Celebrate Innovation on Labor Day

An advisor to Mr. Beams recently said he wanted to brainstorm about new products. This guy is a brilliant product developer who has created big product lines that have revolutionized lighting controls. His prerequisite for helping us was that we create breakthrough products, and not just slight improvements. His statement first created an energy and excitement for me that I get when allowed to dream big dreams. It was then followed by the part of my brain that remembers how intense and grinding it is to truly innovate. In my early days as a product manager I could not wait to launch my first product line. It was with Black & Decker in their power tool division and I owned every element of the product line – the feel, the color, the motor, the box, the accessories, the user manual. I was not yet married and that allowed me to spend late nights at the office - it consumed me. But it needed to consume me in order to innovate in a field where everything had been done already.

Innovation in many consumer products has slowed down. Part of it is because of the recession, but I believe there is a more nefarious reason. The power wielded by so few retailers has created greater barriers for entry to smaller companies. Often it is the smaller companies that innovate, but the possible reward of a successful product is now lower because the largest retailers do not want to work with smaller companies. Large Retail knows it limits the innovation that they can offer their shoppers, but it makes logistics so much easier for them. If they are buying 30 items from Category Manager A, and they like 2 products better from a smaller company, they are not going to set up a new vendor of questionable shipping abilities to provide those 2 products. Instead they buy the unimaginative version from the incumbent.

At first this did not limit innovation so much – the larger companies were still investing in new ideas and generating innovative products. But soon the consolidation of retailers meant that 3-5 companies made up 90% of their revenue. They now need these companies to like their products. So here is how new products are now developed: the VP of Sales for a company calls on Big Box Buyer and brings sketches of 5 product ideas. They have learned that getting buy-in from Big Box Buyer is the key to get new products placed. So they ask Big Box Buyer her opinion and she prefers one concept. VP of Sales leaves the meeting and immediately calls the product manager and tells him what the next product will be. Suddenly that new product is the darling of the product management team and gets priority resources.

Is this innovation? I would argue that Big Box Buyer knows her customer best. But the customer only knows what they have already seen, experienced and used. There is a possibility for incremental improvement in the product. But the chance of Big Box Buyer picking out a breakthrough product is slim.

Small companies do not have access to Big Box Buyer. We innovate by observing how people live, what they struggle with and what they enjoy. We know that an incremental improvement won’t cut it, so we work harder and risk more for that product that makes people fall in love with them. As I write this I am listening to a product that does that – it is a Sonos Digital Music System. I can pull up any song anywhere through one hand-held device. Every few months the smart people at Sonos add another great feature. I access Rhapsody, XM Radio, iheartradio through this system and can play different songs or radio stations in different rooms. These team at Sonos observed how people want to access and interact with music and are constantly working on improving the joy that the product provides.

Why am I wasting precious blog space on innovation rather than promoting my products? Probably because it is Labor Day today and days like this separate the innovators from the entrenched. Innovators hate these one-day holidays because no innovation gets done. People at large companies love these days because they get paid for doing their own thing. Have we innovated at Mr. Beams? I think so. We make the world’s best wireless LED lights. We are creating a system of emergency lighting for homes that will automatically provide light in the event of a power outage. We make the best Closet Light you ever installed on your own. We have used motion sensors and bright battery powered LED lights to eliminate darkness in so many places in a home. We have prevented countless falls due to dark hallways and stairs. When my 90-year-old Aunt Mille calls me the first thing she says in her Brooklyn accent is “Oh David that light you sent me is my favorite possession. I get up to go to the bathroom twice a night and that light goes on every time so I can find my way.” To me that is more rewarding than anything Big Box Buyer can say. So support your small company and please recognize that there is tremendous innovation in alternative distribution channels - like www.mrbeams.com