broadBand Podcast
Business Innovation with Abdulmohsen Al Duwaisan
Aziz: Hello. Hello, and welcome to broadband here, broadband. We live by the philosophy that one needs other human beings to teach them how to be human. Our guide for today on this journey of communal actualization is Abdulmohsen Alduwaisan and entrepreneur and innovation strategist who engages with startups and corporate teams to find and validate innovative concepts.
I want to set the stage for this interview by shining the spotlight on three main points of focus for our dialogue, the first being Abdulmohsen and his unique human journey. Next, I want to explore the factors that make a good business and introduce you to the frictions that small businesses and startups experience in their journey to actualization.
And finally, I want to provide you the listener with insights on the habits of successful business owners and introduce you to some resources to achieve your business goals. Now, further ado. Hello, Abdulmohsen. How are
you?Im doing great how are you?I'm doing very, very well. Thank you so much for joining the dialogue.
Abdulmohsen: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Current Projects [00:00:58]Aziz: So What is your current entrepreneurial project and is there multiple.
Abdulmohsen: So let's say I've got a project by the name of one base. So that's a direct to consumer type of product. It's a A tray table for designed for everyday living. And so the whole concept there behind the project is how can we question the role of different products and items in our living rooms, through the lens of downtime and helping us slow down. And so just exploring the role of, furniture and helping us slow down, take time off, take some me-time and enjoy it. And so that's how one base was born.
So the other one is like polar opposite. So I'm also a partner at an, a private label company doing Amazon FBA. So basically what we do is we sell items on Amazon after studying demand on the platform finding opportunities there and then sourcing those products, maybe solving some consumer problems through, you know, we've seen it in reviews from different listings and then trying to source a product that solves that problem and selling directly through Amazon.
So yeah, we're basically an FBA reseller on Amazon. so basically, you know some items that you buy from Amazon are, you know, created and produced by Amazon, but others are created and produced by a third-party suppliers. And so that's what FBA businesses. Yeah, it's a fulfillment by Amazon..
1st Business [00:02:08] Aziz: Right. one base and your FBA business, your first business, or did you have a business before that?
Abdulmohsen: No, actually my first business coming back from studying abroad was there was a laundry business that was called the Mirror Lake.
At the time when I came back from the States, so I came back to Kuwait and I noticed that pretty much everyone was starting a business around me. Right.
And at the time the popular choices were, you know, a cafe, a coffee shop or a gym and I wanted to do something a bit different. So. Silly me went on Google and Googled easy business ideas, which is a definite no-no. I wouldn't recommend anybody do that because there is no such thing as an easy business.
But yeah, I landed on, a laundry started exploring that sector a bit noticed that there was like a misalignment between, you know, the way we wash clothes at home, compared to how a laundry does it. And so that gap that sort of misalignment is what sparked, my interest in creating something different and bringing something different to the laundry scene. And that's where middle Lake was born.
And so what I've done was at the time I remember I bought a washer and dryer hooked them up at home. I was the laundry driver. I was the guy that picked up the clothes. I was the guy that dropped them off when they were ready. I did pretty much everything except for ironing.
One of my housemates I quote unquote, hired her gave her a salary, definitely give her a salary as well for each basket that she but she ironed. And yeah, that was my laundry operation on, on, on day one. So the idea there was, We basically mimicked the way clothes were washed at home. So the service was a flat rate subscription service on a monthly basis. We provide you with our own laundry bag. And we pass by on a scheduled time slot to pick up your laundry, go get it washed and bring it back within 24 hours. So that was the idea behind that.
Early wins of the Laundry Business [00:03:47] Aziz: That's a really cool and innovative idea. And you usually hear about businesses starting in the garage. Very rarely do you hear about business and starting in the laundry room?
Um, what were some of the early wins of your laundry business? I mean, you mentioned it being very similar to the way people do laundry at home. So I'm assuming people were very perceptive and very comfortable with this new idea. Was that the case?
