Nook and Cranny Creativity

From the ideas from strange places department:

Papaw didn’t get out to use his grill early enough this year and so someone else set up shop.

Now, some would have said it is a bad idea to build a nest in a grill with summer parties around the corner.

But mom and dad bird had a different idea. Metal roof. Small perfectly sized entrance. Back door for fast escape. Seems perfectly modern.

In some places this would not have ended well. All the work disposed of to make room for ribs and burgers. But in this case they have found my in-laws, warm hearted folks who admire the birds creativity, spunk and stick-to-itiveness. So the new residents are protected and safe until they take flight. Even the dog is on watch for four-legged prowlers.

Nature has a great way of finding new uses for under-used nooks and crannies.

Discovering the under-used space to set-up shop in is one of the trickier parts defining a new business. Obvious places to build are often over crowded with competition ready to turn up the heat. Nook and cranny creativity pushes you to find solutions that are less obvious.

The problem with nook and cranny creativity is often others don’t quite see the opportunity. So getting started might be difficult, getting funding next to impossible.

Have you seen any nook and cranny ideas lately?

I spent the afternoon at Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Innovation Entrepreneurship Summit. Experienced speakers were great, learned a lot. Students presenting as part of the NU Venture Challenge were better.

Five teams made their final business plan presentations looking to split quite a bit of award money. Many of the ideas were well beyond the dream stage. What I enjoy most about young entrepreneurs is that they simply won’t visualize how hard what they want to do is going to be. — “People will buy it. 20% market share, 50% market share. Positive cash flow year 3. FDA Approval simplified. Patent no problem. License it!”

When the first concept was being presented I caught myself thinking about all the difficulties the team was going to run into.

I caught myself with negative thoughts. ‘Turn up the heat’ negative thoughts. Ouch. Is that the way I’ve been thinking lately? Is that the filter I’ve been using?

Great Ideas are always going to be tough. The obstacles are going to be huge. And great ideas are going to be built in places we least expect.

So. Flip the switch. Reboot. Let the optimism flow through you. Let the problems hit when they hit. Let ideas grow.

The students may have been building ideas on a grill, but the Farley Center was certainly looking for ways to moderate the heat. Great contacts, professional review of their ideas, encouragement.

The students did a great job of identifying niches and it was an interesting concept mix that made it to this stage. Not all Web 2.0, thank goodness. Three of the ideas were medical device/pharmaceutical plays. One was a medical information play and one was a logistics knowledge/web 2.0 play. For now that’s all the description I’m going to give. (While I find the idea of an open source business plan interesting, I don’t want to needlessly turn up the heat on these ideas with promise.)

Time to reboot. Think possibilities. Look for nooks and crannies and find ways to keep the heat turned down.