Suggestion #01: Hello, Blockbuster?

Wanna innovate? Increase revenues? Try "Blockbuster Take-Outs On-Demand" (a.k.a. Blockbuster marries PizzaHut).

PROBLEM:
1) "Sorry, we don't have this movie in stock..." I'm sure you've heard this. I hear this at least 5 times a year. Five, because the other 15 titles I'd like to see - I know even without asking that my store wouldn't have. No wonder people flee to Netflix.

Blockbuster's response? Clone Netflix - yeah, VERY creative... The real question BB should be asking is: How can I leverage and take advantage of THE one feature that Netflix doesn't have (i.e. how can I turn my disadvantage into an advantage)?.

2) I don't rent movies often enough to justify subscription to either one of them.

SOLUTION:
Option A:
1. Goto Blockbuster.com, log into my account, select the movie(s), click "Submit Order";
2. The Blockbuster (BB) "smart engine" forwards my order to the nearest branch in my zip code;
3. Clerk Bob at my local store calls me to confirm my Identity and my order (just like Domino's), and tells me my "take-out" will be ready in an hour or two (unless they have it in stock, of course). (Finally, you physical locations can be your advantage over, who else, Netflix); or

Option B:
Steps 1-3 in one: I call my local BB directly and place my order by phone (with fries please) (the difference from the current situation is that I can request "ANY" movie in the BB catalog, not just the ones that the store has). Then:

4. Bob logs onto the BB Central Server database, finds my movie, downloads the file;
5. Bob burns the movie onto a blank DVD (RW?), puts in an envelope, prints and sticks the label on it;
6. In about an hour, I drive to my local BB and pickup my movie, and... return it a few days later, just like any other rental. Alternatively, as blank DVD costs are miniscule these days and continue going down, BB can develop and upload a "Rent Expiration" application onto each custom-ordered DVD-/+R, which would render it unplayable once the rental expires. In this case, the customer can just throw it away.
7. Offer the "out-of-the-box" (no case with fancy artwork cover) copy to the renting customer at a deep discount (50% extra of the rental cost). (Do not load the "Expiration" applet.
8. The accumulated "excess" inventory (of returned DVDs) may be auctioned off at the end of each year, or donated to the local library or something.

CHALLENEGS & RISKS:
- Demand volume (a nice problem to have): Loads of people calling in on weekends. If the volume justifies it, hire additional part time staff.
- Equipment costs: Need to install lossless (8GB) DVD burning drives in each store.
- Security, Piracy & Fraud: Abuse of the DL-ed files, piracy, etc...
- Legal: Any restrictions imposed by the studios and such?;
- Financial: Need to crunch the cost-benefits scenarios.

BENEFITS:
For customer:
- An (almost) unlimited selection;
- Easy and quick (instant?);
- No monthly subscription plans or other "catches".

For Blockbuster:
- New revenue from a sizable segment of previously ignored customers with eclectic tastes.
- Increased utilization of content-under-control;
- New delivery channel;
- Helps in the survival battle against Netflix;
- Stock becomes location independent;
- Centralized (or better organized) tracking of customers' viewing preferences and ability to recommend (push) other similar movies => targeted marketing.

Voila: Far better than just cloning others, when you have such solid bases you can leverage upon.

Next Step: BB marries Domino's, and delivers movies to your door, the same day (Yo, Netflix...). Why can't they deliver now anyway? Can't you offer a "home delivery on 3 or more movies" special (+$3 delivery fee) for the couch potato customers (add pop-corn and Coke)? NB: Ironically, they have a large sign in their store window that says "We deliver" (see the pic above, click on it to see full-size, and you'll know). I wish... They're just advertising the "Clone".

A bit raw, you work out the details...

#4: Baby Cafe

OK, I decided to change the format of the posts. From now on, I will post only the concept description, and y'all do the Market Research and Executive Summaries on your own. Here goes:

TRIGGER: I'm typing away on my laptop in one of the neighborhood coffeeshops. The place has great atmosphere - sandwiches, pastries, various blends of coffee, good music - nice, in one word. So it attracts a variety of customers. You could sort them into groups, by age or other criteria, but most seem to come for the same purpose - to socialize with their likes. One such group is moms with babies. They love to meet and talk, share tips, recharge batteries off of each other, and so on. But they don't usually stay long, as the babies start acting up, getting loud, etc... The moms get fussy, a little embarrased, trying not to annoy other customers too much. You could almost sense that they would've stayed a few minutes longer, if they could. What if they had....

