Winning Moves: Thinking Out of the Box

May 2009 • www.visionsmc.com • 410-849-8095

Editor's Note

I've had the privilege of working with and being related to a number of gifted business owners who have ADD. I'm not the only one that thinks there is a connection between success in business and ADD. From a "60 Minutes" episode on ADD:

"David Neeleman says he always knew his brain worked a little differently from the rest …Even so, he's a huge success. He's CEO of Jet Blue, the low-cost, no-frills carrier that has shaken up the airline industry. Neeleman says many of his out-of-the-box ideas are thanks to his ADD."

The people that I know that have ADD think differently than most people. When confronted with a problem, they will come up with a different solution than most of the population would reach. Sometimes, they come up with off the wall solutions that are really hard for some people to understand and other times their solutions are bang on and quite compelling.

People who have ADD are able to come up with unique value propositions that meet all their customers needs and flip an industry upside down (like Neeleman at Jet Blue) or to come up with unique solutions to their individual customers needs, which becomes a value proposition in itself.

Why is thinking out of the box so important to get a strategic edge? Read on...

Molly Hughes Wilmer

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Feature

Thinking Out of the Box

In most competitions, you can't maintain a winning edge by doing the same thing over and over again. Even if you do it quite well. Because someone, somewhere, is going to find a way to ramp it up.

There are examples of this in almost every sport. Sailing, that glorious competition using wind and water, is quite technical. Wood hulls have been replaced by generations of fiberglass and now carbon fiber evolutions. Canvas sails have been replaced with mylar and Kevlar and even newer fibers.

Swimmers have recently begun ramping things up with their new sharkskin-like body suits. Runners are continually tweaking training styles, trying new electrolyte replacement techniques, analyzing their strides, and experimenting with their diets to get an edge. Luges, racing bikes and rowing skulls, like sailboats, are all echoes of their original forms.

Most successful businesses realize that to keep customers happy, you can't keep delivering the same service over and over the same way. A customer will be delighted the first time they try Aqua Terra's fresh ahi tuna tartare with a ripe mango wasabi puree.

However, even if the tuna is prepared identically every subsequent visit, the customer's reaction will change. The initial delight they felt will be different-it's not new any more. It may start to feel like an old friend, a familiar comfort, so the service will have to change to warmly recognize the returning customer or give them financial benefits of frequent service. Or maybe the dish will need to be tweaked to always have something new, to give them that delight of discovery.

If you don't find a better way of delivering your service, your competition will. That's what competition is all about. Good luck! May the best strategic thinker win.

What Can I Do?

Re-evaluate your value proposition. Is it as compelling today as it was when you drafted it?

Re-evaluate your competition. What are they doing that is different than you are? What are they doing that's better than you, and why is it working?

Re-evaluate the alternatives. What else has come on the market?

Re-evaluate your operations and your suppliers and vendors. Are you as profitable, as efficient, as easy to do business with as possible?

Re-evaluate your customers. Are their needs the same? How have they changed?

Ask the Expert

Question
How can I think out of the box?

Answer
Create an environment that allows you to think out of the box. Where do you think the best-in the shower, mowing the lawn, commuting to the office, when you can't sleep? What provokes new ideas-reading articles, talking to peers, watching old movies? How do you flesh out and test ideas-by yourself, talking to others (in person, over the phone, by email), in a brainstorming group?

Create a disciplined structure that allows you to think. Whether you hire a consultant, schedule management sessions, give yourself personal goals, create some sort of discipline that demands that you devote time to be inspired and provoked and to respond.

Think positively. If you don't think there's a solution to the problem, you won't find one.

Be open-minded. If you think it always has to be that way, it always will-for you.

Submit your questions to the editor: molly@visionsmc.com

Want to Know More?

There's a case study I came across recently that brings a smile to my face.

Health Sport, Inc. (HSPO.OB) developed a patent-pending technology to deliver highly sensitive pharmaceutical drug actives, veterinary medicants, and many other nutritional supplements to the body through a bi-layered edible strip that dissolves on your tongue. Their manufacturing process creates a stable environment for the active ingredients, and the buccal mucosa (tissue in the mouth) is the safest, fastest, and most effective way to deliver ingredients into the body.

One of the products Health Sport came up with was electrolyte strips, which, unlike liquid sports drinks such as Gatorade, allow athletes to preload electrolytes before competition and to conveniently continue to take electrolytes during competition or training. The Health Sport executives had some connections to the NFL, and got the Buffalo Bills signed on as a sponsor. Gatorade, not surprisingly, reared its head and a legal battle was begun.

Rather than fighting Gatorade and PepsiCo's legal battles or dropping the electrolyte product altogether, Health Sport thought out of the box. They could have kept moving forward on their other products and given up on the electrolytes. But they knew that the electrolyte product was a hit with professional athletes (most NFL teams are still using the product). They sold the distribution rights for all the non-pharmaceutical ingredients to a network marketing company, Enlyten. It was a brilliant, strategic move, that definitely required out of the box thinking.

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