Lack Of Resources Creates Innovation

By Cheval John

Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles

We often think that it is important to have all the resources to be successful.

It is true that resources like money is what makes things go.

Whether it is running a business, an organization, a university, etc., we believe that having more resources will make everything easier.

We think that if we have more money, we can make a great impact on the world.

Sometimes it is better to have less money/resources because it will make you think of creative ways to get work done.

You will have innovative ideas on making something better and in the process disrupt an entire industry.

Here are two examples of people/organizations who were innovative with their ideas and showed everyone that you can make something out of nothing.

Next week Thursday, I will share two more examples of people/organizations who are making something out of nothing.

1. London Heathrow Airport.

When travelers pass through London Heathrow Airport, they get a chance to see a glimpse of the innovative culture of the British people.

In a sense, Heathrow represents the ingenuity of the United Kingdom.

What I mean is that Heathrow only has two runways.

Yet, they have found a way to keep themselves relevant with the rest of the world.

Heathrow has served over 73.4 million passengers in 2014, making it one of the busiest airports in the world and the busiest in Europe.

The second busiest airport in Europe, Paris Charles De Gaulle, handled over 63 million passengers despite having four runways.

You might think that an airport that has a lot of space and a lot more runways should be able to handle more traffic.

To a large degree, it is the case.

However, Heathrow has proven that they are capable of handling more with less.

They basically went with the build as you go approach.

When they saw the wave of the jet age in the 50s and 60s, they modified their runways and build the terminals large enough to handle the large jets.

They kept at it when the bigger jets like the 747s came into existence in the late 60s/early 70s and added more terminals to accomodate them.

With four terminals already in operations, they saw that the airport was facing overcapacity.

So they added the fifth terminal, which allowed them to handle more passengers even with two runways.

You might still wonder how they get all of the jets in and out safely without any delays.

If you ever flew into Heathrow, you might have noticed that the plane was circling around before they landed.

You might wonder why they do that?

That is where it gets interesting.

Your plane was circle around because they were in a “holding pattern”

While the plane was in a holding pattern, air traffic controllers were trying to put the smaller planes behind each other in one taxi-way and the bigger jets behind each other because they wanted to gain them more space.

If a smaller jet is behind the bigger jet and it takes off, the smaller jet will probably have to wait for about a minute or two before they can take off.

Once they get the planes in the right spot, then the air traffic controllers gives the pilots permission to land.

That is how Heathrow has managed to remain relevant and be the airport that connects the world one flight at a time.

Billy Bean and the Oakland Athletics

Major League Baseball has grown into a 9 billion dollar industry.

With that type of money, baseball players will want a piece of the pie.

The really good players will be able to command the high multi-million dollar contracts.

With that being said, a team would have to be able to afford the really great players if they want to compete.

And the teams with the highest payrolls, mainly the large market teams (New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs) are the ones who get those types of “elite” players.

The ones who are in the bottom don’t have that chance to gain the “elite” players.

Most of the time, it does not put the smaller market teams in a disadvantage because they develop the players in their farm system to get them ready for the big leagues.

And most of the time, the small market teams moves further in the playoffs.

Example of this was the Kansas City Royals, who went to the World Series last year and lost in seven games to the San Francisco Giants.

But I want to focus on the Oakland Athletics, who made the playoffs from 2000-2003 under general manager Billy Beane.

The Athletics are consistently ranked in the bottom half of the MLB payroll.

However, Beane was very innovative in finding the right players for the team that fit the system of the Athletics.

As a result, the Athletics were able to make four consecutive playoffs in the early 2000s.

Amidst that run, Oakland became the first American League team in a century to win 20 consecutive games in 2002 and eventually won their division.

Beane’s innovation as a general manager caught the attention of national media and Hollywood with the movie, “Moneyball.”

One can guess that many small market teams like the Royals are following Beane’s approach to running a franchise with a much lower payroll.

So if you have the not-enough blues, do not complain because the lack of resources is an opportunity for you to be creative in getting your work finished effectively.

Videos courtesy of Rachel Matt and Major League Baseball, respectively