Kaiser Yang tells CTW attendees to make innovation a daily habit

Kaiser Yang challenged refreshment providers and convenience services industry suppliers to stop treating innovation as something only tech giants do and instead make it a daily practice inside their own operations.

During his November 5 keynote at NAMA’s Coffee, Tea & Water show at the Hyatt Regency Miami, Yang, cofounder of Platypus Labs, walked the audience through five “core mindsets of innovators” and a set of simple tools to put those mindsets in play. Drawing on stories that ranged from Rand McNally’s decline to Indian Railways’ lottery-style ticket promotion, he argued that operators have to become the source of disruption, not the target of it — especially as AI and automation reshape work.

Below is a recap for Automatic Merchandiser and VendingMarketWatch.com readers.

1. Every barrier can be eliminated

Yang opened with a warning story: Rand McNally was the top map company for more than a century. But, as consumers began using dash-mount GPS and online maps, the print-focused mapmaker was quickly overtaken by Google Maps because Rand McNally did not embrace online options. Success can make organizations complacent, Yang said, and complacency makes them vulnerable.

To show how a company eliminated a barrier — major revenue loss from riders traveling without tickets — he shared how Indian Railways reframed the problem and turned tickets into lottery entries, giving riders a reason to buy. Ticket sales climbed, and enforcement costs went down: a small, creative change that removed a long-standing barrier to profitability.

Technique: the judo flip. When you’re about to do something the way it’s always been done, flip it, Yang said. Challenge the rule, process or assumption and explore how “oppositional thinking” can lead to breakthrough ideas.

2. Burn the blueprints

Yang’s second mindset was that operators can’t rely on past models and expect future growth. He noted that many organizations overestimate the risk of trying something new and underestimate the risk of standing still.

He pointed to Ben & Jerry’s habit of literally burying underperforming flavors — with a formal flavor burial service — to make room for new ones. He introduced the Shark Wheel, which borrowed patterns from sine waves in nature to create an oddly square wheel that rolls with “less friction, more speed [and] more control” than round wheels. His point: old playbooks can become anchors.

Technique: the borrowed idea. Look outside your industry for others who have solved similar challenges and learn from their expertise. Yang explained that the aerospace, cardiology, and energy industries have developed mechanisms to learn from each other because they all manage “pumps and pipes.” Operators can do the same when rethinking customer experience, pricing or route efficiency.

3. Seek the unexpected

It’s easy to default to the obvious ideas first — options A, B and C — but Yang said “good enough” ideas rarely deliver step-change results. He showed how DHL got competitors to advertise for the package carrier, which was losing market share despite being the fastest delivery option in many markets, by wrapping packages in a thermally activated film that revealed a DHL message that the carrier was faster only after rival carriers picked them up and delivered them. An unorthodox approach put their message in crowded business districts where their best prospects would see and remember them.

Technique: option X. After the obvious ideas are on the table, keep going, Yang said. Push past C to D, E, F — all the way to X. The breakthrough often shows up only after a team thinks it has run out of ideas.

4. Start before you’re ready

According to Yang, innovation efforts often stall because teams plan until conditions are perfect. The most prolific innovators don’t wait for a complete map; they move with a compass.

He told the story of FIGS, a provider of modern medical apparel. Before there was a business plan or funding, the founders started making better-looking medical scrubs in a Brooklyn apartment, then showed up at hospitals during shift changes to demo them. Action came first, refinement later.

Technique: the to-test list. Alongside a to-do list, keep a list of ideas to test, Yang said. Yang noted that even large companies run thousands of small tests a year and most of them fail — but that cadence de-risks innovation. Operators can immediately implement this advice through merchandising and product offerings in select locations and markets.

5. Fall seven, stand eight

Finally, Yang said teams need resilience. He closed with the story of ConBody founder Coss Marte, who turned a prison workout routine into a prison-themed fitness business after no one would hire him upon his release. That journey, Yang said, is what “fall seven, stand eight” looks like in real life.

Throughout the keynote, Yang tied creativity to business performance and reminded attendees that creativity is one of the few capabilities that can’t be automated. For operators facing pressure from new workplace models, on-demand consumer expectations and rapid technology change, his message was blunt: disruption is coming either way — it’s better to be the one causing it.