This is Part One of a series. To continue directly to other parts, click the links below. Otherwise, continue ahead and enjoy!
- Part Two: “Emotional Intelligence Determines Outcomes,” click here.
- Part Three: “Disruptive Innovation: How to Decide If You Want One,” click here.
- Part Four: “How Successful Innovators Share Power With Investors,” click here.
Mark my words. When the story about Ditmar Gorges and Falcon Waterfree Technologies gets out you will see it as required reading in MBA courses and as a case study at universities that teach case study methods in their business schools. It should also be required reading for every engineer. I hope my blog can contribute to that visibility at least in a small way.
Ditmar’s story reads like a made-for-TV-movie for innovators.
Ditmar, a German engineer, arrives in Los Angeles in the late 1980s and hears the Mayor request everyone not to flush toilets at night to conserve water. Shocked by the request, he goes to OctoberFest and drinks beer, which is what everyone does when they are trying not to go to the bathroom, right? He begins to chat with other German engineers about designing a urinal that would conserve water - while he’s drinking the beer (I personally find this part funny). The conversation becomes an interest, the interest becomes research and blooms into a consuming passion for change. Prototypes of a waterless urinal are made and remade over and over again. Years pass, trial and error continues. The original band of brothers breaks up, and Ditmar does the engineering equivalent of a solo album. Ditmar finally invents the ultimate waterless urinal but the government construction codes for public health are outdated and present a barrier to its mainstream adoption.
Armed with passion, facts and a urinal, Ditmar takes on unions, municipalities, state and federal government agencies. He is challenged by naysayers, protectors of the status quo and those who say it just cannot be done. Worse, he’s challenged by those who don’t care either way. To them it is just a gizmo of no value.
Nearly eleven years after the Octoberfest brainstorm, Ditmar gives a presentation to group of skeptics who all but heckle him like a bad comic as he is setting up his presentation. By the end, they are asking when he is going public. because they want to buy his stock. The laws and codes begin to change in his favor. His passion before the highest authorities - and his results - work.
Three years later, in 2000, more skeptics are converted to the cause, and it is time to really put a formal company together and take this to the world. Enter Marc Nathanson. Marc has just sold his communications company to Paul Allen’s Charter Communications (Today, Marc serves as Vice-Chairman of Charter). Marc makes Falcon Waterfree Technologies the first investment he makes with the proceeds of his corporate sale. But the story doesn’t end there. Marc becomes an evangelist of sorts for the urinal. He calls on restaurants, makes sales and uses his network of vast connections to get others at all levels involved.
Now I have to stop and ask you, when you imagine selling your company to THE Paul Allen, how many of you envision yourself selling urinals to restaurants as your next gig? Show of hands, please. None? That’s what I thought.
Put yourself in Ditmar’s shoes and fast-forward another eight years post-investment. It is now present day, 2008. Your invention can be found in prestigious venues around the globe from the Rose Bowl in California to the Taj Mahal in India. Many of the government agencies that once derided you now offer compensation to every building owner who retrofits their old urinals with a Falcon Waterfree urinal. Large restaurant chains and shopping malls now mandate the use of your invention. Al Gore is on your advisory board (remember, he won the Nobel Prize for his environmental work). Your invention is not only accepted, it is embraced and preferred as the new standard.
If innovators could write bedtime stories for their small children, this one would come with its own song, matching pajamas and a pop-up book.
For those of you wondering whether there is any dignity in urinal inventions, the answer is absolutely! Just one urinal in an average location - not a high traffic area like a mall, but a lighter traffic environment - saves over 6 tanker trucks per year of water. The high traffic areas realize even much larger savings. In countries where fresh water is a treasured resource, this means more available water for families and hospitals. As a part of our overall environmental responsibility, this is a critical tool. Ditmar reports being well-thanked and well-respected for his contribution to society, especially in places like his home in the Philippines, where the invention is used widely.
If you are in Beijing for the Olympics, you may have used one of the 165 Falcon Waterfree temporary urinals placed throughout the Olympic Village.
This is the basic story, but there is much more to glean from Ditmar’s journey. Its not just what he invented. Its also how he managed the challenges over a long period of time. Its how he attracted top shelf people and what they did - and still do - together as a team. And it is too much to capture in one post.
Consider this post the introduction. For the next several days, I am going to write a new post each day about the underlying lessons we can all learn from Ditmar and Marc and their team. I invite you to listen to the podcast of the entire interview too and chime in with your own insights.
And ladies, you won’t want to miss the new announcement: a urinal for you may be coming to a restroom near you soon! You want to help the environment too, right? Here’s your chance.
Enjoy the podcast here
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Interview with Ditmar Gorges of Falcon Waterfree (38.7 MiB, 146 hits)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
David Parsons 11.04.08 at 8:48 am
Hi Shane.
I loved your illuminating post on the type of sustained motivation required to see a new invention through to acceptance in the marketplace. In this piece you related the story of Ditmar Georges and his waterless urinal.
Over the past thirty years or so I have been looking at human motivation especially as it relates to entrepreneurs and innovators.
What I found out might shock some of your readers. You know that healthy positive attitude we’ve all been taught to foster within ourselves since day one? The one that they say determines our “altitude”?
What if it’s all wrong?
Do you know what would happen to you if every positive (as well as negative) attitude you’ve ever held we’re put into a sack, had a cement block tied to it, and then was unceremoniously thrown off a ship at the deepest point of the ocean?
Well, with all that extraneous weight off your shoulders you’d probably feel pretty good that’s what. And you’d be in a better position to give a guy like Ditmar a run for his money. Because with all your attitudes buried way down in the drink all you’d have left is what you had as a very young child.
Your positive nature.
Now I’ve never met Mr. Georges but I’ll bet tomorrow’s breakfast that the way he looks at things isn’t through the rose colored lens of a positive attitude. That would require a lot of work. Besides, he doesn’t need to. He has learned (even though he may not be aware of it) that his motivation is mostly being derived from his positive nature. There’s a world of difference between the two.
What’s the difference?
Well, I could write a book on that (in fact that’s what I’m doing right now) but for the sake of brevity let’s just hear how each of these two sources of motivation talk:
Positive attitude says: “I’m going to do this because I want to be a success and it will be great!”
Positive nature says: “I will do this because I must.”
See the difference?
Which one do you think would be the most durable when faced with obstacle after obstacle during the long painful process from inspiration to innovation?
Not sure?
Just ask Ditmar.
[Reply]
Shane Lashley 11.04.08 at 11:16 pm
David,
Thanks for the great insight and congratulations on the launch of your blog. Looks promising.
My experience working with innovators supports your conclusions. Regardless of why someone innovates, if their motivations don’t run deep neither will their ability to overcome adversity that is certain to come along at some point. In my interview with Ditmar, he was driven by a dream or a cause that is much larger than himself. It isn’t urinals either. It is water scarcity and water accessibility. The urinal is just a means to an end for him. It is his medium the same way every artist has their medium, be it art, music, poetry, etc.
It has been my observation that those innovators who are pursuing a much larger vision than their invention tend to have more staying power during times of adversity. Those who invent to grow rich tend to view their innovations as more disposable when adversity arrives.
[Reply]