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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS122

windows, of different sizes’) – and devise a strategy to grow your
customers (from ‘large and imposing external staircase’)

G Position your company on the basis of attention to detail and quality
(from ‘the wind and rain have cracked a number of windows and
have dislodged some tiles off the roof’)

G Promote your company on the basis of efficiency (inverse insight
from ‘although the sun is shining, smoke is coming out of the
chimneys’)

G Create alternative distribution strategies – e-mail ordering and
selection for local offices, backed up by delivery to individuals’
desks; perhaps link up with other suppliers who target the same
market with regular deliveries, such as sandwich providers (from
‘the house can be accessed by a number of avenues’).

mental workout three – combinations A number of

the checklist techniques discussed earlier included the active
combination of products or services as an idea-generation tool.
Sometimes the inspiration for such combinations can result from one’s
own experience, such as Benjamin Franklin combining long- and short-
distance spectacles into bi-focals, or Earle Dickson combining gauze
and adhesive tape to inspire Band-Aids®.

the accidental product developer More recently, Darryl

Lenz, a working mother who was a stewardess with American Airlines,
strapped a child’s folding beach chair to her suitcase to make air travel
with her young son less of an ordeal. Having discovered that she could
not get through an airport without people stopping her asking where
they could buy the product, Lenz commercialised the Ride-On Carry-On
as a detachable child seat to fit on roll-aboard luggage.94

Sometimes the inspiration will derive from observation of customer
usage, such as the power drill which includes an integrated dust-
collector, or the Sony Walkman which combines transistor radio with a
high-quality stereo system. High-profile entrepreneur Michelle Mone
combined the liquid silicon gel used in cosmetic surgery with the
conventional bra concept to produce the award-winning, figure-
flattering Ultimo brand of bras and swimwear.

At other times, inspiration can come from considering all phases of the
customer journey, such as Charles Dunstone’s Carphone Warehouse,