Mr. Innovation

I have been thinking of the best way to describe the man I married in terms of his creative mind and ability to see the big picture, without it coming out like a starry-eyed bride! And thought I would take the opportunity here (between Dick's blogs on Motel 6) to tell you of some of the other things I have heard him come up with.

We did a lot of traveling from motel to motel and looking at sites, etc. throughout the years and Dick would talk a lot about various ideas he had for business he thought would be successful. The first one I remember, right at the beginning of our relationship, was his plans for a 'mom and pop' operation - a corner store that would sell the pickup items that people wanted in a hurry and didn't want to be bothered going into a big store. You know, one that was more convenient! It was less than two years later that Seven-Eleven started up.

Then there was the idea to have a place where people could take their cars for a quick change of oil and a lube job. He had it designed so that the people drove the car in (like going through a car wash) and it would go over an area where the people would work under the cars from the pit and do the job in rapid time. Just imagine. What! Jiffy Lube opened up a couple of years later.

We already told you of his revolutionary approach to motel accounting - that encompassed accounts receivable and accounts payable (i.e. advance reservations) into one system that balanced on a daily basis. NCR got that one and it became the standard way motel accounting was done.

For thirty-odd years, he has played with the concept of fuel efficiency in cars based on various ways to 'store' the power on braking and 'releasing' it on take off. We read the other day that Lincoln is putting the system into their new cars.

And so it goes on...........just imagine if he had patented a few of these!

Have to be honest though - he did miss a few. Like MacDonalds - his first trip into one of these brought forth the statement "This will never go with the American public. There is no way they will pay for a hamburger in advance"!.

I said the same things about specialty coffee - "It's just a fad - it'll fizzle in a year" - and I don't have the other things to offset mine...................