Help Your Customers’ Problems Vanish – That’s Innovation in Action!

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Vansihing SprayThe ‘revolutionary’ vanishing white line used by referees in the Wold Cup in Brazil to keep players back 10 yards at a free kick is to be introduced in the Premier League this season.  Once sprayed by referees, the foam line evaporates and vanishes after about a minute.

It was first used in a professional match back in 2000, and has been used widely in Brazil and Argentina since then..

It was invented by Brazilian Heine Allegmagne and is made of vegetable oil derivatives. His company, called 9.15 Fair Play now has an international patent for the product (The name comes from the rule that the wall has to be 9.15 metres (10 yards) from the ball at a free kick!)

Where did the idea actually come from? Apparently, while Heine was listening to football on the radio! “The eureka moment came when I was listening to the radio and the commentator was talking about the wall not staying back. It came to me that I could do something” He said “I wanted to solve a technical problem that had been plaguing football for more than a century”

It’s a great example of ‘innovation in action’ – identifying a problem and solving it! In this case it was a problem that someone else had, and that’s fine. ‘Problem Seeking – Problem Solving’ can be applied to your business, your customers, your prospective customers (and to be honest, people who have absolutely nothing to do with your business if you like!)

Our definition of innovation is ‘the successful exploitation of new ideas’ and it’s Characteristic #7 of 3D Businesses (To see how they do it, click here!)

How can you make it work in your business? Here’s one simple process (one of many) ….

1. Diary some time to think about your customers
2. Find out what their problems are:
- What’s holding them back, causing them pain, frustration, time, money, resource?
- Ask them, observe them, listen to them – formally or informally
3. Identify solutions
- what would take that pain or problem away?
- what could you do take that pain or problem away?

Go on, create some time to think about those problems - crucially, create some time to take them away!

That’s Innovation!

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Andy Hanselman
Hi there! I help businesses and their people create competitive advantage by 'Thinking in 3D'! That means being 'Dramatically and Demonstrably Different'! I research, speak about, write about and work with businesses to help them maximise their sales and marketing, their customer service and their customer relationships.

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