Innovative behavior can be seen everywhere in our daily lives, and it is something that everyone can do. For example, the chef who fried fried dough sticks on the roadside put washing powder in the oil pan and fried the fried dough sticks until they were fluffy and straight. Although it is not worth advocating, it can be regarded as an innovation. In fact, innovation is not only very common, but also a logical and routine way of thinking. Amnon Levav, executive director of the Israel National Institute of Innovation, said: "Innovation can be copied, and inspiration can be produced." Below I have compiled some short stories about innovative thinking for you, hoping to help you.
?Goddess of Victory? Nike shoes
Nike, the world-famous sports shoe brand that is popular all over the world, is undoubtedly the favorite choice of many people. But compared with its well-known reputation, its tortuous and bumpy experiences are somewhat unknown. Nike was built by Sosa and Knight, both coaches and athletes. Sosa was born in Little Rock, USA in 1931. In 1959, he became a track and field coach at the American Running Training Base. At this time, Knight, who was only 21 years old, was a middle-distance runner under Sosa. During his long coaching career, Sosa found that there were two main causes of Knight's sports foot pain, leg muscle spasms and other ailments. One was excessive training intensity, and the other was wearing inappropriate sneakers. He is an experienced and enterprising coach who is always thinking of solutions to problems. Sosa clearly knew that the problem mainly lies in sports shoes, because there is a significant difference between the stress points of the feet under high-speed movement and slow movement. This requires that the design of sports shoes should be different from ordinary shoes. It is different and should have the function of protecting the athletes' feet. In fact, at that time, athletes did not have any more choices when it came to wearing shoes. This was an irresponsible performance for the athletes and directly affected their ability to improve their sports performance. Sosa is determined to use advanced scientific and reasonable methods to train his athletes. To achieve this goal, the first step is to let the athletes wear suitable sports shoes. In order to achieve this goal as soon as possible, Sosa began to design several patterns of sports shoes based on the principles of sports mechanics and his many years of practical experience. He hoped that shoe companies could adopt his suggestions and create sports shoes that truly belong to athletes. . However, Sosa traveled to many places in succession, hoping that shoe companies could adopt his suggestions and create sports shoes that truly belonged to athletes. However, no shoe company was willing to accept his proposal.
Faced with difficulties, the disappointed Sosa did not retreat easily, he chose to do it alone. Souza made several pairs of shoes by hand according to the patterns of sports shoes. Although the appearance of these shoes is bulky and ugly, they have a special protective effect on athletes. They feel very comfortable when wearing them on their feet, especially the design. It is designed with thick padding on the front and rear heels, which effectively protects athletes' legs from injury, so it is very popular among athletes. They asked Sosa about the price and origin of the shoes. What's even more gratifying is that this kind of shoes quickly took effect. Sosa's athletes achieved unprecedented good results in a sports meeting, which increased Sosa's belief in promoting this kind of shoes to the entire training base. At the same time, influenced by Sosa, Knight was determined to join him in dedicating himself to this cause aimed at benefiting athletes.
In 1964, Sosa and Knight each invested US$670 to found Blue Ribbon Sporting Goods Company, which was the predecessor of the famous Nike company in the future. When the company was first established, there were two employees and the conditions were simple. Sosa is mainly responsible for designing and manufacturing new sports shoes, while Knight is responsible for the running business. Without any reputation, no shoe manufacturer in the United States was willing to cooperate with him, so Sosa used his kitchen as a shoemaking workshop to produce his products.
In 1965, he developed the "Zhengkang" brand sports shoes and introduced them to the market, which was a great success.
In 1968, he invented sports shoes with soft pads in the soles, which again achieved great success. At the same time, in order to expand the company's influence in American society, Sosa and Knight gradually expanded Blue Ribbon Sporting Goods' business from the East Coast to the West Coast. Borrowing the name of the goddess of victory from Greek mythology, Nike was used as the company's trademark name. From then on, Le Cordon Bleu Sports Goods Company had its own officially registered trademark.
In 1975, Catlin, a graduate of Ohio State University in the United States, designed a unique and highly iconic Nike trademark graphic for Sosa. At first, Catlin was only paid $6 for designing this graphic trademark, but today, its value has exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars.
1973 is a memorable year. From this year on, Nike began to move towards a new milestone. The company's total sales exceeded $3 million for the first time. In 1975, it quickly reached US$6.8 million. This is a proud and noteworthy achievement. In 1972, the 20th Olympic Games happened to be held in Eugene, United States. Sosa and Knight were keenly aware that this was an infinitely huge business opportunity. When they learned that the marathon runners did not have fixed shoes, they took the initiative to give away Nike sneakers to the athletes. Some athletes agreed to wear Nike sneakers and achieved better results. Sousa and Knight lost no time in sending Nike sneakers to them. Claim to people: ?Three of the top five athletes wear Nike shoes. ?This makes Nike sports shoes leave a very good impression in the minds of many athletes. However, they are not just satisfied with sponsoring a sports competition. They have to sign contracts with athletes to maintain good cooperative relations with each other and ensure that at any time, these athletes are free to use products designed by Nike. Moreover, athletes with extensive experience can provide a lot of valuable advice or data. It is helpful to test the quality of sports shoes. They understand that doing so may take several times more effort than usual, but the market potential is huge. Realizing this, Sosa and Knight decided to continue down this path. Through their contact and cooperation with famous athletes Tuomi, Willis, Leffen, and Divitan on various occasions, Nike sneakers quickly became a favorite product of many athletes, and the fame of Sosa and Knight also increased. Gradually becoming popular in the sports world, Nike's name has spread to every corner of the world. Sosa and Knight used inspirational thinking and innovative thinking to research and develop Nike shoes, and achieved success.
