QUOTATION 6

SAM WALTON ON WHY YOU SHOULD IGNORE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

WHAT TO DO

• Generating new ideas is not easy. Fortunately, a technique known as SCAMPER can be invaluable. Select a small team of between three and six people to assist you with your search for new ideas. Choose people from different disciplines and levels within the organisation.
• At your first meeting, explain how the SCAMPER process takes an existing product, service or process and subjects it to a review intended to improve or replace what currently exists.
• As a warm-up exercise, ask the group to come up with at least 20 different uses for a balloon or table fork. Both items can generate some interesting ideas which will get the group relaxed and laughing and, of course, people are more creative when they are relaxed.
• Using the SCAMPER search for new ideas, ask whether we can:
  • Substitute: existing components, machines or human resources to improve the product.
  • Combine: one or more of the products functions. Reconfigure how we use the human and material resources to improve how people see the product and its uses.
  • Adapt: the product for use in a different context. Thanks to the success of 50 Shades of Grey manufacturers of handcuffs now enjoy a whole new market, and all they had to add to their basic product was a fluffy covering (or so I’m told).
  • Modify: the size, shape, feel, texture, smell or functionality of the product. Which existing features could be enhanced to create more value in the product and make it more attractive to customers?
  • Find another use for the product: You only have to think about the multiple uses that simple everyday objects, such as a brick or paperclip, can be put to realise that we seldom exploit all the uses of even common products.
  • Eliminate any elements: of the product, process or change and simplify it without adversely affecting its effectiveness or appeal to customers. For example, mobile-phone manufacturers now realise that there is a market for chunky phones with big buttons and limited functionality for the older consumer.
  • Reverse: or invert long-held ideas about how the product is made or marketed. For example, Roberts Radio has made a huge success out of housing a range of DAB radios in 1950s/60s-style cabinets.

• Once you have identified a series of possible changes, evaluate each in terms of cost/return and, if they look like a financial goer, run some small-scale tests as to their practicality.
• If your test results look good, take your best ideas to senior management for approval/implementation and be prepared to rebut criticisms of your ideas.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

• Whose support do I need to implement the ideas generated?
• Who is likely to oppose the ideas generated? What do I need to do to minimise their influence on decision makers?