Small Business
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The issue: When selecting an individual for a job, an unavoidable aspect of the process is the physical appearance of the candidate. A job candidate might be unfairly penalized because of preconceptions about their age / sex / race / etc. Not only is this unfair to the candidate, but the overall situation also opens…
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Background: In order to support technological progress, many people are willing to endure great hardships. The issue: For example, most Americans are willing to drive for 30–60 minutes every day on their commute, just so that they can help create a market for new types of transportation [*]. One might imagine that a person in…
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Background: Credit cards are a popular payment method, especially for business transactions. The issue: Sometimes, high-value business transactions require the approval of more than one person. Additionally, if a credit card is lost or stolen, someone will have to meticulously verify that no fraudulent transactions were made on it, which can be very time-consuming! Proposal:…
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Background: It’s well-known that presentation affects the perceived taste of food (Figure 1). Can this be used by retailers to increase customer satisfaction? Proposal: In order to leverage the same instincts, we propose that all foods should be presented in grocery stores in a “natural” environment to satisfy human hunter-gatherer instincts. In Figure 2,…
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TITLE: Never be annoyed when emptying an over-full trash can again, with this new “screaming trash can” technology! The Issue: In shared-living or office situations, there is a strong incentive to wait for someone else to empty a full garbage can: the person who discards the last piece of trash has only contributed a tiny…
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Background: People generally enjoy having a good view from their home or office windows. However, some locations have a bad view (e.g. a dark alley or cement wall) or cannot accommodate windows at all (e.g. interior offices or basements). Proposal: Modern flatscreen displays can be as large as office windows (and some types consume very…
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Background: Many companies issue ID badges to their employees. Sometimes these come in multiple forms: one type of badge for permanent workers, and a different color for temporary employees. Proposal: In order make the time-limited nature of temporary employees more clear—and perhaps to remind the temporary employee to start applying for jobs again—a low-power timer…
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Background: When giving a presentation to a diverse audience (e.g. of experts and non-experts, or of employees from two different departments in a company), you have a problem: you can only make one set of slides, but sometimes you might want to tailor different parts of the presentation to a different audience. For example, one…
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Background: When packing a box for shipping, some objects can stack perfectly with no wasted space. However, some common shapes—for example, cylinders (e.g. toilet paper rolls) and spheres (e.g. oranges)—can’t be packed without wasted empty space in the box (Figure 1). Proposal: If someone orders a set of products that don’t pack together,…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 