When the “Right Way” Isn’t Right

I am often struck by the irony of doing things the “right way.”  Whether it is a rigorous new product introduction process that seeks to remove all of the risk in a product launch or an exhaustively detailed product specification document which outlines customer needs before any customers are acquired, there seems there is a “right way” to do things that often doesn’t work, despite the amount of effort put into the process.

Tom Peters and the authors of Made to Stick both have written about a skunk-works project at the industrial products company, Ingersoll-Rand, who sought to improve their time to market from 4 years to less than 1.  When faced with a decision to build a casing from plastic or metal, they knew they would have to test for durability, whi ch often involved “protracted, careful studies of the tensile and compression properties of both materials.”  However, they didn’t have time to spell “protracted,” so they tried something else.  The team tied samples of both materials to back of a rental car and drove around the parking lot.  The plastic composite held up just as well as the metal and they moved on to the next decision.  No extensive metalurgy, but rather a quick, real-world test.

Another entrepreneur who has applied this same approach is Kara Goldin, who founded Hint, Inc., who makes water-based beverages.  She wrote in an article published by Andrea Adelman for Ladies Who Launch that “Our focus groups are friends, family and individual customers. I’m a big believer in just launching the product and getting it to market as opposed to doing elaborate focus groups. Get your product out there and show demand to impress investors. If you have an idea, just go for it. Launch in a small local market, even among friends at work and school. Ask for honest opinions of your test products. My business wouldn’t have happened if I got bogged down in focus groups and didn’t just take a chance!“

When taking a leap of faith, we are often encouraged not to “look down.”  I think the same applies to planning.  Rather than focusing on process and doing things the “right way” (usually driven by fear of failure), better to just overcome the fear with action.  Launch something.  Get real customers using the product and providing feedback.  Develop a true empathy for the customers, which will ensure that at each decision point that you can best advocate their priorities.  This will have a greater impact on business success than extensive focus groups, market research, or just about anything else you can do to mitigate the risks of starting a business or launching a product.  Don’t look down.  Look up and out and take the leap!

This is why that we are Creative Outlet Labs are planning a public beta of our new service Remarkable.  If you have not yet signed, up go to www.CreativeOutletLabs.com and we will let you know as soon as it is ready!

Photo by Alan.

Benchpress Your Creativity

There are a lot of pressures on a new business.  So many reasons to get distracted.  So many reasons that to explain why things are not progressing.  Furthermore, we all know the statistics around new business enterprises and it is no surprise that many would-be entrepreneurs face the odds and talk themselves out of doing anything at all.

I have just finished re-reading David Schwartz’ The Magic of Thinking Big which I last read early in the 90’s.  Although some of the examples are a little dated, there are lots of great ideas and I recommend it.

One exercise is in the chapter called “How to Think and Dream Creatively” under the seciond called “Believe it Can Be Done.”  The exercise is to take an unthinkable concept (the example in the book was “How many of you feel it is possible to eliminate jails within the next 30 years?”) and allow people to come up with reasons why it isn’t possible.  For the jail example, it is easy to think of dozens of reasons why it is impractical to let criminals out loose on the street.  Then, the moderator changes the activity by asking “Will you try extra hard for a new minutes to believe we could?”  He asked the group, “Now assuming we can elminate jails, how could we begin?” and the group begin slowly brainstorming ideas.  Before long, the group in his example came up with 78 concrete ideas on something that they thought before we impossible.  Dr. Schwartz’ summarized the activity like this:  “When you believe, your mind finds ways to do.”

So, the lesson for me and any other would-be entrepreneur is to realistically assess the risks of their business, and then put focus on all the reasons that the business will be sucessful.  Stretch your creativity to see the possibilities on the horizons, like the ship in the picture above by Alan, and the path will become clearer.

5 Year Plans and Other Works of Fiction

In a recent lecture at MIT’s Sloan Business school, Ricardo Semler said some provocative things about business planning.  Below is an excerpt:

“A 5 year plan is just an extrapolation added to wishful thinking. Have you ever seen a business plan that says, “I’m going to go up 5% and then down -14% and then -22% and then I’m going to recuperate a little bit and then it’s going to go to hell?”

