Archived Blog Posts
How Focus Can Change Your Business
Significant overall sales growth can be realized if:
A) You cut your product line by as much at 50%.B) You expand your product line to service all customers.
The correct answer is A, you cut your product line by as much as 50%. This has proved itself again and again in the research. But perhaps one of the most impressive studies was on an internet retailer.
The retailer cut their worst selling products which ended up being 54% of their products across 42 separate categories. The result was an average 11% increase in overall sales.
So the next time you find yourself baffled with how to increase sales and overwhelmed with products and variation – get to cutting. Focus your efforts, clean up your offerings and bump up your income.
In a related finding…
Doing less can actually help you win more, lose less and make more money.
The more you focus, focus, focus – and DO ONE THING great – the greater your success. A simple experiment conducted in California grocery stores proves it.
Customers were offered free tastes of 24 different flavors of jam. In another leg of the test only 6 flavors of jam were offered. When offered 24 flavors only 2% of those walking by the display made a purchase. When offered 6 flavors 12% bought. That is a 600% increase!
The conclusion is clear – by offering less options – you’re seen as an expert and you increase your odds of success.
The same is true in your career – when you develop a deep expertise in an area then your boss will see you as more valuable. and you will win more, lose less and make more money.
You can improve your problem-solving ability even by taking a very short break.
A study reported in the Creativity Research journal found that when you’re stuck – stepping back from the problem – escaping if you would from the challenge JUMP STARTS your cranium.
In the study 104 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to five groups. They were then told to compute the area of two geometric figures found in a complex drawing called an insight puzzle.
As soon as they came to an impasse each group was given one of the three break lengths (long, short, and none). They were also given one of two levels of activity (demanding or non-demanding tasks).
The results clearly showed that any break improved their problem solving ability.
Why? Oftentimes when people try to solve a complex problem they make false assumptions that they can’t mentally release. Taking even a short break releases their mind. It lets them apply a new organizing assumption that leads to a better solution.
Numbers are Your Friend when Innovating
Years ago at Procter & Gamble my team and I were trying to sort out what to do after having just gotten some horrible product testing results. Tim Feely, who I believe was a Product Development Director at the time, stopped into the meeting and told us, “Numbers are your friend when innovating.”
At that moment the numbers on the pages in front of me didn’t seem like a very friendly friend. Tim explained that having a solid failure was a gift to us – as it made it clear that what we were doing was not working. It was time to change and to change significantly.
Tim’s comment has stuck with me for over 40 years :). I remembered it last week when a team was stressing that they didn’t have time to get their innovation idea ready to go out with a test that was scheduled. They were afraid they’d fail. My response was to paraphrase Tim, “Numbers are your friend – win or lose we will be smarter than we are now. My vote is to SHIP.” Note – the idea shipped – setting a record for uniqueness and for purchase. Well – that was a record high for uniqueness and a record low for purchase interest. And from that the team began to pursue another cycle of learning.
The “Numbers” associated with innovation include:
Customer research results on your idea, product/service or non-profit program
Forecasts for sales, profits, fundraising, cost savings
Forecasts for investment required for production or marketing
As I wrote about last week, these numbers are the key to you being able to generate “pull” for your innovation from investors, management and other stakeholders.
NUMBERS transform your idea from an “ABSTRACTION” into a TANGIBLE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.
If you don’t know how to do the math GET HELP. Find a numbers person you trust to collaborate with.
3 secrets to Getting Investors to Invest in Your Idea
To create, communicate and commercialize an innovation requires lots of money. The money can come from your existing company, from outside investors or from your own savings. Note – when it’s from your own savings it’s not uncommon for that to not be fully your decision – you often have a spouse or partner who has a financial and emotional stake in you investing your money.
I’ve spent over 40 years selling companies, outside investors, family and friends on investing in ideas that I’ve created or helped create. I’ve sold multi-national corporations, small companies, non-profits and even governments on investing in my ideas.
From this I’ve learned THREE SECRETS that I believe are nearly fool proof.
