There’s No Such Thing As an Average Business, Just Average Ways to Do Business沒有平凡的企業，只有平庸的經營

比爾·泰勒

The New York Times recently published a fascinating overview of creativity programs and innovation spaces on college campuses across the country.

One of my favorite innovation initiatives1 was one of the simplest. Northwest University has reimagined an old， musty， on-campus parking garage as an incubator space for budding2 entrepreneurs， complete with 3-D printers， interactive screens， and loads of software. Here’s how the Times describes The Garage： “To maintain a sense of the provisional and knockabout， the architects preserved the parking lines on the （cleaned-up） concrete floors and used inexpensive plywood， embellished with spray-painted graphics， for many of the walls.”

Why did I find this particular complex3 so intriguing？ Because， truth be told， I have a soft spot for4 parking garages. In my forthcoming book， Simply Brilliant， I study game-changing leaders who have done extraordinary things in pretty ordinary fields， from retail banking5 to fast-food joints. One of my favorite case studies in the book is a spectacular parking garage in Miami Beach， a complex called 1111 Lincoln Road， that turns one of the most prosaic and overlooked elements of urban life into a high-profile6 brand with a truly compelling presence.

When real-estate entrepreneur Robert Wennett bought the homely space， he decided to turn something ordinary into something extraordinary. His newly reimagined facility opened a few years later to widespread critical acclaim and loud popular applause. One reporter celebrated the new building as a unique work of “carchitecture，” which he defined as “the unimaginable marriage of high-end architecture and car storage.” This was how he described his initial reaction to the place： “Parking garages， the grim afterthought of American design， call to mind many words. （Rats. Beer cans. Unidentifiable smells.） Breathtaking is not usually among them.”

But this parking garage truly is breathtaking， so much so that it has become an in-demand venue for charity events， wine tastings， even fancy weddings. The $65-million structure features exaggerated ceilings， wide-open 360-degree views， no exterior walls—more like a giant loft apartment than a claustrophobic warehouse for cars. A grand staircase maneuvers down the center of the seven-story garage， creating the elegant aura of a European train station. High-end restaurants and boutiques （selling art books， handbags， footwear， high-concept athletic togs7） are arrayed around the outside and on the top of the garage， while a fashion retailer occupies a striking， 1，800-square-foot glass cube on the fifth floor.

In the morning， joggers and power walkers wind their way up and down the ramps8 of the facility， while yoga instructors teach classes on the top floors. Soon after it opened， couples began requesting that they be allowed to hold their weddings there. “The unique thing about 1111 is that it’s really a curated9 space， not just a parking garage with retail，” Wennett explained to me. “It’s more like a cultural building than a commercial building. We actually ‘program’ the building. We help create events that people will talk about.”

For example， in true Miami style， Victoria’s Secret did a commercial shoot directed by Michael Bay， the action-movie legend. Then Moncler， the French-Italian sportswear brand， celebrated its sixtieth anniversary by turning the seventh floor of 1111 Lincoln Road into a Winter Wonderland—in Miami Beach！ “What happens here on a daily basis is like a performance，” Wennett told me. “You find things in places you don’t expect to find them. You have experiences you don’t expect to have. Nothing is what you expect.”

The lesson is as direct as it is disruptive： There is no such thing as an average or old-fashioned business， just average or old-fashioned ways to do business. The thrill of breakthrough creativity can be summoned10 in all sorts of industries and all walks of life if executives and entrepreneurs are prepared to reimagine what’s possible in their fields. In fact， the opportunity to reach for extraordinary may be most pronounced11 in settings that have been far too ordinary for far too long.

