How To Breed An Innovative Business Idea — #20 of 31 Proven Skills [Research]
Skill #20 Energize Things to Do More Than Normal
Making something desirable happen becomes much easier if you become part of the flow of an existing course of events instead of initiating your own independent course of events. This can be done by integrating with some inherent property (disposition) of a selected Thing (object or concept). It is an assured way of innovating because by doing what it usually does, the Thing reliably does what you want as well
Here we are dealing with the second of the two skills that pivot on Responding Resources. There are two categories: those that involve ‘People’ (Skill #19) and, in this particular post, those that involve ‘Things’. Both skills (which are part of a total of 31 innovative skills in all) rely on the fundamental principle that all the skills are established upon: all resources, including Responding Resources, are a source of innovative value because they contain unconsumed value that can be accessed for free — ‘free’ because it does not have to be re-created to be enjoyed.
Skill #20 Energize Things to Do More Than Normal mirrors Skill #19: Stimulate People to Do More of What They are Already Inclined to Do in that it seeks to achieve a certain outcome by becoming part of some activity that is likely to happen anyway. This contrasts radically with attempting to engineer an isolated result from scratch. In the case of People, this amounts to identifying and blending with human dispositions or inclinations that can be corralled to simultaneously achieve a desired goal. In the case of Things, we detect and work with dispositions (properties) of objects and concepts. The disposition is always an inherent, inanimate property that the selected object or concept possesses.
But, there is a difference. When Things are our target, our innovative task is a little more straightforward. In the final analysis, no matter how brilliant or attractive an initiative may be, when it is directed towards People, the latter, as thinking, reasoning human entities, can decide not to respond. In the case of Things, provided an initiative is innovatively sound, the target ‘Thing’ — because it is an inanimate entity — will respond as expected, without deviation.
This can be made clearer with an illustration. Let’s start with a Thing in pristine condition from nature, some object that has never been embellished in any way. A local municipality wants to do something about the significant ongoing expense of maintaining heavily used urban infrastructure. A prime candidate is pedestrian crossings that require regular painting to keep them safely visible. This challenge is addressed by ensuring that the crossings are constructed from paving slabs that are natural — black basalt paving tiles alternated with white limestone ones. Integrating the fabrication of zebra crossings with the enduring property possessed by stone components from nature delivers an innovative solution that eliminates the need for the usual, regular upkeep.
Other Examples of Energizing Things to Do More Than Normal*
In any manufacturing environment, man-made productive facilities can be relied upon to perform the task they were designed for, repeatedly. But this capability has its limits because rarely is just one product produced. Adjustments need to be made depending on market demand, particularly in markets such as fashion where frequent, numerous changes are required. And often, these adjustments are prohibitively costly. An innovative response is to standardize the components inherent in a production process while allowing variability in the final product. For instance, a watchmaker exploits the inherent quality of the common components of a watch by designing a standard operating mechanism that can be employed in all of its watches, current, and future, regardless of watch designs, shapes, and sizes. This replaces the many different mechanisms used previously. The standardized mechanism does what it always does — ensures the reliable internal operation of each watch — while allowing physical external responses to fashion trends as required.
This sort of systematizing can be seen at work on a much larger scale as well. Motor vehicle manufacturers have been moving to impressive standardization with widely different visual differences in cars disguising the fact that the vehicles are all constructed on a single, uniform chassis. Similarly, home builders present house facades that are distinctly different while behind them are similar floor plans. Relying on the inherent property of a common element while achieving market variety is a rewarding innovative strategy.
Let’s move to a conceptual example. The law of gravity has an inherent property that is inviolable: gravity causes mutual attraction between all physical things but most commonly, it is understood as the force that attracts something toward the earth. Many producers of consumer products have found aligning with this law to be a worthwhile strategy. A food products manufacturer taps into the essential disposition of gravity by inverting the packaging of viscous items such as sauces and relocating the cap from the top, seemingly to the bottom of the container. This modification allows gravity to guarantee that the contents are always primed for discharge near the opening, rather than forming a slow or sudden, undesirable flow in response to physical shaking of the container. Aligning with gravity and what it does proves to be an innovative solution to a potential consumer use problem.
Things have dispositions in the same way that People have dispositions except that with Things, the inherent property in question is typically unchanging in its effect. It is therefore very worthwhile to integrate with a disposition of some ‘Thing’ that is relevant to what you are trying to do. You can absolutely count on that disposition or property to help solve your problem or realize your goal.
Takeaway
*Thousands of categorized innovative business ideas can be found at Sebir.com
