When your ideas are TOO big?

[colinmcmahon]

What are you supposed to do when you have an idea that is so big and that can totally revolutionize and benefit thousands of companies, but everyone you talk to doesn't want to bother changing anything? The "higher-ups" are all in their late 40's/50's, and are about to retire, so they don't want to put too much strain on their last years. What to do? It also doesn't help that managers and such don't want to hear any new ideas... Meh, I'm just frustrated... Any pointers?

[adandb]

Thinking big is very good. But often when you have an idea of a big picture you can take a smaller chunk out of the big picture and do something creative with that.

Try to sell the smaller chunk instead of the whole big picture and then when they have approved the smaller chunk you can sneak in the rest!

[colinmcmahon]

I put in a 7 page report to my manager and district manager about all the small steps that could be taken in order to get to the big change. They said thanks and dismissed me.

[greggomatic76]

Man, that is the trick isn't it, and not just for our generation, everyone that is "sub-corporate" is branded as knowing nothing about "big ideas." It bugs me, and if you come up with a revolutionary business idea you better have done something big before or expect to do it all on your own. However, this sometimes tends to motivate me more than discourage me, just so i can prove them wrong. Let us know if they get back to you on your 7 page report...i am interested to hear.

[Gberg]

Actions, show them through small steps you can make a difference

[jg_macarthy]

leave the company. Never stay with a company that doesnt mix and listen to ideas. All companies arent the same, if you feel you are going nowhere in this one then get out.

[Satch]

colinmcmahon, How many people or companies have you spoken to?

You havent spoken about the topic/idea or anything so I cant judge. But when do you think that actually; this cant be a good idea because someone would have listened, when do all those people stop being wrong? and you realise you are the wrong one?

Im just thinking that you said 'you have an idea that is so big and that can totally revolutionize and benefit thousands of companies', well if it was so good then I can 100% guarantee that someone would have picked up on it, simply because huge opportunities are so few in our cramped world?

Like I say I dont know the idea so I cant judge, but if you have shown many many companies your thoughts and theyve all dismissed you then surely soon or later you have to look at the idea? not the people dismissing?

Just a thought anyway! Regards, Satch.

[colinmcmahon]

greggomatic76 - Fuckin eh man, I'm young and I haven't done any thing huge.. In this domain anyways. Therefore, I can't know what I'm talking about.. They just sit around in their houses smokin down cigars ignoring the little guy.

Gberg - I've developed and entirely paperless system of all the forms we use around the office and have semi-integrated it with out customs system. Even though it saves a good 2-3 minutes per entry (we do about 50 per day), they refuse to equip the office with Access so we can run it. 2-3 minutes *50 entries is well over an hour of saved time per employee. They see it as being too complicated to set-up and integrate... I have completely digitized a 500 page database that people used to have to go though and copy individual pages to fax to Agriculture Canada. Now they can just click what they want printed... This saves a good half hour of rooting through a stack of 5 year old mangles pages. I have compiled a database of all the phone numbers, clients, shippers, carriers and brokers. I can find any number we can possibly need in seconds rather than minutes by sorting though paperwork. All this data is centralized to one database so if anything ever needs to be changed, it can be done so that all the information at everyone's terminal is updated with the correct data. I even put together a program in Access for my manager to store and manage all the employee's info, vacation time, sick time, wages and raises.

What did they give me? A meeting to tell me I am wasting company time. Not only that, but when they finally hired me from my temp position, they put me on midnights and gave me an inferior title that comes with inferior pay... Talk about a great incentives program....

jg_macarthy - I live in Windsor, it's the worst city for finding employment in all of Canada. I'll take what I can get.

Satch - If I knew how to market this to other companies I would. However, when it comes to talking to people or selling my product, well, I'm better off punching the client in the balls and then trying to sell them a half-eaten bologna sandwich... I also don't have enough knowledge in terms of software programing to actually do any of this myself. I can get around in Access and I know exactly what needs to be done, so I can describe it to a programmer, but I can't do it myself. They system is a definite seller, but I don't know how to sell it.


Cheers everyone.

Colin

[akula]

Meh, I'm just frustrated... Any pointers?

Ok...let me understand what you're saying. You have an idea. You want to start a business around this idea. You don't know what to do. You want some pointers.

There's only one way to start a business and only one way to be an entrepreneur.

The only way to be an entrepreneur is to practice the four roles of entrepreneurship and the only one right way to start a business is to leverage players and information.

If you practice the four roles with diligence, you will make a business out of your idea.

[akula]

I put in a 7 page report to my manager and district manager about all the small steps that could be taken in order to get to the big change. They said thanks and dismissed me.

this happened because you broke the 1st of the 48 laws of power

if you want to be successful, you will need to stop breaking these laws

[colinmcmahon]

this happened because you broke the 1st of the 48 laws of power

if you want to be successful, you will need to stop breaking these laws

I definitely agree with this. It worked for Tony Soprano last night However, how can you do this when your managers are complete morons when it comes to technology?

[colinmcmahon]

Ok...let me understand what you're saying. You have an idea. You want to start a business around this idea. You don't know what to do. You want some pointers.

There's only one way to start a business and only one way to be an entrepreneur.

The only way to be an entrepreneur is to practice the four roles of entrepreneurship and the only one right way to start a business is to leverage players and information.

If you practice the four roles with diligence, you will make a business out of your idea.

I don't really want to start a business yet. I need to further develop a product and then sell it.

[akula]

I definitely agree with this. It worked for Tony Soprano last night However, how can you do this when your managers are complete morons when it comes to technology?

They are not morons.

If you were in their situation, you'd act the same.

For a person with family commitments, a mortgage and working a pay cheque in a comfortable job; doing innovative things with technology is a bad decision (i.e. they would be morons for taking your advice, not rejecting it).

For you, wanting to implement something through these managers, the first step is to stop being the said "moron", understand that people have asymmetric motivations (i.e. what's good for the manger is almost never what's good for the firm), and be smart enough to implement the 48 laws of power to your advantage (for example, never to take credit for initiatives).

[akula]

I don't really want to start a business yet. I need to further develop a product and then sell it.

ok, well, I've tried to show you what you need to develop this product (e.g. practice the four roles of entrepreneurship)

I'd be happy to answer any further questions you might have

[colinmcmahon]

They are not morons.

If you were in their situation, you'd act the same.

I didn't say they, were morons in general. They are morons when it comes to current technology, they barely know how to use computers.

Thanks again for all your help though man, I really appreciate it.