Abdulmohsen: Uh, That actually wasn't the case, unfortunately. So this is completely naive. I know, but I thought I quote unquote launched when I just posted something on Instagram, I was like, okay, I have my, profile, you know, at mirror Lake KW or something at the time.
And I posted the, you know, the first post, like we're live we're and this is our idea. then nothing happened one week later, something magical happened, which was nothing, again, a month later, nothing happened. Right. And so this was basically my first lesson, like.
not about just building something, but how are you going to get people to know that you've built something, you know, how do you get to your customers? So that was less than one from me.
Whats an Innovation Strategist [00:04:40] Aziz: Phenomenal you mentioned that, or I mentioned that you are innovation strategist. That's a term that's a little vague to me. What is the job description of an innovation strategist?
Abdulmohsen: So I'd say an innovation strategics to someone that, helps you translate. Customer expectations or customer needs and to new opportunities for growth new products, new revenue streams, new ways to get to your customer.
So he's the guy that sort of guides you to that. And along the way I usually like to say that I help teams explore test and communicate innovative concepts. And I believe those are the, let's say the core skills that an innovation, strategic coaches, a team on.
How did you develop the know how [00:05:18]Aziz: I see. And so I'm assuming you've learned this through your own experience, whether it be having your wisdom through starting businesses and having those businesses maybe fail or maybe studying and going into the academic world of innovation. Is that, how you developed the know how to be an innovation strategist?
Abdulmohsen: Yeah, absolutely. So it started, you know, the first, first time I heard the term innovation, it just struck me as something that was interesting. And I saw exploded as you mentioned from an academic point of view initially um, wanted to learn everything that had to do with innovation, you know, the core concepts, experimenting, testing, bringing something new to our market really appealed to me.
And so I was on this furious path of just relentlessly learning getting my hands on every single article podcast, a book that I can get my hands on just to learn.
But at the same time I wanted to apply these concepts. I wanted to see like, do they pan out in real time? And are they helpful? Which ones are helpful, which ones aren't.
And so that's, around the time when I started, you know, morphing and shaping my own understanding of the, practice and sort of. Calling out certain principles that just didn't make sense to me, or then didn't pan out. Basically.
Why do most startups Fail [00:06:24] Aziz: Well, you know, a study conducted by the national business capital and services in 2019, found that 90% of startups and small businesses fail within the first 10 years. That's thousands of entrepreneurs losing either time or money within the first 10 years. What are some of the reoccurring reasons that all these small businesses are failing?
Abdulmohsen: So the way I see it, a lot of emphasis has been put on execution at the detriment of the idea itself. And I go back to a study that was done by CB insights then 2019 for the leading causes of startup failures and the leading cause was no market need. Now, when you think about it, no market need, this has nothing to do with execution, right?
You can execute really perfectly, but if there is no market need, like if, you're solving a problem that does not really exist, people don't care enough to pay to solve that problem. Then execution doesn't really matter. So I think. People tend to spray around this idea of, you know, pick any idea. The idea doesn't really matter execution is, where success happens and I just don't buy that the way I see it as you know, bad idea plus great execution is still failure.
Aziz: that's actually extremely interesting to me because. What that means is you need to invest a lot in marketing and understanding what the streets want. Whether it be you on social media and see what people are tweeting about, or you go to the grocery store and see what is flying off the shelf, right?
How to understand the market [00:07:43] I mean, how are you going to be able to develop ability the market needs?
Abdulmohsen: Yeah, that's, absolutely a great question. This is, this is one of the core parts that actually teach is, you know, people tend to focus on. Validating the idea. Very few people tend to focus on validating the opportunity. Like before you jump into an idea, like, does the opportunity even exist?
And so one of the key indicators for a market opportunity is payment, right? People can complain, you know, all day about a problem, but if you ask them, okay, what have you done to solve that problem? If they say nothing, they're likely never going to do anything to solve that problem. Like if they'd never paid for a product to solve that problem, then the market does not exist. So payment to me is the ultimate indicator for a market existing.
