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2376 : STEP FOUR – PLANNING FOR IMPLEMENTATION

You could use rule reversal to ask yourself ‘What could I not pay for?’
and then explore the boundaries of that particular question. This might
lead you to review what expenses would not be incurred because you
delete them from your shopping list.

if you don’t need it, don’t buy it Remember that if you don’t need
something, don’t get it. Remember too that the internet is an excellent
vehicle to present a window on the world which can be quite at
variance with reality.

Launched in 1998 with just $50,000 in seed capital, Cold Fusion Sports,
Inc. wasted little money on its ramshackle store and offices in a San
Francisco neighbourhood pocked by dance clubs and auto-parts dealers.
Jumbles of old boots and packing boxes cluttered up rooms divided by
sheets of corrugated metal and used doors.

Instead, the company focused exclusively on its ‘virtual store’ of
discounted snowboards and associated gear and, especially in its early
years, on creating a community of interest by publishing weather
reports and travel information, customer comments and photographs.
With 90 per cent of its business executed through the internet, the
company targeted sales of over $5 million within three years.178

securing win-win Rule reversal might lead you to consider what you
could get for free, on extended credit or on particularly advantageous
terms.

Founded by ex-academic Jimmy Doherty, the Essex Pig Company
benefits from the waste fruit pulp and unwanted orange pips supplied
free of charge by local maker of Tiptree preserves, Wilkin & Sons
Limited. Both sides gain: ‘Jimmy’s Farm’ reduces the costs of feeding its
free-range rare breed pigs; Wilkin & Sons delivers on its recycling
programme.179

still waiting for that order The start-up days of Amazon.com reveal
a striking example of boundary examination. To keep costs down, Jeff
Bezos needed to buy single copies of titles from wholesalers rather than
the ten-book minimum orders which industry convention required.
Noticing that the wholesalers stipulated a minimum order quantity
rather than a minimum delivered quantity, Bezos hit upon the idea of
bulking up his orders for single copies of required titles with nine
copies of an obscure book on lichens which none of the wholesalers
carried.180 Bezos thereby maximised his flexibility by minimising his
stock levels.