At Whiteboard Consulting we believe in the ‘The Power of Ideas’.

“Ideas shape the course of history,” used to say John Maynard Keynes, a proclaimed British economist. Ideas also shape the courses of our individual lives, being the sparks that ignite the engine of change. But ideas come unannounced and usually much less often than we’d like. That’s why it’s so important to be ready to capture all ideas that show up at the door to our consciousness before they slip.

Who knows how many successful ideas would be forever lost if it wasn’t for the humble whiteboard and the even humbler napkin. Many of the world’s most influential inventions, businesses, and deals started in a messy break room or at the bar over a couple of drinks.

The PIXAR Story:

In January 1996, Steve Jobs, who was in charge of Pixar at the time, found himself in a conference room, contemplating how Pixar stood in relation to Disney, who was helping Pixar produce movies such as Toy Story 1 and 2. Disney was used to producing their movies in-house and hated the idea of not being fully in charge. Being well-aware of Pixar’s poor financial situation, Jobs knew that an acquisition offer from Disney was evident. The question was whether to sell Pixar to Disney now or wait until later.

“Steve took a whiteboard pen and made two columns: Disney and Pixar. Under the Disney column, he would write the points that gave Disney leverage. Under the Pixar column, he would write the points that favored Pixar,” writes Lawrence Levy in To Pixar and Beyond. One of the points under Pixar read, “BETTER DEAL IF WAIT,” and that’s exactly what Pixar did.

The company waited until 2006, which is when Disney purchased Pixar at a valuation of $7.4 billion, making Steve Jobs Disney’s largest single shareholder at the time. One can only imagine how many other historic decisions have been made with the help of the humble whiteboard.

The HARRY POTTER MIRACLE

Did you know that the brilliant idea for a book, which is no short of a miracle series, Harry Potter came to its writer under the most unusual circumstances? J K Rowling conceived the idea of the book in 1990 while sitting on a delayed train from Manchester to London King’s Cross. Over the next five years, she began to map out all seven books of her series. She wrote mostly in long hand and gradually built up a mass of notes, many of which were scribbled on old scraps of paper. She wrote a seven-volume fantasy series Harry Potter, published from 1997 to 2007. The series has sold over 600 million copies, been translated into 84 languages, and spawned a global media franchise including films and video games.

The deal of JET.COM

It could happen that on a certain day, you realize which business move would be the best for your company, just like when Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon met Jet founder Marc Lore in 2016, and the two instantly took a liking to each other. They started sketching out on a whiteboard how they could combine the two companies. The session lasted for hours and eventually lead to the largest-ever acquisition of an e-commerce company and Jet.com was born. Walmart subsequently acquired Jet.com for 3.3 billion dollars which fueled Walmart’s own e-commerce growth, making the company No. 2 in e-commerce sales market share, behind only Amazon.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

The idea for the world’s most successful budget airline came about in 1966, when Rollin King, owner of a small Texas commuter carrier, was pitching his plan for a new, low-cost service to his lawyer, Herb Kelleher. He drew the prospective route between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio on a napkin. The following year, the pair launched Southwest Airlines. The airline has scheduled service to over 121 destinations in the United States and 10 additional countries today. It has over 66,100 employees and operates about 4,000 departures a day during peak travel season…probably the largest carrier of passengers than any other airline in the United States of America. A random idea leading to ruling the skies.

So, make sure you’re never too far away from a whiteboard, so none of your game-changing ideas slip away.