Charles H. Duell was a bad, bad man. No doubt you've heard
his famous quote: "Everything that can be invented has been
invented." Duell made that statement in 1899, insisting that
his office be shut down just before he resigned as the U.S.
Commissioner of Patents. You can't help but wonder how our
world would be if his words had been true. In what would have been
a much less wonderful life, think of what wouldn't have been
born: E-mail. Television. Paper towels. The microwave oven. Cat
litter. Defibrillators. Viagra. And Joey Reiman would never have
created BrightHouse.
BrightHouse is one of those companies where innovation is the
rule, not the exception. Because many businesses get bogged down in
business, CEOs and management teams hire Reiman and his 12
employees to come up with everything from new products to new
mission statements. Because most of the ideas are confidential,
exactly what Atlanta-based BrightHouse has done since its founding
in 1995 will have to be left to our imaginations, but clients
include Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific Corp., Home Depot and
McDonald's. Reiman, 49, and his team are paid big money--half a
million for a 10-week brainstorming session, and $50,000 for a
four-hour quickie. BrightHouse is poised to bring in $10 million in
revenue this year, simply by doing what all entrepreneurs and their
employees should do.
They innovate. They tinker, they think, they improve. They
dream. They understand that nothing is ever what it seems. Even a
famous quote. Duell never said, "Everything that can be
invented has been invented." The person who started the rumor
was the first person to utter that infamous sentence. In fact,
Duell kept his post until 1901 and remained interested in patent
law until his death. He was an ally of innovation, and would have
admired Joey Reiman, BrightHouse and its battalion of
brainstormers.
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Originally published in the September 2002 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
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