The other thing is like someone has had to do something, you know, made an effort to solve that problem before even if it wasn't payment, maybe he's hacked some solution or taped a couple of solutions together to solve that problem.
Those to me are, Not necessarily natural behavior. Someone has done something like it's this idea of, let's say there's a product that exists in a market, but it's being used, not for its intended purposes. Like if that happens that's a question, Mark. That's a flag right there.
That's an indicator to me that there's an unmet need. That there's a problem that, you know, a product is, failing to solve. And that to me is an indicator for, a market need.
Aziz: I always thought that like aliens would be the best business people. Like if an alien came to earth, they would have successful companies because they would see the way we are interacting with certain products and services and say, Oh, you're doing that very inefficiently because they're not living in this paradigm where we've always done it this way. So they can maybe see pathways that we humans can't right.
How can we notice the trends and patterns [00:09:25] So how can us that are stuck within this paradigm and the we've always done it that way? Mentality. How can we start to find these new pathways and unique pathways for new. Marketing or new products and services.
Abdulmohsen: Yeah. So, the way I like to see it, as, you know, you need to be. Aware of your own habits, your own decisions, and what products you buy. We take this for granted and we take what, is familiar for granted?
Some of the best businesses were scratched out on edge type of businesses, meaning that you've solved your own problem. So you yourself are the customer.
So we tend Oh, this is just, you know, to overlook that because the way we see it as, Oh, this is just, the way things are, but that's not necessarily the way things should be. Right. And so the idea is like, if you start with your own self it's, like you found your first customer now go find, find other people like you.
Best Pracitices of a startup [00:10:11] Aziz: Okay. So say I've found something that is worth selling. People want to buy it. Uh, What are some of the best practices that I can do as a startup where I can avoid catastrophic failure within the first 10 years?
Abdulmohsen: So we've talked about, you know, validating the opportunity before validating the idea, the thing about us humans as well, idea machines. So we're wired to think of ideas first. You know, you're, you're standing in line at, you know at a Starbucks and the line is way too long and you're growing impatient and you're thinking, boy, it would be great if there's another cash register there. That right there is an idea, right. You're proposing an idea or proposing a potential solution.
So we're wired to think of ideas, but if you take a step back and think about like, This is an idea, but does the problem really exists? Like, is there really a problem there? And so if you think about it, like, okay, a second registered would make things go faster at the Starbucks, but at the same time, Starbucks wants to cross sell you other things that are right next to you while you're waiting in line.
Right. So that's a great idea. But it does not solve a problem, you know?
And so it's this idea of, you know, always think about validating the opportunity before validating the idea. And when I say that, it's, you know, when you validate the opportunity, you're trying to understand the entire dynamics around the problem and the context that problem lives in.
So it's not just from the customer's point of view, but it's also from the business's point of view, right. For the customer standing in line, it would be great if this line goes faster, but from the business side of things, no, we want this line to stay as long as it can get. Right.
Aziz: Wow. I mean, I mean, I just got my mind blown because. I as a customer, want to get in and out as fast as possible. But then I just realized that the business wants me in their brick and mortar shop, as long as they can get me, because I can maybe buy a sandwich while I wait, or maybe there's a candy bar that looks enticing, or the fact that there's a huge line outside of the store means this place is worth going to, right.
But okay. So I never really thought about it that way. So I guess one of the takeaways that I can, apply to my life is always ask what's the opportunity from this pain point. Is that yeah, something that is fair and that's okay. .
Importance of the Founder's Image [00:12:17]Uh, Elon Musk, Steve jobs, Richard Branson, Tony stark. I mean, what these innovators have in common is a living and breathing legend. Right? You can call it a pioneering presence or a visionary aura, but how important is the superstar CEO and the marketing machine behind the CEO to the success of the company.
