Tag: innovation

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Ignore your pie-in-the-sky thinking if you want but don’t cry when your competitors steal a scrumptious slice of your market

Why has pie-in-the-sky thinking got such a bad rap?
Why has pie-in-the-sky thinking got such a bad rap?

Last night while driving to a jazz club I was listening to a new Johannesburg radio station and I heard a business consultant interviewing entrepreneurs who have taken a second-hand car sounds business and through innovative ideas have made it super successful.

What stood out for me was a remark made by the wife of the husband-and-wife business partnership. She said her husband was the “pie-in-the-sky” thinker. He was the one who had come up with ideas such as to showcase a classic car from the 60s in their car sound audio fitment centre. Continue reading “Ignore your pie-in-the-sky thinking if you want but don’t cry when your competitors steal a scrumptious slice of your market”

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Your idea sucks? Now, what are you going to do about it?

Today is a very special day in your life. How do I know this? I know because you have landed on this blog. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t curious about how you can take your idea for a product or service and make it work for your life or business. Stay here for a few minutes I will show you exactly how you can make this day one of the most exciting that you have ever had in your life.

I was listening to a small business owner telling me excitedly about a new product idea that he had come up with but I was squirming in my seat. His idea sucked but I didn’t have the heart to tell him. I listened closely and when he finished I suggested he give the idea some more thought and recommended he use the New Business Idea Accelerator Evaluation Plan to see if his idea was feasible. Continue reading “Your idea sucks? Now, what are you going to do about it?”

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Keeping tight-lipped about product flaws is fatal for trust

English: Muizenberg from Boyes Drive
Muizenberg from Boyes Drive (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It happened so long ago that I almost forgot about it: how I bought a surfboard from a shop in Muizenberg when I first started surfing and the board was so brittle that it cracked even with the slightest pressure or bump.

In those days, not unlike what still happens in all sorts of products and services, the owner of the surf shop didn’t say a word about the poor quality of manufacture of his product. I can remember how many times I’d have to buy resin, catalyst and fibreglass strips to fix the many “dings” in my surfboard. Continue reading “Keeping tight-lipped about product flaws is fatal for trust”

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Where do you find the best business advice?

Sand dunes in the Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia. Older dunes are reddish and larger, newer dunes are yellow-brown.
Sand dunes in the Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia. Credit: Yathin S Krishnappa

A few months back I was advising an entrepreneur was eager to market his service to other small business people but his ideas to sell his Internet offering sucked. Rather than tell him so and risk hurting his feelings, I suggested that we would go speak to some prospects to find out what selling methods worked best with them.

A small business owner who had been running his deli business for a few years told the entrepreneur that the only marketing he would respond to would be direct contact. The entrepreneur needed to call him and let him know what he could do to help grow his business. Continue reading “Where do you find the best business advice?”

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Green fatigue, a luxury for people with plenty water

Green
Green (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

When I was travelling through to the Richtersveld, a dry semi–desert region, I stopped at the town of De Aar. On entering the restroom at a restaurant in the centre of town, I found the wash basin hot water tap running full blast.

This is probably the result of a low-information mindset and culture. It’s got to be because how can you waste water in such a water-stressed area? Continue reading “Green fatigue, a luxury for people with plenty water”

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The power of positive ideas

Rotten_tomatoesIn my posts I talk a lot about new ideas for start-ups, small business innovation and generally new business ideas that make things better.

Yet some people cook up ideas for their own wicked games. The process can be the same to come up with positive ideas as it is to generate negative ideas. Yet the intention is the difference between day and night.

Just think about the dirty rotten scoundrels who want to take your house, car, savings, and perhaps even your life.

Now, let me ask you this… have you thought about how certain people generate their big bad ideas? You may have but here are some negative ideas (yet seemingly positive) for those who can put a gun to your head: Continue reading “The power of positive ideas”

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Sing in the shower for brilliant ideas and profit from your innovation

Español: Un hombre practicando kitesurfing en las palyas de Curanipe, Chile.
Español: Un hombre practicando kitesurfing en las palyas de Curanipe, Chile.

This African proverb is a great way to think about new ideas and innovation:

“An axe without a handle does not cut firewood.”

Combinations lead to innovation.

Connections among your experiences, feelings, emotions, deep thinking, facts and observations can spark new ideas for products, services, fresh thinking and stunning insights.

Three quick examples:

– Ballet and shoes = ballet pumps
– Surfboard and kite = kite boarding
– Internet and friends = Facebook

How do you discover these golden connections? How do you ignite these golden threads? How do you spark of these golden opportunities? Continue reading “Sing in the shower for brilliant ideas and profit from your innovation”

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Ideas crisis: 3 lucrative tools you can use to instantly pump ideas

Idea - Foster's Chill Head
Idea – Foster’s Chill Head (Photo credit: fostersartofchilling)

Home owners faced the worst drought in half a century in the US. Water rationing and conservation became imperative. So what could home owners do about their lawns?

Many decided to paint their lawns with green organic dye. It’s incredible isn’t it, that homeowners would rather spray their lawns green than replace them with indigenous grasses or even endemic plants that need little water?

Although spraying residential lawns may be new, golf courses and athletic fields have used green spraying for years to get a more deep green lush appearance.

Dyeing grass makes water conservation screen around the gills but the point I’m making is that new ideas often come about when people face crises. They have to do something to change or respond to events. It brings challenges and opportunities.

Small business owners and start-ups aren’t usually looking for ideas to solve lawn water problems but they often need to come up with ideas in a hurry. Continue reading “Ideas crisis: 3 lucrative tools you can use to instantly pump ideas”

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Low-income markets hold promise for business owners with imagination and innovative ideas

flowering Karoo, near the Highway N1 between L...
Flowering Karoo, near the Highway N1 between Laingsburg and Prince Albert Road Western Cape, South Africa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In recent months I have travelled through the Richtersveld in the Northern Cape and the Karoo in the Western Cape. Vast expanses, unique flora and hardy, friendly people who live and work in these semi-desert regions.

When you arrive in the small town of Philipstown, De Aar, Carnarvon, Calvinia, Laingsburg, Beaufort West and Hanover, you are stuck by the large number of young people, unemployed people begging for money and the mostly run-down retail shopping areas.

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Who’s supporting business in these hot, dusty Karoo towns?

Northerrn Cape
Northern Cape (Photo: Chesney Bradshaw)

After driving for hours through the hot, dry and dusty Karoo, you get back home to the city and miss those wide open spaces.

The veld with small bushes and shrubs that extend to the mountains on the horizon. Clear visibility enabling you to see so far that you wonder about the distance that you can see with the naked eye – is it 23 km or 30 km? The vistas are big and leave you with a good feeling that there is still so much land out there that’s unspoilt, unpolluted and even untrodden. Continue reading “Who’s supporting business in these hot, dusty Karoo towns?”