“WHAT use could this company make of an electrical toy?” William Orton, the president of Western Union, asked Alexander Graham Bell when the latter offered to sell his telephone company to Orton for $100,000.
Let’s face it, the telephone seemed like a really dumb idea; but then so did television, radio and aircraft back then. But in case the future isn’t on our side it’s probably smart not to trash some of the seemingly stupid ideas doing the rounds.
Take dumb questions, for instance; Fortune (June 27) points out that children, teachers, management consultants and bosses get away with asking them, so why not you? And if you think you’re too slick, Fortune has some advice: “Just step up and ask it. The shorter the better. Don’t be intimidated by the stunned silence that follows. Wait it out. The payoff is on its way.”
Asking dumb questions is one thing, making dumb decisions another: “Go with your gut except when it is wrong. And don’t be stupid,” Fortune says. Like most people you’re probably at your most beautiful and cleverest when you’ve had a few tequilas. The Persians knew this and discussed important decisions when drunk — they then rather sensibly reconsidered them when sober and vice versa, it says.
Mashed or not, some business ideas seem just plain bonkers. Take the Time (June 27) report that an Italian insurer has teamed up with a hair-replacement firm to offer the first policy that protects against the trauma of going bald. Mad? Remember the telephone: we could all be laughing on the other side of our hirsute little faces when this turns out to be the business discovery of the decade.
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Discovery of a higher intelligence could be jeopardised, however, by the seemingly dumb plan to allow the jet set to use their mobile phones onboard. New Scientist (June 18) says: “Radiation from mobile phones in the sky would swamp any faint radio signals from outer space.”
But perhaps we are looking for intelligence in places where we should be seeking spirituality. Personnel Today (June 21) cites Anna Tavis, the global head of talent management at Nokia, who believes that the next generation of talent management approaches will focus on developing leaders with SQ, or spiritual quotient; which is either a really dumb or a really smart idea. I can’t decide, pour me a drink.