Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps1
Conventional Wisdom
One April morning, Martha House, president of Trap-Ease America, entered her office in Costa
Mesa, California. She paused for a moment to contemplate the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that
she had framed and hung near her desk.:
"If a man [can] ...make a better mousetrap than his neighbor. ..the world will make a
beaten path to his door."
Perhaps, she mused, Emerson knew something that she didn't. She had the better mousetrap
Trap-Easebut the world didn't seem all that excited about it.
The National Hardware Show
Martha had just returned from the National Hardware Show in Chicago. Standing in the trade
show display booth for long hours and answering the same questions hundreds of times had been
tiring. Yet, all the hard work had paid off. Each year, National Hardware Show officials held a
contest to select the best new product introduced at that year's show. The Trap-Ease had won
the contest this......
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