Chapter 7 Thursday morning
“I notice you’re both wearing lace-up shoes,” said Zak, pointing down at their feet.
They both unconsciously glanced down, and then agreed with him.
“Do you remember tying your shoelaces this morning?”
“Not really,” said Nick.
“I think it was just as I was leaving,” said Slater. “Why?”
“Do you have any idea how difficult it is to teach a child to tie their shoelaces properly? Yet both of you did that task this morning without thinking about it. And do you drive a manual or an automatic car?” asked Zak.
“Manual,” they both replied.
“When you were learning to drive, do you recall how hard it was to master the skill of releasing the clutch gradually as you pressed the accelerator to get the car moving, without it leaping down the road like a kangaroo?”
They laughed at this knowingly.
“But if you go on a long drive somewhere today, you potentially change gear several hundred times without even thinking about it, don’t you?”
Again, they both agreed.
“In both these examples you learned the pattern of what you had to do so that it became part of your automatic behaviour. You no longer have to think about either of these thingsand that’s how the mind works. It learns patterns of behaviour that it can run in the background to help give your brain the ability to focus on other things that occur. Things that you don’t yet have a pattern foror which are different, so that the pattern you know has to be adapted in that moment.”
Zak sipped his coffee and continued.
“You’ve learned patterns for nearly every aspect of your life, and that’s what makes you so effective as a human being. You have patterns that range from tying your shoelaces to changing gear in your car. And most of the time that’s really usefulexcept for when you want to do something different. Like when you need new ideas on a topic. Then you want to think differently about it, otherwise you’d simply come up with the same ideas that you‘ve had before. The obstacle is that you’ve probably already got a pattern for thinking differently in your mindwhich is a problem in itself. You need to break out of your thinking pattern to help you find something that is truly new and different. And that’s where a thinking tool can help you.”
“What’s a thinking tool?” asked Slater.
“It’s a mechanism that forces you to think differently by the very nature of the way it works. It directs your thinking to consider issues from specific directions that are intended not to be the directions that you’d normally consider. I’ve found several that are really useful to help me think differently, and I’ll share them with you.”
He opened his notebook and drew a simple diagram of a circle with a curly line on each side of the circle.
“Imagine a tennis ball with a spring attached to each side. I take the end of each spring in my hands and stretch them out. The tennis ball will now be held in mid-air by the springs, right?”
They nodded.
“Now assume that the tennis ball represents your business and that if the tennis ball moves to the left, things are worse for your business and if it moves to the right, then things are better for your business. Naturally, you want your business to be better, so you want to see the tennis ball move towards the right. So tell me what you’d have to do to make this happen.”
“Well, you could make the spring on the right side stronger, and that would tend to pull the ball to the right,” said Slater.
“Or you could make the left spring weaker, then that would also allow the ball to move towards the right,” added Nick. “In fact you could do both at the same time and that would make the ball move a lot more to the right,” he exclaimed.
“Absolutely right,” said Zak, “the best way to achieve greater success is to do both.”
“So what does this mean for our businesses?” asked Nick.
“Most people in business are smart enough to recognise the things they could start doingor that they should be doing more ofthat will benefit their business. But, unfortunately, few people consider what they should stop doing, or do less of, to help their business grow. Now you think about some of the things you do that could be holding your business back, and how you’d lessen the effect they have.”
They were both quiet while they thought, before Nick broke the silence.
“I’ve never liked trying to cut our prices to appeal to people. When I see the amount of money people spend in upmarket restaurants in their desire for good food and drink, it tells me that I shouldn’t ever try to be the cheapestas that’s not why we want people to come into our café. If anything, I should consider increasing my prices a little as that would help our business out a lot.”
“Good thinking,” encouraged Zak. “Anything else?”
“You know how the Government tries to minimise smoking? It’s the law that shops selling cigarettes have to keep them in closed cupboards where they can’t be seen. What if we did the same for fizzy drinks? We could store them hidden in our counter fridges and keep our own healthy drinks on display. This might appeal to parents trying to get their kids to consume less of the high-sugar drinks,” Nick added.
