the
innovative LEDGER
An e-Newsletter from The Innovative Edge™ Inc.
Vol.
5, No. 10, October 2005
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sweating
the Big Stuff
By Jeff Govendo
Nearly
lost amid continuing coverage of the human and economic toll of Hurricane
Katrina in a recent issue of BusinessWeek, was a story about Bulgy,
a 49 year-old hippopotamus at the Chaffee Zoo in Fresno, CA. The 6500
lbs. Bulgy is the subject of a University of California study on the
apparent wonders of… uh … hippo sweat. Yes, it seems the
perspiration of the roly-poly Hippopotamus amphibius has three qualities
with key implications for us humans: it repels insects, contains a
powerful antibiotic (apparently hippos get lots of cuts and scrapes,
but these rarely get infected) and, perhaps most importantly, it
is thought to block out cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.
Now
before you go looking for a bottle of the stuff (imagine the complexities
around collecting it) for your next trip to the beach, let me tell
you – it isn’t on your drugstore’s shelves. I suspect
there’s quite a lot of research left to confirm these benefits,
not to mention dealing with the rather significant issues of synthesizing
and commercializing the product. In fact, this may be one of those
stories we read about once and never see again.
Then
again, maybe not. Some of the greatest inventions and most useful
innovations have their origins in models, systems and substances from
the natural world. Many architectural forms, for example, are
derived from structures found in the world of insects and other animals.
The almost indispensable hook & loop system (popularly known as
Velcro) for fastening and securing everything from sandals to NASA
spacesuits originated in observations from the plant world. The process
for manufacturing optically perfect panes of plate glass was invented
by someone who studied the properties of oil on water!
The
list goes on, and it’s not just from connections to the natural
world. Anytime we step out of our own areas of expertise and familiarity,
and start to think about how examples from other worlds might have
relevance to the problems we are trying to solve, new possibilities
open up. It can be as simple, for instance, as looking to other
parts of your own organization. A sales-related problem would normally
be addressed by the sales team. But what about bringing in the perspectives
of some engineers or operations people? What new twists might they
introduce to the problem-solving process from their unique viewpoints?
And what about the fresh ideas your customers or end users might bring
in?
There
is, in fact, an almost endless supply of new ideas that can be gotten
from the people and things around us which are not directly related
to the topic we are working on. But any time we draw upon these
is an occasion for being truly open-minded to ideas which, while new
and different, are not likely to be “right.” They may,
in fact, be only loose approximations to what may eventually be the
solution we’re looking for. Without listening to such ideas in
a very open-minded fashion and a willingness to explore them for the
possibilities they hold, they will appear to have little value and
be rejected. As a result, innovation opportunities are lost.
Those offering the ideas are lost to us too, since there is an element
of risk in coming up with ideas outside one’s area of expertise.
When these are summarily dismissed, people stop trying.
It’s
not something Bulgy has to worry about, though. He looked quite content
in the picture accompanying this article. When all you have to
do is sweat to contribute to the development of a life-enhancing product,
life is good.
But
let’s leave the sweating to the hippos.
