Thinking out of the ordinary

Every day about 100 people die. Although every family is entitled to have a burial service, it is extremely expensive to buy a piece of land for burial. For example, a permanent grave may cost up to HK$280,000 (Bt1.1 million). If the family doesn’t want to or doesn’t see any point in  paying hundreds of  thousands of dollars, cremation can  be a great alternative for those who are unable to afford a burial service or are too busy to visit a graveside on a regular basis. However, the existing crematoriums in Hong Kong can only handle a maximum of 80 corpses a day. The average waiting period is about 15 days. 

The Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) is planning to introduce coffins made of recycled paper, which have multiple advantages over the wooden coffins in terms of cost, time and energy consumption. If paper coffins are adopted, it may cut the waiting period to only one day. Admitting it’s probably difficult to introduce something out-of the ordinary, the department said it would start using paper coffins with unclaimed bodies.  

Even paper coffins are now known as a green funeral casket. In many parts on the world, coffins are also made from different kind of eco-friendly materials, such as willow, sea grass, and banana leaves. To commercially succeed in introducing paper coffins, inventors may need to think beyond the ordinary. A good example is a modern bookcase first launched at the 2005 London Design Festival. This bookcase, created by William Warren, was made of cardboard and built to last more than 20 years. When the owner dies, the bookcase can be taken apart and reassembled as a coffin. The brass plate under the bottom shelf can be flipped over and the date and name can be inscribed on it. With this extraordinary idea, anyone can buy their own coffin now and enjoy it over the years as a piece of furniture till they finally need it for its ultimate purpose.   

Presently, continuing experience has become an inherent part of conventional thinking. But we often forget that in today’s competitive landscape we should sometimes be able to go beyond our normal thinking. This involves changing our thoughts away from the routine and igniting something “out-of-the ordinary”. Most people generally find it difficult to come up with extraordinary ideas. Much of what they think is dependent on the perception of the world represented within their mind, thus leading to “what they think is what they see”.  

To encourage the “out-of-the ordinary” to happen is a big challenge for every organisation. First, management executives must create the inspiration to push people to stretch beyond the common goals. Second, each functional leader is required to set an environment that allows people to think in unusual and creative ways. This is not easy to accomplish when much of business is, by definition, so structured and orderly in its processes. Third, at a staff level, brainstorming with diverse groups of people can be used as a technique for generating off-the-wall ideas. Another source of creativity comes from our customers. Knowledge of their preferences is absolutely critical. Any brand that becomes great has developed the ability to keep on learning from its customers. Very few companies can generate out-off-the box ideas without comprehensive knowledge of their customers’ needs and preferences.

There is no single definition that is adequate to define out-of-the ordinary. But no idea or thought should be termed as “ridiculous”, just because it is out-of-the ordinary and no idea should be discarded, just because it has never been thought of before. So, by undertaking this “out-of-the ordinary”, we are literally asking others to think different and to think unusual.

 

Nutavoot Pongsiri is assistant governor at the Bank of Thailand. Follow his articles in Hi! Managers every second Friday of the month. The views expressed here are entirely the author’s.