How To Breed An Innovative Business Idea — #27 of 31 Proven Skills [Research]
Skill #27 Avoid the Undesired Effect of a Problem Cause
Not all problems must be confronted for the goal that is being blocked to be achieved. There may be reasons why the problem cannot be tackled directly. If so, the cause of the problem and its detrimental effect is still in play. A fitting innovative response in such a situation is to ‘avoid’ the effect of the problem
Innovating Despite the Problem
There are five specific skills that can be employed to deal with any problem blocking the achievement of a goal. As its description suggests, Skill #27 Avoid the Undesired Effect of a Problem Cause does not rely on some treatment of the problem to blunt its effect. Rather, the problem itself continues to exist. The innovative initiative ensures that the typical effect of the problem remains, but is avoided.
Such a problem strategy finds regular use because commonly there is nothing practically that can be done about a problem faced. It cannot be eliminated, and the impact of its effect cannot be mitigated. A common source of such problems is legislation — the steadily increasing regulation of businesses and what they can and cannot do. An additional layer of complexity emerges if you are doing business in more than one country. A solution for a problem in one market may be totally ineffective in another.
So, how can such problems be avoided? A producer of plant-based milk shows how. This firm is prohibited in certain markets from using the term “milk” to describe its product. Unable to achieve an exemption or change of the applicable laws, the company avoids the problem by using an image in its packaging and marketing communications that clearly reveals what its product is. The word ‘milk” does not appear. Although the prohibiting legislation still exists, its effect has been innovatively avoided.
The five skills that can be learned for resolving problems are part of 31 personal innovative skills that I have uncovered through research of thousands of successful business ideas and how they came about.
Other Examples of Avoiding the Effects of Problems
A supplier of photocopying and scanning equipment to small businesses often loses potential sales because the capital cost of a machine is beyond the means of some smaller enterprises. To avoid this problem, the vendor supplies and installs the equipment at zero upfront cost in return for an agreement for the customer to pay a monthly usage fee calculated from the metered throughput of the machine. A large, unaffordable initial cost is replaced with a small day-to-day cost. This problem-avoiding initiative removes a common barrier to sales and simultaneously increases the size of the market available to the office equipment merchant.
A distribution business faces a continuing safety challenge because many of its workers injure themselves lifting items into and out of delivery trucks. Employees loading transport vehicles frequently make up for any gap in the truck-feeding conveyor system by picking up packages and manually moving them as required. Inevitably, this results in injuries. By installing sensor-guided conveyor belts that automatically extend and shorten depending on the position of the workers, the temptation for manual handling and the injuries it causes are innovatively avoided.
Sometimes there is not much that can be done about a problem and the harm that can result from it. The problem is a fact of life that cannot be changed or removed. In such cases, a plausible innovative response is to discern the pathway of the problem’s effect and take steps to avoid that effect.
Takeaway
*Thousands of categorized innovative business ideas can be found at Sebir.com
