On the surface this seems like a very elegant statement. Companies pay for results and employees deliver results.In turn, companies give workers the freedom to do their job in the way that works best for them. As long as the results are delivered every one is happy.

I think the difficulty with ROWE is in the implementation. Cali Ressler and Jodi Thompson have written an book about the program called “Why Work Sucks.” The book discusses some of the mental roadblocks to a ROWE mindset but is light on important issues like setting the “outcomes” for the first time and how to avoid being given too much work. The two authors left Best Buy and created their own consulting firm that sells implementation kits.

OTB only offers one product per category.

Have you ever walked into a consumer electronics store only to be overwhelmed by all of the choices?

I have.

You want to spend your money wisely.  But,  this sea of products seems to ensure you can never be certain about your purchase.  If you’re like me, you probably walk away from your purchasing experience frustrated.

Research tells us that in order to compensate for vast array of choices the average consumer now spends 12 hours researching online for each consumer electronics purchase.

OTB is a retail website that sells a single best-in-category product in popular consumer electronics categories. By researching and selecting only the best products, OTB guarantees consumers will make a great purchase.

For example if you visit the OTB website looking for a digital camera, the only camera you’ll find is the Canon PowerShot SD1100. OTB has done the research for you. All you do is click buy.

In addition OTB will build strong relationships with it’s consumers by providing the most comprehensive information on our products and suggesting complementary products. These additional services will
ensure that OTB continues to provide value to the consumer even after the purchase.

What do you think?

So, there is the core of my business idea. Let me know what you think in the comments. We’ll look at some of the numbers supporting the concept in the next post.

• Something I’m interested in
• Something I know how to do (or at least have a clue about)
• Something that people will pay for

In the end I settled on an e-commerce website that sells consumer electronics. I’ve always been interested in gadgets and gizmos so consumer electronics matched that interest. A large part of my current job can be categorised as “web stuff”. While my skills are much more refined on the marketing and content side, I understand the programming side enough to be dangerous. So, creating an e-commerce website isn’t too much of a stretch for the something I know how to do category. In order to figure out something people would pay for I needed to find a good angle about purchasing consumer electronics. We’ll explore that in the next post.

Well a few weeks ago they decided they were wrong and revised the fuel supplement. Now people who booked their cruise before the fuel supplement was added will not be billed for the supplement.

It took too long but in the end you did the right thing Royal Caribbean.

I offer this suggestion. Be completely transparent about your company’s spending including how much everyone is paid. Post it all online for any employee that wants to look. This does mean that you will have to be able to justify expenses and salaries but if you can’t justify it then it should probably be questioned anyway.

I previously worked at a company where sharing your salary information with a fellow employee was a fireable offense. Since then, I’ve wondered why this secrecy is necessary, other than it gives the company the upper hand in salary negotiations.

What do you think? Do you see potential pitfalls or problems?