Idea twist

Photo: Contributed

A number of years ago I worked with a group of people, among whom, one person started saying, “Hey, another ‘Brucism’”, every time I made a pithy or unique statement about something when trying to make a point in a management meeting. This play on my name gave a slight hint of jest to my tendency to put a twist on words that some people appreciated. Many of these were my efforts to quote some other insightful person. In the moment, I ended up twisting the words into some new thought that seemed to occasionally resonate.

Recently I read that Paul McCartney, of Beatles fame, gives some credit to his efforts to emulate Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis, as how he was accepted into the Beatles. My experience of the Beatles with Paul McCartney is that they have their own unique sound that truly set them apart. This idea of emulating another and in the process, end up creating something new, by adding your own unique twist to an already proven something such as baking, sports or music also of course, is true in business as well.

The history of McDonald’s Restaurants is exactly that. The McDonalds you know today is based upon a twist to an existing idea. Ray Kroc, who oversaw the impressive growth of McDonalds through the 1950s to the 1980s, did not invent hamburgers or fast food, he took an existing idea the McDonalds brothers had and added his variation to it. The following excerpt, from McDonald’s own web site, summarizes the point nicely. As a food processing equipment salesman Ray Kroc’s work lead to the following tale:

In 1954 he was surprised by a huge order for 8 multi-mixers from a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. There he found a small but successful restaurant run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, and was stunned by the effectiveness of their operation.  They produced a limited menu, concentrating on just a few items—burgers, fries and beverages—which allowed them to focus on quality at every step.

Kroc pitched his vision of creating McDonald’s restaurants all over the U.S. to the brothers. In 1955 he founded the McDonald’s Corporation, and 5 years later bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald’s name. By 1958, McDonald’s had sold its 100 millionth hamburger.

Ray Kroc wanted to build a restaurant system that would be famous for food of consistently high quality and uniform methods of preparation. He wanted to serve burgers, buns, fries and beverages that tasted just the same in Alaska as they did in Alabama.

For many of us who had the concepts of stealing and plagiarism as ingrained as unethical ways to get things done, the concept of taking an existing idea and making our own version of it can seem wrong. However, we can find all around us, many examples of the best paths to business growth as a novel idea taken to a new place by a new person. So as you are considering your next business growth or new venture, the notion that you could take an existing idea and put your own twist on it, is among the most trusted paths to business potential.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.