Here’s a good one-liner for a Tuesday afternoon, from business & marketing guru Seth Godin:
Big ideas... are little ideas that no one killed too soon.
Makes perfect sense, right? Yet too often, people don't think this way. And for more insight from Godin, we recommend his book Meatball Sundae—a great read on what happens when you mix two great ideas without carefully thinking it all through. Enjoy.
We wanted to pay brief tribute to an inventor you’ve likely never heard of: Robert Harvey Rines of Boston, who died last week at the age of 87.
Perhaps known best for his outlandish pursuits of the Loch Ness monster—not that people would have knocked him had his inventive Nessie perfume actually attracted the mythical creature—Rines is one of those day-in, day-out tinkerers & toilers who profoundly impacted many of us by way of his 800+ patents and other actions in support of invention. Among the reasons we pause to reflect, he:
So RIP Robert Rines. We appreciate your passion, your commitment, your contributions, and yes, your quirkiness too. You did Nessie proud... even if your trained dolphins with cameras never caught the creature on film.
More than 100,000 auto industry leaders were in Las Vegas this week for the annual SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) tradeshow—it’s THE show for new automotive parts, components, tools, and accessories. One of those at this not-open-to-the-public show: our licensing guru Evelyn Salguero, who went to find, and show, inventive items. Here’s her dispatch direct from SEMA:
SEMA makes other tradeshows look like yard sales—whereas many tradeshows are made up of one small booth after another displaying small items on tabletops and shelves, SEMA’s the place to appreciate products put to use in and/or on classic cars (from hot rods to low riders to vintage Ferraris) and the latest rides (like trucks decked out with large flat screens and the sweetest chrome-coated cargo holds). Like you’d expect in Las Vegas, everything’s big, bold and bodacious.
Attendance this year was down compared to last year—some said it was off by as much as 30%—but it was also larger than had been expected. No matter what, I saw a wide array of buyers, manufacturers, shop owners, and others.
For aftermarket products, it looked like the crowds were most interested in three product categories: paint protection, GPS systems and alarm systems. Among them all, I was most impressed by:
Eco-friendly products are also still on the rise. It was cool to see Ford combine green with its muscle car past in showing off a beautiful 1934 Hot Rod with first rear-wheel-drive 3.5 liter EcoBoost V6. You can click here to check it out. It's also pictured with this post.
Overall a great show. The only negative was me losing at the black jack table… but there’s always next year!
Invention is all about change. But presenting people with too much change can confuse or deter them. So as you work to advance your innovation, do yourself a favor and take the time to frame it for success. What do we mean? Here are a few examples:
1. Automobiles. Early autos were so far-out that few people saw the benefits in them. Then the people making them started to build them in carriage-like shapes and someone coined the phrase “horseless carriage”… and suddenly these vehicles made sense for the masses—now the newfangled machines were a must-have evolution of the horse-drawn buggy.
2. Estate taxes. Years ago, most Americans supported these taxes born largely by affluent voters. This didn’t sit well with the Republican party. So the GOP initiated a campaign to change public opinion. It’s #1 tactic: Republicans started to consistently speak of estate taxes as “death taxes,” and in doing so created a groundswell of concern that every American family could be taxed upon a family member’s death. That new framing changed public opinion ever since.
3. Microsoft Bing. The folks in Redmond recently launched Bing with hopes to steal some of Google’s thunder... and revenue. You’ve likely seen the Bing TV ads. Interestingly, Microsoft is calling its service a “decision engine” not a “search engine,” very intentionally framing it as smarter when it comes to finding precisely what you need. Only time will tell if Bing is Microsoft’s next Xbox (a big success) or Zune (so far, quite the bust), but we appreciate the careful word choice.
So, are you choosing your words carefully too, framing your invention in a way that takes into consideration consumer sentiments, competitive products, and retailers needs? It’s not too late to start doing so.
It’s Friday and we’re working hard to wrap up some sweet inventions.
So we’ll keep this short and simply share a recent Gizmodo article explaining why different countries invented different electrical systems with different outlets and different wattage—it’s a true tale of competition between legendary inventors' technologies and nations each determined to have their way.
Click here to give it a read. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Our nearby SF-Oakland Bay Bridge is closed indefinitely after large metal hunks and poles—pieces installed over Labor Day weekend to fix another serious problem—fell onto rush hour traffic. Beyond making for a nightmarish commute, this closure and its background makes for several useful lessons for inventors and business managers. Among them:
1. Confidence sells. There’s now a growing sense that commuters hastily “bought” Caltrans’ (aka: California’s Department of Transportation) earlier fix because the transit agency so confidently told us it had quickly handled a major crack in the Bridge’s eastern span. With hindsight, this doesn’t necessarily reflect well on Caltrans, nor on area drivers. But it highlights one big point: if you’re confident when you tell people about your idea, product, really you name it, they’re much more likely to believe what you’re saying.
2. Quick fixes often aren’t. Edison didn’t invent the phonograph on his first day in the lab. Because creating an effective solution often takes time. So too does exploring alternative solutions, quality, accuracy, and triple-checking your work when the stakes are high. So as you create and pursue product success, take the time you need when you need it. Rushing is good... when balanced with the smarts to know when not to.
