What if it works?

oilbottle Oil for cars, at one stage, was only available in Glass Bottles.

The story goes that one oil company had an employees suggestion box where implemented suggestions were financially compensated.

One employee suggested that "oil in cans made more sense"

The oil company agreed and during the negotiations the employee asked for just 0.1c per can.

The company executives tried to negotiate a cash payment but to no avail.

How many cans were produced the next year ?
10,000 or 1,000,000?

What if at some point during the negotiations, someone said, "wait a minute! What if oil in cans is a really great idea? What if we sell more oil that way than any other oil company? That means he'll make a huge amount of money. We can't have that! We need to put a limit on it."

We often hesitate to pay a portion of the upside to someone who is taking a risk, because we're worried that perhaps, just perhaps, their risk will pay off and <shudder> the'll make a fortune.

The thing is, if they make a fortune, you may make five, twenty five or five hundred fortunes.

What are you worried about?

Go ahead and give people the opportunity to have their risk pay off.

What if the oil companies thought that way?

How much glass would have continued to be broken?