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What if?

March 31, 2010

 

Are you or your business stuck in a creative rut? How long has it been since you offered a new product or service? Is your business growing? Is it losing ground to other businesses or worse yet, is your business offering becoming irrelevant?

 

Many businesses suffer from these maladies. The key question is; what are you going to do about it?

 

If you are facing these questions and great answers are not forthcoming, let me suggest the “What If? Creative Tool.” Here is how it works. Ask yourself the “What If” question for a variety of situations and see how you might respond.

 

What if:

  1. I was forced to cut my price in half?
  2. The main component of my product was no longer available?
  3. I had to deliver my product in half the time?
  4. The number of potential customers for my product halved?
  5. The number of potential customers for my product doubled?
  6. My product was available in only one color?
  7. My product was available in any color?
  8. My product could change color every minute?
  9. My product could weigh half as much?
  10. My product could be made twice as big?
  11. My product included its own structural support system?

 

I think you get the idea from this list. But just in case you are having trouble grasping the power, let us look at an example.

 

Take number 1. Let us say your product is a roof product and it currently costs $15 per SF and you know that you want to “create” a new offering that would cost $7.50 per SF. In this case, you know you have to change something significantly. Maybe you go from metal roofing to a field applied fluid membrane. This certainly is a different offering, but it could meet your main requirement of “half the price”.

 

You will have to do many things differently:

  • Conduct great research to determine a great fluid membrane product
  • You may have to have it formulated to be white for thermal reduction
  • Develop a new group of installers or retrain your current group of installers
  • Etc. …

 

The point here is that by changing a major parameter, it spurs creative thought, and creative thought can lead to a new product or service that “changes the rules” to allow you to win.

 

Come up with your own list and spur your creativity to produce a winner for your business.

 

That is it for this week. Post your comments on the Blog and let us stimulate the discussion.

 

Thanks,

Ted S. Miller