Business Solutions

At the very heart of innovation is imagination, something that should be encouraged as a natural element of the innovative process deep within each organization, and as Entrepreneurs continue to strive to elevate above their competition with radical innovations, new markets and new ways of doing business are being developed as a result of the innovative and imaginative process, and imagination is quickly becoming the currency of the future business idea development landscape, especially in the markets which more openly accept change with open arms.

More specifically Social Media Technology, where innovations and imagination are revolutionizing the world in which we communicate, although as a result, companies from diverse industries are all seeking the means of harnessing the energy and incredible possibilities of the imaginary process, by encouraging imaginative activity in their workplaces.

Even Harley-Davidson understands that in this day and age they don’t sell motorcycles, and when asked exactly what it is they made, one Harley Executive was quoted in Results-Based Leadership Magazine: “What we sell is the ability for a 43 year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”

The founder of the produce supplier Fresh Express asked his son to come in and help increase sales, and his son unlocked the driving forces of the double-income working family and created “salad in a bag”, while the industry grew from $0 to over $2 billion industry within 4 years.

Before Michael Dell began making his computers in his college dorm room the entire industry operated on the concept of build computer then sell computer, and Dell flipped this logic on its head to sell computer then build computer. In the process he refined a business model that allowed him to collect cash up front, make money on the float, and keep almost zero inventories.

Staffers a Dean Junior College in Franklin, Massachusetts lost many potential customers who didn’t have the time to take a course at the college, so they started Choo-Choo U on the commuter train into and out of Boston, which broke the rule of teaching classes in static classroom location. Students heard lectures during their commute and went to the college on the weekends to take exams, and the enrollment soared.

The Charlie Case Tire Company runs a car service center, and by traditional rules, most repair shops are close to people’s homes and offices, but not this one, as it’s at the Phoenix airport. Why, you might ask, so that you can drop your car off for new tires or an oil change when you’re taking a trip out of town, and The Charlie Case people take you to the airport terminal, pick you up when you return, and there’s no down time for your car, and the best part is their parking is only $4 per day.

In 1995 two television stations, WBTV and WSOC, in Charlotte, North Carolina used sweepstakes to increase their ratings, viewers watched the stations to see if their numbers were selected, and soon the stations were trying to outdo each other by giving away more money than the competition. A third station, WCNC, didn’t give away money, instead, it showed the winning numbers of the two other stations, and it’s ratings increased by 83 percent without giving away a dime.

The easiest and best way to create word-of-mouth for your product or service is to simply ask for it, but for some strange reason most companies don’t, and during its first years, Celestial Seasonings Herbal Tea’s founder Mo Siegal enclosed a note in each box of tea, his message was that it was a small company that could not afford to advertise, and he asked that people tell their friends about his tea or, better yet, to serve it to their friends. He said, “We have spent all kinds of money on fancy advertising, but the most important driver of our business is word-of-mouth.”