I faced thirty problems and thought of thirty innovations!

 

 

Problems and ideas!

 

His wife's bag was lost at Beirut airport, so he came up with an idea to protect the bags. His daughter needed a bathroom on a highway outside London, so he came up with an idea to solve the problem. The air conditioning went out in the camp where he was staying in Arafat during a Hajj trip, so he came up with an alternative solution. He did not like the floor chair in the Haram, so he developed it. He did not like the large size of Islamic alarm clocks, especially the "manual" ones, so he came up with an alarm device that could be attached to any wristwatch that suited his taste.

 

And also;

 

He did not like the shape of the toothbrush for breakfast, and he was annoyed by the barriers that fall due to the heavy crowding in public places such as airports or the Holy Mosque, so he invented a multi-functional barrier. Because he needed to exchange money sometimes and happened to find the ATM empty, he invented an alternative service. Once, he needed to travel during one of the seasons and did not find a reservation, so he thought of a service through which he could find seats on the plane that would accommodate the largest number of passengers!

 

 

This is Talal Naeem Ftaihi.. His thoughts reveal his personality.. A successful businessman who loves challenges.. He never dreamed of being an inventor, but he was also not a person who accepted problems or obstacles.. Since his childhood, he was aware that necessity is the mother of invention, and that every problem has a solution, and that problems that have no solution, he can invent a new solution for them!

With such faith, he has obtained approximately three patents, has approximately 18 innovative product ideas, and nine innovative service ideas under testing!

Talal says that all of his innovations, without exception, were solutions to problems that he personally experienced, or that a member of his family or someone close to him experienced. He adds that the problem may pass, but it remains stuck in his mind until he finds a solution. That is why some of his ideas came during his Hajj trips, or during his travels.

 

 

Ideas come anytime!

 

 

 

M. Talal says that the most important lesson he learned from his innovations is that there is no specific time for an idea, and there is no despair in the face of any problem. He explains: Sometimes he thinks about some problems for a period that may reach two months, and reads about them, and searches the Internet, but he does not find a solution for them, and suddenly while he is sleeping, inspiration comes to him with an idea for a solution, so he wakes up and writes it down!

This is the biggest proof that the subconscious mind stored the idea and worked on it based on the accumulated knowledge it acquired during the research phase, and that the idea was there, but it had to wait for the right time!

 

 

9 year old salesman!

 

Talal attributes this challenge in his personality to his father’s upbringing style with him. His father never treated him like a child, as his father consulted him on many matters, and he assigned him the tasks of buying and selling since he was nine years old. He even sold his first piece of land for a very large sum when he was sixteen years old!

As for his grandfather, he used to take him with him on his business trips since his childhood, and he used to assign him many negotiation tasks with workers in hotels and airports.

These successes in his childhood boosted his self-confidence, developed his negotiation skills, and made him love challenges and success..! He would not accept anything less than success! So any problem he faced was destined to either find a solution or invent one!

 

 

"How do you study?"

 

Talal was not only successful in his practical life, but he was also an outstanding student in all his academic stages. However, studying was not just “studying” for him, but rather it was an incentive for more research and questions. Therefore, the classes that Talal attended would begin and end with his questions and the information that he added to the curriculum. One of his teachers in elementary school even said to him: “How do you study?”

Talal grew up and obtained a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from America, and a master’s degree from the University of Sunderland in Britain. This specialization gave him a lot of information that helped him think about some of his innovations, and also in his business, as he became busy after studying investing in the commercial and investment sector.

In elementary school, Talal loved drawing and poetry. He wrote his first poem in the fifth grade. He also participated in several school plays, but after that, he became fond of creativity and innovation!

In his spare time, he was thinking about his innovations, how to develop them, and how to make them a reality!

 

Innovative chats!

 

Innovation was not one of Talal's goals in life. He was born a merchant and raised to be a successful businessman. He is the descendant of a family known for its trade for more than 100 years. Therefore, all the ideas that came to his mind in a moment of inspiration, he would tell them as "gossip" in family gatherings or friends' meetings. He never took them seriously! They were just ideas that came to his mind, became a topic of conversation in a gathering, and then ended!

Until one day, one of his friends reminded him that an idea that is not implemented dies, and that there is no benefit to an idea that dies, whether on a personal or societal level. From here, Talal headed towards studying all his ideas, adopting them scientifically, making models for them, and then trying to preserve their intellectual property. He passed the initial examination to obtain a patent from King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, and obtained another patent from the Intellectual Property Office in Britain, and another from a government agency considering it a service idea.

 

Simple ideas..my game!

 I don't care much about getting humans to the moon or Mars, but I do care about finding a new way to install screws.

There is no great innovation without simple innovations that contributed to its formation and development. This is what Talal Fatehi believes. Talal says: I don’t care much about humans reaching the moon or Mars if I don’t benefit directly from that, but I and others might be interested, for example, in knowing a new way to install screws to solve an existing problem! It will definitely benefit me!

 

No one innovates alone!

 

Because Talal was not thinking about innovation for the sake of innovation, and was not looking for innovation for its own sake, but rather his innovations were solutions to his problems, his innovations were distinguished by the diversity of their fields. Although he tried to diversify his readings according to the innovations he was working on, some innovations require specialized knowledge, and for this reason Talal would meet with specialists or designers in the field of each idea, to learn more about the field, and then he could develop the idea better! 

 

 

Talal Fitaihi's innovations:

 

First innovation: the current detector plug

 

Talal had once had one of his devices burn out after connecting it to 220 volts instead of 110. This is a problem that many people face, especially in developing countries that use 110-220 volts at the same time, which causes the device to break down immediately. So he thought of an innovation that would reduce this problem, which is a plug that detects the type of current using light. The idea passed the initial examination at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, and is in the process of obtaining a patent.

 

 

The second innovation: the Forever Bag 

 

This innovation was the result of an ordeal Talal experienced with his bag at an airport, when the wheel of one of his bags broke, making it difficult to carry and move around. Because this problem can be faced by many, Talal invented an alternative solution in the event that one of the wheels or the handle of the travel bags breaks down. The idea has been patented with the British Intellectual Property Office, and he is now in the process of marketing it.

 

The third innovation: (telephone communication system) service

 

 One of Talal’s friends lost his mobile phone once, and he kept searching and wondering about it throughout the trip. Because this problem exists and many people suffer from it, Talal thought of a solution for it, and he invented the telephone communication system service, which is a service that helps 

Anyone who has lost or broken their mobile phone, or lost their connection to the network, should contact us. This idea has been registered with a government agency as a service idea, and Talal is in the process of registering it again with an agency outside the Kingdom as a tactical step.

 

 

Fourth innovation: a system of organization

This system organizes the entry and exit of male and female students from schools, institutes and universities, thus completely eliminating the problem of gathering at gates and parking lots, and eliminating the need to use loudspeakers. It also makes calls in the event of delay or absence.

 

Talal Fitaihi now..

 

Talal Naeem Fathihi is currently in Britain with his family on a scientific trip, seeking to study for a doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, specializing in information technology, so that he can develop one of his innovative ideas. During this trip, he is also holding meetings with foreign companies to market some of his innovations, and he is seeking to register a patent for the rest of his other ideas!