The RussCo Idea Buffet

New political party not based on positions but approach

The Idea:  A political party that is not fixated on a set agenda, platform, or hard line stances.  Instead, the party would be based on approaches.  By approaches I mean how they approach the political process.  So instead of being pro this or anti that, they are pro discussion, on every issue.  Meaning that for every single issue that is brought before their legislative body they will grapple with one by one.  This would be different then their approach now that appears to be snap judgments grounded in their stances.

The Background:  I don't care if my representatives are pro-life or pro-choice.  What I want them to be is willing to sit down and actually debate the issues as opposed to handing them all over to their staffers that cover that portfolio of issues.  It appears to me that in Congress and many local legislative bodies that on each issue that comes to the floor, everyone's mind is already made up and the only reason people's positions change is a result of political moves made for future gain.   Whether it does or does not happen it never seems like legislative bodies ever really sit down and actually debate the issues.  Maybe I am old fashioned but I would like to see the Congress of today sitting in their respective chambers and debating the way I imagined our founding fathers did at the Constitutional Convention.

The new Ford model E

The Idea:  A bold new way for Ford to reinvent itself would be to go back to its roots, at least in naming and build the Ford Model E.

The Background:  Obviously this is a variation on their wildly successful Model T from the early 1900's.  The E could stand for electric or some other green concept and would have to be Ford's attempt at making a true competitor to the Toyota Prius.  More than anything this is just a name as they have to know by now that they must get into the hybrid game or risk extinction.  But something bold yet related to the past could be the idea that they reinvent themselves. 

Travel Tip: Change check in date at hotels to avoid cancellation fees

Many hotels have some sort of policy that says you must cancel your reservation 24 hours before check in or you will have to pay all or part of the room rate.  If you travel like me things come up last minute and that is not always possible.  However there is a way to get around this.  If your hotel has a policy like this, instead of calling to cancel your reservation, simply call and move back you check in date one day.  Then call back about 20 minutes later and cancel your reservation which is now no longer within the 24 hour cancellation window.  This works best if you have a multiple day reservation and also if you are staying at a big chain and can call their master reservation system as opposed to calling the hotel directly.  I have yet to run into a hotel that has a reservation system sophisticated enough to catch this maneuver. 

Basketball & Football Coaches wear uniforms

The Idea:  I would love to see a high school, college, or even professional basketball/football coach wearing a team uniform.  Baseball coaches already do it and even though they obviously are never as in shape as they athletes I think that looks better then wearing a business suit and sweating through it. 

Focus on greek staffers to get the Collegiate Housing & Infrastructure Act passed

The Idea:  Instead of lobbying congressmen to pass the Collegiate Housing & Infrastructure act, we should instead focus on staff members that are greek alumni. 

The Background:  I would be willing to bet that well over 50% of the congressmen on Capitol Hill have staff members that are greek.  More importantly, from my experience in meeting with so many staff members for fund raising for Sigma Nu, I know that these staff members often are the ones that make the decisions for the Congressmen on how they will vote.  I bet if each of the NIC, NPC, & NPHC groups were to run their databases to see who they have listed on file that work on Capitol Hill it would be mind boggling.  Then just by a simple effort to contact each of these staffers and ask to speak with them instead of the Congressmen we could easily pick up dozens of sponsors and supporters for the bill.

The Possibility:  Once an effort is made to reach out to these greek staffers and get their Congressmen to sponsor the bill we could easily find someone to then introduce the bill into congress. 

Fraternity: Ritual study groups similar to bible studies

The Idea:  Create weekly ritual study groups within each fraternity/sorority that takes a look each meeting at a different part of the ritual such as a history, an oath, a symbol, etc.  They could meet in small groups and function much like a bible study group to discuss these meanings.

The Background:  As an employee of Sigma Nu Fraternity's National Office for over 5 years I know all to well that our chapters do not always have a solid understanding of our history, principles, or ritual.  As I am sure happens in most other groups the only time our members see the ritual is at an initiation ceremony once a semester.  But it is in the ritual that you really get to know what it would mean to be a Sigma Nu.

The Possibilities:  Whether they take the approach to study the ritual like a bible study or engage and debate it like a literary society, the end result is that the ritual comes alive.  This could be a very easy and virtually zero cost method to refocus greek organizations back to their original purposes, which shocking to many is not to be the party house for everyone on campus.  Yes back in the 1800's when many of our organizations were started their purpose had nothing to do with parties.  The other great piece about this is that this could start with a pledge class, a whole chapter, an alumni group, or an alumni club.  No books need to be purchased, everyone already has them, you just need to show up.

Pipe Tabacco Burner

The Idea:  Create some sort of lamp or similar mechanism that burns pipe tobacco. 