CONCEPT: A "Baby Cafe" that focuses on parents with small kids. It would:

SERVICES: 1) Serve food for the parents, just like other cafes;
2) But primarily cater to the babies' and kids' needs: baby food, juices, yogurt, toys & games, may be even emergency diapers;
3) Have a play area for the kids of walking age;
4) Arrange various puppet shows or other entertainment;
5) Offer workshops for parents on parenting, education, health issues, games, bla bla bla...

Kids are having fun (YEAH, noise is allowed), mothers have their own destination and can chat longer, grumpy old men can relax at their Starbuckses, everybody's happy.

If there is a thriving place that serves nothing but cereals all day (check Cereality.com), there could surely be a place for parents with little children.

WARNING: Babies are prohibited from pooping in the play area!!!

#3: Foreign Books & Media Chain

CONCEPT: "Planet Earth", a national retail chain of Foreign Language Books & Media (music, movies, periodicals, etc..).
VISION: Cultural mecca for all international media and content. Unlike the web, you can browse, read covers, flip through pages, sample parts, and, TALK to other people.

PROBLEM: Once upon a time I felt like re-reading Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" in Russian (yes, I do speak), and couldn't find. Wanted to watch a particular Takeshi Kitano film (with subtitles), no such luck. Was in the mood to listen to my favorite Paco De Lucia's piece, dream on... You can continue the list at will, filling in the blanks with your own favorite music, movie, periodical, and multiply that by the number of languages you can think of within a minute. Do you know where your nearest Japanese bookstore is? Sure, if you're Japanese. How about Korean, Swahili, Portuguese, Swedish, Arabic? A-ha!

SOLUTION: Instead, you'd just say: "Let's got to Planet Earth". Something for everyone, no googling, no other pain. (Sorry, a little sidetrack: just thought of a cool tag-line for Google: "No google, no gain")...

CUSTOMERS: 1) Immigrants, 2) International students and professionals, 3) Americans speaking or studying other languages and cultures, 4) Polyglots & language gurus, 5) Aliens from Mars. On the second thought, the aliens would probably find very little in their native tongue, may be just the un-dubbed version of "Men in Black I and II".

MARKET SIZE:
= 28.4 Million: Foreign-born people live in the U.S. (10.4% of Pop.)
= $31 Billion: 2002 Revenue by 10 Companies started by Immigrants
= 20 Million: Shortage of workforce forecasted by the U.S. government by 2026.
= 580,000: Number of foreign students in the U.S. (2003)
= 65,000: Annual cap on H1B visas (issued to professionals) in 2005. 195,000 was the cap in 2002.
= Three-quarters of the foreign-born population is concentrated in just 8 states (California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Arizona).
= Add the Americans who are into languages and other cultures.

COMPETITION:
a) The international selection at Barnes & Noble, Tower Records & Blockbuster sucks, y'all know that.
b) Even Netflix has big holes in that department.
c) Amazon.com does it, but you can't sample the ingredients...
d) Sure, you can get your [fill in your language here] books, movies, music, news at your local [your ethnicity] grocery, deli, convenience store, consular office, community center, China-or-whatever-town, etc... Besides, not every state has a Little Havana. A separate place for each language, lots of places all over. But even there, how rich a book-music-video-selection you expect to find at a grocery store. And some of you speak more than 1 or even 2 languages... You get the idea... So, P.O.'s advantage is clear and simple.
e) I have to admit, there are a few lonely fighters out there, trying to do the same thing, such as Schoenhof's in Cambridge, MA, and similar players. But they are not a chain, and are limited to mostly just the books...

STRATEGY:
= Location, locacion(?), rocation (it's Japanglish, hehe): Obviously, all the major metro-cosmopolitan cities, with lots of colleges and universities, as well as large international population, immigrant or not. That gives us about 20-50+ markets, may be more. Not bad. Though better to start small as proof-of-concept and within the limits of the seed capital available.

