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Week 05

The document outlines strategies for identifying business opportunities by listening to potential clients, customers, and analyzing competitors, as well as staying informed about industry trends. It emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurial imagination and creative thinking in developing innovative products and services. Additionally, it discusses the innovation process as a crucial element for successful commercialization in business ventures.

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M Mohsin speaks
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3 views

Week 05

The document outlines strategies for identifying business opportunities by listening to potential clients, customers, and analyzing competitors, as well as staying informed about industry trends. It emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurial imagination and creative thinking in developing innovative products and services. Additionally, it discusses the innovation process as a crucial element for successful commercialization in business ventures.

Uploaded by

M Mohsin speaks
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Opportunity Identification: the search for New Ideas

1. Listen to your potential clients and past leads

When you’re targeting potential customers listen to their needs, wants, challenges
and frustrations with your industry. Have they used similar products and services
before? What did they like and dislike? Why did they come to you? What are their
objections to your products or services?

This will help you to find opportunities to develop more tailored products and
services home your target market and identify and overcome common objections.

2. Listen to your customers

When you’re talking to your customers listen to what they saying about your
industry, products and services. What are their frequently asked questions?
Experiences? Frustrations? Feedback and complaints?

This valuable customer information will help you identify key business
opportunities to expand and develop your current products and services.

3. Look at your competitors

Do a little competitive analysis (don’t let it lead to competitive paralysis though) to


see what other startups are doing, and more importantly, not doing? Where are they
falling down? What are they doing right? What makes customers go to them over
you?

Analyzing your competitors will help you identify key business opportunities to
expand your market reach and develop your products and services.

4. Look at industry trends and insights

Subscribe to industry publications, join relevant associations, set Google alerts for
key industry terms and news and follow other industry experts on social media.

Absorb yourself in your industry and continually educate yourself on the latest
techniques and trends.
Entrepreneurial Imagination and Creativity

STIMULATING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL IMAGINATION

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas, as in escaping from the
old ones.” - John Maynard Keynes The word entrepreneur is derived from two
words, entre, meaning to ‘enter’ or to ‘penetrate in between’, and prendere,
meaning to ‘grasp’ or ‘seize hold of'. Therefore, an entrepreneur is one who
penetrates the spaces between established boundaries and seizes opportunities that
are overlooked by others. It is precisely this ability to challenge the dominant
worldview and ‘think the unthinkable’ that gives those with an entrepreneurial
imagination a decisive advantage over those who pursue strategies based on
conventionally held ideas and beliefs. This topic provides you with some thought
strategies to stimulate your entrepreneurial imagination and invites you to shift the
focus of your attention to creating added value for your organization. The
objectives for today’s session are to:

 Understand how the entrepreneurial imagination is created through shifting


paradigms or worldviews.
 Develop paradigm-shifting strategies to innovate new value-adding
products/services/practices within your organization.

 The role of Creative Thinking

When creative thinking or creativity is mentioned, most people will immediately


think of something related to art or design. But, creative thinking is not just limited
to the artistic world, but is something that is built into all of us – and vital for
successful businesses.
Creative thinking in business
The terms ‘creative thinking’ and ‘business’ are rarely used in the same sentence,
which is a shame as thinking creatively is a powerful business tool that should
never be overlooked. Creative thinking can help a business to identify and exploit
new opportunities and assist in problem solving, improving overall productivity.
Once a business is established, it is very easy to be seduced by the relative
simplicity of ‘business as usual’ or attracted by the mantra of ‘sell what we’ve got’.
Many business owners focus on existing products, services or methodologies and
would rather make small tweaks to the existing, rather than developing fresh new
ideas to improve their business strategies. But, for those that think outside the box,
the rewards can be huge by finding new perspectives and removing the limits we
put on ourselves.
Arenas in Which People Are Creative

I'm going to speak in context of startup ideas. There are a few reasons for thinking
ideas are very valuable:

The perception that the idea doesn't exist. If it doesn't exist in someone's mind, it
means it's rare. It only knows the world we experience. If we haven't seen it, then it
doesn't exist.
 Emotional attachment. There's an inherent inflation on value on things that
are ours. For example, my daughter's first pair of shoes might be valuable
in my eyes but to other people the value is low. This is because there are
experiences associated with it. With an idea, a person might have built
experiences in their head about it: Scenarios on growing a company,
getting rich and famous, changing the world, etc. This makes their idea
more valuable to them than you.
 They've thought of an idea before and seen others get rich from the same
idea. Years ago I was taking shower and the hot water ran out. I thought
it'd be awesome if you could heat up water in a house on the fly without a
water heater tank. It would use microwave technology to heat up the
water. Unlimited hot water for showers and energy cost savings. A few
years later? Someone made it.
 Nobody sees the work that goes into an idea. Just the net result. This is
largely based on what we observe in the media. We don't see the day to
day effort that needs to happen to get something into market. It's a ton of
work. The media glorifies the story of the 2 guys who started a company
and magically they got XX million dollars. See chart below

Innovation and the Entrepreneur


Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential ingredients in building a successful
commercial venture. The ways in which these two concepts fuel enterprise are
something our faculty never stop exploring.

WHAT IS INNOVATION?
“It’s the introduction of novelty in a given market or industry, such as new
products, services, methods, sources of supply or organization,” says Fredrik. “At
the same time, there’s a strong emphasis on successful commercialization - that is,
an innovation is more than an idea or an invention, it’s the result of taking it to
market.”

“The purpose of innovation is to continuously grow and renew an enterprise with


new or better products, more efficient processes, or enhanced business models,”
adds Walter. “The Innovation course of the Online MBA aims to answer the
question - how do we, in business organizations or as entrepreneurs, get to
successful innovation?”

The Innovation Process


The innovation process describes the path of translating new and/or existing
knowledge into marketable solutions. Companies that pursue a
successful innovation process have something decisive that puts them ahead of
others - they have designed the path of an idea from generation, through
development, to market entry.

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