Chapter 72 SynTao 71 Creativity is the Mother of Innovation

The essence of business: In the bones of Wenzhou people, their spirit of daring to find creativity is commendable.Creativity is the mother of innovation. Only by finding good ideas can innovation succeed and make money more effectively. A leader of China Mobile went back to the place where he jumped in the queue to visit old friends. He lived in a guest house in the town as soon as he got off the car.After a bumpy journey, the leader's body was stained with sweat, so he wanted to take a hot bath.The hostel has limited conditions and only has one public bathhouse. When the leader came to the entrance of the bathhouse, he was stopped by a waiter: "Sir, if you want to take a bath, please pay an initial installation fee of 15 yuan. We will install a shower head for you." The leader was stunned immediately, thinking that this guest house Why are you killing people like this!But due to his identity, the leader did not attack.

He paid the money, but was stopped by the waiter when he just wanted to go in: "Sir, I'm sorry, for the convenience of management, each of our nozzles has a number, please pay 10 yuan for the number selection fee, the selected number is only for you Use by one person.” The leader was a little angry, but he still paid the money and chose “8”.The waiter said again: "You chose an auspicious number. According to regulations, you have to pay an additional fee of 8 yuan for a special number." It's not an auspicious number, so you don't need to pay any special number surcharges, right?" The waiter said: "No. 4 is an ordinary number, of course there is no special surcharge, but you have to pay 5 yuan for changing the number." The leader Shaking his head helplessly, he thought to himself how simple the folk customs here were back then, but he didn't expect to make such a clever name for making money now, it's really going downhill!

After the leader paid the money, he asked confidently, "Can I go in and take a shower now?" The waiter smiled and said, "Of course, please." The leader gave him a glare and walked in.The waiter suddenly added: "I'm sorry, I have to tell you: since No. 4 nozzle is only for your use, so no matter whether you come to take a bath or not, you still have to pay a monthly rent of 7 yuan and 50 cents. In addition, you Every time you take a bath, you will be charged 6 yuan per 30 minutes. In addition, the monthly payment is before the 20th. If you fail to pay after the due date, you will have to pay a certain late fee..." "Enough, enough, I I won’t wash it anymore!” The leader was so angry that he turned his head and wanted to leave.The waiter asked: "Are you really not washing?" The leader said sharply: "Yes! I will never take a bath with you!" The waiter smiled and said: "If you don't use No. 4 nozzle anymore, then You also have to pay a cancellation fee of 9 yuan and 80 cents. Only in this way will you never have to pay us any fees in the future.” The leader was furious and had a big quarrel with the waiter.

After a while, the manager of the guest house came after hearing the sound.When the leader saw the manager coming, he shouted loudly to complain.After the manager learned what happened, he smiled and said to the leader: "Sir, I'm sorry, maybe you don't know that the bathing industry is a monopoly here. Fortunately, you didn't soak in the pool, otherwise you will be charged for 'roaming'." fee!" This is a humorous story often told by businessmen in Wenzhou, but the manager of the guest house in the story has so many creative ideas, but we cannot help but feel admiration while smiling.Creativity is everywhere, as long as you dare to think and do it, you can get rich quickly.

Band-Aid inventor Al Dixon works in a factory that makes surgical bandages. In the early 20th century, his wife often broke her hands while cooking.Mr. Dixon was always able to bandage her quickly, but he was very worried about what to do when he was not at home.If there is a particularly convenient bandage, I can bandage the wound myself, so I don't have to worry about my wife not being able to bandage it myself. So he thought of trying to make a convenient bandage for his wife himself.He wanted to make gauze and bandage together, so that he could bind the wound with one hand.He took a bandage cloth and spread it on the table, applied glue to the bandage, then folded another piece of gauze into a gauze pad and placed it in the middle of the bandage.But there is a problem. To make this kind of bandage, you need to use unrolled adhesive tape, and the surface of the adhesive will dry after being exposed to the air for a long time.

