Strategic Risk Management

CHAPTER 9

Concluding Thoughts: Currents, not Waves

Merritt J. (M. J.) Osborn crisscrossed the United States as a salesman in the early part of the twentieth century. He noticed that the hotels where he stayed always had rooms out of commission for carpet cleaning, which cost the hotel a couple weeks’ revenue on each room. In 1923, Osborn developed a carpet cleaner—Absorbit— that cleaned carpets in less time and used less water, saving hotels money on cleaning and keeping rooms available for rent.¹ Osborn named his company Economics Laboratory—“Economics” because it saved customers time, labor, and materials costs, and “Laboratory” because laboratory research backed up his claims.

Over the next three decades, the company continued to bring innovative ...