= Expansion: Once you have the numbers to show, pitch to the VC-s, especially those who speak with an(y) accent. Or if a VC's business card says "Butros-Butros Kawasaki", trust me, he'll "get" your pitch (Mr. Schoenhof, do you agree?). Or get the expansion capital from Barnes & Noble for 25% of stock (can you imagine the huge amount of expertise you'd also be getting in addition to the money?). Or Amazon (they'll give you enough bargaining power with the international publishers and distributors, you can also piggy-back on their huge storage facilities and their inventory management system). I wouldn't worry too much about Barnes & Nobles and Co' as a competitive threat. If you grow big enough (i.e. execute well), they'll probably buy you out anyway.

= I'd have terminals around the store, so the customers could browse the catalogs themselves.
= Have a great cafeteria with snack from all over the world (here you go, another concept for a "world snacks catering" business...), so your customers stick around longer on Saturdays or so.
= Host language classes in 2-3 side rooms (you just provide the facility, the teachers and students will come).
= Invite international authors for book signing, the whole shebang, etc....
= Buy 2 books in Japanese and get a free sushi-roll... Hhm, maybe not, as some sushi will likely be more expensive than the books. Besides, them college kids will buy Japanese books on odd days, eat the sushi for free, and return the same books on even days.

ISSUES:
Spelling the foreign words in order to index and catalog the inventory will be pure hell (Now that would be the real spelling bee challenge). Of course, the closest translation and its variations could be an option. Or, how about hiring a manager from the same Schoenhof's.

You figure out the rest: MARKETING, STAFFING, INVENTORY, LOGISTICS (Supply-Chain-Management), RISK FACTORS, FINANCIALS, and who to invite to your Board of Directors. If you're too lazy to do that, call me up and I'll do the rest for you for big bucks.

COROLLARY (another Sub-Concept): I betcha you can successfully operate a cash-flow positive franchise focusing on just the foreign movies (provided, of course, that there are no licensing or other legal restrictions).

Arigato, Merci, Gracias, Fiu-fiu-wooo-weeep (that was Martian).

#2: "NiteSky Ads"

CONCEPT: Place your ads in the night (cloudy, foggy, dark) sky.

TRIGGER: Last Saturday afternoon, while driving home with my son after the “Batman Begins”, I saw a biplane in the sky with a Budweiser Ad-banner on its tail. The image of the Bat shadow in the foggy night sky was still fresh in my mind… Then I sneezed, which triggered some synapses to interact and improvise in me’ brain that otherwise never intended to. A series of snapshots flashed through: The Bat shadow, the Bud banner, the not-so-recent news release about Tide (the detergent maker) intending to advertise on the moon, the unruly light beams from a car dealership trying to tell us about the blowout sales this weekend… and I had a revelation, blah blah blah… Seriously, why not utilize the night sky, but not like the lunacy on the lunar surface implied by the Tide news.

“Advertising in the night sky” on Google yielded a bunch of stuff only related to “space commercials” on “outsized billboards deployed into low earth orbit” and similar stuff. In contrast, this service can be real, affordable (i.e. a LOT cheaper than “space commercials”), and, most importantly, local (i.e. relevant to your advertising purpose, and even measurable).

THE SERVICE: A simple “cinema” principle, a beam of light projected onto a screen in darkness. A drive-in cinema with the screen in the sky, or the sky sometimes IS the screen. I can think of at least FIVE different versions of this solution:

1) Just like during daytime, a biplane drags a banner with an ad, but with a light beam projector mounted on the plane.
2) The same lit ad banner hanging from a helicopter. The helicopter can hang in the same spot or slowly follow a pre-planned trajectory (should it be more expensive for covering a bigger area?)
3) A blimp (aka zeppelin, aka airship, aka dirigible) itself used as an ad surface. This is not new, as we’ve seen a blimp with an ad hanging over Superbowl and the likes. The innovative feature is: the blimp surface is actually BLANK (i.e. the white screen), and the ad is PROJECTED onto it from the ground or elsewhere. The advantage is that you can project several rotating ads in the same night (an all-night exclusive costs more, dude!), plus you don’t have to paint the dirigible every single time. This method can also be implemented with a hot air balloon.
4) An artificial white fog: This one is my favorite, totally Batman-y. A helicopter slowly circles around, “farting” an artificial cloud/fog (condensed water) that can serve as a very cool temporary floating screen. Strengths: No physical screen, no residue, no side effects. Downside: pray it’s not a windy night. SIDETRACK: The helicopter and the beam projector can both be equipped with a GPS tracking and interlocking system or something, so that the light beam precisely follows the chopper’s flight trajectory.

