There is never enough fun examples of the innovation shortcut. And the sport of table tennis is a good one, both historically and recently. Just how does this fun sport capture the essence of combining seemingly unusual components into new value propositions? Read on.
Invented during the reign of Queen Victoria in the late 19th century, legend has it that ping-pong started with two players on opposite sides of a billiard table, each holding an empty cigar box and hitting a champagne cork over a line of books. Rules were then adopted from lawn tennis. Today it is an Olympic sport and has 90 million registered players in 200 countries.
And recently, there is a movement to combine table tennis with fashionable nightclubs, where people sip drinks, talk and play pong. It is spearheaded by non-other than Academy Award winning actress Susan Sarandon, and already boasts locations in NYC, Toronto, LA, and Dubai.
