The Non-Obvious Insights Blog. Non-Obvious Insights
The Non-Obvious Insights Blog.

Dedicated To Helping Readers
Be More Interesting
Since 2004.

As Featured In:

Why Great Brands Don’t Have Obvious Answers

What problem are you solving?

It’s one of the most basic and fundamental questions in business … and one that most brands believe they need to be able to answer. The best ideas solve problems, right? There is a problem with this logic. Ideas that make money or change the world don’t just solve problems. They offer unexpected solutions.

For example, healthy food often does not taste as good as unhealthy food. The obvious solution is to try and make healthy food that tastes better. In poor societies around the world, children are often forced to work instead of going to school because their families need the money. The obvious solution is to create some type of financial incentive for parents to continue to allow their children to go to school. The world is filled with obvious problems that seem to require obvious solutions.

Great brands are not obvious. Great solutions are not either.

Clover Food Lab is a food truck near the MIT campus in Boston. It’s operation is so efficient, that are able to serve between six and ten customers a minute and make a meal in three and a half minutes. That’s nearly as fast as McDonald’s. But instead of serving burgers and fries, Clover Food Lab has an all vegetarian menu filled with local and organic ingredients. Their solution is not really to make healthy food taste better – though their customers do love the food. Clover Food Lab’s solution is to make healthy food faster.

Akshaya Patra is an award winning charity that works with schools in 9 states across India. Every day, the nonprofit organization prepares fresh hot lunches and feeds more than 1.3 million students in 19 locations across India. The problem they are solving is keeping kids in school – but instead of financial incentives, their incentive is based on a simple truth. If kids get a meal at school (which sometimes may be their only meal of the day), then parents are far more likely to insist that their kids attend school every day. Akshaya Patra’s solution is to make food the incentive to attend school.

What do a food truck in Boston and a nonprofit in India have in common? Each solves a problem, but does it in a nonobvious way. As a result, they are each creating a unique success story. The lesson in their approaches is clear. We live in a world filled with problems. Spotting them is easy. Trying obvious solutions can be easy too – but often those don’t work. They have already been tried and failed.

If you’re going to solve a problem, think beyond the obvious solutions. Sometimes the only way to really solve a problem is to create a solution that is more original than your competition.

3 thoughts on “Why Great Brands Don’t Have Obvious Answers”

  1. I think solving a problem for their customer is a goal some businesses forget to set. It makes it easier for a business to succeed. Like your example with the food truck, achieving the goal of getting food to their customer faster helps keep wait times short and customers happy.

    Reply
  2. “If you’re going to solve a problem, think beyond the obvious solutions. Sometimes the only way to really solve a problem is to create a solution that is more original than your competition.” creating a unique success story. Time for us to look beyond normal solution but creative simple solution. Putting on the creative hat, we can be like the food truck in Boston and the NonProfit in India. A non obvious solution that creates unique success stories.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter. Non-Obvious Insights
Layer 97
The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter
Layer 118

Skip the obvious and anticipate the future with our weekly newsletter. Join over 25,000 subscribers and start receiving the stories (and insights) you’ve been missing.

Newsletter Subscribe

All Books

#1 WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author

Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.

Contact

Have a Question or Inquiry?

Just fill out this form, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours!

Contact

About You

What Are You Contacting Us About*:

Your Message