Unexpected Interest: Turn Failure to Success

Shortly after World War II, a small Indian engineering firm bought the license to produce a European-designed bicycle with an auxiliary light engine. It looked like an ideal product for India; yet it never did well.

The owner of this small firm noticed, however, that substantial orders came in for the engines alone. At first, he wanted to turn down those orders; what could anyone possibly do with such a small engine?

It was curiosity alone that made him go to the actual area the orders came from. There he found farmers who were taking the engines off the bicycles and using them to power irrigation pumps that hitherto had been hand-operated.

This manufacturer is now the world's largest maker of small irrigation pumps, selling them by the millions. His pumps have revolutionised farming all over South East Asia

Source: The New Venture, (Chapter 11 of "The Essential Drucker", Page 147)