What do Judy Wald, JD Powers and Fred Segal have in common? As highly successful entrepreneurs they were creative thinkers who turned businesses on their heads to create highly successful products and services.

I discovered this creative trio, thanks to Bob Hagerty of The Wall Street Journal.

Judy Wald was a stylish, brash, supremely confident entrepreneur at a time when few women wielded executive power on Madison Avenue. She turned the talent agency business on its head by not charging the talent but charging larger fees to ad agencies that needed the talent and paid for it.

JD Powers made a fortune by telling auto makers what they did not want to hear: What their customers think of their cars.

This led to improvements in US auto making and he branched out into surveying customers of other products and selling his findings to those who sold them.

Fred Segal saw something in blue jeans no one else had: Jeans could be more than work pants. He took lighter weight denim and turned it into hip-hugging fashion statements with rhinestones and other touches. Bob Dylan and the Beatles became his best customers.

What’s the Big Business Breakthrough in their examples? What traditions in your business or industry could you turn on their heads and make your own fortune?

We share such field-tested ideas in “Million Dollar Strategies of Maverick Entrepreneurs.” Email JerryBellune@yahoo.com.

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