After the initial impact a golf ball’s trajectory is controlled entirely by gravity and aerodynamics (no matter how much you hope or curse).

But why do golf balls with dimples go much further than smooth ones?

Surprisingly a smooth golf ball only travels about half as far as a golf ball with dimples.

Tiger Woods longest drive was 498 yds at the Hawaii Mercedes Championship in 2002, and if he’d used a smooth golf ball rather than a dimpled one, he would have struggled to get past 250 yds.

The invention of golf ball dimples happened accidentally.

In the mid-1800s, the most widely used golf balls were known as gutties, which were first created by Robert Adams Paterson using moulded tree sap.

When golfers inevitably dented up these balls, they found that the damaged ones had more consistent ball flights than the new, undamaged balls.

In 1905, an English manufacturer named William Taylor registered a patent for a golf ball dimple design, and before long, all golf balls featured dimples.

As ball technology advanced, so too did dimple science. In the modern era, dimple patterns are thoroughly tested using high-tech equipment to find the optimal design for distance and control.

Why am I telling you this?

Because sometimes the next business idea lies within the product you’ve already developed.

It’s not always about building products from scratch. Sometimes you need to look at your existing products in different ways, and re-design how they’re delivered for the customer’s advantage.

Netflix didn’t invent films or programmes. But they did re-design how they are delivered to the customer.

Same goes with our home and business print & scan solutions. This technology has been around for years. All we’ve done is made it available in affordable monthly fees, which cover the product, supplies, delivery, and maintenance, with no strings attached.

…next time you see a golf ball think about how you can make the dimples work in your organisation