Building a Better Mouse … Hotel?

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Albert McDonald

September 26, 2008

You have heard the saying, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." With over 4,400 mousetrap patents issued, how successful were these inventors?

Only 20 of these have ever really made any money. Even when you go to buy a mousetrap - you really don't have much of a selection. You might find three or four different types.

So why try? If your company is making money from selling mousetraps, then improving your design is vital in protecting your business. As for those that aren't making money from a mousetrap, 4,400 viable attempts have been made and an ingenious market-shifting product still hasn't occurred.

So how do mousetraps impact you? Because it's necessary to think outside the box if you want to truly be innovative and successful. You know and understand the problem: eliminating the presence of mice in a building. When approaching the solution of a problem, be aware of how the competition is solving the problem. Do not use them as your guide - because if you followed it - you may just acquire a small piece of an already established market.

Before starting the idea process, define the problem. For building a better mousetrap, how to eliminate the mouse is not the problem; it's how to keep the mouse out of the building. Has your competition only looked at the problem from one angle? In this case, it's eliminating the mouse.

Develop your ideas based on alternative problem-solving techniques, not by following the herd. Be a leader with your new product by creating and defining your own category. The creator of the first mice hotel sounds nicer than being the creator of the 4,401st mousetrap.

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