There’s no single right way to innovate, but a flash of creative genius never hurts. You know you’ve found a truly great solution when your customers cry “My God, why didn’t I think of that?!!”
That’s exactly what I said when I saw this video:
If you’re a fan of Mexican food, like me, you know the problem – tacos fall over. An irritating and extremely common problem. One faced by what, a few hundred million consumers of crispy-shell tacos over the last few decades? That’s a pretty long time to put up with an in-your-face problem, no?
Finally, Old El Paso, a unit of General Mills, finds a solution – a flat-bottomed taco shell! Elegantly simple. Totally effective. Completely intuitive. Pure genius. (And yes, patent pending.)
OK, so how does this relate to travel? It’s inspiration – proof positive of the potential for brilliantly solving vexing problems.
Too many websites to search? Hello, Kayak. Don’t like keeping track of your travel confirmations? Howdy, TripIt. Don’t like seeing “Flight Delayed” just before you board a plane? Hola’, FlightCaster.
There’s no end of problems in the travel industry. We just have to figure out how to translate “What if it had a flat bottom?” into travel-speak.
Buena suerte!
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Gillespie's Guide to Travel Innovation 
Please do not ever show this to anyone in the airline industry. I fear that instead of inspiration to innovate, they may take it on face value and try to stand & stuff more passengers into planes…
Well, now that you mention it, the two guys named on the stand & stuff patent app are from the Minneapolis area. Let’s hope they’re not moonlighting for Delta!
My favorite examples: how long did it take someone to realize that vans could have sliding doors on both sides? And for travel — the wheel whas invented, let’s say, around 4,000 BC, but it took us another 5,980 or so years to put wheels on our luggage.
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