Meet the Mother of Invention

By Mark Fulton

J.F. Cantrell had an idea. A lot of folks around Fort Worth, Texas, in the early 1930s couldn’t afford to have their clothes cleaned at a laundry and they didn’t have the money to buy a washing machine of their own. So Cantrell bought four electric washing machines and opened the first self-service laundry in 1934. He called his establishment a washateria. Later on, after the idea caught on, someone came up with a word that sounded more dignified and businesslike — laundromat. An American business and social institution was born.

Plato said that necessity is the mother of invention. In modern business parlance, we might restate Plato’s observation like this: Opportunity is the source of innovation. The opportunity to satisfy an unmet need has been the birthplace of brainstorms that have revolutionized society and filled corporate coffers. From the paper clip to the palm-sized computer, innovative products and services have wrought fundamental changes in how we do things, while generating tremendous wealth for the companies that provide them. In short, innovation is a vital instrument for progress and profit.

In the latter half of the 20th century, “innovate or die” became a compelling axiom for corporate America. Companies that stuck with tried-and-true business practices and product lines found themselves drifting into dangerous waters. Consumers started responding to advertising slogans that trumpeted “new and improved” everything. If your business wasn’t on the cutting edge, it could wind up as chopped liver in the marketplace.

The proliferation of technology has added even greater impetus to the need to innovate by raising the bar on the rate and scope of new product development. Computers and everything that goes with them are only the most obvious examples of goods that go from being state-of-the-art to out-of-date a week after you buy them. Consequently, consumers have come to accept and even expect built-in obsolescence and they embrace technological advances that justify junking last year’s revolution for this year’s refinement.

But that’s good news for the company where creativity is nurtured and the spirit of innovation permeates the corporate mindset. What roles do creativity and innovation play in your organization? Read the following list and circle the bullet next to the ones that apply to the environment at your place of work. Be brutally honest.

• My company has specific strategies for encouraging employees to think creatively.
• We regularly hold brainstorming meetings and employ a variety of creative thinking exercises.
• We encourage pilot projects to research creative ideas.
• Employees from one division interact with employees from another division in order to stimulate thinking.
• Employees are encouraged to think outside the bounds of standard policy and procedure.
• My company encourages and rewards innovations.
• We have a process in place for turning ideas into products or services.
• We practice team development of new products or services, rather than relying on individuals to come up with them.
• We regularly monitor our competitors for ideas we can adapt to create new products or services.
• We regularly ask our customers for ideas about new products and services they would like us to offer.

If many of the above items are absent from your business, you may be handicapping your ability to pull ahead of or even keep up with your competition. Fortunately, it’s never too late to innovate (catchy, huh?). You can start today to make creativity and innovation hallmarks of your organization.

A subject search at your favorite online bookstore will yield a bevy of books that will help you harness your imagination and put it to work for fun and profit. Here are some that I recommend:

• A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants by Roger von Oech.
• Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall.
• It Only Takes One by John Emmerling.

Just think. By freeing your creative muses to play with your corporate consciousness, yours might be the company that develops the next Internet sensation or the next Post-It Notes.

J.F. Cantrell’s idea for a washateria evolved into an enduring business enterprise that enables millions of bachelors to clean their clothes without dropping major bucks on a Maytag and meet eligible bachelorettes at the same time. Now if only someone could invent a machine that automatically cleans up a month’s worth of accumulated pizza boxes and beer bottles. Maybe that will be you! Just don’t call your invention a cleanatrashamatic.


© Copyright 1999 Mark S. Fulton