The Hindu Business Line : Stop keeping your idea a secret

ALLOW voters in political elections to cast a vote against a candidate." Shocks? But this is one of the "500 new ideas to change the world in ways big and small," from The Big Idea Book, edited by David Owen, and published by Capstone (www.capstoneideas.com) . These 500 are "the chosen best" from the Web site `Idea-a-day.com' that has published a new idea every day since 2000. The back cover of the book promises to "hotwire the brain" with ideas ranging from "the utterly compelling to the completely insane but always inspirational."

Seth Godin, the author of Purple Cow, writes in his foreword: "The lessons are simple: First, stop keeping your idea a secret. Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death. The more people you share your idea with, the more likely it is to become real. The second lesson is even more important — it's not the idea that matters, it's what you do with it. The real challenge (and the real skill) comes from championing your idea, shepherding it through the system and turning it into a reality."

The intro notes that ideas can have a value in their own right — "to challenge, inspire or entertain those that read or hear them." Owen would add: "There is a talent to thinking of ideas that is quite separate from doing anything with them." He also talks about ideas that became a reality soon enough: lemon dash for cola, and a house-key depository.

An energy-saving idea is to employ the energy expended on exercise equipment in gyms themselves, transforming calories burnt into reusable power. Another is about customising Mills & Boon, so customers can produce novels with alterable names and locations. In railway stations and bus termini, can we not have vending machines dispensing vitamins, thinks yet another.

"Design a clothing range with unique code numbers attributed to each item," is one suggestion. "The purchaser or recipient of such a garment could use the PIN to access a Web site and chat room along with anyone else who has the same item of clothing." They can share common tastes and become friends. Next, how about yellow-hued shaving foam for smokers and coffee drinkers? Why? Because they are usually "alarmed by the sight of their stained teeth lurking behind a foreground of ice-white shaving foam."

Here is an idea to dare our leaders: "Produce a television chat show in which politicians would be interviewed whilst wired up to lie detectors. If a guest lied twice they would be ejected and the airtime handed to a member of an opposing party." But truths can be boring, and if you don't mind what is fed to you, why not a random meal — a packaged food product called `I don't mind.' "The mystery product range would broaden public taste and would be the perfect impulse purchase for partners and children unsure of what to have for dinner."

Microwave ovens that call "Darling, dinner's hot," golf course that has a cemetery attached to it, free tattoos for those willing to sport brand tattoos, live coverage of prisons, chastity pills to force-feed to those under risk, central locking system for houses, Siamese marketing with two brand names, a talking mirror that is programmed to offer fashion and diet tips, food product labels that change colour after best-before date, and so forth, are among the ideas.

"Create a new brand of food and household products by simply adding the prefix `The' before the name of the product," is idea No. 12. "The Soap, The Tea and The Coffee would all be clearly defined products within an unlimited portfolio. The range would be sold in supermarkets but also in the company's own dedicated stores, `The Shops.'"

Not a bad idea to read the book of ideas, unless you're too closed to anything new.

BookMark@thehindu.co.in

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