I Met the Man Who Invented the Cheese Slicer!

Thursday April 24, 2008 at 7:00pm in BMU 210, I had the opportunity to meet Jim Davis, one of the co-inventors of the cheese slicer.  I’m sure your thinking, “cheese slicer, huh.”  I thought the same thing, but upon listening to this presentation I learned that, Jim did not come to talk to us about the cheese slicer, but rather the journey that he has experienced and the steps necessary in becoming a successful Entrepreneur.  Jim introduced us to the 10 commandments of Product Development.

Before discussing the commandments, it is probably necessary to define what is an entrepreneur?  An entrepreneur is someone who has perseverance, and always has the solution, it may not be the absolutely right one but he/she will most certainly always have one.  An Entrepreneur always wants to win the most, wants to make lots of money, and will never quit.  So what are the commandments of developing a new product?

1.      Thou Shalt Identify a Need- An old proverb stated necessity is the mother of invention- identifying a need.

2.      Thou Shalt Brainstorm- No laughing- all ideas are good ideas; refine ideas to be all that they can be.

3.      Thou Shalt make a Prototype- crude approximation is sufficient, think through the production process is it feasible.

4.      Thou Shalt Honestly Critique thy concept- you need real world feedback, talk to trusted colleagues and tell them, it’s okay to hurt your feelings.  Don’t fall in love with your product, its probably going to go through some changes.

5.      Thou Shalt watch thy costs- don’t make developing it more expensive then it’s worth.

6.      Thou Shalt Refine thy Design- Design to a target cost, and find ways to minimize costs.  Optimize the design performance, and ask if it can be redesigned for easier manufacturing?

7.      Thou Shalt protect thy Design- Can it be patented, copyrighted, or trademarked?  Patenting gives you a head start on your competitors.  The cost to protect your product may also be less then you think.

8.      Thou Shalt Package the Product- the packaging must sell the product without sales assistance, professional photography is a must.  It must also provide physical protection of the product, as well as supporting retailer’s sales presentations.

9.      Thou Shalt Prepare to Ship- Are there shipping issues? What must the strength of the shipping container be for the delicateness of the product? How does it Ship?

10.  Thou Shalt Freeze thy design- You’re in production NOW! where will production be? Can it be subcontracted? Are you exporting jobs?  DON’T OVER-PERFECT THE DESIGN.

Although these commandments may seem fairly straight forward it was Jim’s ability to bring the entire process of developing a product to reality with his personal experience while developing the Cheese Slicer.  Working for such a long period of time he was able to bring a great variety of knowledge and stories to share with us.