Innovate

Tony Hsieh died at 42 years of age. Way too early, and much needed in our world. He was a business leader, a visionary in business, and a risk taker that earned enormous returns. But then, his work benefitted the world, business, customers and employees. We all gained from his visionary trips into the unknown. So did investors benefit.

Being a visionary means what? A short definition might be ‘seeing what can be and making it happen.’ That’s what Hsieh was and did. Others can do it as well. Why they don’t, remains a mystery.

In business matters, here’s what is involved for you and me.

What does the customer need?

With many options from which to choose, we buy what is available. However, someone had to realize the need existed in the first place. Start there and think of what is missing. Not easy to do, is it? But that is the basic nature of envisioning. What is needed that is not now being addressed in the marketplace?

Answering that question doesn’t take a lot of research. Once the product or service missing is identified, it will take research to nail down the specifics of the product or service. But then the next leg of the visioning odyssey begins.

Who can produce the product needed?

Remember the Space Program? Getting to and from the moon safely, placing a man there and retrieving him, was the goal. The how was unknown. We worked from what we knew and built on that platform of knowledge. We grew that platform. We enhanced that knowledge base and tweaked it constantly until we were certain we had all the answers. We made the moon shot. We calculated the flight there and back; we invented the moon landing method, and the blast off to mother ship, and then finished the return trip. Along the journey we invented many products that hadn’t existed before. We use them everyday now and mostly take them for granted.

In the world of commerce, once the product is being built and prepared for use, we need to get all of that to the end user, the customer. That’s the next leg of innovation.

How do we distribute the product to the customer in need of it?

Used to be we visited a store, found the product we needed, bought it and took it home. Today we research the product on-line via the computer. We research who has the product and who has the best reputation for quality product and service. We check prices. We calculate the pros and cons of a product versus its price. And then we make the choice, pay for the transaction, and the supplier ships it to us.

It took genius and a lot of hard work for Jeff Bezos to invent the Amazon distribution method. But he did it, right? Remember earlier times buying goods from a non-Amazon retailer? Their on-line software system was cumbersome and frustrating. Often, we cancelled the order and advised the retailer to ask Amazon how to do this!

Today, Amazon still rules on-line commerce. Finding the product or service in the marketplace, learning about competing brands, considering price differences, and then paying for the goods remotely, is a very complicated process. Getting the goods to the customer is another complicated process. Amazon combined it all saving the consumer untold running around, time and money.

Pure innovation exists in many forms at many points in any process, not just creating, manufacturing and delivering a product. The moon shot program alone gave us GPS, new materials, fresh engineering discoveries, and medical breakthroughs. Each of those items were innovations. Then spurred more innovation. And that critical cycle continues.

Fresh thinkers and ponderers are needed. Entrepreneurs are needed. The world is hungry for these people and what their thinking produces. Bill Gates is one. Steve Jobs was one. Tony Hsieh was one.

Be one of those people.

And watch the visions soar!

December 4, 2020