A Plate it Ain't

Tom is a design engineer. Let’s say he works for a dinnerware company. A HUGE potential client came to the company to order new ‘plates’ for all their locations. This company is one of the top 4 in their industry so Tom’s business wanted them to buy plates in a very bad way. The HUGE buyer did not like any of the plates they saw. One was too round. One was too square. They wanted a plate that didn’t look like a plate but could serve as a plate . . . because plates are important!

So the project was listed in the department where Tom works as a challenge. Engineers would still have to complete the orders due had but if anyone wanted to try to make improvements on the plate they should. Tom accepted the challenge because he is a stud. He created a proto-type for a new plate, the perfect plate for this HUGE Company because it didn’t look like a plate at all. It looked like a bowl or a platter or maybe even a butter dish – but it was not a plate!

By the way, he did this while keeping up with the workload of orders due (he misses you Matt). Yeah, he is a stud.

The potential client was contacted. They viewed the new plate. They loved the new plate AND ordered it for all of their locations (many, many locations!). Last week the actual order was created. The line supervisor invited Tom to be there as the plates came down the line and were being placed in boxes to ship. It was a proud moment.

That supervisor told Tom that once more potential clients saw this new plate– the orders would go up. This plate was here to stay. Go Tom!

Assignment: When people tell you it is impossible to build a better mouse trap – don’t believe them!