THERE ARE NO BAD IDEAS: JUST IDEAS THAT DON'T WORK
I have written at length about the value of ideas. Thus far, I have focused
on successful ideas. But unsuccessful ideas are extremely important too; not
least for the amount of damage they often cause. Damage not from the ideas themselves,
but from how badly organisations often deal with unsuccessful ideas.
Probably the most famous unsuccessful idea in recent business history was implemented
by Coca Cola almost 20 years ago. Losing ground to Pepsi and seeing their new
diet cola, with a different flavour than the traditional Coca Cola, gaining
in popularity, Coca Cola decided to update the taste of their world famous drink.
Being a huge multinational, they put their best food scientists on it, experimented
thoroughly and conducted market research in a big way. By the rules of modern
marketing, they did everything right.
But the idea failed miserably. Coke drinkers were more emotionally devoted
to the old flavour than anyone had realised and complained bitterly. Sales of
the new coke bombed.
Fortunately, Coca Cola executives of the time were a bright bunch (and presumably
still are). They promptly admitted their mistake and relaunched the original
Coca Cola alongside the new drink. Sales of the new drink fell sharply and sales
of the original Coca Cola soon started growing again. There is a more complete,
yet still concise description of the new Coke launch at http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/newcoke.asp.
In spite of their failed idea, Coca Cola did two things right, thus minimising
their losses. Firstly, they realised that their idea did not work and dumped
the bit that failed which, it is important to note, was the dropping of the
traditional Coca Cola, not introducing a new drink. So, they relaunched the
original drink.
When an idea looks good and we implement it, it is easy to become overly attached
to the idea. When it does not work, and analysis shows that it is unlikely to
do so, it is hard to drop the idea. It is harder still when you have invested
money in the idea. There is the temptation to hold out in order to recoup your
investment. Still, when an idea is not working and evidence shows that it will
not start working, it is best to drop the idea and count your losses. Hanging
on will only cost more. Imagine the losses to Coca Cola had they stubbornly
refused to relaunch the original Coke and had only sold the new Coke.
The second thing Coca Cola did right was to learn from their mistake. They
learned how amazingly devoted their customers were to the original Coke. They
learned that the flavour of the drink was so sacred, in most people's minds,
that they would not change to an alternative – even if the alternative
tasted better. Doubtless Coca Cola learned a lot more which they presumably
have been implementing in their marketing strategy since.
Indeed, Coca Cola came through their failed idea fiasco so impressively that
there have been rumours that it was all a grand marketing campaign. I doubt
that is true. But, over the long run, I would not be surprised if Coca Cola
gained more from their unsuccessful idea than they lost. But this comes from
handling a failed idea very well indeed.
It is a cliché to say that we learn more from our mistakes than from
our successes. But it is entirely true. When an idea fails, it is important
to learn why. Sometimes it is obvious, as was the case with Coca Cola. Other
times it is not so clear. Often, we are too close to an idea to see why it will
not work. In that case, it is useful to bring in an outsider to look at the
idea and determine what went wrong. With small personal ideas, a spouse, friend
or relative can be useful. For big corporate or organisational ideas, a consultant
may be necessary.
In an organisation, it is important not to punish the person responsible for
the unsuccessful idea. It is human nature to want to lay the blame for mistakes
on someone else. And it all too often happens that the person who proposes an
idea that fails is reprimanded. Sadly, such a reprimand is all to likely to
make her reluctant to propose new ideas to the organisation. As a result, the
organisation looses out on future ideas that the this creative thinker would
otherwise have proposed.
Moreover, in any organisation, acceptance of an idea usually requires a number
of people (no one person at Coca Cola simply said, “let's launch a new
version of Coke,” and launched it all by herself). Implementation requires
even more people. Thus the originator of a failed idea can hardly be held exclusively
to blame.
It is better to involve the originator in the evaluation of why the idea failed.
Compliment the her for the idea and encourage her to continue to contribute
ideas. Chances are, another idea – from the idea originator - in the near
future will more than make up for losses from the failed idea.
If your firm has implemented (or is implementing) idea management, it is extremely
useful to archive with a report all implemented ideas generated via the system.
In time, the archive will be a wonderful tool for learning what kind of ideas
work, what kind of ideas do not, how failures were turned into successes and
more. You probably will not be surprised to learn that Jenni idea management
includes an archiving tool as a standard component of the system. To find out
more about Jenni, visit http://www.jpb.com/jenni/.
By Jeffrey Baumgartner
This article first appeared in the 6
June 2004 issue of Report 103
© 2007 Bwiti bvba ~ jpb.com
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