3 times simple ideas became big successes

One of the biggest mistakes to be made in business is overlooking or discounting seemingly small ideas. When strategic thinking is applied to a small idea, it can grow into a hugely profitable enterprise. 3Cube Property Solutions has put together a list of three simple ideas that took the world by storm and created enormous wealth for their founders.

Simple idea 1: Bringing books (and later, just about anything) directly to customers

Perhaps the ultimate story of how a seemingly simple idea became phenomenally lucrative is the origins of Amazon. In the mid-1990s, Wall Street employee Jeff Bezos decided to start his own company, and he launched an online bookstore. The idea was revolutionary for its time, and the company's success story is well known, with Amazon now being a purveyor of everything from beauty and fitness products to electronics, shipping container houses and, of course, books. 

Amazon may have started small, but Bezos's dreams were always big. His vision was of a company that simplified online transactions - and the first step in this journey was a business model in which customers' orders would be delivered to the address of their choice, anywhere in the world. To say that this idea has proved lucrative would be an understatement. In 2018, Amazon was hot on Apple's heels to become the second trillion-dollar company.

Simple idea 2: Starting a hotel empire without any real estate

The Airbnb story is another fantastic example of how a simple idea can become incredibly lucrative. The idea of having what is essentially a hotel empire without owning a single building is ingenious, and it was born in late 2007. Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were unemployed and struggling to pay their rent in San Francisco. What we know today as Airbnb started because the two strategic thinkers noticed that all the hotels in the city were booked out due to a conference. After a quick purchase of some air mattresses, they put together a site which was initially called "Air Bed and Breakfast", and $80 was charged for a night's sleep on one of the air mattresses. 

Their journey to success was not without challenges, but over the years, Chesky and Gebbia's simple idea has led to remarkable wealth. To illustrate this, it was reported in December 2020 that Brian Chesky's fortune could be worth over $11 billion.

Simple idea 3: Revolutionising internal communications by developing a specialised app

As any employee of a company that uses Slack will tell you, internal communication is made more efficient and speedier thanks to this app. While many chat applications existed before Slack came along, Slack is tailored to work environments, with a variety of features that includes the ability to have one-on-one conversations or group chats. Designed to facilitate effective internal communications, Slack is described by one blogger as "the $16 billion business that makes work less boring." The ironic part of Slack's success is that founder Stewart Butterfield and his team had set out to create a tool for online roleplaying gamers, but instead ended up revolutionising the world of work. 

In late 2020, Slack was sold to Salesforce for $27.7 billion, making it one of the biggest tech mergers seen in recent years. Arguably the biggest "simple idea" that led to Slack's success was the founder's focus on customer feedback. An integral part of their development process involved asking friends at other companies to try out the programme and provide their feedback.

What starts as a small idea can turn into a massive success for any company. If your company is looking for the right premises in which to grow today's small idea into tomorrow's empire in Gauteng, contact 3Cube Property Solutions today.