I love INC Magazine. The articles they feature are right on target and thought provoking. Most of all, you actually want to read the articles and not just scan briefly through them. John Warrillow, an angel investor in a number of start-up companies wrote an article recently about getting inspiration from great innovators of our time.
If you are stuck and seeking to find answers just ask yourself...what would Richard Branson do? What would Steve Jobs do? The theory is by putting yourself in the mindset of renowned innovators, you will begin thinking like one. A small Finnish company called Pomarfin put themselves in the space of wild innovation. They were manufacturing shoes in Estonia to lower costs, however they were competing with companies in Asia who would manufacture the shoes at a much lower cost. What's a family owned business to do? Expand their innovation quotient.
Clearly Pomarfin could do what many companies have done in recent years, manufacture overseas for much less cost or look for another way to keep their production in Europe. Pomarfin's decision speaks to the essence of a risk taking innovator - they decided to niche aggressively by selling a new product with a new target...made-to-measure shoes for high net worth men who hate shopping.
This new brand entitled "LeftFoot" was a clever idea from Pomarfin. They thought they would install a foot scanner in all retail stores that sold its shoes. Easy...a well to do man comes knocking, the retail clerk scans the man's left foot with a LeftFoot machine, the image uploads to a server in Pomarfin's manufacturing plant that would create and ship these unique pair of shoes customized to the man's feet. When he wanted to order another, all he would do is go online. Easy! Not so much...
Pomarfin needed retailers who would want to install a scanner in their stores and scan customer's feet. May not be the most pleasant experience for a retail clerk, however the idea is worse for the retailer who would lose the customer to an online store.
LeftFoot started building their own retail stores and still needed traditional retailers to fully cover the market. As my dear mentor always tells me...you know you will be successful because others before have done it and can light the way. LeftFoot only had to look no further than to the music and publishing business for a model. They would pay a royalty for life fee for every new pair of LeftFoot shoes a customer purchased when referred by the retailer.
Can you imagine if all you had to do was take one action and then you would get paid for life with no effort? That's how the retailer's looked at the offer. The retailer referred the customer, got payments for life and didn't even need to stock inventory or pay for more support staff. Retailers signed on without hesitation. Now LeftFoot has retailers set up throughout most of Europe and Asia.
Very innovative, yes? They key to LeftFoot's success was their willingness to be highly innovative and to think differently about their delivery and customers.
Thinking differently is an easy phrase to say and more challenging to do. And still...is it better to sit idle, or to model those who have come before us - the great innovators - who look at a challenge as simply another opportunity. Where can you think differently? Where is your opportunity to pioneer, to innovate and to become the next Bill Gates of our time?
