The Toy That Defies Gravity -- and Naysayers

When you pursue a great idea, one of your biggest challenges will be to outlast the the critics always eager to tell you why something won't work.

Just imagine the opposition you would encounter to a remote controlled toy car that can drive up walls and across ceilings. The "secret" in the car is the high-speed fan that creates a stickiness vacuum. Well, that just will never work as a toy because:

• It's never been done before.
• It can't be made cheaply enough for mass manufacture.
• Who wants car tracks up the wall?
• Warranty problems if it falls off the wall and breaks.
• Liability problems if it falls off the ceiling and conks grandpa.

Staying power is one of the key attributes that innovators must posses, Spin Master's CEO and co-founder Ronnen Harary tells Julia Kirby. As Kirby observes in a recent post on HBR.org:

Organizations have a depressing tendency to want to move on as soon as the going gets tough for a project, and when tempting new ideas beckon. Harary listed all the roadblocks that can make a team lose momentum: "getting the item to come in at cost, the item not working like you expect it to, competitors trying to knock your concept off, people telling you the item simply won't be commercially viable ..." The antsiness that results isn't unique to people who work with toys. It's hard, but imperative, for any new product developer "to stick to your vision, be financially committed to it, and ignore the naysayers."

Kirby's full post, Finding Innovation Under the Tree, is worth your attention, especially for Harary's description of the moment of truth when he knows a toy is commercially viable.

Here's a video review of the toy when it debuted in 2008.