Before & After : Creative thinking in business

Some times the big creative ideas that improve companies are the results of years of R&D and millions in development cost. Some times the game changing ideas are simply a shift of perspective that has huge implications.

UPS’s new reduced left hand turn routing is just that kind of simple concept that will return millions in results.

Taking left turns often requires idling to wait for traffic to pass through an intersection; wasting time, fuel and therefore money.

By designating routes that minimize left hand turns the delivery giant is lowering their fuel costs and speeding up delivery, which can only serve customers in the end. And, oh yeah, it’s safer.

“A small improvement?” you might ask. Well, with 88,000 vehicles on the road each day, making 15,000,000 - yes, that’s 15-million - deliveries, I guess it adds up.

In this space the discussion is so often about how to make creative leaps. You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t see the importance of creative thinking in business. But it can feel daunting at times. “How and I going to come up with that huge idea?”

Well, examples like the UPS new left-turn policy show us that big ideas don’t have to be wildly involved nor cost tons of money to implement. Sure, the tracking system big brown implemented over the past few years cost millions to put in place - a system that tells them which parcels go in which trucks and in what order, etc. helps to make this new policy practical across their entire fleet. But it was the simple concept to avoid left turns - creative leverage, as we often call it - that is providing the ultimate return in this example.

In the TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, when put on the spot about the graphical user interface for the Macintosh, (the soul of Mac’s operating system) which had been developed by Xerox, the character Steve Jobs uses the Picasso, quote, “A good artist borrows. A great artist steals.”

Apocryphal or not, that philosophy may still be alive at Apple, and in part it’s behind the iPod’s amazing success.

In his book The Perfect Thing, Newsweek writer, Steven Levy, points out that most all of the technology inside the iPod has been developed by companies other than Apple; Toshiba, Sony, Texas Instruments and others. So what exactly did this “innovative” company, Apple, do? (more…)

Have you checked out the Method product line? Products for laundry, dishes, body, all purpose cleaners and more. I believe their distribution is fairly new to my area, and, wow! am I impressed. This particular item competes with Ajax, Clorox, Fantastik, Lysol, Formula 409, Comet,…you know the usual suspects.

Have consumers been so bombarded and lambasted by shouting packaging and even more dangerous chemicals inside that maybe marketers can now be successful speaking to them as intelligent beings and giving them effective products that don’t piss off Al Gore?

Yes, besides looking like they weren’t designed by a carnival barker, the products Method markets are also environment and human friendly. So, like when you soak in a tub after cleaning it your pores don’t absorb toxic junk.

And Method doesn’t engage in the animal testing many of these other companies use so freely. (My dog can sleep better.)

Is this marketer going to do for packaged goods what Target has done for retailers? Have you noticed how other discounters aren’t insulting us or attacking our senses quite as much in recent years?

Creatively, if this isn’t one of the greatest zigs in a completely over zagged category, what is?

When I see companies like Method succeeding I’m encouraged by the power of creative thinking in business, even the most creatively barren areas, and I actually have a little hope for this planet.

A former media director of mine started her advertising career at a big New York ad agency on the US Postal Service account. In a feat of heroics, late one evening this resourceful rookie overnighted an important package to her client, only to get a call from the Postmaster General himself the next morning asking to speak with the SOB who had sent a package to postal HQ via Federal Express.

Today, only a few short decades after this powerful fellow made a federal case out of the above ordeal, now the US Postal Service uses FedEx themselves when it absolutely, positively can’t be delivered to foreign address in 2 days or less.

A strange partnership?

That’s sorta my point, if this slightly gargantuan, 200+ year old institution can be open minded enough to see where they can’t deliver to their public, so to speak, and can make the right strategic alliances to fill around their limitations, then what the heck is stopping you’re slightly less bureaucratic organization from figuring out such dilemmas. (more…)

I dare you to click on this URL. I double dare you, if the kids are around. (more…)

Did you see where some DHL drivers now have very long lunch breaks? That’s what my delivery guy tells me.

Now why do you think they do the long lunch thing? Because they want to pretend they’re in the ad business in the ’70’s?

No, because they want to start earlier in the day than the competition and finish later. Think about it, when do you want/need a courier? “I want my packages first thing!” DHL’s first thing is before the other guy’s first thing. “I need some extra time to get my packages out!” DHL’s has extra time.

Genius.

If you have other examples of fresh thinking in business, pass them along.