Abdulmohsen: Well, that's a powerful question. okay. so if the value proposition is the CEO, then it's very important. So let's think about Kanye West, for example, like, like the value proposition as I'm buying sneakers from Kanye West, right. So Kanye West is behind this. So it's incredibly important that, you know, Kanye West as the celebrity, his, otherwise that business would be nothing.
Right? I mean, thinking about, you know, think about me trying to start a shoe line. You would, there's no value proposition there, right. But it's because it's Kanye West. So the CEO status is incredibly important in that case, because that's the value proposition. That's why you're buying his sneakers. But if the value proposition is not the CEO, then I don't think that visionary CEO is necessarily as important.
I think some of the most innovative and profitable businesses are led by an, you know, non superstars or non-celebrities not people you would find in the media. Definitely..
Aziz: Okay. What are the characterstics of innovation [00:13:25] So the word and I mean, I think you and I have mentioned the word innovation, like at least a hundred times at this point and the word innovation is a buzz word. That's often overused. What are the characteristics of a true innovation?
Abdulmohsen: So, okay. So innovation is new value in new ways. Many people have tried to like define it in different ways. Many people have tried to express it in different ways. But ultimately you're bringing something new and providing new value along with it.
So there's this element of newness and an element of utility to it. So this other word that gets, you know, incorporated with innovation is creativity. And so people tend to mix it up. the general difference between the two is innovation solve. The problem. Creativity does not necessarily have to solve a problem.
Difference between innovation and invention [00:14:05]Aziz: Okay. And, kind of, I think, I know in other words, it gets confused with innovation is invention. What's the difference between innovation and invention.
Abdulmohsen: Okay, good question. So invention is you proving or utility. Okay. So invention is proving the utility of something. So think about patents, right? We've proven, you know we've made the patent for folding screens, let's say folding mobile phone screens. You're proving the utility of something. Innovation is when, you know, you tie it to a business model.
So they've already invented folding phones, , but as at the right time now for a market to be there, the people really want it. If they do, then that's when it becomes
Aziz:
Okay. Okay. That makes sense. So it's all about kind of the timing and that's really important in making sure that your invention is innovative.
Are innovators born or made [00:14:46] Uh, Are innovators born or are they self-made through their own efforts?
Abdulmohsen: They're definitely not born. That's not the way I see it. They're definitely shaped form. That's definitely a skill set. So this is actually what I teach and what I coach on is help individuals become better innovators through, you know, learning the skills of how do I find a, an opportunity?
How do I test an idea? And then eventually, how do I communicate it? I think those are the three core skills that you know, of the innovator and those are definitely skills that you can develop over time.
Skills of good innovators [00:15:15] Aziz: And what are these skills and best practices that are commonly utilized, utilized by innovative people? I mean, you just mentioned a couple, but are there a list of them or is it common between Elon Musk and Tony stark or, or what.
Abdulmohsen: So. You know, th th th different people have different like aptitudes or different capabilities. And I think it's not like this magical formula that you need to have, you know, 70% of communication, 20% of testing it. It's not like that.
But general idea of being inquisitive, being this person that wants to question what is, is definitely something that's helpful being the person that knows how to communicate a new ideas, also very important because no matter how innovative your idea is, if you don't know how to communicate it a T to your customer, B to your own employees C to your partners D to your let's say investors, then, you know, you're going to have a heart.
Brainstorming is BS [00:16:04]Aziz: And you're writing in your blog, which is a phenomenal blog, by the way. Well done. Most of those titles are like read it,
but you write in your blog.
About you write in your blog. That brainstorming is BS, which is a very provocative claim, especially since like we're taught to brainstorm in higher education and grad school and corporate seminars and leadership programs.
Abdulmohsen: I think it's a waste of time. If you're looking for innovative ideas, it's a waste of time. I think the reason it became popular is because these innovation gurus right. They need to sell their training and, the best way to like visualize the process is to do brainstorming and get all these sticky notes and stick them on to walls and things and, take beautiful pictures for Instagram.