3. Ongoing maintenance matters. It’s not like Caltrans didn’t maintain our beloved Bridge. It’s just that we’re now seeing it could have maintained it better—much better—more proactively. The same is true for people with inventions and/or businesses: you need to keep investing your resources to maintain your patent and/or product line, as it will slowly but surely lose strength if you don’t do so. To be sure, it’s natural to want to pause and enjoy once you’ve achieved some success… but this is a sure-fire way to shortchange that success.
BTW, a few interesting facts about the Bay Bridge:
Check out the Murakami Rocking Chair—your rocking powers its own built-in reading lamp.
Designer Rochus Jacob has packed the latest nano-dynamo technology (sounds cool just saying it, doesn’t it?) into the skids to harvest the kinetic energy of rocking, and added a battery pack to store the energy for when you need it. Oh, and it gets better: the lampshade itself is the light—the whole thing is made of bendable organic light-emitting diodes (aka: OLED).
Add in the fact the design itself is gorgeous, and we’re already adding this to our holiday wish list (hint hint to our special someones).
(We’ll add a link and retail price info when it’s available—this chair just took home a first prize at the DesignBoom Green Life Competition… so we expect more info to come out soon).
The annual Medtrade Expo in Atlanta is THE tradeshow for anything & everything new in the home medical equipment (HME) industry. So we sent our very own licensing pro Serena Soo to check out, and show off, the latest.
And now that she’s back in the office, we wanted to post a few highlights you may wish to note… including observations that could be applicable no matter what category you’re inventive idea is in:
- The HME industry keeps getting bigger as people (and their insurance companies, of course) are looking for products and solutions that enable individuals to avoid or reduce hospital stays. Among the product categories that appeared to have a whole lot of innovations: rehabilitation aids, physiotherapy (aka: physical therapy, ultrasound, electrotherapy, and more) tools, and mobility aids.
- Many showed new compression hosiery and surgical legware—an expanding (no pun intended) space because this legware is increasingly recommended for everything from the prevention of swelling & tired legs to helping persons with venous disease. Of note, this year vanity really mattered—much of the Expo buzz centered around new colors that provide compression with fashion… or blend in by looking like normal socks or hosiery. Leading the charge were players including Sigvaris, Inc., Bell-Horn and BSN Medical’s Jobst line. Smartly, these and other companies are also employing new materials for added benefits, like using silicon to prevent slipping.
- Sleep sells like nothing else, so many companies this year featured products that support healthy sleeping, especially for persons with sleep apnea and other respiratory conditions. Among the standouts, CPAP masks with padded cushioning so that people who need to use the breathing machines at night aren’t leaning right into hard plastic, ResMed with its products that purportedly help adapt and/or normalize breathing to increase the amount of time a person is in REM sleep, and electronics giant Phillips with its Respironics line of sleep aids (including its FitLife, pictured with this post).
- Lastly, yes, it’s true—you can’t go to Atlanta without stopping at the famous The Varsity, also known as the world’s largest drive-in, serving burgers & dogs downtown since 1928. Serena is usually all about sharing, but we’re not sure if this applies to her onion rings.
Let us know if you have any questions about Medtrade—Serena’s happy to provide additional first-hand insight.
Getting back to the topic of “Is innovation bad?” for society, we recently learned of a rising tide against new electric and hybrid cars.
People aren’t yet protesting with placards reading “Say No to Prius,” but it seems they are starting to raise a ruckus about how quiet the latest high-tech cars are. You see, they fear pedestrians and children won’t hear them coming, and thus won’t be aware enough to avoid them.
But fear not. For if Toyota can devise a car that parallel parks itself and then uses heat (and solar panels) to keep its cool, you can bet they’re on this. Others including Nissan and BMW / Mini are on it too. And they’ve all turned in one direction for help: to Hollywood and its sound and special effects people. No joke—they’re even working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on this.
It remains TBD if they’ll fake it with old-school auto audio pumped from a speaker in the bumper—would you prefer the purr of a ’68 Corvette or the roar of a recent-year HEMI?—or go in an entirely different direction. Here at the office, we’re torn between going Star Wars or Jetsons, with a few outliers hoping for a little Greased Lightening. What’s your preference?
For more on this, click here for additional news coverage.
We’re big fans of Tesla Motors. The company’s inventive electric Roadsters are not only oh-so sweet looking, but they do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds with twice the energy efficiency of a Prius and get up to 244 miles on a single charge (yes, this merits a pause for awe). It also doesn’t hurt that the company named itself after one of the world’s great electrical engineer inventors (Nikola Tesla).
And even more noteworthy right here & now, the Tesla guys just announced they’re rolling out house-calls for owners who need service or upgrades to their $109,000+ sports cars. The service isn’t free—owners must pay $1 per mile the technician must travel to get from the nearest Tesla service center, and there’s a $100 minimum—but we suppose someone who’s spent six figures on their ride isn’t counting pennies.
Beyond the buzzworthyness of this move, there’s an important lesson in it: Success isn’t just about the initial sale—it’s also about the satisfaction & delight that follows. Tesla gets this, and is putting in the miles to prove it. They appreciate that people who are satisfied & delighted will tell their friends. And so will those who aren’t.
Lesson 2: Eliminate the barriers. With few dealers and perhaps no neighborhood garages equipped to repair a cutting-edge Tesla, this move also puts would-be buyers at ease that they won’t be left hunting for help when they need it. That’s almost as cool as the 3.9 seconds!
