Articles

Ideas at Work

Jana M. Kemp

“Check this out, a self-heating coffee cup,” said visiting Portland friend Dennis as he came in the door. “What?” I questioned in disbelief. Well, it is true because WolfgangPuck® has released the one-time-use product. Coffee is heated using technology the military has used for decades to heat individual food servings. “Clever” is my response. Followed by a concern about how much more waste this product adds to land-fills.

At any rate, the point is that someone took an existing technology and started thinking about other applications. And behold, a new consumer product was born. What’s going on in your office, shop or store that might have other applications that you are not capitalizing on?

Creative thinking time can turn into profitable products. In fact, several consulting firms in the United States charge thousands of dollars an hour for workshops designed to generate new and profitable products for companies. Here’s the beauty and the cost-effective actionable reality: Existing employees already have the good and great ideas, they just need protected time and encouragement to not only think about the possible product but also to experiment and produce it. Anyone in any organization can implement this creative thinking process and discover something new and profitable.

Where do good ideas come from? Ideas come from places, people, frustrating situations, and problems to be solved. On a weekly basis customers are offering you ideas that can become new products or services. Share those ideas with the people you work with. Brainstorm with co-workers over a lunch and see what new ideas you generate for meeting customer needs.

Take a field trip – to the zoo, to a museum, to another business, or to a not-for-profit and see what you can discover that can be used in your business. Explore and pursue books, movies, magazines, and newspapers to expand your awareness of other products. For instance, in the last two months I’ve discovered two “shopping” magazines. That’s right, the whole focus of each magazine is on shopping.

Even crazy ideas can turn out to be profitable. So start protecting creative thinking time each week and start putting new ideas to work.

Action Plan: Keep thinking about new ways to do things. Be creative and by all means have some fun.
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Reprint Permission: The author is willing to grant reprint permissions. Please contact Jana Kemp: jana@janakemp.com or call 208-367-1701.