MAKE IT REAL: Step one is to make your idea real. By this I mean you MUST craft two prototypes:Concept Prototype: This is ideally one piece of paper that presents your idea in the way you would show it to a possible customer. When you don’t have the actual innovation use illustrations to help potential investors see your idea as you envision it.Functional Prototype: This is a works like demonstration of the “magic” that is your innovation. It doesn’t matter how ugly it is – it just needs to help potential investors see, feel and experience the WOW you envision.
GET THE NUMBERS: If you want investors to invest you MUST have the numbers. Numbers include: 1) Customer Research on your prototypes, 2) Sales & Cost forecasts and 3) R&D, Production and Marketing investment needs. NO MATH = NO PROJECT this is what I tell inventors inside and outside of companies.
PROTECT YOUR INVENTION: Define in writing how you can protect yourself from being copied. Investors like to “own” something – and know that no one else owns anything close to it. The easiest way to protect your invention is to file a patent. You can also use trade secrets, specialized supply chain or in some cases trademarks.
When you can make your innovation real with prototypes, share your math and your proprietary protection then you have what you need to get investors to write you a check to support your innovation. In my personal experience over the years this process works both inside corporations and with outside investors.
Confront Reality & Build a Plan to De-Risk your Innovation Project!
Using innovation to grow sales and profits is an accepted business concept.
Actually taking action on innovations – especially big idea innovations – is scary for many.
The Eureka! Ranch team has developed a new PROJECT P&L tool for helping innovators build support and confidence among leadership, investors and other stake holders.
I’ve learned over the years that the P&L statement for innovation projects is the key to building support. It’s the place where all of your assumptions about sales, profits and return on investment come together on one piece of paper.
Sadly, many innovators have not been taught how to use their PROJECT P&L as an innovation acceleration tool.
With PROJECT P&L the Eureka! Ranch team helps you do risk adjusted math on AN EXISTING INNOVATION PROJECT. Having identified the three highest risk / variance areas they then help you craft a plan to de-risk these areas. The bottom line is a reduction of risk of failure by up to 80%.
Risk is quantified through measurement of the variance around your estimates. Some estimates associated with your PROJECT P&L will be relatively firm – with little standard deviation. Others, will have very large variance. The areas with high variance are the ones that are most likely to cause you to fail.
You can do this yourself – by simply estimating best case, worst case and best guess and using a spreadsheet to model that impact of the uncertainty inherent in your P&L on your odds of success.
Alternatively – you can use the TrailBlazer Innovation Project Software developed by the Eureka! Ranch team. It’s a collection of easy to use tools that help you quantify the risk associated with forecasting inputs. Your quantified inputs are then used to forecast sales, cost and profit using a state of the art “Market Simulation” system. It allows you to do a “virtual introduction” of your innovation into the marketplace some 10,000 times. The PROJECT P&L report predicts five years of trial, repeat and diffusion of your innovation into the marketplace. It also models the uncertainty associated with your estimates of cost and profitability.
The first couple of PROJECT P&L assessments are done by the Ranch team working with your team. In time, your staff becomes trained to run them on all projects.
The bottom line result is nothing short of amazing. You decrease your project risk AND build confidence among your stakeholders.
To learn more about how the Eureka! Ranch can help reach out to Maggie Nichols at Maggie@EurekaRanch.com
How Leadership can Learn to TRUST their Teams
After 48 years of innovating and 33 years of consulting – I believe that the ROOT CAUSE of a lack of innovation at most companies is the lack of TRUST that leaders have in the ability of their teams to innovate successfully.
This lack of trust sets off a chain reaction of bad behaviors…
Because they don’t trust their teams can execute big ideas – leadership sets small goals.
Setting small goals for innovation results in changes without the WOW factor needed to be successful
When senior leaders see that they are failing on what seem like easy ideas – they lose more confidence.
Eventually – a “guru” is brought in to create big ideas – with fancy design ideas & marketing smoke.
Not being connected to the reality of how to actually develop and deliver – the ideas soon fail.
Management – having failed with little ideas & guru ideas – gives up – and resorts to using cost cutting to drive growth.
This strategy works for a short time – but soon sees diminishing returns.
Leadership is replaced and the cycle repeats
And it all started because the Leader didn’t TRUST in the ability of the company teams to innovate.
THE GOOD NEWS IS –
The people can innovate. The people have big ideas. The people can turn those big ideas into reality.
They just need support and structures to help them focus their energy more successfully.