‘Cuz that’s what happens. That’s how it looks in practice, but that’s not the way we design it. We’re willing to trick ourselves into thinking we have control as long as we do it with wishful thinking.”

I am a planner.  Big fan of planning, actually.  Love making lists and checking things off.  Love twiddling with spreadsheets.  Just wish I could be better at making and executing a plan.  I bet you feel the same.  Who wouldn’t want to be able to predict the future?  Especially for new enterprises that don’t have years of trend data to extrapolate from.  No tracks in the snow that can be followed to the top of the mountain.  How do you make a five year plan?  All it is is wishful thinking.

Guy Kawasaki in his book, The Art of the Start, talks about how forecasts are mythical.  Everyone knows they are made up.  Any research company worth your subscription fees will tell you that there is a big market to be exploited.  Any schmuck can do spreadsheet exercises to arrive at a $50M company.  The truth is not in the forecast, but in the passion.

The truth is the not every can exploit a growing market.  Not everyone can build a $50M company.  Not everyone can start something.  So, throw a dart at the board or spend hours doing sensitivity analysis in Excel and convince yourself in the viability of your business.  Because it is not the accuracy of the forecast, but your own depth of your conviction that makes the difference.  You will not find a track.  You must leave one.

Photo by Jason.

To Do Good

There is a famous company in Silicon Valley who built a business on the supposition that they should “do no harm” or said another way “You can make money without doing evil.”  In their case, it is boatloads of money and I enjoy using many of their products, so they are doing many things right.

That all sounds fine, but it seems to me that there is a higher standard than just to avoid evil?  I don’t want to stop there.  I want to build a business that does good.

To provide direction in decision making during these key stages of planning Remarkable by Creative Outlet Labs, I thought it might be good to get a definition of what doing good is.  The dictionary defines it as “moral excellence” or “of high quality,” among its dozens of definitions.   Useful, but not terribly prescriptive.  The good book speaks of it roughly like this: “In everything, set them an example by doing what is good.  Show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech, so that no one has anything bad to say about you.”  This is helpful, as well, as it emphasizes providing leadership, as well as doing good.

How do you demonstrate high integrity and quality in a business or product?  By focusing on customers and providing them tools they can use to make the world a brighter place.  By making “giving back” a key tenant of the product offering and of the company priorities.  By giving voice to people’s stories and memories, because everyone knows someone who is remarkable.

It may be a bit ambitious, but I have faith that a business build on the tenants of doing good, can…well…do good!

There will be more information in the coming weeks and months about the good we intend to do.  In the meantime, subscribe to this RSS feed and I look forward to connecting with you!

What Would You Do, If You Could Not Fail?

I have one of those inspirational cards in my office at work with a phrase like this written on it.  It is from the good folks at Quotables and I have looked at it thousands of times.  It is empowering to contemplate what wild and unbelievable things you could accomplish if you knew success was guaranteed.

 

However, it is easy to fall into two other interpretations of this concept:

1. “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail too badly?”
2. “What can you do that you are confident about?”

The first is a subtly, but an important one.  The quote doesn’t say “how high would you climb if you knew there was a safety net?”  It says instead, “what would you do if you never needed a safety net?”

 

The second is more tricky.  The quote does not ask you to constrain your dreams to those things that you are reasonably confident that you can accomplish on your own.  It asks for a mental leap of faith.  I, like most people, enjoy working on things that I am confident I can succeed.  I like to play games I can win.  The challenge is to think beyond that comfort zone and think about yourself as more capable and luckier than you have ever been.  This is basically a requirement for entrepreneurs, because the deck is stacked against us, but yet we place our bets.

 

So, if I could not fail, what would I do?  I would start Remarkable by Creative Outlet Labs and do good in the world.  Thank you for joining me on this journey.

 

As an aside, although the card I have attributes the quote to “unknown,” others credit Dr. Robert Schuller with penning the concept (which makes sense considering he is a world famous optimist).