A game changing innovation was announced this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that could alter the way we buy consumer products.
The tool for this potential shift is called Loop, which aims to eliminate disposable containers for food, beverages, and consumables like shampoo and laundry detergent.
Some of the world’s biggest manufacturers like, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble, Nestle, Unilever, Clorox, and Mondelez International are partnering with Loop to make this gigantic transformation.
Current disposable packaging consumes natural resources and many times ends up negatively impacting the environment, whereas with Loop goods will be delivered in sleek, reusable containers that will be picked up at your door, washed and refilled.
Loop’s Goals
Tom Szaky, CEO of the company behind Loop said “We need to get at the whole idea of disposability and single-use items. We’re going back to the milkman model of the 1950s. You buy the milk, but the milk 
company owns the bottle, which you leave in the milk box to be picked up when you’re done with it.”
Loop’s initial launch will be this spring in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and in Paris, and it hopes to expand internationally very quickly.
Obviously, just introducing something, even with strong backing like Loop has, does not make it an assured success. This type of re-cycling must be done in a cost-effective manner and the technologies to massively scale this approach must be perfected. Most likely, new industries will be spawned to collect, maintain, clean, and re-fill these containers.
The Core of Game Changing Innovations
The important thing to note in this announcement is that, just like the invention of electric cars has positively changed the automotive industry and companies like Uber and Lyft have revolutionized how people get from place to place, trying to reduce the amount of disposable packaging is a potentially historical improvement for mankind.
At the core of things like electric vehicles, ride-sharing, re-cycling, and re-usability is thinking “what different and smarter way can we do this so that it is beneficial to our customer, us and society?” This is smart and effective innovation.
Last month we looked at two tools to start your innovative and creative thinking going, one of which was asking “What if?” with regards to any situation or problem you incur or with regards to a current product or service.
This month we will consider another tool for innovation that is designed for creating radical, game changing innovations.
How Ought the World to Work?
A more advanced way to use this concept of asking “what if” involves reflecting on or pondering about “how ought the world to work” in the context of the environment in which your business operates. This application of “what if” thinking involves focusing on your customers and envisioning the best way they could have their needs met; how ought the world to work from the standpoint of their needs?
That is what the creators of Loop did, they said how ought the world to work with regards to consumer packaging?
To do this effectively, do not consider meeting your customers’ needs in the context of how your existing business operates. In fact, it may be helpful to pretend that your business does not even exist, so you can think outside the box and not limit your possibility thinking. In essence, imagine in a perfect world what would be the best possible way for your customers’ goals to be met.
This will require you to expand your thinking, reflect on and develop your thoughts regarding how an ideal world would operate as it would pertain to your market. What you want to do is to imagine “in a perfect or ideal world, what would be the best possible way my customer’s needs could be met”?
What Great Innovative Visionaries and Leaders Do
It also may help you to reflect on the concept of “excellence” and how excellence would be manifested and delivered in your market. What you want is what great visionaries and leaders do – identify the true need of 
your target buyer and then capitalize on this need by providing the best possible solution to your Customer!
One of our clients, a physician recruitment and physician office training company, used this unconstrained view of their company to begin the process of reshaping their organization into an online portal for all things related to operating a physician office practice – kind of like WebMD for physician office practices.
In essence they said, in an ideal world a physician’s office should be able to go to one place to get any and all the training that they need to operate a successful practice.
If you could use assistance with releasing innovative ways of thinking in your company by pondering, “How ought the world to work?” in the context of meeting your customers’ needs, please contact us using the below information so we can be a resource to you in this crucial area.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17 years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Tags: entrepreneur, innovation, small business consulting, small business planning, start a business
