Business Development
Developing business can mean many things. Every enterprise must meet a need. In most industries this expectation means providing a product or service for some price. Developing a business plan to support the enterprise is essential, but often this is not enough. Pearson Innovation has out-lined certain toll-gates that will help guide you in the business development process. At first glance it may seem that this journey is linear, however; it is rare for a successful enterprise to proceed through each stage of development on the first attempt. In fact, great ideas bare a larger degree of oversight, bucause their value justifies a higher standard. Often adhering to a higher standard means being patient while in the pursuit of completing the project.
- Idea!
- Evaluation
- Business Intelligence
- Business Planning
- Colition Building
- Resource Acqusition
- Implamentation
- Adjustment
- Maintaince
- Innovation
Idea!
For many people a new idea can be a flash of inspiration or the result of intentional brainstorming. However an idea is generated it is important to be able to apply the idea in such a way that suffienct benefit is achieved. Curating such ideas is an essential asspect of business development. Understanding which ideas have already been generated and when, prevents covering the same ground needlessly. Additionally such a collection of organized ideas helps to inspire new ideas.
Learn MoreEvaluation
After an idea has been generated it is important to determine its merits and shortcomings. This exercise provides a critical check for the brainstoring process. This step essentially detirmines if an idea has met the threshold for meeting some need in such a way that the costs of implamenting the solution don't exceed its benefit. In this context cost dosen't simply mean finacial it also includes effort required by the end-user to apply the idea to meet their need. Learn More
Business Intelligence
After an idea has past the evaluation phase it is important to conduct a deep dive of exsisting or emerging solutions that might already serve the needs of the end-user. There is a "first-Mover advanatage" for anyone who identifies a need and a solution, but onely if they can get it to market quickly. Likewise there is marginal benefit for improvements to existing solutions (e.g. improved functionality or lower cost). Understnding what others solutions exist will shape the value statement offered to investors and the end-users. However in most cases a simple web search is not enough to complete this process, a detailed review of competitors public finical documents, industry analyses, and market surveys may also be required to fully understand the landscape related to your idea.
Legal Protection
This is the phase where legal protection should be intiated, if not before. Once there is confirmation that your idea is viable, make efforts to protect yourself from preditors. Trademarks, copyrights, patents, and legal encorperation, and securing digital assets should be discussed and implamented. You may not need everything all at once, but it should be started as soon as possible, interacting with goverment agentices can take a really, long time. The sooner you start the quicker it will conclude. Legal protection seems like a unessessary step, but this measure ensures that your idea belongs to you. This is an asset for being able to meet the needs of your end-users.
Business Planning
Once your idea has a clear benefit for a known groups of end-users, and the solution can be offered without lossing resources a business plan should be composed. A well crafted business plan contains timely and actionable content nesseary to statisfy a need in the market. A good idea isn't enough to sustain a business, it must also be supported by a solid framework that addresses relevant obstacles and gives a detailed account of required resources. General Eisenhower once famosly observed that "Plans are nothing, but planning is everything." This wisdom applys here too, a business plan may need to be corrected or redone completely, but the act of making a business plan is valueable asset for bringing your idea to the end-user.
Coalition Building
Every successful idea has a base of support. This support may be several forms, passionate end-users, inspired investors, fellow collaborators, and so on. Unless you have enough resources (talent, time, and funds) to undertake a your initiative yourself it is important to carefully select people who understand and will agree to suport your idea. As one might expect there are right ways and wrong ways to build this support group. Every step in the business development process is important, however; this step is the key stone that will ensure success or doom the idea to failure.
Resource Acqusition
When the value of an idea is evident to enough people, things start to fall into place.If a business plan has been made well, then if the required resources are availble they will begin to accumulate. This is not an effortless process, but having a supoort base and a defined list of required resources does help to streamline the process and being able to quickly apply your idea. If investors where included in your coalition group funding is more striaght forward, sometimes resouces are provided by small ad hoc contrabutions like in crowsourced solutions. In truth a succesful enterpise may have a mixture of pathways to acquire what it needs to begin its operation.
Implamentation
Implementing your idea can be exciting and scary. Remember that implamentation requires attention to detail. No business plan is 100% perfect, but it is a great starting point for applying the framework that will support your idea.
Adjustment
Sound ideas with solid backing can still fail to achieve the intend result or reach their ideal end-users. Factors like a recession, changing end-user needs, and supply shortages can thwart all of your careful planning and implamentation.
Maintaince
Many innovators and entrpeuars get so deep into the product lauch that they forget about what it takes to keep the momentium going. There is a temptation to make operations too lean, the problem with this notion is it reduces the shock capacity of an enterprise. Shock capacity, or Robustness, is the ability to have a failure but not have it affect operations. Sometimes this means reduncties or premium grade equipment. Eventually everything will brake if it doesn't be come obsolte first. This concept applies to brand management and HR as much as it does to machines. Make maintence a piority, it keeps the enterprise freash.
Innovation
This step brings the process full circle.