A Note From The President

Avil Beckford, President

For the past few months, I have been wondering about where really good ideas come from. I have often heard and read that there are no new original ideas, people go back to ideas from long ago and work with those ideas to make something new. Well, does this mean that if I found a really good idea in "On Natural Selection," this month's book review, and combined it with another really good idea from "The Prince" to form another idea, the combined idea wouldn't be new, but just an extension of the old ideas?

Every successful business started with an idea. Each innovation started with an idea. Good ideas can help you only if you take action. This month I have decided to take a different approach with the book review. Penguin Books has published a great ideas series consisting of twenty books. I intend to read all twenty books to identify five great ideas from each, with the hope of stimulating my thought to come up with some breakthrough ideas of my own.

Marion Williams, an intellectual property lawyer had this to say, "Intellectual property is the legal framework set up by countries to protect the exploitation of good ideas. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is dedicated to promoting and protecting good ideas. Based on the popular TV series The Apprentice, who would have thought that the simple phrase "You're Fired" would have been such a hot sell last year? Donald Trump has registered his idea and is set to make millions through licensing agreements."

How do you know if you have a wining idea? What constitutes a good idea? And, if you've found your good idea, do you know what to do with it? That's your food for thought.

Book Review

On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin

Darwin defines natural selection as the "preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variation." So what does this all mean? Darwin further adds, "Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection, and would be left a fluctuating element, as perhaps we see in the species called polymorphic… Natural selection can act only by taking advantage of slight variations; she can never take a leap, but must advance by the shortest steps."

This book wasn't the easiest to read, and I found it quite "dry". But, in my quest to find out where really good ideas come from, I made the sacrifice and slogged through it. I have selected fives ideas from On Natural Selection. For the five ideas below, how can you use them in different contexts to resolve/understand modern day problems?

Five Good Ideas

• When a plant or animal is placed in a new country amongst new competitors, though the climate may be exactly the same as its former home, yet the conditions of its life will generally be changed in an essential manner. If we wished to increase its average numbers in its new home, we should have to modify it in a different way to what we should have done in its native country; for we should have to give it some advantage over a different set of competitors or enemies.
• Individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kind
• When a species, owing to highly favourable circumstances, increases inordinately in numbers in a small tract, epidemics often ensue
• The more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution, and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in numbers
• Natural selection is working behind the scenes all the time throughout the world whenever the opportunity arises. It works to improve each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. You cannot see these slow changes taking place, until after a long period of time has elapsed, we see that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were
  

We could take idea number two and look at it in the context of education. It's a reasonable assumption to make that people who are more educated have a better chance of succeeding than those who have less education. Or, for that same idea, we could say, someone who has an idea and knows how to take action, will be more successful than someone who has ideas but do nothing about them. Success in this context is not restricted to financial success. Why don't you take one of the above five ideas and see what new ideas you can generate?

I recommend On Natural Selection because I am sure that you will come up with your own five ideas. This is not a book that you would read for entertainment, but it will certainly stretch you. Why don't you join me in reading the twenty great ideas series from Penguin Books?

May's Book List

On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
The Celestine Prophesy by James Redfield

Survey Results

Management Tools 2005 Survey Results

• More than 75% of survey respondents believe that a growing percentage of the goods and services they offer "behave like commodities," while 56% say they should "focus more on revenue growth and less on cost reduction"
• 86% of respondents believe that "innovation is more important than cost reduction for long-term success"
• 73% of executives reported that they "could dramatically boost innovation by collaborating with outsiders, even competitors"
• Nine of 10 executives agree that "information technology can create significant competitive advantages"
• 6 of 10 respondents agree that their spending on information technology is completely aligned to their business strategy
  

Source: Bain & Company 2005 Management Tools Survey, http://www.bain.com/management_tools/Management_Tools_and_Trends_2005.pdf

How Did They Do That?

Asha McLeod, Jazma Hair Salon http://www.jazma.com

Challenge: Looking back over the years at the various problems and obstacles that come with owning a fast paced, successful hair salon, I have to say the most challenging of them all was dealing with my staff. What I found most challenging was that I was constantly doing all I could do to train them to be the best stylists they could be. This involved countless hours of professional training, personal and emotional support. The end result would always be that I would have trained and developed successful, confident stylists. So successful and confident that they would always believe they were capable of more than working for me, and would leave our salon, usually taking our clientele that they had built up as a result of working with us. It was very hard to deal with this, and it would happen over and over. It left me feeling hurt, and as a result I found I was bitter towards new staff as I viewed them inevitably doing the same thing as so many others had done in the past.

Solution: Eventually I realized that I was creating the problem and I was making it worse by telling myself things that would add to the bitterness and resentment through my negative thinking. I finally realized that staff will leave no matter what I do. I changed my perspective and motivating factors for why I teach them. Instead of teaching them to be successful because it would be better for my business, I now train them believing I am helping them to become better people. I also train them not expecting gratitude in return, and knowing they will move on eventually.

Lessons Learned:

• Staff will always leave but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't train them to do their jobs better
• I now do things without expecting something in return
• Resentment and negative thinking harms you and prevents you from being the best you can be

What Can Ambeck Do For You:

Ambeck Enterprise provides diverse business research and analysis services to senior level executives, through the relevant distillation of diverse facts and data.

Formula For Success

Asha McLeod

Keep in mind that success is never a final destination, but a journey, and as long as you are committed to lifelong learning, and passionate about your work, success is inevitable. I measure my success not against others, but by my own progress in overcoming day-to-day challenges, continuously learning and growing from those experiences. I believe my passion, persistence and need to please my clients have largely been the foundation for the success I have enjoyed in my profession.

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