Do you think out of the box...?

Once when I was passing through the market area in our town, I happened to observe something interesting. A girl and an old lady were selling apples on the roadside, both stationing themselves at a fair distance. The girl was selling apples at Rs. 80 per kg, whereas the old lady was selling at the rate of Rs. 90. Both were of the same quality. So, almost all customers bought the apples from the girl. I had some other shopping to do and came back to the same area after some time. I saw the stock in the old lady's cart getting lesser. How come? So, I hid myself in a place and observed what was happening. Whenever the stock of apples was getting depleted in the girl's cart, the apples got transferred from the old lady's cart to that of the girl's! Of course, this happened when no customer was around. On further inquiries and some detective work, I found out that they were mother and daughter. They played on the psyche of the general customers. They compare the prices and feel satisfied when they pay Rs. 10 less for the same quality. In fact the market selling price was Rs. 80 only. Using their small trick they sold the full stock within a short period. It was real 'thinking out of the box'.

How did this phrase 'thinking out of the box' get into vogue? It is widely believed that it came from the 9-point puzzle. The puzzle is as follows: Without lifting the pencil, the 9 dots arranged in the form of  3 rows and 3 columns have to be joined by 4 straight lines. It is possible only if the straight lines pass out of the imaginary box (square) formed by connecting all the outer dots.

To find a solution for a tricky situation, or to innovate something totally different from the ordinary, one has to think differently, unconventionally and from a new perspective. Be inquisitive and innovative in whatever you do. Never address the difficult situation as 'problem'. See it as a 'challenge'. Above all else, you must have a creative mindset. That is of paramount importance.

Innovative advertisement campaigns (for different products) are examples of how the team thinks differently. The idea is to be different (from others) which will catch the attention of the consumers. My wife once noticed the way in which a mother was carrying her infant child while traveling in a scooter (holding the baby with her 'dupatta' tied around). It was quite a safe way to carry the infant. She suggested that this scene could be the base idea for a courier company (which needs to deliver our documents and articles in the safest manner).

There are some methods suggested by experts to improve your creative thinking, like
1) looking into another industry, where they could have encountered similar challenges. That might give you a new dimension to your challenge and a ray of hope towards a solution.
2) Sleep over the challenge. A new idea might occur in your sub-conscious mind and you will wake up with a solution. Though you might sleep, your sub-conscious mind will not rest over the issue. Intuition or instinct!
3) Forget the whole challenge and change your setting. Archimedes got a flash of his formula when he was taking bath in a tub. Newton got his 'theory of gravity' while walking in the apple orchard.
4) Tread a different path, untraveled by your predecessors. Create your own path, surmounting all possible obstacles on the way.
5) 'Never stop learning because life never stops teaching'. Keep yourself updated with fresh knowledge.
6) Relax. Clear your head. Keep cool. New ideas will germinate in a cool calm head.

Today, we can see a lot of 'start-ups' succeeding in a big way. The market is wide open and ever-increasing. You should identify the need of the people, however trivial it might seem to be. But there is a market for every human need, especially in India. Cash in on that. You must accept the challenge and find a plausible solution. Success is yours.