“Everyone called him Pepto, because every day at work he had a pint of vodka in his left back pocket and a bottle of Pepto Bismol in his right. Throughout the day he would take the bottles out of his pockets, take a shot of vodka , and then chase down the liquor with a shot of Pepto.”
“Are you serious? Was he drinking while working?”
“Oh yeah. This was in high school and we were just a bunch of rednecks working on the factory floor.”
I asked my friend Dave to tell me the story of the time he used to auction off his paycheck on payday.
“Well, every year at church we auction a car. One of the guys from church owned a local Ford dealership and donated a car to the church auction. Every year, people always thought I’d be the lucky one.” to drive the car home.
“I ran the auction for the church, so I was very familiar with the auction process, where to get the ticket rolls and things like that. I’m also from Louisville, a big betting community where we always bet on horses. ( Dave always pronounces it “haarses”). One of the accounting guys was even a bookie.”
“On the factory floor I was driving a forklift. There was a lot of stuff to move across the floor, so I was constantly moving from station to station delivering parts. Well, you know my personality and how talkative I am; I knew everyone in the building, so I would always stop and talk to the other workers as I made my rounds. I was in a position to talk to people all day.”
“Then one day, without much thought, I decided to auction off my paycheck. I mean, I knew a lot about auctions, I was used to gambling, and I had access to everyone in the company every day. It was no cakewalk.”
“So I was driving on the forklift every Tuesday morning yelling, ‘Hey everyone, I’m raffling off my paycheck, come get your tickets!'”
“How much was your paycheck in those days?”
“About $125 a week.”
“How much did you sell the raffle tickets for and how much did you receive?”
“Tickets were a dollar each and the minimum…I mean minimum, I would win $250, although I usually made more like $350-$400…all tax free! On payday, I would take the lucky winner went to lunch at the GE Bar and Grill. The place was a total hole in the wall. Everybody went there to cash their checks on payday anyway. I’d buy the winner’s lunch, cash my check, and then count the winnings out loud to the lucky winner in front of the entire lunch crowd…twenty, forty, sixty, and so on.”
“That’s hilarious!”
“Here’s the kicker. The winner from the previous week was the first person I contacted for the new raffle. The winner would always buy a minimum of $5 worth of tickets, many times $10. I then approached all the other previous winners , and finally I’d make my rounds with the rest of the people.”
“Basically, he looked at all of his available resources and merged them. I mean, he had auction experience, he knew about betting, and he talked to people all day. He took his available resources and merged them to come up with something new.”
“Yes Mark, I’d say that’s perfect.”
“You know, Dave, you probably didn’t realize this at the time, but you were using some of the basics of TRIZ and the fusion lens. Remember when I explained to you that you should look at all the available resources that you already have around you.
“Well, now that you mention it, yes I do.”
As I have discussed throughout my articles on TRIZ, many of the great thinkers have probably never heard of TRIZ (for most, the concept did not yet exist) or ever realized that they were applying the principles. Because not all of us are capable of understanding these principles unconsciously, the intent of my TRIZ teachings is to provide you with a set of tools to help you consciously apply the principles of creativity and innovation in the way that the great ones have been unconsciously doing so. throughout history.
By the way, Dave went on to be a top executive at GE, among other great things.
The technical definition of the fusion principle implies:
1. Bringing together or merging identical or similar objects, or assembling identical or similar parts to perform parallel operations.
ouch Personal computers on a network
2. Do contiguous parallel operations; gather them in time.
aie A lawnmower with mulching.
Circuit boards are an excellent example of lens fusion. On a circuit board, you’re merging multiple functions into one location instead of leaving each control in its own place.
The Internet is also full of examples of mergers. Mashups are the merging of two existing applications to create something new. For example, someone took an app, a directory of sex offenders, and overlaid the directory with Google Maps. Users can enter their zip code and see a visual map of all sex offenders in a particular location.
Fast food chains have also reaped the benefits of the merger. KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut can often be found associated in pairs under one roof. The advantage of the merger is that each restaurant can use the same staff, soda fountain, kitchen equipment, and location. Two different brands use the same resources and serve customers from one location.
As you can see, merging brings things closer together to improve the product or the system. However, the applications of fusion go beyond tangible objects.
take advantage of the view
Let’s talk for a moment about the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Clearly, this landmark is beautiful, but I want to talk about an entrepreneur who wanted to sell the experience of climbing the bridge. People don’t actually go up to the bridge; they walk through the rainbow arches to the top of the bridge. The person who came up with this idea is a man named Paul Cay.
This story is not just about marketing, merging and packaging your product; it’s also a lesson in using persistence to get what you want. Perhaps the most important thing to take away from this story is this:
If you have a really unique and creative idea and people don’t hate it,
they weren’t listening.
People who have attended my workshops or conferences have no doubt heard me say this. I am told that Paul pitched his idea for a bridge-climbing business to the Sydney city governments and various other bureaucracies. The board came back with a list of 60 reasons why it couldn’t do this business. Most people would give up if someone threw 60 hurdles at the thought of him, but Paul was persistent. It took him a couple of years to come back, but he finally went back to the naysayers and said, “Is it still the same 60 reasons why I can’t do this business? Because now I have a solution for all 60.” .”
He presented his rebuttals to them, and after a review process, they decided there was no good reason why he couldn’t start his business. So, in October 1998, the business was officially launched: bridgeclimb.com.
There was an initial $2 million investment in the bridge for safety cables, harnesses, communication equipment and that sort of thing. Two million may seem like a lot, but I’ll let you calculate the return on investment.
People pay $160 each to climb. In eight years, more than 2 million people have climbed to the top. You do the math.
The original idea seemed so incredibly simple, but Paul’s idea has won over 33 awards to date. In fact, the business won its first “Best New Tourist Attraction” award before the climbing program opened.
The bridge already existed and with a modest investment they turned it into one of Australia’s biggest tourist attractions. I have thought a lot about this company. What is your product? What are they really selling?
They are selling a view. And this view is not in the form of a beachfront property that can only be sold to one person. This is a view that you sell to new customers over and over again every day. It is a dairy cow.
Think about your own existing products and services. Is there a way to package them differently to have a much bigger effect? Maybe there’s a popular or famous landmark you can partner with to get more exposure. Who can you merge with to create your own source of income?
