How To Breed An Innovative Business Idea — #13 of 31 Proven Skills [Research]

Skill #13: Multiply a Resource to Do Something In Addition to What It Normally Does

The second skill for ‘tapping’ the unrealized value latent in an Initiating Resource involves focusing on an intrinsic attribute of the selected resource and seeking to multiply it so that it does not only what is normal, but does something else as well

All intentional innovative behavior commences with the selection of an Initiating Resource. Of the seven skills that we can employ to tap its residual, unused value, three are primary: they modify one of the intrinsic attributes of the Initiating Resource itself. The other four are secondary and tackle the Initiating Resource from the outside, regulating it in its entirety. In total, there are 31 authentic innovative skills that can be employed to innovate.

Skill #13: Multiply a Resource to Do Something In Addition to What It Normally Does is the second skill that focuses on an attribute of the selected Initiating Resource. The aim is to multiply it so that it does something as well as what it normally does. If we innovatively multiply an Initiating Resource, it not only operates in accordance with its primary purpose, but it can deliver a different, beneficial result as well. The added result is simply the release of what is already there, albeit unused. As such, enjoying double the value is a reasonable expectation from this skill.

A simple illustration. Let us say we have a working office cramped for space, which rules out equipping it with a whiteboard for team collaboration. There are storage cupboards along a wall. By selecting these cupboards as an Initiating Resource and focusing on the intrinsic attribute of the doors of those cupboards, we can multiply their purpose beyond enclosing what the cupboards contain. By ensuring that the cupboard door surfaces are treated appropriately, the doors can be written on and in effect also become a whiteboard.

Other Examples of Multiplying an Initiating Resource to Innovate Additionally*

Examples of innovating by enabling dual purpose can be found in any field of endeavor. Here are just three.

Many hotel owners face the perennial problem of guests leaving the lights and TV on when they exit their rooms, resulting in needless waste of energy. By selecting the hotel key card as their Initiating Resource, hotel owners multiply its use by ensuring that in addition to opening the room door, when it is inserted in a slot just inside the door, the key card activates electricity for the room. This automatically ensures guests turn off all power when they take their key card on leaving the room. A simple multiplication of the uses of the hotel key card innovatively delivers significant energy cost savings.

A wholesale merchant is frequently faced with cashflow difficulties, especially when larger payments to its suppliers overlap, creating periodic cash shortages. Because delivering its services necessitates regular national travel that generates significant travel credits, the merchant selects these as an Initiating Resource, specifically focusing on the value attribute of the travel credits. The wholesaler then negotiates for some of its supplier debt to be settled via the transfer of travel credits for the use of the provider concerned. Instead of simply being seen as a means of paying for travel, by multiplying their use, the travel credits are also employed as a form of cash to satisfy money owing to suppliers.

Finally, a worker safety example. For a retailer, the problem of the necessary unbundling of items before placing them on retail shelves is a repetitive activity that causes ergonomic injuries to staff and generates packaging waste. Taking the flexible configuration attribute of the products concerned, modified packaging is commissioned whereby, say, nine units of product are wrapped in the tenth one, which then contains the others. The ultimate use of the products concerned is unaffected but multiplied value is secured when they are also used to package themselves.

Multiplying the primary purpose of an Initiating Resource by means of one of its attributes produces innovative value simply because the normal benefit is still enjoyed but, with minimal additional effort, something extra — another purpose — is gained as well. This is the essence of Skill #13: Multiply a Resource to Do Something In Addition to What It Normally Does.

Takeaway

*Thousands of categorized innovative business ideas can be found at Sebir.com