For the past few years, in concert with zeroing in on Capitalist Creativity and Marketing Physics, Hall has had a statistician and a programmer holed up creating what he jokingly calls "Doug in a box," the ultimate in self-replication. Now in its last stages of beta testing, the $20-million computer-based idea-assessment tool, called Merwyn Success Forecasting, is due to go online in the fall to coincide with the publication of Hall's latest book.
In one sense, Merwyn advances Hall's beat-the-clock run at new-product creativity. Hall initially made his mark -- and headlines -- by promising 30 ideas in 30 days. Then he slashed the time to 3 days. Although Merwyn doesn't create ideas, Hall says, it can assess the overall probability of success of ideas, weighing scores for such components as overt benefit, real reason to believe, dramatic difference, value/cost ratio, and clarity. Capitalizing on Hall's mania for time compression, Merwyn promises to spit out an online report on a particular idea in as little as an hour. With Merwyn, Hall hopes to open up his services to those who need it the most -- the millions of small-business owners who rarely, if ever, do market research. With an entry-level price of $500 for a basic report, Merwyn will be affordable even to mom-and-pop businesses. In his inimitable, hell-bent-for-headlines style, Hall is already casting himself in the role of a legendary hero. "I'm going to be like Robin Hood," Hall says. "Take the wisdom of the big guys and transfer it to everyday people -- help true small businesses realize their dreams."
'My advice to anyone going through a business transformation,' Hall says, 'is to go through a physical transformation' as well. Change doesn't come without pain.
In this case, the wisdom of the big guys has been compressed into Merwyn's benchmark database of more than 4,000 Fortune 500 concept introductions. Some of those were pioneered in Eureka sessions, and others were shared by Mansion and Ranch clients. Additional data were purchased from Information Resources Inc., one of the nation's premier verifiers of new-product marketing through in-store sales data.
Hall has already slipped into the Robin Hood role, if not yet the green tights, by applying Merwyn technology to help struggling small businesses on Prince Edward Island, where he has a vacation farmhouse. He's talking of possibly opening satellite Eureka Ranches targeted at small companies in places like his vacation island and other needy locales around the world.
"Success," Hall believes, "is one of the biggest preventers of growth. People think, Don't screw it up. So they don't change, and somebody else leaps ahead of them." The big entrepreneurial challenge, he insists, is not dramatically changing your company when the precipice looms but rather seizing the moment when you're successfully basking in the sweet meadow of good fortune. That takes courage.
Now well into his business-transformation journey, Hall can see the rough outlines of his destination, but he's not there yet. And he knows he never will be. "I knew it was going to be hard, but it's been 10 times harder than I thought. I'd guess we're about 65% of the way," he says. "And we can never get over 90%. The minute I think we know everything, I'm out of here. It doesn't end. It never ends." Continual, revolutionary change is now one of Hall's core business -- and personal -- principles.
A fall through the entrepreneurial ice is possible as he evolves from an exclusively high-priced, high-margin operation to one that's oriented to high volume and much lower margins. Since his marketing days at Procter & Gamble, two decades ago, Hall has breathed the rarefied air of big-company missions, manpower, and resources. Will he be able to shift gears and successfully serve the vast majority of businesses, ventures as small as Island Winds, a Prince Edward Island wind-chime maker whose chances of success he helped boost from 34% to 69% (according to Merwyn's calculations)? Can Hall win acceptance for his high-tech alter ego? Convince the world the implied magic of Merwyn is technologically and statistically solid, a valuable, easily accessible business tool -- not simply numbers pulled out of his sleeve?
A good bit of Hall's good reputation and momentum toward remaking his business ride on Merwyn's logo. Hall, better than most, knows about magic wands and transformations. During his long childhood recuperation, he turned to magic for solace and self-confidence. He performed onstage as Merwyn the Magician. Three decades later he's tapped a piece of his past, knowing full well his business can't be changed by sleight of hand. Today, instead of Presto or Abracadabra, Hall shouts Principles, Systems, and Marketing Physics.
But he hasn't stopped believing in magic.
John Grossmann is a freelance writer in New Jersey.
Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.
