Turning Temper Into Cash

Listen to Don G. Mitchell, now chairman and president of the very successful electronics company, Sylvania Electric Products Inc., tell you what happened when he was faced with that age-old problem-the huge, successful competitor in another job.

Too many smaller companies develop an inferiority complex about their big competitors and hide their lights under a bushel basket. They seem to forget that the little fellow can frequently outmaneuver the big one, and this is what I mean: After cutting my teeth on the retail goods business for several years, I joined a soft-drink company in 1939 with the idea of cutting a few chunks off the market of our biggest competitor. 1 knew absolutely nothing about the soft-drink business. Everything I knew 1 had picked up as a consumer. So 1 read everything I could about peddling soft drinks and, lo and behold, I came to the conclusion that the big competitor was more than a little vulnerable. They had left a hole a mile wide in their distribution. They had concentrated so much on selling their product over the soda fountain and for consumption on the premises that they had forgotten that sometimes, once in a while, the consumer might want to drink one in his home.

So we pulled a switch. We concentrated on the tremendous home market and forgot about the fountain business and the on-the-premises stuff. We brought out a six-bottle container and promoted the home market with all sorts of tricks and strong point-of-sale promotion. Our market curve soared right off the chart.

In 1853 James E. Liddy of Watertown, New York, had a wonderful ride on a buggy, which had coil-spring cushions. That was no problem-but sleeping at home in his hard bed was. He developed coil springs to replace the rope used in beds at the time. He saw his real problem and solved it.

Fred Barton, an actor, had a hard time learning his lines during the necessarily short rehearsals when he first appeared in TV. His answer was the Teleprompter, which is standard in the industry today.

An insurance salesman by the name of Waterman had a hard time getting customers to sign contracts with his blotty, leaky pen. He took his pen apart and devised the Waterman pen. In 1927 a twenty-nine-year-old father blew his top at the infuriating job of mashing cooked peas through a kitchen strainer with a spoon. It took him hours. His name was Dan Gerber.

All of these trouble finders had one thing in common. I call it a nose for needs. They spotted a problem, and in solving that problem saw that others had a need for the same solution.