clock rental start time.
Avis Rent A Car 24 hours a day, starting at any time of the day (or night).
What is the new app? -
That is, what other leases should be flexible at the start time?
Anyone arriving in Europe on a night flight can answer this question: hotel rooms.
You arrive at 7: 00. m.
I want to take a shower and change clothes, but there are still six hours left to check. in time.
The hotel must strive to provide this convenience.
It will be more challenging to coordinate room cleaning.
A check must be included in the booking-
Ensure rooms are available in a timely manner.
But if Elvis can solve the problem by computer programming, Sheraton can certainly do the same.
This service has already started in some airport hotels.
We believe that some hotels in the city center should follow suit, perhaps providing a floor for the service.
Solution: Inflationindexed bonds. The U. S.
Treasury protects you from unexpected inflation by providing tips or Treasury inflation --
Protected Securities
What else can be indexed?
Municipal bonds.
This has only been done a few times.
For investors worried about inflation and taxes, they will be very attractive.
At present, investors in TIPS still face the risk of imposing uncertain taxes on their returns, because federal taxes are imposed on actual returns (now about 2%)
Inflation has intensified.
If inflation reaches 8%, bonds begin to pay 10% net after taxof-
Inflation returns will be near negative 1. 5%.
States that provide index returns may provide actual returns of no more than 1% to 2%, and there will still be a lot of recipients.
Solution: battery-
Operate the spinner.
Spin Pop, launched in 1993, is one of the most successful new interactive candy launches ever.
These electric lollipop stands have sold more than 85 million around the world.
Hold your tongue firmly and rotate the candy with it.
Now, what other questions did Spin Pop answer?
After roaming the Wal-Mart aisle
Spin Pop creators found the right question: how to reduce the price of an electric toothbrush.
Electric toothbrush conceived by rotating Pop.
In less than four years, John Osher and others made $1.
When P & G bought it, 5 million of the investment was invested in $0. 475 billion.
Sometimes turning things around provides a useful solution to different problems.
What we call symmetry is to adopt existing solutions in a given context and transform them into new perspectives. Inflation-
It's a good idea to index bonds.
Turn this over.
Is it also effective to borrow money in the case of inflation? indexed rate?
This shift has led to inflation.
Mortgage.
Every year your payments increase with inflation.
Such loans are standard in high-inflation countries.
Even if inflation is low, like 2% in the United States. S.
These loans will allow people to borrow 50% more or start with a third less payment.
The young family suddenly could afford a bigger house.
To a large extent, people have found an effective answer, but they have not found the habit of finding better solutions.
Or we think there are some natural ways to do things and no longer look for other options.
Bring the ketchup bottle.
In order to make it flow faster, did you pour it over?
How long does it take Hunter and HJ.
Heinz wants to know if they can turn the label upside down?
According to Kathy Keller of Heinz, the change doesn't matter: "We think it's probably the biggest idea in tomato sauce since the invention of plastic squeeze bottles.
In the past, Heinz used Carly Simon's "expectation" in marketing ".
The activity after the update is "no wait ". No mess.
No expectation.
"Ketchup is not the only product to take advantage of this insight: toothpaste, shampoo and even sour cream can now be reversed.
Coming up with a good idea is just the beginning of the battle.
If you really want to change your company or the world, you need to sell the idea and you need someone else to buy it.
Try to get familiar with an idea as it comes up.
It's hard for listeners to accept a whole new idea.
Don't let them absorb new content as well.
Colgate applied this rule brilliantly with its new simple white teethwhitening gel. The home-
Whitening with teeth is an unfamiliar product.
However, Colgate's products evoke strong deja vu. -
Its packaging is very similar to that of Wite
The familiar typo has come out.
Is there a good idea?
Don't be carried away by secrets.
If you can't make money yourself, share it. The open-
The source code movement in software development shows that a decentralized community of code preparers can successfully develop interlocking products that are free to the world.
We propose an Open
The source movement of daily creativity.
If you produce valuable ideas, even those that seem to represent yourself, you may need help putting them into practice.
In our society, people who are called ideas tend to pay a huge return.
Put the idea outside and see what happens instead of hoarding the idea for a fatal return.
Join our cyberspaceforbes/whynot.
Join your ideas, seek inspiration, and react to the ideas of others.
We will write the best submissions in our Forbes column.
We also challenge industry leaders to respond to your ideas: why haven't they put them into practice yet, or why don't they?
Someone else has come up with a bold marketing idea, a novelty product, or a clever way of doing business, and you ask yourself, why didn't I think of that?
There is no magic formula for innovation, but there are ways to make yourself inclined to innovation.
In the regular column of Forbes, two Yale professors, Barry narleff of business school, and Ian Ayers of Law School study creative business ideas and their sources.
The front is adapted from why not?
How to use everyday ingenuity to solve big and small problems is a book to be published by Harvard Business School Press.