Most of us have two kinds of screwdriver at home, a standard type (the head looks like a minus sign) and a Phillips (the head looks like a plus sign).
Why is that?
Originally all screw-heads were just a simple straight slot. But in 1932 John Thompson invented a better system, the cross-head screw and screwdriver.
But if Thompson invented it, why isn’t it named after him, why isn’t it called a Thompson Screwdriver?
It’s because Thompson had no idea how to market it.
Thompson knew his cross-head system was better, his screwdriver didn’t keep slipping out of the slot. So he invented a much better system, the problem was nobody needed it.
His cross-head was a better design. But it was an answer to a question no one had asked.
Ordinary people had no use for it because everything they owned was made with ordinary screws.
So Thompson sold the patent to Henry Phillips.
Phillips was a businessman, he thought upstream of the problem.
He saw the possibility wasn’t about ordinary people choosing to use cross-head screws, the possibility was machines using cross-head screws.
By the 1930s everything was being made on production lines with power tools.
Standard screws had to be fixed by hand because machines couldn’t fix standard screws, so there was a need for a new system.
The cross-head screwdriver had a pointed tip. That made it self-centring, so a machine could position it easily, it was perfect for assembly-line power tools.
Henry Phillips didn’t try to sell it to consumers, he went upstream and talked to manufacturers.
First he persuaded General Motors to use his screw-system to make Cadillacs.
Then he made sure everyone knew Cadillac used his screws.
Next, and this was the brilliant part, instead of trying to manufacture the screws himself, he sold the licensing rights to every business willing to pay.
Within five years, 88% of American screw manufacturers were paying Henry Phillips to use his screws.
He saw that owning a little of a lot is worth more than owning a lot of a little.
Virtually every machine-made product in America soon used Phillips screws, which meant that anyone wanting to repair them at home would need to buy Phillips screwdrivers.
The insight was in not trying to sell Phillips screws to consumers, but in letting someone else build the market for him.
By letting every manufacturer pay him for the rights to make the screws, Phillips created a market far bigger than he could have supplied on his own.
He understood you can’t always find a demand for your supply, and you can’t supply a demand that doesn’t exist.
Sometimes you have to imagine a problem that needs the solution you’ve got.
In a case like that you have to create a demand, which is what Henry Phillips did.
He went upstream of the consumer. He went to the manufacturer.
The learning for us is you don’t need to be limited by the market that exists.
You think upstream and imagine something that doesn’t exist yet.
Steve Jobs liked to quote Henry Ford about thinking upstream:
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Few weeks ago, the Robertson screwdriver popped online
Neer heard of or seen it
Robertson screw—also known as a square-drive or Scrulox screw—features a square-shaped socket in its head and a matching tapered square driver. Invented in Canada in 1908 by Peter L. Robertson, it is famous for resisting slip and cam-out, self-centering on the bit, and holding onto the driver without being held.