Welcome back
In this session, we're going to talk about
how to come up with your new ideas
Simply, you cannot start your businesses without idea
But, real problem in this case is
you don't know and we don't know how to come up with new ideas
That's why, in this session, I want to introduce
very interesting and short method for new idea generation,
which is SCAMPER
Have you heard about the SCAMPER?
SCAMPER is brainstorming technique
used to generate new ideas by exploring different perspectives
SCAMPER stand for
Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Magnify
Put to other use
Eliminate
and R for Rearrange
There are how many perspectives?
There are 7 perspectives
Basically, we will generate new ideas
by exploring those seven perspectives
Let's begin with first perspective, which is Substitute
What is Substitute?
Substitute is something
that satisfies consumer's needs in a different way
For example, what is the substitute for the water?
It could be juice, milk, beer, or something
Substitute for the car
Different transportation, right?
Airplane, train, or you can take a walk
Those are substitutes for the car
So, substitute is
replacement of component, material, person, or method
with another to achieve improvement
You need to ask yourself,
what material or resource can I substitute or replace?
Or, can I change the rule of games?
Or, can I use a different person or process
to meet consumer's need?
These are all about questions
in substitute perspective
I want to give you an example
for the substitute perspective
Look at this picture
It is a scramble of egg
But these eggs ares not just real eggs
This egg is alternative egg
If you are vegan,
then, you might like this type of egg
because this egg is a plant-based egg
Totally substitute for real eggs
The company used a technology
and tried to produce these alternative eggs
So, this company has raised over $465 M outside funding
This company is valued at about $1.6B in 2025
This company became a unicorn company
Because of the principle of the substitute
Look at another example of substitute
You can see the graph
Graph illustrate Netflix is going up and Blockbuster is going down
For example, in 2009,
Blockbuster lost market leadership,
and later, in 2010, Blockbuster went bankrupt
What happened?
Blockbuster is a traditional video rental giant
Blockbuster had, at that time,
around 9,000 store all of the world
But Netflix was just a small startup
Netflix started this business with DVD by mail service
Then later, 2007,
Netflix introduced online technology, streaming service
Then, in 2009,
Netflix formally introduced this service to the market
What happened?
Blockbuster collapsed
Because after then,
consumers don't have to go outside to
rent out home videos
Instead, they can watch the movie at home
through the internet
Netflix is a really good substitute for the traditional video rental
That's why Netflix won, and Blockbuster failed
Let's move on to the next perspective, which is Combine
What do you mean by that?
You can combine different component,
then you can make new businesses
You merge two or more elements
to create synergy, efficiency, or innovation
You ask yourself,
what can I combine to maximize value?
What ideas, functions, or technologies can work together?
Simple combination can produce
really valuable ideas
I want to give you an example
Look at this picture
This is a pencil
Pencil is very common
Do you know when the pencil's mass produced?
50 years ago? 100 years ago?
150 years ago?
Actually, the pencil was mass produced
in 1662,
which is around 400 years ago
400 years ago,
pencil was mass produced
Then, what is specialty for using pencil?
What kind of benefit is there when we use a pencil?
We can erase them
And, to erase your handwriting,
what do we need?
We need erasers
Guess when these erasers mass produced
Around similar time?
When did this eraser mass produced?
It was mass produced in 1770
It means, 100 years later from
that moment when the pencils were mass produced
It took 100 years
Can you imagine that?
Then, we used
eraser attached pencil
We used pencil with erasers
Guess when this eraser attached pencil mass produced
or invented
When?
It took another 100 years
to invent this eraser attached pencils
You see?
Combining two or three elements is not easy
Although you thought it is really easy, but it's not easy
I want to give you another example
how it is difficult
and how the simple combination can produce the values
Look at this picture
This is a wheel
We use wheel, right?
I want to ask you a question
When was the wheel
used in the human history?
When the human being started using wheel?
5,500 years ago
5,500 years ago, human started using wheel
This is wheel
When people travel,
they have a luggage
What do luggage look like?
This is a traditional luggage
This is 19th century black traveling trunk luggage
There is a wheel
Wheel was already invented 5,500 years ago
and there is a luggage, I don't know when people used the luggage,
but in 19th century,
this types of luggage were so popular
When did people started
attaching wheel on the luggage?
Right now, if you go to the airport,
everybody carries wheeled luggage
Nobody use this type of trunk
Everyone uses wheel attached luggage
When did this wheel attached luggage started?
Surprisingly, just 1970,
this wheel attached rolling suitcase started
We had wheel already 5,500 years ago
We had a luggage, trunk many years ago
But very recently, we started attaching wheel on the luggage
Later, this luggage was not comfortable
Then what happened?
