UBER and The Penguins

The below clip from a 1960s black and white Egyptian movie piqued my interest. The rebellious teenager played by the brilliant Ahmed Ramzi seems to have conceived an Uber-like solution using good old-fashioned telephones decades before the multi-billion dollar startup founded. The teenager is instantly reprimanded by his older brother over the dinner table for advertising the family home’s phone number and exploiting it for commercial gain. The young inventor is threatened to fix the situation or face dire consequences. It seems sometimes the best ideas are dismissed because of who they come from…

https://youtu.be/umTxjnsxerI

I had a similar experience a couple of years back when trying to unearth the origins of the Ski Dubai Penguin idea. A comprehensive search of my inboxes resulted in a rather unexpected message from 2007, the year I joined the company. The message read “Congratulations on joining Majid Al Futtaim. I noticed that Ski Dubai is part of the company and there are very few natural animal attractions in Dubai. Have they considered brining penguins to Ski Dubai?” To add insult to injury, the message was from none other than my dear wife. Luckily, the penguin idea resurfaced years later from a completely different source and was an instant hit once implemented.

UBER and The Penguins are good examples of messenger or context bias, where great ideas are quickly dismissed because they are brought forward by an unlikely messengers and/or in an unusual context. Perhaps the infamous “don’t shoot (or blame) the messenger” proverb should be rewritten to encourage everyone to listen carefully to messages, especially from spouses!

More practically, in the workplace a good first step is to be aware of your own biases, schedule regular listening sessions with colleagues you don't usually interact with and start practicing mindfulness. We call this the "be here now" mindset at Majid Al Futtaim.