In May 2006 I published the idea for a luggage finder. Now it has been invented by Loc8or. They don’t mention the idea of using it for finding your luggage at the airport but it would work. It is always a pleasure to see an idea I had turn into a product. Especially when somebody else did all of the work. Thanks to Steve Manes of Forbes Magazine for publicizing this product.
Product Ideas from Ben Wattenberg
Ben Wattenberg has posted three inventions on his site. I like all of them but the third is the the one that somebody can make some money on. “Paste-on pointed thumbs — for use on Blackberberries.” Do you remember the rubber thumbs that they used to use for counting and sorting paper? If one of those were made with a point it might work quite well.
Good idea Ben!
The Coventry Bell
This is the story of a bell. It is indicative of a way of doing business but its story is mostly about some wonderful people with a sense of history, a great work ethic and the desire and ability to work as a team.
Happy Christmas to all of my friends at Brandon/Brady
Twenty-five years ago when we started Coventry Manufacturing Co which became Brandon International we installed a small sales bell in the hall. One of our rituals was that the sales department would ring the bell every time we got an order. Rituals were an important part of our management process. We got the idea for the sales bell from Dan Sandel the driving force behind Sandel Medical Industries. As the company grew and moved to a larger building the small bell could no longer be heard in the entire factory.
My memory is a little fuzzy but I think that one year for Christmas in the late 1980’s the staff bought me a new and much larger bell. We installed it in the Attic and ran a rope and pulley system down to the hall to ring it. And the bell kept ringing and the company grew and when we sold it to Brady in 2003 the bell went with the deal.
Imagine my surprise when last spring the bell arrived in very large package from Brandon/Brady. It had been in the attic at Brandon for at least 15 years ringing in the orders unseen but heard. I spent a few hours this summer cleaning up the bell and installing it on my patio.
This picture shows the bell installed and ready to ring every time I get an order for beverage.
This is the tile that the bell rope ran through down to the hall. It was signed by many of the people who I worked with all of those years. The tile was sent to me with the bell and is now memorialized on this site.
Better Drivers
At this time of year many people express the holiday spirit by driving very badly. I don’t know if the number of accidents increases but the amount of agressive left turning and grabbing for parking spaces definitely increases as we near Christmas. And it makes sense, everybody is busier and going to places they have never been before to buy gifts for people they hardly know. Stress is up.
Part of the beauty of driving in the city is that we are anonymous. Bad behavior while driving does not reflect back on us in other situations. The people who offend us by changing lanes without signaling don’t know who we are, will probably never see us again and therefore don’t care. What if they could know who we are? Would we drive a little more politely if the people in the other cars were able to see us as more than the white Toyota Celica. I think so and the internet offers us the possibility of doing that.
Imagine a web site for Southern California called TrafficIncidentReport.com on the site you can search for a car license number and see if it has been reported for bad behavior or you can file a report. This site will have nothing to do with the police, it will be strictly for regular people to report bad behavior on. It will be possible to be notified via email if any car you register or report has additional reports filed on it. It will also be possible to file a rebuttal to a bad behavior report. It will also be possible to file a good behavior report.
In the margin this might help make people see that even when they are in their cars they are still part of a community and should act politely toward those around them.
The revenue stream could come from advertising by lawyers, body shops and car dealers among others.
Stonehenge on DiscoveryHD
Discovery HD shows a one hour sunrise show every morning at 7am PST (check local listings). This morning the show was Sunrise at Stonehenge. Excellent.
It reminded me of an idea that I had a few years ago for background video very similiar to this but with an advertisers logo on the screen. My favorite idea was a day at a park bench. But I also liked a year in the life of a tree shown in an hour.
We all appreciate background music why not background video.
Carbon Credits as a Holiday Gift
At lunch today Gary D and I were talking about global warming and eating raw fish to keep the ovens and by extension the planet cool. We got the holiday spirit and came up with the idea of buying carbon credits as gifts. It turns out they already exist. So if you are worried about global warming you can assuage some of your guilt about your energy footprint by giving the gift of carbon credits this year. Once upon a time coal in your stocking meant you had been bad but now it shows extreme sensitivity. Giving coal or anti-coal, I’m not sure which, is easy. Try this link Carbon credits.
Or just google: “carbon credits, gifts” and take your pick it is easy to do and doesn’t hurt. Whether it really helps is still an open question to me. To read my arguments on global warming click here To read the Pasadena Protocol click here.
Free Hugs
When we were at the Washington Monument last Wednesday morning Juan Mann, the Free Hugs guy was there and I got a free hug.
It was a very good hug. His movement which has been featured on Oprah is a very nice simple thing. We all need to stop and smile a bit and give each other a hug. Thanks Juan for reminding us, for the hug and for the movement.
There are lots of free hugs photos like these on Flickr and they are worth a look.
Love a Lawyer
Shelly Freedenthal, who is a lawyer, wrote this children’s book explaining what lawyers do and what a valuable function they perform in our society. It is wonderfully illustrated by Lori Serna and Elizabeth McCallie
I’m buying copies of it for all of my lawyer friends for Christmas or Hanukkah this year. They really are a great gift, only cost $10.00 and will please any lawyer. To order a copy go to Trafford Publishing or email Shelly at: ShellyFreedenthal@paulhastings.com
Hearing Aids
I have spent a few days lately with my in-laws and other septuagenarians at various events and had concluded that hearing aids are not working that well yet. I remarked to Nurit after one investor meeting that the one conclusion we could draw from the meeting was that we should invest in hearing aid companies. It appears that most of the hearing aids sold today don’t work very well.
About the time that I turned 40 my eyes went bad and I could no longer read without glasses. I wasn’t unique, it happened to almost everybody at about that age. Well here is an advance warning to all of you baby boomers when you turn 70, as most of you will, your hearing will go bad. Get ready for it.
Fortunately I have solved the problem of bad hearing aids. It appears that one of the things that today’s septuagenarians want is to keep it a secret that they need some help hearing. The same thing happened with glasses it was hard to admit that we couldn’t read the menu so we blamed it on the lighting in the restaurant. But we are from the wireless generation. We are used to having hands free cell phone remotes and Walkman wires hanging from our ears. I pods are a fashion accessory. We can handle the idea of a much bigger hearing assistance package that might actually work.
So here is the billion-dollar idea. Start a hearing aid company that doesn’t focus on invisible as the primary objective. Its focus instead is on hearing assistance. The product is visible and fashionable like an I pod and might include a directional microphone. You can adjust the volume without putting your finger in you ear. It comes in colors and might also serve as a cell phone and a music player. It could have Bluetooth directly to the TV sound.
A Spicy Idea
How old are those bottles of spices in your cupboard?
Did you know that they get old and lose there flavor? A few years ago we started to once a year write the year of purchase on the top of each jar.
After they are two years we throw them away. Wouldn’t it benefit us all if the spice companies would put an expiration date on their bottles? Why don’t they? It seems like a really good product differentiation idea that could command a premium price.
Thanks to Nurit for this idea.