One of the pilot,
his name was Robert Plath,
he was a pilot in Northwest Airline
He modified
previously invented wheeled luggage
and made it upright
So, he invented upright wheeled suitcase
Almost 20 years after
from initial invention of wheeled luggage
He invented this modern type of upright suitcase in 1987
So, he started luggage company which is Travelpro
Have you heard about Travelpro?
Travelpro still exists in Florida
He sold this company in 1999
Anyway, this is a story about current wheeled luggage
It's all about combine
I want to give you another example about the combination
Look at this video together
In this video,
you can see how Steve Jobs introduce
the first iPhone in 2007
The basic idea of the iPhone is
combination of 3 different functions
Let's watch it together
Now, you understand how powerful
combining element is?
If you combine two or three separate function together,
then you can provide new values to the consumers
Let's move to another perspective, which is Adapt
Adapt means,
you try to adjust or tweak an idea
to fit a new context or problem
You apply existing solution or concept
and apply this one to your new context
So, you ask yourself,
What can be adjusted or borrowed from somewhere else?
How can it be adapted for another use?
I want to give you a real example
Look at him
His name is Charles Merill,
co-founder of Merill Lynch
You know what Merill Lynch is?
Merill Lynch is financial service company
Basically, Charles Merill
saw the phenomena
of the shift from local grocery store
to the chain store
From mom and pop store, it changed to
big chain stores
If you go inside big chain store,
you can see many discounted product
and many different types of product
He wanted to make financial service more accessible
and understandable
like a chain store
Basically, he applied this supermarket concept,
big box retail store concept,
into the financial market
He envisioned a financial supermarket
This is Merill Lynch
How did he come up with Merill Lynch idea?
He borrowed the concept,
supermarket concept, from big box retailer
and applied this concept into financial store
I want to give you another example
Look at him
Although he passed away recently
His name was Thomas Stemberg
Thomas Stemberg found Staple
in 1985
Previously, he worked at
grocery store as an executive
Basically, he was working at big-box retail grocery store
He knew the concept of grocery stores
He wanted to apply this big box retailer concept into office-supply
So, he frequently mentioned that
he want to be Toys R Us for office supplies
This is adapt
Let's move to another perspective, which is Modify of Magnify
Modify or magnify means
you exaggerate one of the feature
For example, size, appearance, shape, meaning, or function
You just pick one of them and focus on
one feature
So you ask yourself,
What can be made bigger, smaller,
stronger, longer, or more appealing?
Can we exaggerate a feature?
This is modify or magnify
If you apply this perspective into your situation,
then, you can create new idea
I want to give you an example
Look at this camera
This camera is digital camera
But this digital camera is a little bit different from normal digital camera
Do you know what it is?
This is GoPro
GoPro is an American technology company
exaggerating on actionable photo
This company was founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman
He was active surfer,
and he wanted to take picture while he is surfing
But he found that there is no actionable photo available
through the traditional camera
That's why he invented new types of camera
This is GoPro
Basically, this GoPro magnify the ability
of everyday people to capture pro-level action shots
This is important, pro-level action shot
If you use GoPro,
and you can get really incredible action shot
GoPro created small, durable, and wearable cameras
for action sports and adventures
That's why it is very popular
I want to give you another example
Have you heard about Misfits Market?
Misfits Market just focus on price
Low price fruit or vegetables
And they ignore the appearance
This company is online grocery startup
that sells ugly, surplus,
or off-spec groceries at discounted prices
What do you think?
You can purchase same apple at discounted prices
Only problem is, this apple is not looking good
Because it was on the ground
Level 3 or level 4 apple
But, the taste is the same
Will you purchase these types of apple?
That is your choice
Anyway, Misfits Market just focused on
imperfect food and vegetables
And they exaggerated price benefit
This company was founded in 2018,
and currently valued at $2B
It magnified acceptance of imperfect or odd-shaped food
They cut the prices
What do you think? Will you try?
Why not?
Let's move to another principle, another perspective,
which is Put to other use
Put to other use means
you need to reimagine value
by exploring how an existing product, skill, or process
can solve a different problem,
serve a new audience,
or function in a new context
You use existing product of service
to solve different problem
You ask yourself,
What else can this be used for?
How could this be used in a different industry?
In my opinion, the best example of put to other use perspective is
AWS
What is it?
This is Amazon web service
This service,
originally,
developed for internal computing infrastructure
to support Amazon's retail operations
Then later,
Amazon started offering this service to other companies
Then later, what happened?
