The Idea Book

I was bloghopping when I came across a photo showing The Idea Book. Curious, I asked the blog owner what the book was about and she gave me the link to the Idea Book website. I downloaded a 40+ pages sample and I think it’s great! The book alternates between short stories or quotes about ideas, and activities (followed by blank pages so that you can write your thoughts and ideas immediately in the book). Click the link above to download a sample for yourselves!

And here are two examples for a feel (sample of sample?):

Edison’s idea quota
Understand the importance of coming up with a multitude of ideas as opposed to a handful.

background
Thomas Alva Edison was a man who realized that you had to come up with many ideas in order to have one good one. Edison was, undoubtedly, an inventive genius. He held the world record for the greatest number of inventions. He invented the gramophone and the incandescent light bulb, developed a storage battery and improved film projectors as well as founding what is today the world’s largest company, General Electric.

Edison realized, however, that good ideas do not come about by them¬selves, so he enforced an idea quota on himself and his employees. His own quota was this: A minor invention every ten days, and a major invention every six months.

activity
Force yourself to come up with more ideas! When facing a problem, think of 50 different solutions. Many of the ideas will not be good ones, but the chances are that the first ideas will not be the best ones anyway. Practise finding many solutions to many problems. Make a habit of asking yourself, “What other ways are there of solving this problem?” Do not give up until you have thought of at least three new solutions. Remember that there are always different ways of solving a problem.



‘Broken’ monitors
The importance of asking the right question.

background
We often learn how to find the answer to something, but seldom how to find the question. Learning how to ask questions is something we could all do with improving. Just questioning your own organization to see if you can find a better way of running it, is the first step in the right direction. Know how to ask the right question and you are already halfway there.

One of the cafés in an international European airport was often full. The problem was that people sat nursing their coffees for a long time as they waited for their planes to depart. The café asked itself: How can we encourage our customers to vacate the tables more quickly? Their first ideas were probably along the lines of uncomfortable chairs, a seat charge, clear the tables immediately and so forth.

However, the idea they finally decided upon was this: to turn off the flight monitors in the café! This made people worry about missing their flights, which led to them look¬ing for monitors that worked, thus leaving empty tables. When the café had enough empty tables, the flight monitors suddenly started working again to attract new customers.

Formulating a question in different ways can help you look at a problem from different angles. In the case above, for example, you can find new angles by putting the question in another way: How can we sell more? So, instead of finding solutions to the problem of getting people to va¬cate the tables more quickly, you can also come up with solutions such as set up a take-away stand so that people can have a snack or drink by the departure gates, or sell picnic bags that passengers can take onto the planes with them and so on.

activity
Ask more questions and learn to question things that work well in order to see if they can work even better!
When facing a problem, formulate it as a question and then try to find several answers. If you get stuck, ask the question in another way. You can always formulate a problem in many different ways.

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Blog feature: Swiss Miss

I’m trying to link up to interesting blogs related to the theme of Mesra Niaga and so far I’m listing those which I have been following. I’ll try search for some more when I have the time, but in the meantime, please give me some suggestions!

One of the blogs that I check out regularly is Swiss Miss, which is run by Tina Roth Eisenberg, a Swiss designer currently based in New York. I absolutely love the things (well, some of them, not all) she shares on this blog! Here are two examples (images are from Swiss Miss blog):

Play with trash

Hookeychain

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Direct marketing to school children

A few days ago my sister showed me a set of activity workbook her daughter just bought in school, or perhaps I should use the word ‘paid for’. Her schoolteacher distributed the books to each students, citing, “It’s not compulsory to buy these books. Just take it home today to have a look. If you don’t want to buy it, just bring it back tomorrow (in pristine condition, of course).” This is an ‘opt out’ rather than ‘opt in’ method.

I consider this marketing strategy by the publisher of the books pretty aggressive. I bet the teacher also received some sales commission as an incentive. I disagree with such aggressive marketing method directly targeting children (as opposed to their parents) because young children are naïve and easily manipulated. Another example of similar tactic which I disagree with, is placing sweets, chocolates, and toys at children’s eye level at the cashier. In my opinion, the school administration need to be more sensitive to this issue. Rather than distributing the products to each student, thereby putting the pressure on them to buy, the parties interesting to market their products to children should just be given a booth at the school compound (perhaps someplace where parents can view the products).

Note: The Bahasa Malaysia version of this post is published in my other blog, Mesra Buku. Both areas of my interest happened to overlap in this post :)

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A notched chair

When my brother saw this chair with the notch, he wondered, “What is that for?” When I saw this chair, I thought, “Brilliant!” I guess ladies are the ones usually with (all kinds of) bags and would appreciate this kind of little ‘help’.

This chair was spotted at Muzdalfa Fried Chicken in Bangi when I went to lunch with my siblings sometime ago.

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Appreciating a helpful sales assistant

Recently, my husband and I went to a chain store to survey some electrical appliances for our home. A sales assistant spent the better part of an hour entertaining our questions. We didn’t buy the goods there and then because we need to think over our choices first.

But when we did go to the shop again to make our purchase, we specifically asked for the same salesperson (I noted his name in the first visit). I believe that the company has some sort of sales commission as incentives for their sales staffs, so it’s only fair that the person who helped us with our purchase are rewarded accordingly.

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Small Ikea goods

I wouldn’t say I’m an Ikea fan, but I think that some of their products are really well designed – the functions, I mean, not the the looks. Though the look is usually pretty pleasing, too. Moreover, the prices are sometimes very reasonable, especially their bestsellers. I’ve been using the plastic bag organizer from the Rationell line (which costs only RM9) for quite some time. And more recently, I bought and used a duster from the Lodder line. It’s bendable, hence can reach into difficult spaces. It’s easy to wash, hence easy to maintain. It’s only RM12.90.

Image source credit to Ikea.com
In Malaysia, there is only one Ikea store, which is in Mutiara Damansara. I know of many people outside of Klang Valley who occasionally include Ikea in their itenaries when visiting KL for other reasons. Ikea delivers to all locations in Peninsular Malaysia (but not their market hall goods), I’m not sure about East Malaysia though. But they don’t offer online purchases, it’s not part of their business model.

What if, someone who lives near enough to Ikea, is willing to help buy & ship Ikea stuffs for a reasonable fee? Would there be demand for this kind of service? I mean only the small & reasonably light things from their market hall. In other words, this person, who’s totally independent from Ikea management, offers Ikea goods (selected based on feasibility and popularity) but mark-up the price to compensate for his or her time and efforts to procure them. For example, the Lodder duster can be sold for RM16 (excluding postage). If he aims to make one shopping trip to Ikea per week, and for each trip buys say 20 pre-ordered items which he can immediately posts, is it feasible ad worth the time & effort?

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Quick service

I took notice when the cendol seller at a stall that I went to some time ago, packed my order really really quick, even though there is no one else queuing behind me. What that made me feel, is that my time is valuable, and he’s not wasting it by taking his own sweet time. While the truth may just be that he’s used to that kind of speed, I still appreciate such gesture a lot.

The second time I went to his cendol stall, he was just as quick, if not quicker, and this time, I figured I should acknowledge it. “Sangat cepat,” I said (“That’s really fast.”). He smiled.

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