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INNOVATION RESOURCES

Stabletable

Breakthrough:
An adjustable plastic device to stop tables and other items of furniture from wobbling.

Inventor:
Andrew Gordon, United Kingdom

Financial reward:
$1 million +

The Story:
Stabletable

Andrew Gordon, a marketing manager for a large insurance company in the UK came up with the idea for his barnstorming invention after a night out and a few pints of Guinness. The table in the pub was a bit wobbly and one of his friends suggested moving to a more stable table; it got Gordon thinking about how to solve the perennial problem of unstable tables.

The next morning saw him cutting breakfast cereal packets to create his first prototype and he discussed the idea with his father.

“He’s from a much more traditional background in terms of the use of materials and we both came up with very different solutions to the same problem,” said the inventor. “His was very much based around using metal and hard plastics so it was quite a functional heavyweight type of item and my approach was more centered on the customer. I wanted something lightweight; it doesn’t actually have to be that strong. So we went down the route of using a type of plastic that was hardwearing but flexible and lightweight.”

Stabletable is a simple plastic gadget that can be adjusted depending on the extent of the wobble. It consists of a set of eight flexible strips that swivel out which allows for various thicknesses to be achieved under wobbly tables.

Novice Inventor

The inventing process was completely new to the marketing executive and he travelled down a few blind alleys before finding a prototypist and manufacturer.

“I had no idea what to do and so I phoned up a few plastics companies in the UK and asked for help. But the problem was I was only asking to produce maybe 5,000 to 10,000 and no one was really willing to help. I spent about a year doing that. Someone then mentioned to me ‘why don’t you contact one of these companies in China?’ and so I sent an email out to 15 different manufacturers in China who were happy to make two hundred to three hundred units for free. I sketched out the design on a piece of paper and then within a month a few of them got back to me with different options.”

Production Problems

From this process Gordon selected his manufacturer. There were a few glitches before the finished product was ready for the marketplace. One major problem involved the way the units were being cut which left some lubricant on them. There were also other teething problems related to the thickness of the material and accuracy of the cut.

The experience has made Gordon reflect on just how complex the design process can be. “The thing that I find amazing with even the most basic items such as Stabletable - which is eight bits of plastic stuck together with a pin - is there are so many design issues at the manufacturing stage. It makes you think that the quality control of a sophisticated piece of technology must be phenomenal.”

Dragons’ Den

In 2004 he appeared on the BBC’s version of Dragons’ Den appealing for £90,000 (approx USD $145,000) in angel funding. He was turned down with one of the dragons saying his invention was “the most ridiculous” idea she had ever heard of. Since that TV appearance sales soared, with distribution deals throughout the world, including China, Australia, Spain and the UK. They are also available from Gordon’s website www.stabletable.co.uk. To date more than 3 million units have been sold.

The increase in profits made it possible for him to invest in the packaging process and other modifications. His own initial outlay had been £2,000 (approx USD $3,200); he never invested huge amounts of his own money.

Gordon’s original intent was to services pubs and restaurants but the product has taken on a life of its own. Not only is the Stabletable device a means of preventing tables, washing machines, desks and bookcases from wobbling but many companies use them as promotional tools as Gordon offers a service where the plastic leaves can be branded with logos and messages. And a company in Australia even puts them inside the Christmas crackers it produces and sells. This scope of opportunity did not occur to him at first; it's been an unforeseen by-product of having invented a novel product.

“The biggest advice I’d give anyone is to think of it like being at school when you’re given an item and asked to think about how many different ways you can use it. That’s what it has been like with Stabletable. It’s all about how many different markets, how many different ways you can package it and promote it to get people to use it in different ways.”

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