The Background: I love the smell of pipe tobacco but for many obvious reasons don't want to take up smoking one.  I would love to have a mechanism like this though that burns the tobacco so I could use it when working at night to help set the mood.  A candle that smells like pipe tobacco would not do the trick though.  I want to have to go to the shop, get some weighed on one of those old scales, and then have to pack the tobacco into the mechanism. 

Travel Tip: Use hotel coffee packs as air freshners

If you ever find yourself with a pair of smelly shoes while you are out on a trip, especially if you are expecting company, fear no more.  Every hotel room in the world comes with a coffee maker and coincidentally 2 single serve coffee packs in filters (1 regular & 1 decaff).  Just tear the packaging and put those coffee packs in your shoes and not only will they keep the smell from spreading but in the morning your shoes will smell like Juan Valdez.  I would highly suggest calling the front desk and asking for more coffee packs if you actually plan on making coffee in the morning. 

Travel Tip: Have fun with your hotel

On my travels I have often found ways to keep myself entertained.  Two of my favorite things to do on the road have to do with the hotel.  The first is when I am making my reservations and we get to that point in the call where the hotel agents asks me, "Mr. Hammond, will you be traveling with any pets?"  My response, "yes, I will have 15 chinchillas with me, do you have accommodation's for them on site?"  Of course they have no clue how to answer that one.  My other favorite move to pull is to send TOP SECRET faxes to myself on the Hotel's fax machine.  Of course there is nothing TOP SECRET other than those words that I put in bold on the cover page.  It usually draws some interesting looks and whispers from the hotel staff as well as free perks from time to time.   What perks you may ask, that my friend is classified.

Funny Observation: Where are you suppose to look when getting carded?

The Observation:  I travel a ton and therefore fly a lot which ultimately means I get my ID checked on a weekly basis.  Because you know I never get carded at bars since I have looked 40 from age 18 to present day.  As a matter of fact, I walked into the bathroom once in High School and some guys that were smoking threw out their cigarettes because they thought I was a substitute teacher.  I wish I was making that up.  Back to the subject at hand...  I never know where I am suppose to look when I am getting my ID checked by the friendly TSA folks.  Am I suppose to stare them down, read their name tag, be courteous and ask for their ID, or look off into the distance.  I usually end up looking off in the distance somewhere which I then immediately begin to think makes me look suspicious which then turns into a vicious cycle as I begin to sweat in my nervousness.  Unlike everyone else in the security line that is worried if they have all their liquids and gels in the proper 3 ounce container and then all of those in a 1 quart bag and only 1 bag, remember 3-1-1, I am worried if I will make it by the ID check.    

Philanthropy & Community Service Mega Mall

The Idea:  Use the convenience that capitalism has taught us in going to shopping malls to knock out several needs at once and apply that to philanthropy and community service.  Create a facility much like a mall and stuff it with as many great organizations and needs you can imagine.  Have a huge drop off area for Goodwill, Salvation Army, Kidney Foundation, and any other charitable thrift stores.  Have bins all over the place to drop off your old cell phones to give to the Battered Women's Shelter, glasses to the Lion's Club, and car tires & batteries to be recycled.  As wall paper and displays through out the facility have head shots of all the children that have been abducted.  Have donation centers to donate blood, platelets, and bone marrow with reward cards sponsored by real stores for regular donors.  Have kiosks to finger print and make ID's for your children, learn safety tips and sign up for Amber alerts.  Have every coin operated toy, moving animal, and fountain you can imagine to make donations in.   Have information sessions for all the various  places to volunteer time in town.  Have a place to adopt pets.

Airline layover business networking/matchmaking

The Idea:  As part of each individual's frequent flier profile they should indicate the type of business/industry they are in & what types of other professionals from which industries they would be interested in meeting if they both had a layover at the same airport at the same time.  There are many stories of two unsuspecting future business partners sitting next to each other on a flight so why not open that luck to a much larger field.  The airlines simply would cross reference each individual's profile with layovers each day and send messages to possible matches.  Then for a meeting to be setup both would have to accept before they could contact each other.

The Possibilities:  This could easily turn into a marketing piece for joining the airline's lounge/club as only those members could participate in the program. 

Board Meetings - Give the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

I have found that it is often best to not only highlight all the great things when presenting to a board, group of stock holders, or consituents.  As opposed to just painting the rosy picture that everyone knows has flaws somewhere you might as well go ahead and give them all the info you can.  I personally would like to give an annual update to a board giving them the following:

The GOOD:  The highlights of the past year, major accomplishments, big wins, etc.

The BAD:  The sobering realities we faced when we made some really big mistakes.

The UGLY:  The worst case scenarios that we possibly could see coming out of the blue or because of growing threats we see on the horizon.

