Enterprise development

1
Enterprise development

• The market opportunity - seeing the window

2
The marketing/entrepreneurship interface

• Marketing and entrepreneurship, both are about
  the practice of innovation, about identifying
  opportunities in the marketplace with growth
  potential and marshalling the resources to
  exploit them
• The marketer in the firm is described in the
  literature as the one who __ holds the
  organisational responsibility for guiding
  innovation, Simmonds (1986), p3.
• Innovation is defined in the literature as __any
  renewal designed and realised, that strengthens
  the organisations position against its
  competitors, and which allows a long-term
  competitive advantage to be maintained, Vrakking
  (1990), p 95.
• Innovation is a core concept of marketing and
  entrepreneurship, (technology-push versus
  demand-pull),
• Marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation are
  fundamentally about change
• However the growing sophistication of marketing
  theory threatens its entrepreneurial credentials

3
Identifying new venture opportunities

• The most successful entrepreneurs, venture
  capitalists and private investors are opportunity
  focused that is they start with what customers
  and the market place want and do not loose sight
  of it, Timmons, 1990, p 71
• Core marketing concepts,
  needs, a basic requirement to
  be satisfied,
  wants, a desire for a specific product to fulfil
  a need,
  demand, a want for a product combined
  with an ability to pay, value and
  choice, insights to how customers decide between
  alternative product offerings,
  
  utility, level of customer satisfaction derived,
  value, reflects a
  combination of price and utility

4
Identifying new venture opportunities

• When was the last time you had a good idea,
  What were the circumstances?
  What was the idea?
• How might we understand the concept of a new
  product idea?
  A
  new product or quality of product introduced to a
  firms market? (A product being a
  good/service/idea)
  A
  new market opened up?
  A new source of supply?
  A
  new organisational structure?
  A new production method?
• A new distribution route?
• A new network?
• A solution to somebodys problem
  
  

5
Identifying new product opportunities,categories
of new products

• New to the world products, discontinuous
  innovations
• New product lines, developing new market segments
• Additions to existing product lines, gap analysis
  and line stretching
• Improvements in/revisions to existing products,
  levels of the product, the value chain
• Product repositioning, new market opportunities
• Cost reductions, maintaining competitiveness

6
Identifying new venture opportunitieswhat makes
an idea good?

• It repeatedly meets the needs and wants of the
  firms target market
• It is consistent with the objectives of the firm
• It is consistent with the firms existing
  portfolio of products
• It is consistent with the resources available to
  the firm, in terms of
  
  -the management competencies of the lead
  entrepreneur(s)
  -the core
  competencies of employees
  -the finances
  
  -the production facilities
• Its highly unlikely to be anything too radical

7
Identifying new venture opportunitiesa few
simple, relatively inexpensive approaches

• Through personal contacts, customers, suppliers,
  business owners in differentiated markets,
  company reps or employees, inventors, University
  researchers
• By a critical observation of trends, new
  technology, recreation, nostalgia, fads, legal
  and regulatory changes, health, business trends
• By research and reading, trade publications,
  business journals, University research, data
  bases
• By visits, to trade exhibitions, to retail
  outlets in foreign markets, to innovation/enterpri
  se centres, to libraries
• Through some speculative thinking, benefit
  analysis, brain storming, trend screening

8
Identifying new venture opportunities

• Opportunities are spawned when there are
  changing circumstances, chaos, confusion,
  inconsistencies, lags and leads, knowledge and
  information gaps and a variety of other vacuums
  in an industry or market Timmons, (1990), p 71.
• Opportunities do not present themselves, they
  have to be actively sought out. A business
  organisation has not merely a way of doing
  things it also has a way of seeing things.
  Wickham, (1998), p151
• Recognising ideas which can become
  entrepreneurial opportunities stems from a
  capacity to see what others do not, Timmons,
  (1990), p 40
• Consider the need to develop latent skills in
  creative and innovative thinking

9
Identifying new venture opportunities

• An opportunity has the qualities of being
  attractive, durable and timely and is anchored in
  a product or service which creates or adds value
  for its buyer or end user, Timmons 1990, p71
• An opportunity can be said to have such qualities
  if the so called window of opportunity is
  opening and is likely to remain open long enough
• The strategic window, five stages are
  -seeing the window,
  scanning for new opportunities,
  -locating the window, positioning the new
  venture, -measuring the
  window, establishing potential,
  -opening the window, gaining commitment,
  -closing the window,
  forestalling competitors,
  Wickham, (1998), pp154155

10
Identifying new venture opportunities,stages in
the new product development process

• Idea generation
• screening
• concept development and testing
• marketing strategy
• business analysis
• product development
• test marketing
• commercialisation
• The innovation process in practice