Kelly sits down with Amos Winter, the Germeshausen Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His new book is called “Global by Design: How to Create Innovations That Scale, Travel and Transform.” 

One of the stories you tell is how Gillette tried to sell the same razors in India that they sold in the US and it didn’t work. 

“What was uniform across all countries is that people wanted a good, close, clean shave. But what was different in India is that men often had to use just a cup of water instead of a a a sink to flush the razor out. They had to maybe shave in front of a small mirror. So, they had to be much more focused. They often had to shave in the dark. And they also put more time into it than their US counterparts. So, Gillette realized that, well, we can use that time to our advantage. And instead of making razor blades with five blades, like Gillette’s modern offer offerings in the US, they could just do one blade, but pass it by your face five times and use that time to their advantage. And instead of having a handle made of metal that was really expensive, they could just do it all out of low-cost plastic. And so they cut cost but didn’t really cut performance. And they made something that met the performance and price points demanded by the Indian market.” 

The mistakes they made were actually excellent learning points, which is such an improv thing. 

“Absolutely! And another mistake they made early on is they did their initial user testing on Indian students in the United States at MIT. But those Indian students had all the amenities available to them as any other American. And so, after they made that mistake, they actually went to India and did a lot of ethnographic research in the field to actually study how people shaved, study the pain points, like the stress of cutting themselves.” 

My wife, Anne, pitched me the idea of Second City starting a gap year program so young people entering college have time to prepare the social skills they need to succeed at school and in the world. 

“Yeah. I know exactly what you’re talking about. I teach these young people at that age and you know the pandemic did a number on them. Not only lack of social interaction but also lack of independence growth because they were locked down with their parents instead of being high school kids, you know, out and about. Yeah, I think it’s a really good idea. And I love this idea of using improv as this vehicle to to grow those social skills because you have to put yourself out there, but it’s in a very safe space, right? Because it’s all around humor. You’re not being evaluated for a promotion it, right? So, I think it’s a very clever idea, actually.”