Innovation Blog

Tough Mudder:    You Thought Your Idea Was Wild?

By Shlomo Maital

     

 Today’s Global New York Times  (John Branch, “An idea hatched in business school takes running amok to the next level”) offers encouragement to all those who have wild ideas and despair of seeing them implemented.

     A British MBA student studying at Harvard Business School named Will Dean submitted an idea to a business plan contest — persuade 500 people to run a grueling race through mud and man-made obstacles.   Great idea?   Sure money-maker?  Professors thought not, though the plan did make it to the semi-finals. 

     Well, this Sunday, Tough Mudder will conduct a race for 4,500 people (!).  Each participant pays about $100 for the privilege to negotiate a 7 mile course, with muddy hills, cold water and flaming bales of straw, at a ski resort near Allentown, Pennsylvania.  The company Tough Mudder has six employees and two interns, all in their 20’s.  It plans to hold three more races around the US this year, and 10 next year.   Some will have as many as 20,000 participants. 

      Marketing? Advertising?  Tough Mudder announced itself with $8,000 worth of Facebook advertising and a Website  (toughmudder.com).    The idea was imported from similar events in Great Britain (the Strongman run). 

     Tough Mudder has a value system.  Participants recite a prerace promise to help others and not to whine. 

     The principle here is clear.  Find an unmet need.  Meet it.  Don’t be afraid to think wild.

     Unmet need?   Running through the mud, through cold water, through burning straw ?   Apparently, many people do need to do this.  How do you know?  Well — float it, put it up there,  run it up the flagpole — and see.     Tough Mudder’s founders are amazed. And frankly, so am I.