DODOcase
I don't think the world needs any more iPad or iPhone cases. At least, not without a little bit of innovation. It's a mistake to think that Wal-Mart or McDonald's are businesses that exist in the middle of the bell curve. As far as audiences go, they are somewhere in the middle, but as far as strategy goes, they are on the fringes, and they're key selling point: cheap. Cheap doesn't mean mass, cheap doesn't...
The Answer You're Looking For...
...probably isn't where you've been looking for it. The best "aha!" moments of my life have come from answers to questions that I didn't ask. The come from the fringes, from a collision of ideas from two different domains that I never would have put together using logic or reason. A lot of joy and insight has struck me while I've been parked in front of computer because, hey, that's where I spend most of...
Free Coffee
The Trader Joe's closest to my house offers something very small that makes a big impact: free coffee. If you go in there to shop on any given weekend day (it might be any day, for all I know), there's a caraffe of coffee brewing at the back, and everyone is free to help themselves to a small cup that they can nurse as they wander around the store. There was a Superbowl commercial about...
Entering
There's one reason that I know my car, apartment, and underworldly possessions are most like safe from theft: they're all very small targets. My car doesn't have a high bluebook value, so it's unlikely anyone will risk driving off with it in the middle of the night. That's protecting it far more than the car alarm is. And I know that my deadbolt is pretty much worthless. A dedicated cat burglar could bypass it without...
Mine is Yours
Here's a Canadian business in Toronto that rents bicycles via automated rental stations posted throughout the city:
Vélib'
This would be 20 times more difficult to replicate in the United States than simply publishing another diet book, but the idea is way more than 20 times better than the latter.
Not Showing Up
There's an old expression that 90% of life is "showing up". Not that all you have to do is wake up, drag yourself to work, and sit there the rest of the day. That's not 90% of the way there. But once you've woken up, prepared for the day, dealt with the morning traffic, and situated yourself at work, the rest of the day kind of falls into place. It's acknowledging that you've heard what...
One Shoe Minimum
A friend tells me about an Australian shoe retailer that instituted a new policy in their store: if you try on shoes in the store, but leave without buying anything, they charge you a fee of $50. That's one way to do it. I'm never adverse to the idea of a business firing a portion of their customers, particularly the 20% of them that are probably taking up 80% of the businesses time or money...
Disposable
I heard a statistic that said the number of women-owned start-up business ventures outnumbers those started by men by a factor of 7. I'm not sure if this is 100% percent accurate, but it makes sense to me, for one reason: biology. In the animal kingdom, females are the necessary gender for raising and nurturing the young. The males, on the other hand, aren't as critical to the process. Once they've given up their seed,...
Strategic Listening
Saw the new movie Limitless yesterday. Not a bad little flick, but it's not the first movie I've seen with a miracle cure that turns an unmotivated dolt into a super-confident genius. These movies always have one thing in common: the protagonist becomes a big talker. Given their newfound knowledge, they start talking the ears off of everyone around them. And because they're so smart (presumably), there is no shortage of people standing around to...
Is It Good Enough?
This is a question I struggle with at least once a day. I'm come on here and write something (excuse me for being self-referential for a moment), and before I post it, I question whether or not I really ought to. Before I put a song I've written up online, I wonder whether it's worth the time of the person who might happen to stumble across it and hit the "play" button. I'm not going...