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Sometimes Max felt as though he was bobbing in his own life, in both the fluid and the float. He was struck by the immensity of it all, overwhelmed on the surface of things, when the well-designed product in the shop window caught his eye. He had not seen it before; it must be made by the competition. It had a brush nickel exterior and a streamlined, almost invisible electronic control panel, its buttons intuitively laid out. The handle, which on his company’s version protruded at an angle, was brilliantly worked into the overall shape of the product. In short, this well-designed product was superior in appearance to his company’s comparable product.

Returning from lunch, Max collected his notepad and his water bottle and headed for the conference room for the monthly managers’ meeting. He was happy to be representing his boss, the head of customer service. He saw this as his chance to shine. When it was his turn to speak, he would share the excitement he felt at seeing the work of the competition. He would suggest a new direction for the product design team. He regretted not purchasing the well-designed product. It would have made a more forceful impression on management if Max could have dramatically placed the product in the center of the table. On the blank page before him, Max began to draw a picture of the competitor’s product.

Sales led off the meeting with a discussion of the sales figures for the past year. About six months ago, sales, which had leveled previously, had begun to tick up, primarily, Carl suggested, because of the introduction of the new product design.

“Uh oh,” Max thought. “There had been a new product design about six months ago. How likely would the company be now to entertain my idea for a design to compete against the well-designed product I had discovered over lunch? Most likely the company would like to see how the market responded to their own design before starting on a new path. But the company design is six months old. It has already been supplanted by the competition, as far as I could see.”

Next, Marketing detailed the results of their latest campaign, again centered on the company’s new product design. Using the sales figures as well as some research of their own, Marketing gave every appearance that their efforts were a success.

Operations reported that the stock in the warehouse has been depleted and replenished twice already and Manufacturing stated that a small glitch in the production process has been identified and corrected. They brought out a prototype and placed it on the table to demonstrate a slight ‘defect’ that some customers had reported. Some customers were having difficulty with the handle since it was partially recessed.

All the while, throughout the discussion, Max was sketching the well-designed product that he had seen in the shop window during his lunch hour. He was shading the round belly of the thing when the president asked him if he had anything to add.

Roused in this way, Max looked up to discover that his sketch had come to life and was sitting in the middle of the table.

“Have you, Max?” the president asked. “Have you anything to contribute?”

Max stammered. “No. No, sir.”

©2007 Jim Kingsepp