When the greatest ideas come from making mistakes
WHAT does Huddersfield Town’s promotion to the Premier League mean for the wider Yorkshire area?
Welcome to Yorkshire chief Sir Gary Verity, Town commercial director Sean Jarvis and Kirklees Council chief executive Jacqui Gedman will discuss the topic at a breakfast briefing to be held on Thursday, September 28, in the Revell Ward Suite at the John Smith’s Stadium. The event kicks off at 8.30am with the full-time whistle at 10am.
The event is sponsored by Ridley & Hall Solicitors and in partnership with Kirklees Council and Welcome to Yorkshire.
Although entry will be free, breakfast donations are welcome with all the money raised going to Ridley & Hall charity partner Kirkwood Hospice. Breakfast will include bacon sandwiches, Danish pastries, tea and coffee.
Mr Jarvis said: “I’m delighted that Huddersfield Town and Welcome to Yorkshire have joined together to put on this event.
“It’s a great opportunity to discuss and celebrate the benefits the club’s promotion “IF it’s not on Strava – it didn’t happen!”
It’s a daily mantra among the swimming, running and riding (particularly those who do all three in one event) fraternity that the BattleAxe “relaxes” with.
Few of them realise that Strava came about following an accident. Mark Gainey, the founder, suffered serious injuries when his bike hit a pothole, shattering his left arm. Like lots of good products Strava went from the germ of an idea, one Gainey had at college, to launch in 2009 and now has £54m of investment – even if it still hasn’t made a profit.
Prompted by the thought, the BattleAxe trawls the archives, looking for household names that only became so as a result of something going Pete Tong.
Probably the best known is something that the BattleAxe avoids because of a serious allergy – penicillin. A discarded, contaminated Petri dish grew mould that, Fleming noticed, was killing the bacteria around it.
More promisingly, Percy Spencer ended up with a pocket of sticky “candy” when working on radar research. Putting kernels near the machine and getting popcorn, he discovered the microwave. He didn’t do quite has had on both the town and the surrounding local area.”
Sir Gary Verity said: “The whole of Yorkshire is immensely proud of Huddersfield Town’s achievement.
“It means everything to the club, the fans and the town and has definitely raised the profile of this part of our great county. We look so well with his second attempt – an egg that exploded!
Scotchgard was developed to stop engines from deteriorating. A spillage on a shoe which, unexpectedly, stayed clean whilst the rest of the footwear succumbed to the grime of dayto-day life saw the development of this indispensable protector.
A haphazard Canon engineer resting his soldering iron on his pen saw ink shoot out – and the inkjet printer was born!
Looking up from Wikipedia, the Chief Elf added to the list: “X-rays, Post-It Notes, Silly Putty, the contraceptive pill, Viagra, potato chips, the slinky...”
“STOP!” exclaimed the BattleAxe. “We could be here all day!”
“Is there anything that didn’t happen by accident?” mused the Chief Elf.
“Of course there has been,” the BattleAxe mused: “Makes you wonder though, how many amazing ideas or products get missed because a business owner writes something off as a bad job? Some people can succeed by coming up with an idea and sticking with it, but the real commercial brains are the ones that can spot opportunity where others only see only disaster.
“That ability to take a step back, brush yourself down, look forward to the Terriers’ continuing success in the Premier League and the inevitable boost it will bring to the local economy and visitor trade.” Places on the event are limited. To secure a place go to www.eventbrite. co.uk/e/breakfast-briefing- tickets7529398441?aff=ehomecard past the debris on your work bench and see the next product to take the world by storm is a mark of product genius. Even when a product doesn’t take off, it’s original concept is a disaster, it’s no longer useful or people start to use it differently – who’d have thought we’d use a mobile phone to take photographs take Amanda Vigar says it makes you wonder how many amazing ideas or products get missed because a business owner writes something off as a bad job a moment to think, can it can be adapted, re-purposed or even taken apart and used for a new invention?
“You still need the spark for an idea of course, and you could do worse than listen to that often heard customer feedback: “If only you’d got something that would..”.