5) Naturally foggy or cloudy nights would be best – cheapest on the cost side (no need to send any equipment in the air), while gaining an enormous natural screen. The company would love London for this very reason :).

TAGLINE: “Be known among the stars" "Let the stars be your spokesperson", or other, equally cheesy messages :)

COMPETITIVE STRENGTH:
-First Mover Advantage
-IP / PATENT: There’s gotta be something patentable from any of the above versions. Though once you’ve read this post, you have to include ME in your patent. Hehehe
-No expensive “revolutionary” technology needed (forget about the “low earth orbit” stuff).
-Lower costs and quick customizations: you won’t have to repaint new ads for each client, just the same blank screen (or liquid cloud balloon)… All ad design and customizations are done on your laptop.

CUSTOMERS: Over half of the Fortune 500 members and then some.
BOTTOM LINE: Who needs papers for advertising anymore?
REVENUE MODEL: Plagiarized from the primetime TV, rates vary by location.
EXECUTION HURDLES:
a) Take care of the legal stuff, such as permits, licenses, disclaimers, insurance, etc…
b) Capital intensive to start (unless you already own a couple of helicopters or dirigibles): Acquire and take care of the flying fleet & equipment and the associated fixed assets: parking hangars, maintenance and repairs, fuel containers...

RISKS & ISSUES:
a) Negative public sentiment re: “visual” pollution of the night sky.
b) Potential side effects on the local air traffic (light beams might be distracting for pilots or cause blind spots in the air)?

Enough for now…

#1: "Gadgeteria" - Retail Chain

CONCEPT: A national retail chain that sells all the latest, functionally the best, and sexiest- and coolest-designed gadgets, is long overdue.

NEED: Visit any gadget e-commerce site (www.dynamism.com, for example) and go see if you can find a third of that stuff in either one of Best Buy, Circuit City, or CompUSA; let alone the Radio Shacks, the Staples, the Costcos, and all the xyz-Marts. Did you? Thought so… On the other hand, have all your experiences been smooth and fast when trying to fix, replace or return a broken gadget you’d bought on the web?

CUSTOMER: You (if you’re reading this blog). MARKET SIZE: To be conservative, every family where at least one member can recognize any one of these names: CompUSA, Best Buy, or Circuit City. You do the math.

PRODUCT SELECTION: If it does not fit in your pocket or your handbag, don’t sell it.

EXECUTION STRATEGY: 1) Scrape together, say, $150 Grand from friends and Grandma Molly. Open the first store in a highly visible location of a major metro area or in an upscale shopping mall with heavy foot traffic. Operate for 12 months, watch every penny, and make sure you’re profitable. Don’t take salary (put everything into marketing), live with grandma Molly and eat Ramen. 2) Show the financial report from Year 1 to angel investors (or get a bank loan), and open 5 more stores. 3) If, after 24 months and 5 stores you’re still in business, you have enough brains, guts and people to figure out what to do next.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES:
-Best selection in town, no, in the nation; among the retail chains, that is.
-A couple of uber-geeks who can tell you what the best selection for your need is, explain how everything works, and what to do in case of a burning plastic smell.
-Various in-store web-related services (e.g. download music at a discount, or something).
*WHEREAS:
-Best Buy’s got carried away with selling washers and fridges. The same thing, to a lesser degree, applies to Circuit City and CompUSA. When you start trying to sell everything to everybody, you lose focus.
-Radio Shack is still running a radio-electronics store from the 80-s, and Staples is trying to keep you nailed to your desk.
-And the Internet can’t beat the advantages of a physical store (live interaction, easier return and repair, etc.).

OPERATIONS: 1) Lure in a couple of the better store managers from the MAC or SONY stores by offering them a chunk of your arm or leg. 2) Store size: comparable to Radio Shack – costs and inventory are more manageable than the giants the size of Best Buy. Opening new stores will be easier and faster too. 3) Having a web presence is a no brainer.

RISKS: Once your operation grows beyond 5 stores, the shipping, inventory management, warehousing will grow into a challenge, but by then you’ll probably have enough budget to hire experienced staff.

SUCCESS FACTORS: Wait a minute… I could go on, but it’s a blog entry, not a business plan. You figure out the rest :). I definitely need to work on the size of my entries in the future. See if I can fit each section within 1-2 sentences.