It’s even true for parking garages—whether that’s repurposing an old， bland facility to store cars into a buzzing incubator to unleash young， hard-driving entrepreneurs， or transforming the mundane experience of parking into a stylish retail-and-social complex unlike anything the world has seen. How are you doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways？

《紐約時報》最近發布了全國大學校園創新項目和創新空間概覽，頗具吸引力。

其中我最喜歡的一個創新方案恰好也是最簡單的一個。西北大學把一個有霉味兒的校內老舊停車場重新設計成一個企業家新秀的創新孵化空間，并配備3D打印機、互動屏幕以及大量軟件。《紐約時報》這樣描述這個停車場：“為了維持一種臨時的喜劇感覺，建筑師們保留了（清理干凈的）混凝土地面上的停車線，并在很多墻上用了廉價的膠合板，上面還裝飾著噴繪圖案。”

為什么我會覺得這個建筑特別有趣？實不相瞞，那是因為我對停車場有一種莫名的喜愛。在我的新書《簡單的精彩》中，我研究了很多能改變游戲規則的領導人，他們在零售銀行、快餐店等非常普通的領域做出了非凡的成就。書中我最喜歡的一個案例研究的是位于邁阿密海灘的一個停車場，那是一棟叫作林肯路1111號的建筑，非常壯觀。這個停車場把城市生活中最平淡無奇、最為人所忽視的一個元素變成了一種引人注目、極具吸引力的品牌。

房地產企業家羅伯特·溫納特買下這個普通的地方時，他決定把普通的東西變得不普通。幾年后，他重新設計的這個停車場開放啟用，受到了廣泛贊譽，收獲了民眾的熱烈掌聲。一位記者將這個嶄新的建筑贊為一件獨一無二的“車建筑”杰作，并解釋說這是“高端建筑與泊車之間不可思議的結合”。他這樣描述對這個地方的第一反應：“停車場在美國是建筑設計好之后才添加的，令人不快，讓人聯想起很多詞（老鼠、啤酒罐、難聞的怪味等），而嘆為觀止一般不在此列。”

但這個停車場的確是令人嘆為觀止，且已成為舉辦慈善活動、品酒會甚至豪華婚禮的熱門場所。這棟耗資6500萬美元的建筑擁有夸張的天花板和360度的開闊視野，且沒有外墻——看起來更像一幢大型的閣樓公寓，而不是讓人感到幽閉恐懼的車庫。宏偉的樓梯縱貫整個七層停車場的中心，營造出一種歐洲火車站的優雅氛圍。高端餐廳和精品店（出售藝術書籍、手袋、鞋履和高概念運動服裝等）遍布停車場外圍和頂層，而五樓的一家時裝零售店竟占地1800平方英尺，且全由玻璃圍成，令人震撼。

早上，慢跑和健走的人在停車場的坡道上來來往往，瑜伽教練則在頂層授課。停車場開放后不久，情侶們就開始請求允許他們在那里舉行婚禮。“1111號的特別之處在于它確實是一個精心策劃的空間，而不只是一個有零售店的停車場。”溫納特告訴我，“它更像一座文化建筑，而不是商業建筑。我們實際上‘規劃’了它的建設，并且能協助設計一些能引發話題的活動。”

例如，維多利亞的秘密拍攝了一支邁阿密風格的商業廣告，由動作片大師邁克爾·貝執導。之后，法國-意大利運動服裝品牌盟可睞為慶祝成立六十周年，在邁阿密海灘把倫敦路1111號的七樓變成了冬日仙境！溫納特說：“在這里，每天發生的事就像一場演出。你會在意想不到的地方有所發現，會有意想不到的體驗。這里所有的事情都是意想不到的。”

這其中的經驗既直接又極具顛覆性：沒有普通或過時的業務，只有普通或過時的經營方法。如果管理者和企業家愿意重新構思領域內可以重構的事物，那么各行各業都可以感知突破性創新帶來的興奮感。事實上，在長期一成不變的平庸環境中，實現卓越的機會可能最大。

對停車場來說尤其如此——無論是將老舊枯燥的車庫重新設計成熱鬧的孵化器來培育沖勁十足的年輕企業家，還是把單調的停車體驗改造成前所未有的集零售和社交于一體的優雅建筑。你是如何以非凡的方法做平凡的事情的？

（譯者單位：北京航空航天大學）