So many companies needed cloud computing service
So, Amazon realized, there are needs
So, Amazon, later put its massive server infrastructure
to new use externally
Then later, what happened?
AWS made tons of money for Amazon
AWS now generates over $90B a year,
which is Amazon's most profitable division
I want to give you another example of put to other use principle
This is MyRealTrip
MyRealTrip is Korean company
that almost approached to unicorn level
This company was started at 2013
The company tried to connect
traveler and local travel guides
You might think that
you just recruit professional local travel guide
and try to connect professional travel guide and traveler
But MyRealTrip's approach is totally different
They put students
or immigrants
to travel guide's purpose
For travel guide use
So, Korean students and immigrants
are not professional travel guides
But MyRealTrip approached them and asked them
to work as travel guide
So, basically, MyRealTrip
used put to other use principle
The company started with this principle
Let's move to another perspective, which is Eliminate
Eliminate means,
you identify and remove unnecessary elements
in product, process, service, or system
Then you can make a simple solution
You ask yourself,
What can I remove without affecting the core function?
What happens if I remove other things?
Let's look at the example of eliminated perspective
This is Muji, Japanese company
Muji means, no-brand quality goods
Muji was founded in 1980 in Japan
It eliminated not just to product features,
but to branding, marketing, and even visual identity
They just focused on function and eliminated everything
No branding
No excessive packaging
No unnecessary colors
No variety
This is elimination
Another example of elimination would be Stripe
Stripe right now became a decacorn company,
which is huge private company
This is fintech startup
that provides easy-to-integrate online payment system
for businesses, which is e-commerce
This company was founded in 2010
by Patrick and John Collison brother
They were born and raised in Ireland
They are genius
And they came up with this idea
then started this fintech company
Stripe eliminated the barriers
to building and scaling payment systems
Stripe's API allows instant setup and onboarding
You don't have to set up
redundant infrastructure
to provide online payment system on your website
Instead, Stripe provide very simple code,
you copy this code and paste it
on your system or website
Then, you can create very easy payment system
The Stripe eliminate redundant steps
for the businesses
This is the power of elimination
Let's move to the last perspective, which is
Rearrange or reverse
Sometimes, we can change order, sequence, position, process, or roles
in your product, service, or business model
Then you can provide new value
You ask yourself,
What if I change the order
of steps or components?
What happens if I flip the user journey
or start from the end?
Not from start
Not from the beginning, you can start from the end
For example, look at this company
This company is Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service
This company was founded in 2011,
and it started as fashion business
But this company reversed fashion retail
How? I'll show you
This is traditional fashion shopping
You browse your style,
and if you find out
a good product or clothes,
then, you decide to purchase
This is the traditional method
You choose, you pick up, and you purchase
But Stitch Fix reversed this process
Stitch Fix started with
stylist's choice
Stylist choose the item for you
and they send curated items to you
Then, you choose
from the box company sends you
This is totally different process
Consumers in traditional shopping
started with consumers choice and purchase
But Stitch Fix started from
the professional stylist's choice and consumers choose
This is different
I want to give you another example, this is Casper
Casper is an e-commerce company that sells
mattress or all those
sleeping products online
It was founded in 2014 in NYC
This company rearranged mattress shopping process
From the traditional mattress shopping,
you visit store of the mattress,
then you choose the several brand,
you try on it inside the store
Then you got delivery of mattress
But Casper changed this process
Actually, customers buy mattress online,
then mattress is delivered in front of your door,
and you try the mattress at home
If you do not like the mattress,
it could be fully refunded
100 days later
If you like it, you can keep it
This is different process
When I was living in NYC, I needed a mattress
I found a mattress store,
which is traditional mattress shopping
Then, I walked in the store
and found there were tons of different types of mattress
Then suddenly, one of the employee approached me
and he started explaining the mattress
He explained several function of mattress,
different price type
There are tons of scientific findings on mattress
So, it took time like 20-30 minutes
Later, I asked him,
When can you deliver the mattress?
He said that it takes about 2 weeks for delivery
That was shocking
And I felt frustrated
But if you use Casper,
you just go online, click one of the mattress,
there is only one mattress
Then, the mattress will be delivered in front of your house
Then, you unpack the boxes,
and there is mattress
And you use the mattress
Then, you enjoy it
This is whole different process of mattress shopping
What was the result?
Casper became a unicorn company in a short period of time
Now, we have discussed about
all seven different perspectives from SCAMPER method
SCAMPER method is
simplified tool when you generate a new idea
It would be very helpful
How to come up with your new idea?
My suggestion is to apply SCAMPER perspective
in your idea generation
Thank you for listening