Christmas Eve

Today is December 24th and inside of many homes is a Christmas tree, with gifts of all shapes and sizes piled underneath. That's right, there are boxes and boxes of all shapes and sizes, wrapped in brightly colored paper, adorned with lovely ribbons and bows, and containing some wonderful surprises. And in a couple of days, the boxes will all be gone, flattened and discarded, while the gifts within will remain for people to use, play with, benefit from or just plain enjoy.

We are sure there is a terrific metaphor in there somewhere, about tossing away the box and being better off. But since it is Christmas, we will leave that message for another time. So for now, just enjoy this moment with your family and friends. Have some fun, relax and let go for awhile. The world will very likely keep on spinning, even if you do step away from it for awhile.

From all of us at There is No Box, peace and joy to you and best wishes for a prosperous and rewarding New Year.

Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus, the upscale retail department store, is celebrating its 100 year anniversary this year. One of the things the store is known for is The Christmas Book, a unique and extravagant collection of gifts, from a camel to a mini submarine. I'm not sure how many of the catalog items are sold, but they are sure fun to read about. Let's just say, it is not your typical wish book!

During his life, Stanley Marcus served as both president and chairman of the company. He was known for being able to spot the very best in fashion, a characteristic for which Neiman Marcus has long been admired - and a vital reason for their success. With his great eye for fashion, Stanley once offered the following observation:

Designers have to be free to use new materials, imaginatively, in fresh manners with fresh techniques, without tradition saying you can't do this or you can't do that.

Based on this perspective, it is quite likely that Mr. Marcus did not run his business from inside of any kind of box. The box for him was a convenient container for protecting an elegant gift, not a convenient excuse for restricting novel thinking. Maybe it was his total disregard for the box, that resulted in the company's growth, their fashion savvy, their remarkable brand and yes, even The Christmas Book.

We believe that Stanley's comment about designers applies equally for associates. (In fact, re-read his statement above using the word associates instead of designers.) Perhaps heeding his advice in this light might help your organization accomplish similar successes.

A growth update

In our book, one of the No Box growth leaders we featured was Burt Rutan, whose company Scaled Composites designed and created SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X prize. We also introduced Burt’s vision of creating a space tourism industry. That’s right, Burt and others are dreaming about flights into space for the average person. Can you imagine the thousands of reasons why this “can never be done?”

From time to time, we will provide updates about the people and examples from the book and here is one of them about Burt’s endeavor. This is from an interview with Richard Branson, a No Box kind of guy himself, who heads the Virgin Group, which includes the company Virgin Galactic. His comments come from the October 2007 issue of The Atlantic. Enjoy.

I then set off around the world to meet every zany, mad scientist I could find who was interested in rockets and space technology … and then finally came across Burt Rutan, who’s a genius … so we agreed to sponsor SaceShipOne with him, and we watched the three magnificent flights in SpaceShipOne, and then – using that technology – we’re now building SpaceShipTwo, which is twice as big as SpaceShipOne. A year from know it will go on its first test flight, and 18 months from now, you know, myself, my children and my parents … God willing … will go up.

The initial flights will go up about 70 miles into space, so basically you’ll take off, you’ll go up to 60,000 feet, you’ll be attached under the mother ship, you’ll then drop away, you’ll then have the biggest rush of your life … from naught to 3,500 miles an hour in 10 seconds. And then in space you’ll unbuckle, and we’ve got these enormous big windows you’ll be able to float around looking back at the Earth. And Burt has come up with this really unique device, which is basically what he calls his “feathering mechanism.” It comes back into the Earth’s atmosphere like a shuttlecock, which slows it up, so you don’t have the problems that NASA has with its reentry system.

Couple of fascinating items we hope you will take from this story. First, Burt has been at it again in figuring out novel answers to tough problems. Our guess is his shuttlecock technology will work. Second, we love the name of Branson’s business that is devoted to space tourism - Virgin Galactic! Sounds like they are really serious about this.

Rest assured, they will hit more than a reasonable number of insurmountable barriers over the next couple years, but it will be really exciting to see how far they are able to take their dream. And how knows, one day in the not too distant future, maybe you will have the opportunity to join them on a voyage into space!