Under the leadership of CEO Maggie Nichols the Eureka! Ranch team is using Eureka! Inventing projects to build leadership TRUST. The Ranch experts – work side by side with employees. They show by doing – teaching, inventing and driving out risk though rapid quantitative research.
With this success – leadership sees a pathway to winning with innovation. Leadership sets project missions that are more challenging – and that deliver higher sales and profits.
To make the process sustainable – the Ranch team provides Innovation Engineering courses and software tools. Soon a new mindset develops where employees, managers and leadership believe – really believe that they can win with innovation.
WHAT IS EUREKA! INVENTING?
Use that button below to learn more about how Eureka! Ranch, CEO, Maggie Nichols and the team at the Ranch help companies win with innovation every single day through Eureka! Inventing projects!
Innovation Mixologists & Bartenders
A wise man taught me recently the difference between a Bartender and a Mixologist.
A Mixologist is a guru who creates cocktails. The mixologist is a celebrated celebrity.
A Bartender is a friend who creates connections. The bartender is a teacher, listener and friend.
Mixologists perform the creation of amazing drinks.
Bartender’s make connections through cocktails and conversation.
Mixologists create brilliant cocktails with impeccable skill. Bartenders create cocktails that match the unique tastes and desires of their customers.
A friend told a story of walking into a grand bar in New York City. He sat down and suddenly a drink appeared – his drink, his way – as he ordered it two years before. That’s a bartender.
In the world of innovation there is a similar segmentation among designers, inventors and consultants.
The mixologists of INNOVATION are the “gurus” who tell you what you should do. They preach and pontificate. Their idea is THE IDEA – all others are not worthy of consideration.
The bartenders of INNOVATION are the “mentors” (sometimes called teachers or coaches) who enable you do to great things. They help you discover within your heart, brain and soul THE RIGHT IDEA for you to pursue at THIS MOMENT in your life.
Mixologists focus 99% of their energy on the elegance of the idea.
Bartenders understand that when it comes to making big ideas happen you need the passion of the people, team and organization just as much as the idea itself.
In simple terms Mixologists are about EGO – Bartenders are about HEART, HEAD & SOUL.
THINK about this in your life. Are you fixated on your idea, your ego and thinking. OR, are you a bartender – embracing the conversation – letting your heart, mind and soul guide you to the right idea for your current situation, team and organization.
Walking the Talk – I Need Your Help with Failing!
The following is my first draft of a commencement speech to a Graduate school that I’m giving in May. I’d love your ideas and advice.
Family and friends this is a very special group of people. To be awarded an advanced degree requires that the candidate formally or informally make an original contribution to the world’s knowledge. These amazing people are explorers and adventurers. They have demonstrated the courage to push the boundaries of human knowledge. Let us recognize their courage.
I’d like to thank the University for giving me the opportunity for a do over. Speaking at the 2008 commencement ceremony I urged graduates to declare independence from baby boomer conformity. I urged them to think for themselves and to not “sell out” their values as many from my 60’s generation have done.
Over the the past few months – I’ve reflected on that speech and concluded that I made a mistake. Today I correct it.
Fellow graduates – instead of simply encouraging you to think for yourself…I challenge you to go forth and fail fearlessly.
Yes – I said – fail fearlessly.
It is only by learning to love failure that you can achieve great things.
It’s as basic as the scientific method that you embraced on your journey to this day.
It’s as fundamental as Dr. Deming’s Theory Of Knowledge – PLAN, DO, STUDY, ACT.
It is how we learn anything. It’s how we learn to ride a bike – we try, we fail, we learn, we try again. It’s how we learn to read, to write and to invent amazing solutions to the challenges the world faces.
2019 graduates, you have been given a special gift as a result of your persistence, grit and importantly the support of your family, friends and the University community.
Now is not the time to become academically “retired in place.”
Now is not the time to become prudent, proper and puckered.
Now IS the time to become an expert at failing fearlessly.
Now IS the time to use your degree – as your license to fail.
Use your success that we acknowledge today as a platform for teaching the naysayers, the insecure, and mental scaredy cats of this world about how failure is the foundation for greatness.
