The other day I was in a meeting with Debbie Segan, Vice President – workforce development at Pikes Peak Community College. She was talking about a successful program at a community college she had visited. She started by saying, “I’m a big believer in R&D.” Debbie then went on to define R&D as “rip-off and duplicate.”
We all got a laugh out of it, but this definition really underscores a concept Daniel Burrus discusses in his book “Techno Trends.” Daniel Burrus explains that the future is already invented. People just take what others have done and recombine them with other things people have done.
Recently, I went to a restaurant in Denver called Casa Bonita with three generations of Imkes. At this restaurant, customers use a flag on a stick to get the server’s attention. How many times have you sat in a restaurant where you needed a drink refill, some more ketchup, or even the bill and had to draw your attention away from your guests so you could locate and flag down the server? At Casa Bonita, you simply raise the flag and then redirect your attention to the dinner show while the flag draws the attention of the server.
This seems like such a simple idea that I’m perplexed why other restaurants don’t rip off and duplicate this concept. It makes so much sense and takes virtually nothing to duplicate.