Innovative ideas are found. They are not thought up, right? So you're not sitting in this all glass room, trying to think up you know, an innovative idea. The innovative idea comes as you're having an interview with someone, as you're talking to someone as you're out there, you know noticing patterns or looking at how people behave or how people use something.
Brainstorming is great if you're looking for creative ideas, but if you're looking to, be different because you're solving a new problem or a different problem, or finding a new understanding of a problem, then you know, don't put yourself in an all glass room and try to, you know, come up with something
here's something to back it up because I know people love statistics, right? So there's a study by a capture of where serial entrepreneurs found their ideas. Right? Only 3% of serial entrepreneurs got their ideas from brainstorming.
Let's look at the, the other statistics here. 23% of their ideas came from scratch your own itch. 41% came from industry expertise.
Here's what this tells me, scratch your own itch means I've been living this problem. I am the customer. I know what's happening. So it's like I'm living and breathing the context of the problem. And so as I'm living the problem, that's until I get to a point where I'm saying, why is this this way? Right? and then the problems start. Then the idea starts shaping, right? It's not brainstorming, you're living in the context of the problem.
other aspect here is, you know, 41% of them found their ideas from industry expertise. Again, this is not thinking up ideas, you know, you're finding them.
Aziz: It kind of makes me feel like I've been doing a lot of things are maybe I've misunderstood things and practicing them in a, in a, maybe not so efficient way
And I love how passionate you were about all of that. And, you know, it seems to me that you're a passionate person in general, right? Whether it would be being a father and employee in the oil and gas sector and entrepreneur and innovation strategist, all four of those hats require an intense amount of attention.
How do u manage ur time [00:18:46] How do you manage your time
Abdulmohsen: You're calling me out here. I wouldn't say I'm successful with these. It's a, it's a continuous struggle. One thing you know, a mindset shift that has worked for me is I no longer view, you know, balancing all of those things on a daily basis. Right. At minimum I see it on a weekly basis. So in a day, right, it could be an entirely spent with family.
I wouldn't say like, why didn't I work on a project today? Why wasn't I productive today? Right. So I don't see it on a daily basis. I see it at a minimum on a weekly basis, like on a weekly basis. I want to spend time with family. I want to exercise. I want to spend time on this project, second project, third project.
And on my day job, like if I balance all those on a weekly basis, then I'm fine, but I'm not going to stress over trying to balance these on a daily basis.
Aziz: Hmm. Okay. That's a really good way to see it
you know? So I really liked the idea of kind of giving yourself as much Slack as possible. Right. So that you can live life and understand that, you know? Sure. Today my priority is entrepreneurial decisions and then tomorrow it will be raising my son. Right. you know? So
imagine that many entrepreneurs like yourself balance a full-time job and a startup. What factors would contribute to you?
Making the leap of faith [00:19:55] Making the leap of faith from being an employee and an entrepreneur to just being a full-time entrepreneur.
Abdulmohsen: So, let's say about five years ago, I heard a guy called Mark Asquith, say something along the lines of, I want to get to a point where I can take my kids to, and from school without someone somewhere or bus or whatever, telling me I can't, because I gotta be somewhere else that I, that doesn't matter to me, something along those lines.
And so the way I saw it was very binary, right. It created that hatred for the job that I currently have. But I slowly stepped away from that from thinking about it that way because it doesn't necessarily need to be binary. Right. And if I think about it, a lot of the projects that I lead are actually funded by my salary.
So if I didn't have that, I would never be in the position I am today. Right and so I've changed sort of my view on things and the way I see it right now is I need to at least have some form of traction for me to consider leaving my day job I think six months worth of expenses. And my bank account as, as, as a must.
I think we've, we've, we've seen, you know, some entrepreneurs unfortunately had to close shop because they didn't have you know, enough runway with that. And that's definitely a difficult time, especially in with Corona and everything.