To paraphrase Dr. Deming – how could they know, how could they know, how could they know the value of failing if they’ve never traveled the journey that you my friends have traveled in your journey to this day.
On campus you live in a community committed to learning. As you go forth to the real world – that will not always be the case. To help you I offer you these three simple lessons that I’ve learned:
Fail FAST & Fail CHEAP – use your creative abilities to find ways to do rapid and cost effective experimentation.
THINK BIG – focus your efforts on projects that are bold and that have the potential to make a meaningful difference in the world.
EMBRACE THE CRAZY – They don’t give patents to people who are prudent. If your idea is an obvious leap by those skilled in the art, your patent application is rejected. They only give patents to the crazy ones…Author, Stephen King – a man who knows a bit about fear…feels that within all of us is a healthy craziness…Stephen wrote, “I think that we’re all mentally ill. Those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better after all.”
So you know I’m not preaching without practicing. My team, set out to invent a way to accelerate the aging of whiskey. In one crazed week we failed 72 times in 7 days. We made horrible, horrible whiskey. And with each failure we got smarter and smarter.
Then one morning – we connected the dots – experiment 13, experiment 30 and 70. Said theatrically we had transformed the space time continuum for whiskey aging.
Double gold medals, and market success followed. And it all was because of a courage to fail fearlessly. Without failure there will be no learning.
As Ben Franklin wrote, “Up sluggard and waste not life – In the grave will be sleeping enough.” Deep inside all of us is magical curiosity. A curiosity that fuels our courage to fail, learn and fail again.
In closing, in recognition of your courage – and the memory of my family’s graduates of this great university – my grandmother, mother, father, brother, sister, son, nephew and niece, Jill Twist, who graduates tomorrow – I drink a toast – with our Brain Brew whiskey – I drink to the college of our hearts always.
You Change the World When You Change Your Mind
The last song of the Broadway musical Kinky Boots is a lesson to everyone “You change the world when you change your mind.”
A mindset of curiosity discovers new ideas.
A mindset of experimentation sparks fresh ideas.
A mindset of learning sees failure as a critical step in the journey of innovation success.
A mindset of discovery enables serendipity.
A mindset of collaboration ignites successful problem solving.
A mindset of responsibility enables a sense of urgency towards change.
In my mind, it breaks down to a simple choice between positive and negative thinking. When we think positively – we unleash the power of the brain to do amazing things. When we think negatively we become a huddled mass of wimpy whining.
Your Mindset Impacts The Output of Your Brain
I read an academic study when working on my book Jump Start Your Marketing Brain about the impact of mindset on thinking. In one series of experiments researchers took groups of adults and in effect “gave them a mindset” when problem solving.
They gave the groups a series of problems to solve. With each problem they told them they wanted them to think creatively, think outrageously or even think more profitably, etc. And as you might guess, when participants took on a specific mindset they delivered ideas in line with the mindset they had been given.
This is amazing. Even when obviously being manipulated to think a certain way – the mind takes action as it is guided to think.
The secret to changing your life is changing your mind. It doesn’t take money, or contacts, or resources – it just requires taking responsibility for how you are thinking.
THINK. You are the leader of what is right…your boss, your partner, your community are NOT the leader of you or of what’s right for you. When you have the mindset of the “bigger person” – you generate energy around you that supports the change that’s needed in the world.
As Hamilton sings in the play by the same name in the song Non-stop:
Hey, what are you waiting for?
What do you stall for?
What?
The Joy of Failing
This past week I’ve been pushing myself to new levels of failure. I’m not talking polite “excuse me” failures I’m talking about down right UGH that didn’t work.
In some cases they were public failures – messing up the cooking of a meal – making mistakes on some math – not saying the right things at the right time. In other cases they were private mistakes that I came to realize privately.
Years ago these types of failures would have infected my mind. I would have played the “could of, should of” game of mental torture with myself. I would have relived my failures over and over again. I would have spent most of the weekend dealing with my past week rather then living in the current moment.
Today – I make it a point to view failure in the framework of the Deming Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle of learning. I simply Study what I learned and take action. I don’t dwell on it – but rather see the failure as simply a cycle of learning.
