Ideas
Things in business worth noticing.
Good ideas don't always arrive as new technology or a big strategy. Sometimes it's a small change in how something is sold, organised, explained or done. This is where I collect the ones I find interesting.
The Most Expensive Word in Business Is Probably 'More'
When something isn't working, our instinct is to add more. More people. More software. More rules. But a fascinating Lego experiment revealed something rather embarrassing about the way we solve problems. What if the smartest improvement isn't adding something new — but finally removing something we never needed?
Process · Technology · How businesses work
The Shop That Made People Stay Up Until Midnight
In 2004, an online shop decided to sell just one product a day. No endless catalogue. No browsing. At midnight, everything changed. Somehow, discounted gadgets and mystery boxes became a nightly event people didn't want to miss. The secret wasn't really the price — it was giving customers a reason to come back.
Marketing · Customer experience · How businesses work
The Customers Weren't Lazy. The Business Was Making Them Work.
A fruit and veg delivery company thought giving customers more choice was a good thing. Customers disagreed — and started leaving. The answer wasn't a smarter website or another marketing campaign. It was something much simpler: stop making people do work they never wanted to do.
Customer experience · Process · How businesses work
The Business That Makes Millions — Then Vanishes
Every autumn, Spirit Halloween takes over empty shops across North America, sells costumes for a few frantic weeks, then disappears. It's a wonderfully strange retail success story — and a reminder that sometimes the smartest way to grow a business is to stop trying to be everywhere, all the time.
How businesses work · Process · Marketing
A Reward That Requires A Visit
Desi Galli turned a gift card into unfinished business by hiding its value until the recipient visited the restaurant. The added inconvenience was deliberate: uncertainty and a rule against peeking gave customers a reason to walk through the door, making the reward’s reveal part of the customer experience.
Customer experience · Marketing
How Print Made a Bakery Discoverable
A small bakery did not change its address to attract more local customers. It used leaflets, posters in familiar neighbourhood places and loyalty cards to become more noticeable, with a free cookie providing a modest reason to visit. The reported result was stronger footfall and Saturday mornings busy enough to justify earlier opening.
Marketing · Customer experience
When Digital Transformation Meets Old Workarounds
A new digital system can be live across a business without becoming the way work gets done. When workflows fail to match operational reality, employees may keep spreadsheets, manual approvals and personal workarounds alive. The lesson is practical: transformation depends not only on installing software, but on making it more useful than the informal system beneath it.
Technology · Process