“Yet another great idea. And the more you consider each aspect of your business the more you will start to identify other things that you could stop, do less of, or do more of” said Zak. “Now let me show you another business thinking technique.”
He drew another diagram and labelled it.
“This two-by-two matrix helps you to focus on what products or services you can supply to different types of customer. You are obviously in the lower-left quadrant now, supplying your current products or services to your existing customers. But the question you need to askand answerhere is how can you sell more of them to get a deeper share of your customers’ spending? Then in the block directly above this, you need to consider how you can take your existing products and services to new customers. This is where you want your current proposition to appeal to wider markets or new segments.”
Zak tapped his pen on another quadrant and continued.
“In the lower-right quadrant, this is where you want to identify new products or services, or new ways to extend your offer, that will appeal to your existing customers. And finally there’s the top-right quadrant where you are offering new things to new customers. The aim with this technique is that you focus on each quadrant in turn to consider how you can increase the value your business derives from that quadrant.”
He paused then turned to Slater.
“You’ve previously told us how you’re going to re-align your business to cover the new transformational offer you’re developing, but how might you consider the quadrant of new products and services to old customersboth now and in the future?”
“That’s a tricky one,” replied Slater.
“And that’s why I’m asking this question of you. It’s important to face the hard questions in business, as these are the ones that other people have difficulty answeringso if you can answer them, then that will be a real advantage to your business.”
“Mmmm. Let me think.”
Both Nick and Zak noticed Slater straighten as an idea suddenly came to her.
“Looking at the new products and services to existing customers quadrant, I automatically assumed that when I’ve done work for a customer, then there’s no chance of me doing more work for them. But actually that’s not true. I’m thinking that I can send them a regular email newsletter showing some new and innovative space saving devices I’ve found over the past few months. Things that they may want to consider for their kitchen. They won’t be high-value items, but if they decide to order them through me, then I can get a commission. The big thing is that it keeps me in touch with them at minimal cost. They may also share the newsletterand the fact that I was the one who transformed their kitchen for themwith their friends. That means I can get more business via old customers.”
“That’s great thinking. And if you were to consider the new products quadrants, what might you do there?” asked Zak.
Slater gave a laugh. “That’s suddenly such an easy thing to consider. People tend to have so much more stuff than their house is capable of holding, so I could consider smart storage solutions for garages, sheds, and outside areas. It’s a natural extension of what I do for them in the kitchen. Wow! Another idea just hit me. It could even include me doing a deal with a shed manufacturer to install some kind of custom-designed outdoor storage space too.”
“You see how powerful some of these tools are?” said Zak. “They’re intended to help you ask questions about your business that stimulate your thinking and to allow the ideas to flow. Often, it’s as if the ideas are in your head alreadyjust waiting for a mechanism to help release them.”
“That one impressed me,” said Slater. “Are there any more of these tools?”
“I’ll show you two more. The next is called Never a Dilemma. A dilemma is when you seem to have a choice between two mutually-exclusive options. You believe that you can either take this route, or that routeand that’s all the choice you have.” Zak had used his hands to point in two opposite directions to demonstrate the polarity of what he was saying.
“Slater, can you think of a dilemma that you face right now?” asked Zak.
“Yes, that’s an easy one. I have a van that I use to deliver all the kitchen components when they are ready for installation. It’s a few years old and I’m not sure whether to buy a new one or not,” she stated.
“That’s a good example. Now rather than considering it as a dilemma, or a choice between buying and not buying, what are some alternatives?”
“I suppose I could consider leasing a vehicle or financing it some other way,” replied Slater.
“Or you could buy a used van instead of a new one,” suggested Nick.
“Maybe I should have my existing one given a good overhaul to make it good for a few more years into the future,” Slater added.
“But you don’t know what the future holds, and as your business grows you may need one bigger van or two smaller vans,” said Nick.
“Good point,” said Slater. “As I don’t know what I’ll need, maybe I should put off making a decision until I do know.”