When I see failure as learning I enjoy the failure. Often it ignites within me an energy to do another test cycle as fast as I can. Note – when I’m talking a learning cycle I’m talking about situations where I am failing in situations where I have systems in place that allow me to fail FAST and CHEAP. What I’m not talking about is epic, major failures with high cost. In my life I go to great lengths to avoid those kind of situations. I’ve learned that every HIGH COST risk can be broken down into a series of Fast & Cheap experiments that can drive down the overall risk.
I’ve gotten very good at letting go of failures. What I need to work on is doing the same Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle when things to right. When things work I need to stop and THINK harder about why they worked, what was the key to the success.
When I look at failure as a cycle of learning I generate joy from the failure instead of fear. Frankly, it’s the secret to my work over the past 40 years inventing ideas during Eureka! Inventing sessions for clients. I love creating bad ideas – as fast as possible. I know that the faster I create bad ideas the sooner I’m going to discover an amazing transformational WOW Idea.
Click HERE to learn more about the online personal workspace my team created to support systems for cycles of learning.
5 Reasons Organizations Don’t Pursue Big Ideas
Following the financial crises of 2008, organizations pulled back from
“thinking big” and embraced small, incremental ideas. The problem with this is these ideas still require investment of time, energy and money but with very little financial and emotional return. The result is a lot of “talk but no action” on the ideas.
To IGNITE Innovation we have to return to THINKING BIG!
In my new roll as Chief Inventor / Chairman of the Eureka! Ranch my focus is 100% on igniting fresh ideas, bold ideas, crazy ideas that stretch thinking. It’s not my job to be reasonable, prudent or politically correct :). As I’ve gotten into the new roll of being a pure idea catalyst – I’ve been having a ton fo fun. The new systems we have with spark decks, 6 types of stimulus mining, artificial intelligence “instant” concept feedback, etc. – make it easier then ever to THINK BIG.
As I’m having fun cranking ideas – I’ve had opportunities to talk with executives about what holds them back. Here are the five top reasons I’m hearing.
“Our Success Standards are just too LOW.” Our research on $17 Billion worth of innovations shows that successful companies success standards are much higher than unsuccessful companies. We are finding that most companies testing standards for “go” decisions on innovations were fine in the 80’s but today – with the more crowded marketplace – they are are 2 standard deviations too low. Quite simply – what was good enough yesterday is not today. We need to take all of our success standards up significantly if we are to win with innovation.
“We don’t trust our development system so we PLAY IT SAFE” Most organizations only pursue ideas they already know how to execute. If an idea has serious technical, financial, manufacturing, sales or marketing challenges they “chicken out” and play it safe. They do this because they don’t believe their people, teams, company, system, bureaucracy can problem solve the challenges. What’s needed is INNOVATION ON THE INNOVATION SYSTEM. This means investing in education, tools and systems for innovating faster, smarter and more creatively. THINK – is your innovation system faster, more effective and successful than it was a year ago. If not what are you waiting for? I don’t care if you use our approach or another – it’s time to take action.
“The Aim of Our System is to CONTROL not ENABLE” Sadly, most innovation systems are designed to prevent failure as opposed to accelerate success. THINK – does your system enable employees during development to experiment, explore and discover ways to work smarter and create bigger and bolder ideas. OR, is it designed to prevent waste, mistakes and failure at all costs.
“We have no ability to Fail FAST and Fail CHEAP” In Development. When feedback loops during the development process are slow and expensive there will be NO BIG IDEAS. When it takes as one lady told me two months to test a new product formulation then employees will play it safe. Alternatively, when during development employees can prototype and test ideas fast and cheap they run bolder experiments – and in the process discover ways to upgrade your innovation making it bigger, bolder and more successful. It all starts with a mindset – is the aim of development to create bigger and more successful ideas or is the aim of development to simply find a way to get the idea as defined executed.
“There is no Pride of Work”. Today’s corporate structure has replaced pride of work with profit per case. Craftsmanship has been replaced with task completion. Personal passion with KPI bribery. What’s needed is a transformation from Command and Control to the US and Canadian MIlitary’s method of enabling front line troops called Commanders Intent. In this case – Leaders move from being dictatorial managers to inspirational leaders. Leadership sets the mission, explaining what and why (called a Blue Card in our language) then the front line folks turn the mission into reality (called a Yellow Card and PDSA cycles of learning).