While brainstorming new ideas and concepts to fill some of my free time with, I couldn’t help but think of the benefits behind leveraging existing products and materials in developing and creating brand new products. Charlie Munger, of Berkshire Hathaway fame, described throughout many of his notes the valuable potential in combining ideas from multiple fields into one super-product or experience; the so-called Lollapalooza effect. There is a MacGyver-esque aspect to repurposing existing equipment, devices, or software, particularly if one is able to make all of the pieces one is repurposing work together. This is both an exercise in resourcefulness as well as ingenuity.
With off-the-shelf components available at the speed of Amazon Prime delivery, it is now very easy to translate an idea to a tangible proof-of-concept within a relatively short amount of time. This allows one to determine both the feasibility of the proposed solution in resolving an existing need (most important) as well as the marketability. Having a functional prototype in place, based on existing parts, allows one to evolve and refine the solution very quickly and effectively. Further, the marketability space can easily be explored through the use of focus groups without the need to send a product “off to the presses.” In essence, what you have is ready-made prototyping.
Through the development of new products, based on existing off-the-shelf components, one may be able to identify new opportunities for arbitrage or reveal hidden pivot points of leverage. It may be possible to identify a product that could deliver value which it may not have provided otherwise. One such example is the repurposing of existing drugs for off-label use in treating seemingly unrelated diseases. Alternatively, while on the topic of pharmaceuticals, some companies have figured out that combining two active ingredients into one pill may be more potent than the individual parts on their own, providing consumers with a more effective medication while creating the pharmaceutical company a brand new revenue stream. The power of repurposing existing products can be witnessed throughout a number of industries.
The time-to-market may be minimized when being making use of off-the-shelf components. While 3D printing enjoyed a good ride through the Gartner Hype cycle several years ago, the use of 3D printers may be limited to prototyping. Quality 3D printers are expensive and getting your hands on off-the-shelf components for a set of prototyping sessions may be less expensive. Further, if you are only going to build only one or two concepts for a proof-of-concept feasibility study, the expense of a 3D printer may be prohibitive. This also ignores the cost (in time) of learning how to actually design, in Auto-CAD, the object(s) that would be sent to the 3D printer. This assumes that the materials necessary for your feasibility study could be created using a 3D printer. Once the designs are printed, one would need to outsource the manufacturing process. With off-the-shelf components, there may be no need to send anything towards the manufacturer; one might simply be able to sell a kit with all of the components necessary, along with the unifying instructions or technology.
In summary, depending on what field you may be in, it may be possible to unearth potentially ground-breaking, and possibly lucrative, ideas when making use of existing, off-the-shelf, components to develop and build new products. The time-to-market for such creative new solutions may be minimized as a consequence of eliminating the need for design and manufacturing. Further, new markets (and potentially new jobs) may be created as a result of re-purposing existing materials. I encourage you to explore clever ways of repurposing what is already out there.