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This chapter explores the different approaches entrepreneurs use to identify opportunities and generate ideas for new ventures. It discusses the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs that contribute to their ability to recognize business opportunities and provides techniques to encourage continuous development of new ideas.
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Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, 2/e Bruce R. Barringer R. Duane Ireland Chapter 2
Chapter Objectives(1 of 2) 1. Explain the difference between opportunities and ideas. 2. Describe the three general approaches entrepreneurs use to identify opportunities. 3. Discuss the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs that contribute to their ability to recognize business opportunities. 4. Identify and describe techniques entrepreneurs use to generate ideas. 5. Discuss actions to take to encourage continuous development of new ideas in entrepreneurial firms.
What is An Opportunity?(1 of 2) • Opportunity Defined • An opportunity is a favorable set of circumstances that creates the need for a new product, service, or business idea. • Most entrepreneurial firms are started in one of two ways: • Some firms are internally stimulated. An entrepreneur decides to start a firm, searches for and recognizes an opportunity, then starts a business. • Other firms are externally stimulated. An entrepreneur recognizes a problem or an opportunity gap and creates a business to fill it.
What is an Opportunity?(2 of 2) An opportunity has four essential qualities
Window of Opportunity • Window of Opportunity • The term “window of opportunity” is a metaphor describing the time period in which a firm can realistically enter a new market. • Once the market for a new product is established, its window of opportunity opens, and new entrants flow in. • At some point, the market matures, and the window of opportunity (for new entrants) closes.
First Approach: Observing Trends(1 of 2) • Observing Trends • The first approach to identifying opportunities is to observe trends and study how they create opportunities for entrepreneurs to pursue. • There are two ways that entrepreneurs can get a handle on changing environmental trends: • They can carefully study and observe them. • They can purchase customized forecasts and market analyses from independent research firms.
First Approach: Observing Trends(2 of 2) Environmental Trends Suggesting Business or Product Opportunity Gaps
Trend 1: Economic Forces • Economic Forces • Economic forces affect consumers’ level of disposable income. • When studying how economic forces affect opportunities, it is important to evaluate who has money to spend and who is trying to cut costs. • An increase in the number of women in the workforce and their related increase in disposable income is largely responsible for the number of boutique clothing stores targeting professional women that have opened in the past several years. • Many large firms are trying to cut costs. Entrepreneurs have taken advantage of this trend by starting firms that help other firms control costs.
Trend 2: Social Forces(1 of 2) • Social Forces • Changes in social trends provide openings for new businesses on an ongoing basis. • The continual proliferation of fast-food restaurants, for example, isn’t happening because people love fast food. It is happening because people are busy, and have disposable income. • Similarly, the Sony Walkman was developed not because consumers wanted smaller radios but because people wanted to listen to music while on the go.
Trend 2: Social Forces(2 of 2) Examples of Social Forces That Allow For New Business Opportunities • Family and work patterns. • The aging of the population. • The increasing diversity in the workplace. • The globalization of industry. • The increasing focus on health care and fitness. • The proliferation of computers and the Internet. • The increase in the number of cell phone users. • New forms of entertainment.
Trend 3: Technological Advances • Technological Advances • Given the rapid pace of technological change, it is vital that entrepreneurs keep on top of how new technologies affect current and future business opportunities. • Entire industries have emerged as the result of technological advances. • Examples include the computer industry, the Internet, biotechnology, and digital photography. • Once a new technology is created, new businesses form to take the technology to a higher level. • For example, RealNetworks was started to add audio capability to the Internet.
Trend 4: Political and Regulatory Changes • Political and Regulatory Changes • Political and regulatory changes provide the basis for new business opportunities. • For example, laws that protect the environment have created opportunities for entrepreneurs to start firms that help other firms comply with environmental laws and regulations. • Similarly, many entrepreneurial firms have been started to help companies comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The act requires certain companies to keep all their records, including e-mail messages and electronic documents, for at least five years.
Second Approach: Solving a Problem(1 of 2) Second Approach: Solving a Problem Sometimes identifying opportunities simply involves noticing a problem and finding a way to solve it. These problems can be pinpointed through observing trends and through more simple means, such as intuition, serendipity, or chance. Some business ideas are clearly initiated to solve a problem. For example, Symantec Corp. created Norton antivirus software to guard computers against viruses.
Second Approach: Solving a Problem(2 of 2) Businesses Created to Solve a Problem
Third Approach: Finding Gaps in the Marketplace • Gaps in the Marketplace • A third approach to identifying opportunities is to find a gap in the marketplace. • A gap in the marketplace is often created when a product or service is needed by a specific group of people but doesn’t represent a large enough market to be of interest to mainstream retailers or manufacturers. • This is the reason that small clothing boutiques and specialty shops exist. • The small boutiques, which often sell designer clothes or clothing for hard-to-fit people, are willing to carry merchandise that doesn’t sell in large enough quantities for Wal-Mart, GAP, or JC Penney to carry.
Personal Characteristics of the Entrepreneur Characteristics that tend to make some people better at recognizing opportunities than others Prior Experience Social Networks Cognitive Factors Creativity
Prior Industry Experience • Prior Industry Experience • Several studies have shown that prior experience in an industry helps an entrepreneur recognize business opportunities. There are several explanations for this. • By working in an industry, an individual may spot a market niche that is underserved. • It is also possible that by working in an industry, an individual builds a network of social contacts who provide insights that lead to recognizing new opportunities.
