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| How to think
for great ideas |
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2. Define your ideal
solution and visualize it
Step 2 is to define what you would like to achieve -
ideally. And then you organize your 100 billion active brain neurons to bridge the gap
between where you are and where you want to be. It also helps greatly to visualize the
ideal solution, to picture "in your mind's eye" the best possible result.
Let's use a world-famous industry as a typical model:
the watch industry. Up to 1970, the entire industry was dominated by Switzerland. But its
business model had not changed in half a century. By 1970 it was still making sales of $10
billion a year. But "by the early 1980s, most of that value had migrated away from
the traditional Swiss business model to new business designs owned by Timex, Citizen,
Seiko and Casio. Employment tumbled in parallel with the drop in value. From the mid-1970s
to the early 1980s, the number of workers in the Swiss watchmaking industry contracted
from 90,000 to 20,000."7
So the industry called in consultant Nicolas Hayek. His
experience in the industry: nil. But even as a boy "Hayek was always asking his
family and teachers, 'Why do we do things the way we do?' He was born with an
innate and incurable curiosity about the way things work and where we come from. He
consumed every book he could find on physics, astronomy, the Big Bang, and Einstein's
theories of mass and speed."8
And as an adult he applied that same curiosity to his
newest challenge - and ended up reinventing an entire industry. Until he arrived on the
scene, most people bought a watch to last a lifetime. And those flocking to the new
Japanese brands were also doing so because of their low cost. But Hayek started with a new
series of questions: What did people want from a watch? Fun? Spirit? Style? Variety?
Fashion?
Those questions were to lead directly to the invention of
the Swatch watch - not solely as a timekeeper but as an ever-changing fashion accessory.
And with it, Hayek launched a marketing program to persuade customers to wear a
different-colored watch with every dress or suit.
From 1983 to 1992, Swatch sold 100 million watches. By
1996 he had sold his 200 millionth.
Even the name itself emerged as typical of the innovation
process. As Adrian J. Slywotzky and David J. Morrison recount in their excellent business
book, The Profit Zone: "Hayek differentiated his watches by giving them a
soul. He created a message, an emotional sense that appeals to everyone, conveying a sense
of fun, of style, and of lightheartedness.
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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