All new ideas are worth hearing about

Don't be too quick to dismiss new ideas as impractical. You may live to eat your words. To make that point, a Vice President of Marketing shared this story with his product development team.

A number of years ago, a young engineer created a new product concept that he was certain would be a success. He went to the president of a major electronics company and put a box with his new concept on his desk. He said to the president, "Once people find out about this new product everybody will want one in their car." The president looked at the product and said, "I disagree, this product will be too distracting to the driver. I see nothing but problems associated with it." That president was Paul Galvin of Motorola.

Ironically, years later, Paul Galvin was part of a revolution in mobile communication products. Today his company derives much of its $7 billion in annual sales from mobile phones which have become standard devices used while driving.