On a good day, Steve was reminiscing about life and all of a sudden his mind “clicks” with an idea he thought might change his life forever. Such idea could be; a new invention, a best selling book, an application or a new form of entertainment. Unfortunately for Steve his chosen idea could not see the light of day, thus leaving tons of regrets or blames on on his mind. At times we faced obstacles while trying to get a business off the ground. Upon seeing one’s business success we often make statements like, “if only I could have thought of that”. Even though there are business ideas which are unrealistic in nature, some ideas have resulted in a business success story. This can relates to Phil Knight vision of producing high-tech shoes for runners which transforms Nike to a global corporation worth over billion of dollars.
Business ideas can evolved by observing the environment, discussing with colleagues from different backgrounds, listening to experts and reading from works of great and successful men. Other variables in which profitable business ideas can be generated are identified and discuss below:
Personal Experience: Business ideas based on personal experience can be drived from a person’s hobbies, interest or passion, inability to get the desired employment, talents or special skill, disability, frustration, bad experiences due to service failure or defective product.
Observation: Economic hardships in a country, business launched in another country, new trends in the business environment, innovation that could change an already known business model have been one of the major source for a business idea.
Business Experience: An idea can be source as a result of a business experience. The identified ideas may be as a result of a burning passion to solve a problem or right a wrong, knowledge of competitors, pricing or suppliers and superior understanding of a market through research.
Environmental Scanning: Environmental scanning is an idea generation technique where huge amount of information is gathered and analyse in order to identify potential business opportunities from emerging trends. To gather the necessary information, channels like; news magazines, commercials, trade publications, trade fairs and shows, family and friends, customers are highly involved in sourcing for business ideas.
Creativity: Creativity is the process where two or more ideas are combined in a new way which leads to innovative association among them. Creative thinking inspired a business, enable it to faced challenges and discovered innovative solutions that may create opportunities out of a problem. Having adopted a creative idea, a business can viewed issues from a new angle or approach. This will enable a business to adopt new ways in improving an existing product or service and optimised it’s activities.
Brainstorming: Brainstorming provides a medium for generated ideas to profer solution to a problem. During brainstorming session the participants will sit together for an unstructured discussion which may lead to series of ideas being generated. When brainstorming the following rules should be stick to:
✓ Criticism is not allowed by anyone (no negative comments from members).
✓ Freewheeling is encouraged (the wider the idea, the better).
✓ Quantity of ideas is desired (the greater the number of business ideas, the more likelihood the useful ideas emerging).
✓ Combination and improvements of business ideas are encouraged (business ideas of others can be used to produce other new business ideas).
Focus Group: Focus group involves the gathering of six to ten people who were carefully selected based on; demographics, psychographics or other considerations to discuss about topics of interest under the guidance of a moderator. Focus groups offer the means of obtaining indepth information through the dynamics of group interaction which allows insight on; feelings, attitudes and perceptions about the issue being discussed. The discussion commenced with self-introduction by participants. The moderator will then seek for answers on broad questions which may lead to more issues being discussed, thus encourages free and easy discussions so as to bring out the actual feelings of participants.
Market Research: Market research provides information which leads to Innovative business ideas. The information obtained from the research process will indicates the demand-supply gap prevailing in the market. While searching for business ideas, invaluable information can be gathered from industry and trade publications, the internet, observation, focus groups, surveys, behavioural data and experiments. The informations as obtained can be used to focus on players and drivers that may affect a business performance.
Reverse Brainstorming: Reverse brainstorming is similar to brainstorming session except that, it allows for criticism. Reverse brainstorming stimulates innovative thinking among participants. This can be done by identifying difficulties associated with a business idea; followed by a discussion on the best ways to overcome those difficulties.
Government: Government can be helpful in generating business ideas. The states and regions offers recommendations on; business hubs, product fairs and exhibitions. The bureau of statistics provides resources about new markets or raw materials. Files kept at the patent offices, government departments and technology development centres may contain information about a new product and business possibilities.
Business ideas have provided an avenue for a profitable venture to thrives. Upon the nature of obstacles which makes an idea being unrealistic; business entities like Coca Cola, Tesla, Ali Baba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Nike, Google and Microsoft have overcome threats to become global brands. This among other success stories have shown how generated ideas have provided a medium for a business to thrives and become a force to be reckoned with.
Shaksg Business Blog 