{"id":4704,"date":"2010-10-20T22:45:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T02:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/retailprophet.com\/blog\/?p=884"},"modified":"2010-10-20T22:45:16","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T02:45:16","slug":"ideas-run-faster-than-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailprophet.com\/2010\/10\/20\/ideas-run-faster-than-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Ideas Run Faster Than Money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Doug Stephens<\/p>\n<p>If you saw the movie <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com\/\">The Social Network<\/a>, then you may remember the scene where Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s character, says to his business partner, that the reason people join Facebook is because it\u2019s cool.\u00a0 He insists that by allowing advertising, Facebook would lose its appeal.<a href=\"http:\/\/retailprophet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/IDEA.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-885\" title=\"IDEA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retailprophet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/IDEA-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The decision to ignore the lure of quick revenue from pop-up and banner ads in favor of creating something truly unique and remarkable was perhaps the most pivotal decision on Facebook\u2019s path to success.<\/p>\n<p>In a similar kind of leap of faith, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.starbucks.com\/\">Starbucks<\/a> has just <a href=\"http:\/\/news.starbucks.com\/article_display.cfm?article_id=450\">announced<\/a> the launch of its free in-store Wi-Fi content network.\u00a0 It\u2019s a rich multi-media experience consisting of news, entertainment, professional networks, local content, community information and free applications.\u00a0 And according to sources involved with the project, not a single dollar has changed hands in the development of the service.\u00a0 Not between Starbucks and its partners and not between the consumer and Starbucks.\u00a0\u00a0 No revenue.\u00a0 No money.<\/p>\n<h3><strong><strong>The Problem With Money<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If ideas are like water, money is like molasses.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ideas not only move more easily and quickly than money, they are infinitely more collaborative.\u00a0 Sharing ideas is exciting. Sharing money is anxiety inducing. And nothing can slow an idea down faster than the dependence on money for its survival. Money can limit the creative boundaries of an idea and in some cases even kill it. \u00a0This is particularly true at the front end of a project, where concepts may be sketchy and payoffs unclear. This is where money moves the slowest.<\/p>\n<p>A myopic focus on R.O.I may produce a <em>sufficient<\/em> product but will rarely result in the <em>coolest<\/em> product.<\/p>\n<p>So in both examples above,\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and Starbucks, by unshackling the ideas from the money, \u00a0the \u00a0focus can shift from delivering short-term R.O.I to creating a superlative product or experience that people simply love.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>From Transactions to Transformations<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Had Facebook opted early on to look for revenue from advertisers, it\u2019s impossible to say what those transactions may have amounted to.\u00a0 What is clear is that by resisting the pressure of R.O.I., Zuckerberg created something transformational and in the process forever changed the way society shares experiences.<\/p>\n<p>Half a billion users later, Facebook is every marketers dream and every investors pipe dream.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The New Business Model<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Conventional business wisdom says we should look for a reasonable and quick return on investment when we enter into a project.\u00a0 But the new business model defies that thinking.\u00a0 In the new business model, the return on investment may far exceed all expectations or reasonable scale, provided we <em>don\u2019t <\/em>look for it too quickly. Put differently, if we look for a fast ten percent on our investment, we\u2019ll likely never develop the idea that produces a ten thousand percent return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Doug Stephens If you saw the movie The Social Network, then you may remember the scene where Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s character, says to his business partner,<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,67,89,90,46,27,91,23],"class_list":["post-4704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-business","tag-facebook","tag-innovation","tag-investment","tag-marketing","tag-social-media-2","tag-starbucks","tag-trends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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