How To Breed An Innovative Business Idea — #24 of 31 Proven Skills [Research]
Skill #24 Integrate Resources to Compel the Desired Things Result
Ensuring that ‘Things’ (tangible objects or concepts) can be changed to deliver a better result than their design intended can be difficult. Achieving such improvement in performance often involves considerable expense that may be prohibitive. The innovative way to tackle this challenge is to integrate your goal with something the target Thing naturally does or is programmed to do
Whatever your field of endeavor, if people are involved, the paramount priority is ensuring that they are protected from harm. Product or service safety rightfully receives maximum attention. However, despite the precedence afforded to this matter, people are still hurt when circumstances conspire in unusual ways. Sometimes something happens in such a way that it even undermines the protective mechanism put in place.
A property owner faces exactly this sort of situation. Although all their buildings are fitted with fire doors that close in the event of a fire, they perceive that there is still a risk that fire could potentially inhibit the door closing mechanisms so that they might not close. An innovative, backup modification is introduced whereby fire doors are held open with a wedge of material that melts in fire. When this occurs, the wedge dissolves, and the affected fire door closes if it hasn’t already. By integrating the composition of the door wedge with the imperative of the doors closing in the event of a fire, another level of human protection is innovatively created.
This illustration reveals the fundamental thrust of Skill #24: Integrate Resources to Compel the Desired Things Result. You achieve your objective by integrating what you want to achieve with objects or concepts so that when they simply do what is inherent in them, your goal is realized at the same time. Relying on ‘Things’ to express themselves through their natural physical properties is sound. In the case of man-made things, their disposition is to do what they have been designed or programmed to do. The efficacy of programming has increased exponentially with the advent of computers and software. Their lack of susceptibility to failure (compared with physical equipment) ensures that the result desired from a productive asset can be virtually guaranteed once it is programmed.
Other Examples of Integrating to Get Things to Respond*
As technology advances, a frequent consequence is that producers of products and services are sometimes literally wiped out. The benefit they have previously provided is now delivered with superior customer appeal, and usually less expensively, by someone else. An innovative strategy of integrating with that technological onslaught can be effective. In an example of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ‘em”, a manufacturer of mobile GPS devices confronts the fact that whereas car drivers were once a fertile prospect for its products, most motor vehicle manufacturers now include such capability as part of the car. Leveraging the brand reputation of its device, the GPS manufacturer launches an attractive proposal to car producers for their GPS to be incorporated as a desirable feature in all new cars. By integrating its product into the new vehicle manufacturing process, the loss of market share in the traditional marketplace of the GPS producer is pre-empted.
Virtually every business is pursuing initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. Most commonly, this amounts to taking steps to reduce the impact of an offending activity, as most of the time, eliminating that activity altogether is not practical. Another approach, instead of devising schemes to alleviate the impact, is to use an integrating strategy that has the effect of ensuring that the impact just does not happen. To counteract the pollution and disposal problems caused by superfluous packing, an online retailer organizes for the packing of the products it supplies to be standardized so that they fit snuggly into standard postal and courier containers without padding. The integrating of internal packing dynamics with the dimensions of typical shipping containers automatically eliminates the need for the disposal of surplus padding materials.
As suggested earlier, illustrations of innovative initiatives underpinned by software abound. In more recent times, another step-change in efficiency and productivity has been enabled through the widespread evolution of the ‘internet of things’ and the associated use of sensors. And, once again, often environmental imperatives drive many of these initiatives, even where a product — for example, the washing machine — has been around for a long time. Washing machines can use a lot of water, especially when preserving this precious resource is dependent upon the habits of thousands if individual users of the machine. Taking advantage of the advances in technology, a washing machine manufacturer tackles the problem of water wastage by installing sensors that match the exact quantity of water required with the weight of the clothes to be washed. This integrating of the operation of the washing machine with software and sensors that govern its operation optimizes both the cleaning task and the amount of water used.
The most desirable employment of Transition Resources occurs where the targeted ‘Thing’ — that is, the Responding Resource — is effectively integrated with an Initiating Resource. This means that when the ‘Thing’ entity does what it naturally does or does what it is designed to do, it simultaneously delivers the result being sought by the initiative being mounted. Such integrating delivers a very satisfying innovative outcome.
Takeaway
*Thousands of categorized innovative business ideas can be found at Sebir.com
