What is more commonplace in an office or in the home office than a stapler. They come in all sizes for the desk or travel. Some staple a few sheets, other more expensive staplers staple many sheets. You've been loading staples in that old thing for years and years. Maybe occasionally, you buy a new one just to dress up your desktop or just for the fun of it. Nonetheless, the stapler is something we all have taken for granted. It has been commonplace all of our lives. Boring. We don't even think of it. That's what 99.99% of us think about staplers.
Enter the .01% that looks at something mundane and sees innovation! Enter the PaperPro(R) One Finger Stapler! They have taken mundane and boring and made it exciting. Even the clicking sound it makes is cool. It reminds you that you are not using a boring old plain stapler, but the magnificent PaperPro! Well, maybe not that exciting, but hey, this is in fact a better mousetrap.
One day I was cruising through the local OfficeMax store (I do love these kind of stores), and I saw a big display for this new kind of stapler and they had several to test. I tested it. It was interesting, but I kept going. I thought, "I don't need another stapler. The ones I have are just fine." So, I didn't buy it. A month later, I was looking again, and I just decided to try one. So, I bought the standard 20 sheet model. Stapling 20 sheets with my old stapler was a challenge and rarely did it succeed on the first try and it was hard on my hand. I get home and give it the real test. I start to be amazed. It lives up to its promise of 20 sheets and one finger.
The best part of it is that it almost always staples perfectly. I used to have to take a bent staple out many times and redo it, but now that almost never happens. What a difference. So, then I like it so much, I buy one for my traveling office gear. My wife likes it so much, she wants mine, so I buy another one to replace that. Then I wanted another one (can't remember exactly why) and I bought by accident the 25 sheet model. Wow! This one is even better at stapling many sheets and it so easy, albeit heavier. It makes a different sound. The sound is part of the fun of using it.
Now here's a company who has taken the boring and made it exciting again. How interesting is that? Just when you thought there was nothing more to do about the stapler except change the color or shape, this company innovates and changes the way it operates, looks, feels and sounds. It's a whole new device. Thank you to PaperPro! I never would have thought I would be excited about staplers or even write about them. Bravo!
Maybe there is something in our own companies that could be a story like this. How can we look at things we make and make them totally fresh and exciting? Maybe something we have been building for years and years and is so commonplace that we don't even give it a thought. That's a good place to start. What could you do that would turn the market on? If I bought 4 staplers, PaperPro has got to be selling many millions of them. A whole new market for something that is taken for granted. Way cool. What can we work on in our own company?
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