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Apr. 2003
You Mean You Want Me To Think? Entrepreneurial Thinking in a Cubical World
OK, you’re saying, “If this article tells me to think outside the box, I’m going to take the box and use it to ship the author to another planet.” Keep your box or your cube. Better yet, reshape, stretch and redefine what a box or a cube is.
There is precious little time for thinking in today’s world. When you arrive each day at work, you hit the ground running, put out fires, and are consumed in so many meetings that your time to do any productive work is limited. So you tell me, ‘I don’t have time to think.’ To that I say, ‘make time.’
In previous HealthLeaders articles, I wrote about the role marketers can play in addressing the future trends predicted for healthcare. Now I am suggesting that you think about setting the trends.
Where Is Your Electric Flowerpot?
In 1895, a young teenager named Joshua Cowan invented the electric flowerpot. He took a slender metal tube with a battery inside and a bulb at the end and putting it into a flowerpot he used it to illuminate the floral beauty previously lost to the night. Stay with me. He made many of these flash sticks and was waiting for the world to beat a path to his door. A sympathetic uncle, Conrad Hubert, supported him and purchased the rights to the invention. He realized the market was thin for this product so he wracked his brain looking for alternatives. What else could it illuminate? It was a light you could flash anywhere, ready for use when you needed it. Instead of being a flash stick for an electric flowerpot, it became the flashlight, an Eveready flashlight.
So why can’t you think of things like that? Perhaps you could if you look at the world through fresher, wider eyes. That second effort by Hubert unleashed unparalleled success. And it also shed light (pardon the pun) on how to think like an entrepreneur.
For “U”
Entrepreneurs look at situations and see whether or not they can find:
- The unexpected, that is, new uses for a product or service.
- The unleashed, that is, new directions for a product or service.
- The uncharted, that is, new areas for a product or service.
It Would Be Interesting If...
Edward de Bono is a leading expert in the area of thinking. In his book de Bono’s Thinking Course, he offers some exercises to stimulate thinking. One is called PMI. It stands for Pluses, Minuses, Interesting. He throws out an idea and then you analyze it as follows.
Idea: All cars should be painted yellow.
What are the pluses?
- It would be easier to see the cars at night.
- You would have no problem deciding your car color.
- A car would tend to become more of a “transport” item than a “macho” status symbol.
What would be the minuses?
- Well, for one, it would be boring.
- It would be hard to recognize your car.
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