The dazzling aura of success often obscures the hardship and difficulty of struggle. The fight for opportunities often comes at the cost of blood and sweat. Some people may even give their whole life. In fact, any road to success is paved with bumps and twists. Successful people who reach the top of their careers are often the focus of attention, while their arduous climb is brushed aside. In this sense, the success history of Sosa and Knight is a history of struggle in difficult situations.
The birth of the oil-suction pump
A famous Japanese inventor tells how he invented the oil-suction pump as follows: In 1942, I was in the second grade of the old Azabu Middle School. The purpose of the invention was To honor my mother. Show her my love and filial piety. On a cold morning in winter, I saw my mother in the kitchen, holding a huge 1800 ml glass soy sauce bottle in her hands. She poured soy sauce into the small bottle on the table. The soy sauce bottles currently in use have been changed to small plastic bottles that are easy to hold.
At that time, it was a large and heavy glass bottle, and there was no spout on the bottle mouth, so it was not an easy task for a woman to pour soy sauce into the small bottle. In winter, the big bottle made of thick glass was frozen cold together with the soy sauce inside. Mother's hands kept shaking, and the soy sauce spilled all over the table, but not much was put in the small bottle. My mother bent over and lowered her head, working hard to do this difficult thing. When I saw her curled up, I felt very excited. On weekdays, I have always wanted to do something to help my mother. At this time, I thought: In order to save my mother from suffering, and in order to allow her to easily fill the small bottle with soy sauce without holding a cold big bottle, I You must think of a good way. ?So I went to the library by myself, read a lot of books, and looked up some information. In the process of learning fluid theory and principles, I learned about the siphon phenomenon of fluid mechanics and found the key to solving the problem. First of all, we found the theoretical basis and mastered the "rationality".
This theoretical basis is: when the fluid flows from high to low in the pipe, even though there is a section of pipe in the middle that is higher than the liquid level, once the liquid starts to flow, the liquid will continue to flow. The phenomenon of flowing downward is called siphon phenomenon. Of course, this alone is not enough.
When using a tube to suck soy sauce from a large bottle, you must find a way to suck the soy sauce to the highest point of the inverse u-shaped tube, and then make it flow to the lower point of the other end to form a siphon! Only then can the soy sauce automatically flow into the small bottle. The downhill flow to the lower place is not a problem. The difficulty is how to suck the soy sauce to the top of the pipe, that is, the problem of climbing. Of course, you can also use your mouth to suck one end of the tube as most people imagine, suck the soy sauce over the top, and then quickly insert the mouth of the tube into the vial. But when you suck it with your mouth, it's difficult to control the weight, and it's easy to suck the soy sauce into your mouth or spill it outside. ?Isn't there a good way? One day when I was thinking hard about this matter, my eyes suddenly fell on the ink suction tube of the fountain pen on the table. My mind lit up and I got inspiration. When I was in middle school, the fountain pens I used were different than those used today. The method of filling ink into a fountain pen is to use a glass straw with a rubber ball to suck the ink from the ink bottle and then pour it into the fountain pen. This kind of fountain pen is almost invisible now, and many young readers may not know it. Here I would like to briefly introduce this ink suction tube. The suction tube consists of a glass tube with a thin end and a thick end and a hollow rubber ball connected to the thick end. This was an indispensable treasure in the study room when using fountain pens. Insert the thin end of the glass tube without the rubber ball into the ink bottle, flatten the rubber ball with your hands, release your hand, and the ink will be sucked into the glass tube. Then insert the thin end into the upper end of the fountain pen, flatten the rubber ball, and the ink will be injected into the pen. This ink pick-up tube sparked an idea in me to find a solution to my problem. ?You can suck the liquid up without using your mouth to suck the mouth of the pipe!? So I took off the rubber ball of the suction pipe, and then bent a plastic pipe for drinking soda into a ?U? shape, cut a hole in the middle, and put it The rubber ball is glued to the hole in the straw. But this alone was not successful and the liquid was not sucked up. After experimenting and thinking, I understood that there must be two one-way valves on the straw. After many modifications and experiments, many difficulties were overcome, and finally the liquid that was sucked up was successfully prevented from flowing back and could flow smoothly and continuously. This invention has been used in every household for more than 40 years.
In the cold winter, the protagonist saw his mother struggling to pour soy sauce, which inspired him to create an automatic oil suction pump. The ink straw of the fountain pen inspired him to find a solution to the problem.
Money is earned, not saved
A gentleman was smoking a cigar in front of a large department store, watching the people coming and going among the goods, leisurely and contentedly , doing nothing. A young man walked up to the gentleman and asked respectfully: "Your cigars are very fragrant. They must not be cheap, right?"
"Two dollars apiece." ?The gentleman glanced at the young man and replied.
?Really good?How many do you smoke a day?
?10. ?
?So many!? The young people opened their eyes wide, ?How many years have you smoked?
?I started smoking 40 years ago. ?
?40 years! Let me calculate? If you don’t smoke cigars, you will save enough money to buy this department store. ?The young man said with sigh.
? So, you don’t smoke? The gentleman asked the young man.
?Yes, I don’t smoke!? The young man replied with some pride.
?Have you bought this department store?
?No. ?