        
|
|
IDEAS- Issue # 1 (Sept. 2005) Monthly newsletter dedicated to organisational innovation, creativity and change. The Stark Choice: To Hate or Love Problems If you've ever peeled potatoes, you would wonder what's the big deal about it. Just take a peeler and start peeling skin off the potatoes. But for Betsey, an architect by profession, peeling potatoes used to be a painful project. Betsey couldn't grip a potato peeler properly. She was a case of slight arthritis in her hands. Fed up of seeing his wife struggle, Sam Farber, her husband, asked himself: Why should ordinary kitchen tools hurt users' hands. Why do we have to deal with painful scissor loops, rusty potato peelers, hard skinny handles? Why can't things be designed for comfortable use by all kinds of people? He took upon himself to not only help his own wife but also millions around the world who faced similar problems with ill-designed kitchenware. Farber founded OXO International in 1989 with the objective of developing a new range of easy-to-use kitchen tools, which he named as Good Grips. Farber hired Smart Design, a New York-based industrial design firm to develop a range of kitchen tools with one unique feature: easy-to-use with good grips. On its part, SD talked to consumers, examined competitive products, interviewed chefs, explored the physical effects of ageing, and filmed volunteers from a New York arthritis group to learn their problems of hand movement. Finally, in 1990 OXO launched its "Good Grips" range of kitchenware. Within a year, the company had achieved sales of $3 million. Between 1991 and 2002, the company's annual rate of growth in sales was more than 35%. Today, OXO markets 500 products and continues to follow its mission of "providing innovative consumer products that make everyday living easier." >>IDEAS: This is a classic story of how innovations happen. Someone identifies a problem, comes with an idea to tackle it and then turns the idea into a new business. And the end result is usually so simple that people can't help saying, "Why didn't I think of it?" John Shepherd-Barron was not able to withdraw cash on weekends (since banks were closed) and landed up inventing ATMs (1967). John Dunlop, a veterinary surgeon, came up with the idea of pneumatic tyres after he couldn't bear the discomfort of his son riding a tricycle with solid tyres over cobbled ground (1888). When Charles Menches, an ice-cream vendor, ran out of paper plates on one hot summer afternoon , he hit the idea of ice-cream cones (1904). Well, it's not about ice-cream cones, peelers or tyres. It's about how we react to problems. Do you instinctively avoid problems, push them to others or feel helpless in front of them? Or do you behave like innovators and innovating enterprises do--treating problems as opportunities to innovate? The choice is yours! Atul Mathur FORWARD IT: Would you like to share what you've just read with any of your friends/colleagues? Click below to send a link to your friend.Coming up in the next issue... The Law of Unexpected Consequences To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter, send a blank e-mail to:subscribe IDEAS ***Copyright 2005 Atul Mathur*** |
|