By doing this, especially out of habit at annual, quarterly, or monthly meetings could easily take the anxiety over talking candidly about mistakes and worst case scenarios and make them easier for all around the table to grapple with and really be prepared for.

Designer drop & extenstion chords

The Idea:  Make drop chords or extension chords out of material that is a little more pleasant to the eye and blends in better, especially when in a really nice room.

The Backgroud:  So many times I have gone to a board meeting at a super nice hotel go to our meeting room with leather chairs a huge wooden table and then connected to the projector in the center is this huge bright orange extension chord.  Plain black could work but I am sure some simple patten could also work very well. 

The Possibilities:  You could extend this theme and build a whole design practice around taking purely utilitarian items like smoke detectors, extension chords, exit signs, etc and by adding just a touch of design could make them blend in while also accomplishing what they were designed to do.

Johnston & Murphy shoe horns at end of security line at airport

The Idea:  Have Johnston & Murphy provide shoe horns for all the male business travelers in the security lines at the airport as a simple add or to inform them of where their store is located in the airport.  They could have a few really big nice ones and engraved on the inside say Johnston & Murphy located at Terminal C, next to the Cinnabon.  Or they could have tons of small simple ones sitting there for you to take with that same info. 

The Background:  I don't mind having to take my shoes off for the security line at the airport but I do mind having to shove my foot back into my $500 shoes and beat the back of them up.  They already have advertisements on the bottom of the trays you put your stuff in to put it into the x-ray machine.  Also Johnston & Murphy has a pretty good presence at many airports so both these factors make it a natural marketing extension.

Travel Tip: Multi-leg flights for cheaper rates on roundtrips

Next time you have to book a pricey round trip flight from one city to another, look at making the trip back a multi-leg flight.  For example I travel out of Charlotte, NC often.  Many times I have to make a simple round trip flight somewhere such as Houston, TX.  Sometimes it is cheaper to go into USAirways' multi-leg option and instead of buying a simple round trip ticket from Charlotte to Houston I will buy a ticket that goes from Charlotte to Houston, Houston back to Charlotte and then Charlotte to Greensboro, NC.  For what ever reason when you connect through a city and go somewhere smaller it can sometimes be cheaper.  So all you would have to do though is when you check in at the airport for your return trip, cancel the last leg of your flight, such as my leg from Charlotte to Greensboro so that they put luggage tags on your checked bags for Charlotte not Greensboro. 

Two very important things to know:  This does not work on your trip out of town, meaning you could not book a trip from Greensboro to Houston going through Charlotte and returning the same way.  The airlines automatically cancel all the remaining legs of a flight you have if you miss one leg, so this only works when coming home. 

The other important thing to know is that is works best if you live in a big hub city like Charlotte.

iphone Credit Card

The Idea:  Create some interface that would allow you to use your iphone to pay at the cash register.  The security could be that for each transaction it requires your thumb to be on the screen and scanned to confirm payment.  Then on the other side the cash register could send the details to your phone automatically so you could then make notes/comments on the item, could file it in your expenses for work, or enter it into you personal budget.

The Possibilities:  With the ability to receive info back from the merchant you could know in real time how much you have left in your monthly spending budget for personal expenses, groceries, etc by incorporating this with a program such as MS money or quickbooks. 

Banners, logos, & taglines that follow golf putts on TV

The Idea: Advertisers could use technology similar to the super puck on hockey a few years ago and as golfers make putts on TV a tagline, logo, or other media could roll out as if rolled up in the golf ball and coming off as the putt is rolling across the green.  This could be another way to incorporate advertising into TV and golf.

Funny Observation: Weather Warnings in the middle of boring TV

The Funny Observation: I love it when you are watching something dull on TV such as golf or tennis on a lazy Sunday afternoon and in the middle of some random announcer's commentary the weather alert alarm sounds.  Its as if Samuel L. Jackson has taken over announcing golf and is cussing but being censored. 

The Close Second: However if you ever watch a dog show and listen long enough you hear the announcers there drop the b-word (b!#*%) quite often when referring to the females which I think is hilarious.  One would even think they were watching a bad rap video.

Airbrushed Motivation Pictures for Weight Loss

The Idea: A business that likely could be easily run virtually that takes current pictures of yourself and utilizes some of the techniques magazines use to airbrush their models and show you a visual of what you could look like 10, 20, 50, or 100 lbs. lighter.  You could just submit your picture and in a day or two get a photoshop manipulated/airbrushed finished product.  This could be very powerful in helping those that are wanting to loose some weight to really get a visual and a huge motivation for what they are working towards.

The Background: It just came to me one day while on a cardio machine at the gym.

The Possibilities:  These are many complimentary offerings that could come out of this business model such as imposing professionally on magazine covers people's pictures with custom headlines as a visual for them.