When Product Lines Take a Sharp Turn

"A funny thing happened on the way to the showroom. The flagship product made a wrong turn.

I call them detour companies: A business doing one thing, often very well, morphing into an even more successful but different enterprise. The history of American industry is awash in shining examples of companies that made revolutionary changes, becoming essentially new businesses en route.

The Wrigley Co. didn't start out making chewing gum. In 1891 at age 30, William Wrigley Jr. opened a branch of his father's Philadelphia-based soap company in Chicago. To each purchaser of Wrigley's Scouring Soap the young salesman gave a free sample of baking powder. The promotion was so successful Wrigley soon switched to selling baking powder, including two free packs of chewing gum with each order. The gum was so popular that by 1893 Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint chewing gum became the company's chief product. The soap and baking powder took a permanent powder.

In the late 1800s, clipping a horse's coat and mane was a time-consuming necessity. Enter newly incorporated Chicago Flexible Shaft Co. In December 1897 it debuted its New '98 Chicago Clipper, which according to Blacksmith and Wheelwright Magazine "has practically revolutionized the horse-clipping business." The device cost $12.75, roughly $450 in today's money.

Within a decade, however, the horseless carriage had greatly reduced demand for horse clippers. Chicago Flexible Shaft quickly pivoted to making speedometers, horns and coal-burning foot heaters for the ubiquitous new automobile. Before long, the company's innovators were producing such must-have household appliances as flatirons, toasters, grills and even electric hair clippers -- this time for humans, not horses.

Decades after its successful detour, the Chicago Flexible Shaft Co. gave its old moniker the shaft, officially rebranding itself as Sunbeam Corp. in 1946. Its Mixmaster kitchen mixer was many engineering steps removed from the New '98 Chicago Clipper, but both devices shared one giant selling point -- convenience.

The old business saying "innovate or die" doesn't always hold true. Tootsie Roll still thrives selling its chocolate taffy candy 115 years after its 1907 debut. Yet many great American companies that took sharp detours to survive ended up flourishing in unforeseen and spectacular new ways. Whether the result of relentless innovation or a happy accident, the detour turned out to be the best part of the journey. Side roads always offer the prettiest scenery." [1]

1. When Product Lines Take a Sharp Turn
Opelka, Gregg. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 19 May 2022: A.17.