And I just feel like if, you know, whenever my day job becomes an obstacle to growing my projects, I think that's when
you know with my first business with middle Lake what I realized afterwards is I wasn't actually managing the business. I was actually employing myself in my business and that's like, let's say a one-on-one, you know business no-no is, you design a business, you create a business to manage it, not to employ yourself in it. And so many, many entrepreneurs that do balance a day job tend to think that there's not enough time for me to practice my passion or launch a business. And I'd actually challenged that by saying, you know, maybe you're actually designing a business where you're employed in it, not a business that you're managing.
Difference between employing yourself vs managing [00:21:41]Aziz: Phenomenal. I've never really owned a business and so I, I wouldn't really understood stand the difference between managing a business and employing yourself in the business. What are some of the differences between the two
Abdulmohsen: so every startup I feel like has, let's say a strategic aspect to it and a managerial aspect to it. And when tasks become recurring tasks, things that need to be done on a daily basis, things that need to be done on a weekly basis whenever you're you find yourself doing those sorts of things, especially the daily tasks, that's when you start thinking about, okay, maybe I am employed in my own, uh, in my own business, and not actually managing it.
Now I say this with like a huge asterisk next to it, because different businesses come in different shapes and forms. So if your business is, you know, you're a content creator, or let's say an audience first business, so you have to create content. That's definitely a task that you have to do on a daily basis.
Um, Technically yeah, you've employed yourself but it's just the dynamics of that type of business that makes it so that,
Important message to the audience [00:22:43]
Aziz: Phenomenal. What's an important message that you want our audience take away from our discussion.
Abdulmohsen: I'd say play the cards you've been dealt in life, right? Your situation is totally different. Totally unique. And so what I'd say is learn from people, teaching you how to think, not from people telling you what to do.
So for example, there's this thing about, you know, quit your day job. Don't quit your day job. Right?
I think both pieces of advice are irrelevant and they're dangerous. I think a better way is to say, you know, here's how you should think about it. here's how to mitigate the risk. Here are some factors that play a role making that decision.
You know, anybody that's teaching you, how to think as someone that you should be listening to, anyone that's telling you exactly what to do, take it with a grain of salt. And, and the reason being as I, as I mentioned is because, you're born into your own situation.
You have your own, unique set of circumstances. you can't be taking decisions that exactly you can't be taking exact decisions as the other person next to you.
Aziz: That's really cool. You know, I think, honestly, there's a generation of people that just want to be told what to do. So I feel like a lot of people just find it very convenient. If you tell, just tell them what to do and they'll mindlessly act on your instructions.
Abdulmohsen: I think that's why, you know the most popular articles are like 10 ways. You can do this
Aziz: Exactly,
exactly, exactly. Exactly. So
How to push ourselves [00:23:58]how can our audience members or our listeners develop will to want to push themselves and do things in a, in a creative way?
Abdulmohsen: I th I think give yourself the opportunity and space to experiment and test out things. Especially when it comes to, you know, startups, building products and things like that. One thing I'd suggest is, you know, Don't think of whatever it is you're doing at the beginning as a business that comes with a lot of baggage.
Think about it. As you know, you're experimenting, you're just testing things out, whatever you put yourself in that mindset, you've already set yourself up, with zero expectations from yourself and also from the people around you, you know, I'm just experimenting, I'm just testing things out.
I want to see what's happening. Right. And if you find yourself like investing, starting to invest time and money on it, advanced it to being a project, this experiment is now a project, it still doesn't have that baggage that comes with, you know, I'm, I'm working on my business, I'm starting a business.
And then, if it fails, then you want to shy away from, you know, mentioning it. You just want it to fade into obscurity. But, but yeah. So just start with, you know, I'm experimenting now. It's, a project that I'm investing time and money on, and then it could become a business.
Aziz: Phenomenal
thank you for joining the dialogue for sharing your insights and for satiating our curiosities. I appreciate you, man.
Abdulmohsen: Thank you so much for the platform. Thank you for the opportunity and for your time.