Later, he discovered that a kind of coarse gauze could avoid the above problems, so the Band-Aid came out. A restaurant in Wenzhou opened, and the manager commissioned an advertising company to design a creative idea, so that the restaurant could quickly increase its popularity in the city and attract more consumers.Soon, the advertising company sent the creative plan.The creative content is only 5 words: no menu a la carte.The so-called no-menu a la carte means that the restaurant does not provide a menu, but what the customer likes and what the restaurant provides.The manager is an expert in restaurants and thinks that such a creative idea is simply nonsense, and ordering food without a menu does not conform to the practice of restaurants at all.But advertising companies believe that a la carte without a menu is much more effective than free tasting and discounted rewards.Free tasting is grand, but it is suspected of bait, and discounts are sometimes discounts on one's own image and taste.But no menu order is not the case, it can show that the restaurant has culinary skills and can cook a variety of dishes.

The manager is dubious and still worried, how can he ensure that all kinds of raw materials are purchased?The advertising company said, just prepare the same dishes as other restaurants. After the a la carte advertisement without a menu was published, people felt that it was very fresh, and the restaurant really attracted many customers.The manager found that most of the dishes ordered by the customers were already prepared by the restaurant.The manager was puzzled at first, but after thinking about it, he suddenly became enlightened.Ordering food without a menu is actually just a small trick. Its brilliance lies in giving people more initiative, but the effect of this small change is immeasurable.

In April 1981, Jack Welsh took over as president of General Electric Company of the United States.The company was large, its products were fragmented, and things weren't doing well. As soon as Wales took office, he thought: How can we manage such a big company well?What can be done to increase the company's sales and profits?After investigation, he found that the company's management was too rigid, and employees did not have enough autonomy.Through careful analysis, he determined that only when all employees are united can the company develop rapidly.So according to the company's situation, he conducted a comprehensive thinking and reset the company's development goals.

The first thing to do is to reform the company, which is to implement the "all staff decision-making" system.He allowed ordinary employees, middle managers, and labor union leaders who rarely had the opportunity to communicate with each other and work by the hour to be invited to attend decision-making discussions. Participants were equal to each other and expressed their opinions. The implementation of "all-staff decision-making" has won the support of all employees, which has enhanced their awareness of participation in the company's operations. The infinite creativity hidden in everyone has been fully explored, and everyone has contributed ideas, of which more than 90% are rationalized The recommendations were adopted by Wales.

Trickle down, merge into rivers and seas.It didn't take long for the company, which was not in the doldrums, to achieve great development and become a well-known and outstanding enterprise in the United States. Many people know that the famous French cosmetics company - Chanel, its development and growth is due to a key idea of ​​an employee in a critical period. At the beginning, the Chanel company was not well-known, the products were unsalable, and the company was in trouble.At this time, an employee in the sales department had a whim and reported the idea to Chanel, which was immediately appreciated by the boss.

