Note: This blog is a repost from an older blog of mine which has since been removed from the internet. It was perhaps my favourite entry so thought it was worthy of a repost. It was first published around Feb 08.
‘If it is my mandate to come up with an idea that is out of the box, why would I bother listening to the opinions of those in the box?’ – Gene Simmons
Okay, I admit it. I used to watch ‘The Apprentice’. In fact, I was a huge fan of the first two seasons, that is until it departed from its core and became a flashy magazine advertising failing Trump Ventures. The other day I was browsing online and was surprised to learn that the show was still running, albeit with a new Celebrity Version. I was about to dismiss it as a last ditch effort for a struggling reality show but one name encouraged me to give the show another watch. Gene Simmons.
For those who don’t know the name, Gene Simmons is considered legendary in many, many circles. As a founding member of the best-selling American Rock Band KISS, Gene has gone on to sell over 100 million albums globally and, decades after the bands conception, continues to rank in the top 10 grossing tours worldwide. KISS has developed one of the most successful merchandising brands ever with these revenues easily being the peak of their business. They have managed to create a die-hard fan base who buy anything with the logo on it, from cups and figurines to coffins. Gene of course is credited with creating and operating this phenomena and has thus been dubbed my many a ‘Marketing Genius’. By lore alone I can not disagree here.
I would certainly suggest anybody watch the first three episodes of this season just to hear some of the incredibly interesting words and viewpoints coming from this mans mouth. That is 10 blogs alone. One of his comments, although a concept that has been discussed in moderation before, struck me.
The task at hand was to create a ‘Marketing Center’ for Kodak (aka a bus they can park on the side of the street and try to flog some cheap imports before they go completely bust). Having dominated the previous few tasks, Gene was once again the teams leader. Kodak, the ‘client’, wanted an out of the box idea to help re-create the companies market positioning. Ironically, they wanted this out of the box idea to promote a product line and concept solidly in the box (printers with cheap ink). Beats me. And we all know what happens when you begin to compete on price!
Genes take on this was that Kodak’s ideas were hardly out of the box, and that if they wanted something out of the box he would not meet with the company executives and hear what is in the box. I have to agree here. Could the reason that we see so little original thought these days is because we look at and learn about everybody else’s ideas first? By the time we get up to thinking up our own ideas our minds have been solidly polluted with the norms, dos and don’ts. It’s a hard cycle to escape.
From elementary school we are taught fundamental ethics. By High School, depending on where we begin to specialize, we learn about concepts that succeed and concepts that do not. By University we have become accustomed to this conveyer belt and accept knowledge and these teaching as the gospel. Especially in business, we are taught about theories which we are to follow in our field of practice, what is correct, what is improper and what could never work. The basic programming is burned into our brain. By graduation, a majority of students accept a job in a modern factory (a small, over-worked office with long hours) and put in their 15 years, earn a good salary, save well and work towards their pension. It’s often not until the mid-life crisis that many begin to toy with the idea of starting their own business with their money, and moreso, ‘experience’.
Of course, with 15+ years of further programming dos, don’t and concepts we are rarely seeing any unique thought by this time. Quite often the big changes in a new business are barely original (ie, changed method of distribution, different corporate structure). While they act to increase revenues, decrease expenses and thus increase profits, we are not seeing many try anything radical, new, or retrying something that has previously failed. It’s not safe!
What happened to the previous revolutions, where above all else executives trusted their guts? If I told you 20 years ago that in China alone consumers would spend an odd 355 billion* dollars on sending small communications to each other, which can be achieved totally free via face to face meetings or even e-mail, would you have believed me? Today, text messaging (SMS) is quite common and still increasing in popularity. While not the best example, before telecom companies existed, few would have come up with such a idea, and no contextually contemporary theories or concepts could have achieved this pattern of thought. The academics are not busy coming up with new theories, they are too busy catching up. Hundreds of people more than likely over-looked this idea before somebody tried something out of the norm. While harbouring much higher risk, it is often these scarce original ideas that can be the most successful, until the status quo executive replicates the idea but makes it purple instead of pink. Within a year, academics have written many papers on the subject, boards have been briefed countless times and we have all adjusted to the idea. Instead of trying to take the lead by coming up with more ideas most will sit back and replicate (though this thought more than likely stems from my opinion that most people these days are afraid to lead).
I am positive we are not at the stage in our evolution where there are no more unique ideas. I think for those who understand its fear, but for most, it is something that they can’t comprehend at no fault of their own. As people, we do become conditioned and adjusted to certain parameters, and it becomes very hard to not only break these, but realize that we can extend ourselves past these parameters. This of course does not apply to just business, but science, medicine, politics, psychology and nearly anything else you can name. Most of our best scientific discoveries were not made by tests and applying concepts, but by accident.
I think this traces back to the quote at the top of this entry, how are we possibly going to come up with ideas out of the box when we are so conditioned to the comfortable box we are used to? Your guess is as good as mine. Those who know me know I have not only run several business’s of my own previously but have worked with many more. I’ll be honest, the first few ventures I ran I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I doubt I even knew that tax was. The Web Hosting venture (my very first) would have been seen as a complete disaster in the eyes of just about every executive. When I started it I had $200 to my name (enough for a months rent), was 13 years of age, barely knew how to browse the web, let alone how to run a server and had limited business knowledge. I took limited guidance and only sought information when I got really stuck. Yet, by doing what came naturally and more importantly building relationships, the company quickly grew to the point where I could put techs on the payroll and ensure stability while continuing to brainstorm up ideas. It wasn’t until 8 months into this business that I even looked at the competition to see what they were doing, how big they were and how they marketed themselves. I actually found several of them discussing my company on message boards, and quickly discovered that it was an incredibly saturated industry (where I had never had a problem with signups). I also discovered that I was out-performing most of my competitors. By now I was already expanding this company diagonally (not traditional horizontal or vertical expansion, as at the time there was no logical link between the different aspects). By the time I sold the company I earned quite a nice profit and had many people replicating the tactics I initially pulled out of my arse (for lack of better phrasing). I also credit this venture for teaching my instinct and me most of what I know and practice today.
By the time I ran my second venture I had become much more schooled in business practice. I spent a lot of time brushing up, learning basic terminologies, the basic laws, basic paperwork and the works. I also ensured that I had thorougly researched common tactics and the competition before I moved in. I was suddenly in the box. The venture was still profitable, but had nowhere near the spark, barely left a mark and did not provide such returns.
Now when I conduct business I do my best to de-educate myself on the industry. Bar basic business principles and my own opinions / experiences, I learn only the basic framework. I will typically have no idea what the competitors do. Those that know me often quickly recognize my confidence, and when presented with a problem, I sit down, think, and come up with my own, unique solution. At times I will run this by industry consultants to see how it compares to the norm (moreso in technical fields ie Manufacturing), but often find these ideas to be more suited. I work off my instinct, and it would be nice if more people gave it a go! If you have common sense, a semi sharp mind, basic sales ability and a small understanding of human nature you would be shocked at what you can think up.
The next time you want an out of the box idea, just remember, don’t draw on existing concepts, excluding the bare bones,don’t listen to industry consultants and other people of note and most importantly don’t follow the competition, do your best to come up with something unique and let them chase you. To come up with something out of the box, you really need to escape the box, and it seems so many people fail to understand what the box is. Next time you come up with a new, whacky idea, don’t dismiss it, pull out a piece of paper and spend 5 minutes thinking about it.
And in the words of Gene Simmons himself, the Client is wrong, they don’t want change, they want the appearance of change.
*China sent an estimated 592 billion text messages during 2007. Calculated at a standard rate of 50c per text message.