“Saying you’ll deliberately delay making a decision may often be a good course of action if the decision isn’t crucial at that point in time,” added Zak.
“As your vehicle is getting older, maybe you could have it modified to look like a kitchen on wheels as a publicity stunt,” joked Nick.
“Well, there could be something in that idea,” said Slater. “I did see a vehicle for a company that made artificial grass that was covered all over in artificial turfwhich was the product they made. It was a good way to show how robust their turf was I suppose. It really got their message home to me. Look, I’m actually telling you their story,” and she smiled broadly.
“So you see how we inadvertently turn many of our decisions into dilemmas by making them a choice between just two options. You’ll normally find there are many other options if you just think differently about it,” concluded Zak.
“There’s one last thinking mechanism that I want to show you called MARISA. This is an acronym for Magnify, Add, Rationalise, Integrate, Speed-up and Adapt. For each of these terms you don’t just use the single word itselfbut all associated terms to that word. For example, if you were considering MAGNIFY, you could include ideas around increasing things, focusing on something, zooming in, making it bigger, wider, thicker or taller. You might also consider how to intensify it, boost it, amplify it or extend it in some way.”
Zak took another sip of his coffee.
“I’m going to give you two terms to think about to show you how effective this tool is. I want you both to think about Nick’s café. Slater, I want you to focus on how to MAGNIFY the food items, and Nick, you must think about how to RATIONALISE your food items. For each of your terms from the acronym, you should consider all possible interpretations of that term.”
“But aren’t MAGNIFY and RATIONALISE opposites? So while I’m looking at making something bigger, won’t Nick will be looking at making it smaller?” asked Slater.
“It might seem that waybut remember, you’re always trying to identify things that will be beneficial for your business in some way. Now, start thinking,” instructed Zak.
Zak observed that initially there was a silent stillness from Slater and Nick, but he know patience would pay rewards. Suddenly, Nick started jotting things down in his notebook, followed closely by Slater a few moments later.
It always takes time for the mental cogs to engage he thought. He let them continue for a little while then asked for their feedback. Slater went first.
“If you want to offer something unusual to get people’s attention, what if you offered the healthiest cookie in the county for kids? Or what if you could get people to focus on the ‘five a day’ portions of fruit and veg by creating shakes or smoothies that deliver this to help ensure people consume more goodness? What if you could boost health in different ways by offering the same thing in the morning under one name, say, a daily kick-starterand in the afternoon offer it under a different name as an energy booster? Especially if it can actually do both things. What if you could offer health drinks for kids that would be a better alternative to the sugar-filled fizzy drinks they have now?”
“That’s good thinking. And Nick, what ideas did you come up with?”
“I was thinking about reducing the number of menu choices I offer. Rather than offer seven different cakes each day, instead we’d offer the three or four that we recommend or are our home-baked speciality cakes. I’ve also seen an upmarket restaurant where they only have five main course dishes on offer. Each evening there’s a short menu explaining that the chicken is cooked this way, the fish is cooked that way, the pork is covered by this particular dishand so on. The five meats of chicken, fish, pork, beef and lamb are offered each eveningbut in only a single, but different way each night. I could consider doing this with our specials.”
“That’s interesting, because did you know that too much choice can sometimes be a major turn-off for customers that deters them buying from you? In a study, 30% of shoppers who sampled different jams in a supermarket made a purchase when there was a choice of only six jams. However, when that choice was increased to 24 different jams, only 3% of the shoppers made a purchase as the bigger choice had become too confusing. So you may have a good point Nick,” said Zak.
“You each focused one word on one specific areaand it was the same area too. And even though you thought they were opposites, they still produced a number of interesting ideas that you could action quite easily. The skill comes when you make a list of many specific areas of your business, and each day you spend a few minutes addressing one area with just one of the six MARISA terms. How many ideas do you think you’d come up with?”
“A huge number I’m sure,” said Slater.
“And that’s what we’ll discuss at our next meetingwhat to do with all your ideas. See you here at the same time tomorrow.”
And with that, they all stood up to start their days work.