A few days later, people saw such an advertisement on the "Daily News" in Paris: Chanel Cosmetics Company selects 10 ugly women, and will meet you on the Grand Stage in Paris on Saturday night. After the advertisement was published, it was rumored as an anecdote for a while.There will be a lot of people visiting the venue at that time. The curtain opened, and the ugly girls came out one by one.Sure enough, all of them have extremely ugly faces.The audience immediately booed, and everyone was amazed: "There is such an ugly woman!" At this time, Ms. Chanel came onto the stage with a pleasant smile and a calm demeanor. She said to everyone: "In order to show the efficacy of our company's cosmetics, please wait a moment, let the ugly girls put on makeup, to thank you." After a while, as the music curtain rose again, the ugly girls were painted one by one, and they really looked different under the neon lights. The audience were all amazed, and since then the cosmetics produced by Chanel have become bestsellers in the market. In the process of growing up, people often suffer from many depressions, blows, setbacks, and failures. Over time, the accumulated habits are hard to return.Because of the fear of encountering failure again, people are unwilling to try again, unwilling to break through the existing thinking mode, and dare not innovate until they completely give up the desire for success, draw the ground as a prison, and sit and wait for death.Because I am afraid of change, I define the future as "no way"; because "there is no way", I don't think about making progress.Such self-limitation, creativity, desire and potential are stifled by oneself, life is bound in the old circle, and great opportunities are wasted in vain. The rich people in Wenzhou who have successfully risen are not tourists who follow the old ways without any pressure, but participants who are actively involved and strive to innovate.People who are good at capturing opportunities and meeting them with creative thinking are most likely to be with wealth. Creativity is everywhere.If you master the skills of creative thinking, you will be able to find the right direction from the failures, make you survive, and reverse the unfavorable life and economic situation. A case that Wenzhou merchants often talk about is that there is a company that produces toothpaste. Its products are excellent and packaged beautifully, and are deeply loved by consumers.Records show that the company's annual business growth rate in the first 10 years was 10% to 20%, which made the directors very excited.In the ensuing years, though, the company's performance stagnated, maintaining the same numbers each month.The chairman was dissatisfied with the performance, so he held a national executive-level meeting to discuss countermeasures. During the meeting, a young manager stood up and said to the chairman: "I have a piece of paper in my hand, and there is a suggestion in the paper. If you want to use my suggestion, you must pay me another 50,000 US dollars." After hearing this, the president said angrily: "I pay you a salary every month, plus dividends and bonuses. Now I call you to come to a meeting to discuss, and you have to pay you another 50,000 US dollars. Is it too much?" "Mr. President, please don't get me wrong. If my suggestion doesn't work, you can throw it away without paying a penny," explained the young manager. "Okay." The president took the paper and immediately signed a check for $50,000 to the young manager after reading it. There is only one sentence written on that piece of paper: expand the diameter of the existing toothpaste nozzle by 1 mm. The president immediately ordered to replace the new packaging. Just imagine, every morning, each consumer squeezes out toothpaste that is 1 mm thicker than the original one, how much more toothpaste will be consumed every day? This decision increased the company's turnover by 30% in the following year. The key to entrepreneurial success is creativity, and what is more important is not how wonderful and magical the idea itself is, but how irreproducible it is, the size of the market potential and the feasibility of implementing the plan. It is necessary to choose complementary entrepreneurial partners who fully understand each other, choose a suitable entrepreneurial entry point, and choose an immature market, which will increase the chances of early success in entrepreneurship.Entrepreneurship is like walking a tightrope. If you are not careful in any place, all previous efforts will be wasted, and even life may be in danger. Controlling the risk of entrepreneurship is the skill of entrepreneurs to protect themselves. Entrepreneurs have obvious advantages. They are often enthusiastic and resilient, knowledgeable and courageous, but their shortcomings are often obvious.Either they know technology but don't know management, or they have management experience but lack technical foresight.But with the struggle in the market, many entrepreneurs have gradually become generalists. The internal cultural environment required for starting a business includes mutual trust, core characters, and shared beliefs.The external environment needed by entrepreneurs, such as society's understanding and support for entrepreneurs, the government supporting entrepreneurs with various social resources, and so on.Entrepreneurial freedom can only be guaranteed by an appropriate cultural environment.It is unrealistic to think through the business development plan before starting a business. After repeated demonstrations, if you think it through, someone may have taken the opportunity.The environment when starting a business is often not optimistic for most people, which gives opportunities to a few people who are optimistic about these businesses.At this time, using conventional methods to demonstrate, it is often concluded that the business will fail. Entrepreneurship requires creative ideas, but creativity is not equal to entrepreneurship. Creativity belongs to the category of consciousness, while entrepreneurship belongs to the category of practice.Entrepreneurship requires at least two or three of factors such as technology, capital, talents, market experience, and management. Otherwise, there is only one way to fail if you start a business rashly.Only by striving for and utilizing resources can we strive for entrepreneurial success.