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When was the last time you got into your car, put a blindfold over your eyes, and started to drive off? Have you ever put a blindfold over your eyes while driving? Probably not. At least, I hope not. This question sounds pretty crazy, but, although most people will never try to drive a car while blindfolded, many managers and business owners run their businesses every day with blindfolds on.
There has been a big movement over the last few years for ‘going green’, recycling, not wasting, etc., but many good ideas are being wasted on a daily basis. They are simply overlooked by businesses. Now, I’m not referring to the next new invention. There are handfuls of ideas, big and small, to increase sales, reduce expenses, increase efficiency, improve organization, and more, IF we have our eyes open looking for them.
One method of finding ideas for your business is to take time to really inspect the systems you have in place. Analyze your entire process of a specific task and look for ways it can be improved. I have been told countless times, “I can’t come up with new ideas, because I am too busy.” They are blindfolded. We need to look! For example, I helped a company a few years ago to drastically reduce time spent on the flow of their customers’ orders. We looked at every detail from the time the order came to the company, to the time the order was shipped to the customer. I helped point out to this business that the process didn’t flow well. We took time to review the process and combine ideas. The result was that we saved about 7 hours of staff time every day! It was well worth the 1-2 hours we took to really focus on finding the ideas.
If you or your employees are blindfolded, take off whatever is blocking the ideas. The ideas will begin to flow, and I am confident your business will see results.
Jonathan Cole is the owner of Sugoi Innovations, LLC. He may be contacted at jon@sugoiinnovations.com. |
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