The Art of Innovative Solutions

Guy Kawasaki, thanks to Network Solutions visited Charlotte this evening to talk about Small Business/Entrepreneurship. So here's my version of "cliff's notes" on his talk for those of you who were not able to go. Originally I wrote this post for SocialCarolina.org but decided that it was a little long and wanted to create a more summarized version for that space. You can read that version here if you'd prefer.

The whole talk geared more toward the Art of Innovative Solutions... meaning how to start a business that is innovative. I like how Guy started out by saying jokingly - define a niche that's small enough and you will dominate it. While he was referring to him being the best Hawaiian, 53 year old hockey player that lived in Northern California, the message seemed to continue throughout the talk. So here we go the top 11 tips from Guy Kawasaki:

Number 1: Make Meaning vs. Making Money

The idea here was that you want to make meaning instead of your business being all about money. Because when it comes down to it, when you make meaning more than likely you're going to end up making money. He used an example of Macintosh (his former employer) and how they sought out to change the world - to make people more creative and productive.

Number 2: 4 Word Mantra

Once you decide you're going to make meaning and change the world, you need a mantra on how you're going to do that. Or rather a 3 or 4 word phrase as to why your business should exist. The problem with mission statements is that they are too long, use boring words like strategic and partnership. I like what he said here because really, who likes trying to write those things (he compared it to the difficulty level of giving birth) and how often do you sit down and read an entire mission statement. Even if you do how many people actually understand what is being said after they read it? It reminds me of the saying, "Keep it simple, stupid!" He used the example of Wendy's mantra being "Healthy fast food" or Target as being "Democratize Design" So find 3 or 4 words to communicate why your business should exist.

Number 3: Jump Curbs

Innovation is about being different. So Guy suggests not trying to make the same thing better or bigger. Do something completely different. He said to jump curbs - so get off the worn and beaten path and leap frog over your competition. Don't just do the same thing, do it completely different. He used the example of daisy wheel printing and turning it into laser printing.

Number 4: Always Roll the Dicee

Dicee is an acronym for Deep, Intelligent, Complete, Elegance, Emotive. Deep, meaning that you want to have a great product, one that is quality. Intelligent just means that - someone was thinking when they decided to make up this product. You want to show that someone put some thought into it. Complete and elegant. Products that don't need a whole lot of extras and that have some elegance to them are key. An example used was the iPod click wheel. And emotive means that it solicits emotion. People will love or hate it but that indifference is what is going to kill a product.

Number 5: Don't Worry Be Crappy

This seemed to be a continuation of the point about indifference. When you're jumping curbs you'll have moments of crappiness. He's so right because in today's business market with the websites coming and going so fast, sometimes you just have to jump and then figure things out. Guy phrased it as shipping then testing. The point isn't that you make a bunch of crappy products but that sometimes there will be parts of a product that you push out that need tweaking.

Number 6: Polarize People

There is so much stuff out there that not everyone is going to love everything. And that's ok. Again it goes back to indifference being worse than someone hating a product.

Number 7: Let 100 Flowers Blossom

Sometimes when a product is sent out you'll find that people you didn't intend your product for are using it in unintended ways. He stresses that you should take the money and run with it. Ask those people why they saw value in it and go with it. I think this definitely goes with being flexible as an entrepreneur and the point about shipping and then testing it.

Number 8: Churn, Baby Churn

Go into denial. When people are telling you it's not going to work and you're being surrounded by negativity, be in denial. Then you have to turn off that denial and then churn. Meaning, again, you have to be flexible in your business so that you can evolve.

Number 9: Niche Thyself

Guy kind of brought this around to his earlier joke - define for yourself a niche. Find a happy medium between having a good valued product that is unique and at a good price point. He used Fandango as an example: it has value to him because of his lifestyle and it's unique.

Number 10: Pitch It! 10/20/30

Learn how to pitch your product. Keep it to 10 slides (if you use PowerPoint), 20 minutes and 30 pt font. Keeping the presentation down to a minimum keeps interest. As Guy said in the beginning - he'd rather be remembered as a good and short speaker than a long and terrible one.

Number 11: Don't Let Bozos Grind You Down

Here he talked a lot about the recession and how a lot of people will say that now is a really bad time to start a business. Sure it's hard but in reality you can really make a dent in down times with a small amount of marketing money. I think this point goes back to the Don't Worry Be Crappy point too - don't let people get you down. Decide to do it and go for it.

Another thing that made the event so interesting is a lot of us had heard about it via Twitter. A day before the event someone posted the event in a tweet and within minutes we were all registered. I also got to have some good discussions with fellow Tweeters about innovation and different media and why it seems to be so popular. Twitter seems to be a polarizer and how it combines blogging, texting and instant messaging.

Networking events give you good food for your blog and you get to have awesome conversations with people a whole lot smarter than you and learn from them. (At least that's how I see it.) I jokingly said the reason I had attended was to learn from a great person in the industry and then steal his ideas. What was more interesting that during the presentation he even said that innovators know what parts of an existing product to steal.

Thanks to Network Solutions for bringing Guy out and to Sonoma staff who did an awesome job taking care of us all.