Cognitive Factors • Cognitive Factors • Studies have shown that opportunity recognition may be an innate skill or cognitive process. • Some people believe that entrepreneurs have a “sixth sense” that allows them to see opportunities that others miss. • This “sixth sense” is called entrepreneurial alertness, which is formally defined as the ability to notice things without engaging in deliberate search.
Social Networks(1 of 3) • Social Networks • The extent and depth of an individual’s social network affects opportunity recognition. • People who build a substantial network of social and professional contacts will be exposed to more opportunities and ideas than people with sparse networks. • In one survey of 65 start-ups, half the founders reported that they got their business idea through social contacts. • Strong-Tie Vs. Weak-Tie Relationships • All of us have relationships with other people that are called “ties.” (See next slide.)
Social Networks(2 of 3) • Nature of Strong-Tie Vs. Weak-Tie Relationships • Strong-tie relationship are characterized by frequent interaction and form between coworkers, friends, and spouses. • Weak-tie relationships are characterized by infrequent interaction and form between casual acquaintances. • Result • It is more likely that an entrepreneur will get new business ideas through weak-tie rather than strong-tie relationships. (See next slide.)
Social Networks(3 of 3) Why weak-tie relationships lead to more new business ideas than strong-tie relationships Strong-Tie Relationships Weak-Tie Relationships These relationships, which typically form between like-minded individuals, tend to reinforce insights and ideas that people already have. The relationships, which form between casual acquaintances, are not as apt to be between like-minded individuals, so one person may say something to another that sparks a completely new idea.
Creativity(1 of 2) • Creativity • Creativity is the process of generating a novel or useful idea. • Opportunity recognition may be, at least in part, a creative process. • For an individual, the creative process can be broken down into five stages, as shown on the next slide.
Creativity Process • Preparation. Preparation is the background, experience, and knowledge that an entrepreneur brings to the opportunity recognition process. • Incubation. Incubation is the stage during which a person considers an idea or thinks about a problem; it is the “mulling things over” phase. • Insight. Insight is the flash of recognition when the solution to a problem is seen or an idea is born. It is sometimes called the “eureka” experience. • Evaluation. Evaluation is the stage of the creative process during which an idea is subjected to scrutiny and analyzed for its viability. • Elaboration. Elaboration is the stage during which the creative idea is put into a final form
Creativity(2 of 2) Five Steps to Generating Creative Ideas
Full View of the Opportunity Recognition Process Depicts the connection between an awareness of emerging trends and the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur
Techniques For Generating Ideas Brainstorming Focus Groups Library and Internet Other Techniques
Brainstorming(1 of 2) • Brainstorming • Is a technique used to generate a large number of ideas and solutions to problems quickly. • A brainstorming “session” typically involves a group of people, and should be targeted to a specific topic. • Rules for a brainstorming session: • No criticism. • Freewheeling is encouraged. • The session should move quickly. • Leap-frogging is encouraged.
Brainstorming(2 of 2) • Brainstorming (continued) • There are two reasons brainstorming generates ideas that might not arise otherwise: • Because no criticism is allowed, people are more likely to offer ideas than they would in a traditional setting. • Brainstorming sessions can generate more ideas than a traditional meeting because brainstorming focuses on creativity rather than evaluation. • In most meetings, one person suggests an idea, and immediately the rest of the group begins evaluating it. This happens because most people are better at criticizing ideas than they are at suggesting new ones.
Focus Groups • Focus Group • A focus group is a gathering of five to ten people, who have been selected based on their common characteristics relative to the issues being discussed. • These groups are led by a trained moderator, who uses the internal dynamics of the group environment to gain insight into why people feel they way they do about a particular issue. • Although focus groups are used for a variety of purposes, they can be used to help generate new business ideas.
Library And Internet Research • A third approach to generating new business ideas is to conduct library and Internet research. • A natural tendency is to think that an idea should be chosen, and the process of researching the idea should then begin. This approach is too linear. Often, the best ideas emerge when the general notion of an idea—like creating casual electronic games for adults—is merged wit extensive library and Internet research, which might provide insights into the best type of casual games to create.
Other Techniques • Customer Advisory Boards • Some companies set up customer advisory boards that meet regularly to discuss needs, wants, and problems that may lead to new ideas. • Day-In-The-Life Research • A type of anthropological research, where the employees of a company spend a day with a customer.
Encouraging New Ideas • Establishing a Focal Point for Ideas • Some firms meet the challenge of encouraging, collecting, and evaluating ideas by designating a specific person to screen and track them—for if its everybody’s job, it may be no one’s responsibility. • Another approach is to establish an idea bank (or vault), which is a physical or digital repository for storing ideas. • Encouraging Creativity at the Firm Level • Creativity is the raw material that goes into innovation and should be encouraged at the organizational and individual supervisory level.
Protecting Ideas From Being Lost or Stolen • Step 1 • The idea should be put in a tangible form such as entered into a physical idea logbook or saved on a computer disk, and the date the idea was first thought of should be entered. • Step 2 • The idea should be secured. This may seem like an obvious step, but is one that is often overlooked. • Step 3 • Avoid making an inadvertent or voluntary disclosure of an idea, in a manner that forfeits the right to claim exclusive rights to it.
