Why companies need CEOs who don’t fear experiments

M-Pesa was created by a mobile phone company and not a bank. It is time financial institutions launch innovative products that are different. FILE 

By Carol Musyoka
 

 

In Summary

• Market is awash with similar firms with similar products. It’s time to be different.

Some of the world’s most notable inventions have been either accidental or created by inventors who have no history or knowledge of that industry. Here are a few examples.

Potato crisps: In 1853, George Crum, a chef at an American restaurant, invented potato crisps as he was trying to make a plate of fried potatoes for a customer. The customer sent back his plate of potatoes many times and kept asking for them to be more fried and thinner.

Mr Crum lost his temper, sliced the potatoes ridiculously thin and fried them until they were as hard as a rock. To the chef’s surprise, the customer loved them and wanted more.

Penicillin: In 1928, Alexander Fleming was halfway through an experiment with bacteria and decided to go on vacation leaving a dirty petri dish in his laboratory sink. When he returned, he found that bacteria had grown all over the plate except in an area where mould had formed. That discovery led to penicillin.

Saccharin: Constantin Fahlberg, a scientist at John Hopkins University accidentally discovered the artificial sweetener in 1879. After spending the day studying coal tar derivatives, Fahlberg left his laboratory and went to dinner.

Something he ate tasted particularly sweet, which he traced to a chemical compound that he had spilled on his hand earlier in the day. It also turned out to be calorie free. Being a cut-throat entrepreneur, he sliced his co-scientist and the University when he secretly patented the breakthrough discovery Saccharin.

Viagra: In 1992 scientists at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer were working on a drug to treat angina, a coronary heart disease. While testing residents of a Welsh village, the drug had little success against the disease.

However the men taking part in the study refused to give up their medicine at the end of the test period. The result was the drug Viagra that was marketed for an altogether different purpose.

Fireworks: During the Chinese Sung dynasty (960-1279) an unknown cook accidentally mixed together charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter which were common kitchen items 2000 years ago.

When the mixture was compressed in a bamboo tube, it exploded. Legend doesn’t say whether the cook survived, but I assume he must since the recipe was used several times thereafter.

What do many of the above inventors have in common? Outstanding curiosity followed by remarkable success. And like serial entrepreneurs will attest, if you at first fail, try, try and try again.

Tom Peters, the renowned American management guru reminds us that we should punish mediocre success and reward spectacular failure. If we dare, that is.

But we dare not in most cases because we have cost-income ratios to manage, headcount limitations and a resounding aversion to spending time “experimenting” on “new fangled ideas” without tangible results.

An apt quote from the book ‘Funky Business Forever’ by Nordstrom and Ridderstrale captures the spirit of many businesses today.

“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.”