When things go wrong, are you prepared to look at the failure for possible successes? When I think of the chain of events that created penicillin, Post-It Notes, and other inventions seemingly gone wrong, I can’t help but think how lucky we are that the inventors saw alternate uses and ultimately brought them to market.

Recently we ran across a new children’s toy that could have been born out of just this kind of model. Do I know for sure that this toy was born from error? No! But that is not the point. I am pretty sure that no one set out to create a new material that would allow a toy that splat on the ground and then re-form to its original shape. The Splatback does just that.

The point is this, whoever created this thing was very imaginative. They saw, found, created a material with incredible elastic properties and formed it into a new toy that sells in mall stores for around $5 US. The price is another giveaway that all that research and development was not spent on the creation of this toy. Somewhere, someone saw this material and determined an alternate use in an alternate market, or so I am guessing. But again, my guessing is not the point.

Do you look at something that would normally be considered waste and try to find value? New value… Do you look at successes in parallel industries and tinker with ways to bring that concept to bear in your space?