Pearson Innovation.

How do we plan for success?

Developing a 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 outlined certain tollgates 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 bear a larger degree of oversight, because their value justifies a higher standard. Often adhering to a higher standard means being patient while in the pursuit of completing the project.

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 sufficient benefit is achieved. Curating such ideas is an essential aspect 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.

Evaluation

After an idea has been generated it is important to determine its merits and shortcomings. This exercise provides a critical check for the brainstorming process. This step essentially determines if an idea has met the threshold for meeting some need in such a way that the costs of implementing the solution don't exceed its benefit. In this context, cost doesn’t simply mean financial it also includes effort required by the end-user to apply the idea to meet their need.

Business Intelligence

After an idea has past the evaluation phase it is important to conduct a deep dive of existing or emerging solutions that might already serve the needs of the end-user. There is a "first-mover advantage" for anyone who identifies a need and a solution, but only 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). Understanding what other 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 financial 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 initiated, if not before. Once there is confirmation that your idea is viable, make efforts to protect yourself from predators. Trademarks, copyrights, patents, and legal incorporation, and securing digital assets should be discussed and implemented. You may not need everything all at once, but it should be started as soon as possible, interacting with government agencies can take a really, long time. The sooner you start the quicker it will conclude. Legal protection seems like an unnecessary 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 group of end-users, and the solution can be offered without losing resources a business plan should be composed. A well-crafted business plan contains timely and actionable content necessary to satisfy 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 famously observed that "Plans are nothing, but planning is everything." This wisdom applies here too, a business plan may need to be corrected or redone completely, but the act of making a business plan is a valuable asset for bringing your idea to the end user.

Coalition Building

Every successful idea has a base of support. This support may be in several forms, passionate end-users, inspired investors, fellow collaborators, and so on. Unless you have enough resources (talent, time, and funds) to undertake your initiative yourself it is important to carefully select people who understand and will agree to support 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 keystone that will ensure success or doom the idea to failure.

Resource Acquisition

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 available they will begin to accumulate. This is not an effortless process but having a support base and a defined list of required resources does help to streamline the process and be able to quickly apply your idea. If investors were included in your coalition group funding would be more straightforward, sometimes resources are provided by small ad hoc contributions like in crowdsourced solutions. In truth, a successful enterprise may have a mixture of pathways to acquire what it needs to begin its operation.

Implementation

Implementing your idea can be exciting and scary. Remember that implementation 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 intended 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 implementation.

One of the elements of Murphy’s Law states that “Everything takes longer than you expect.” A good project manager will attempt to account for unknown factors. However, making small adjustments can have potentially significant benefits to the project timetable and the success of the project.

Maintenance

Many innovators and entrepreneurs get so deep into the product launch that they forget about what it takes to keep the momentum 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 redundancies or premium-grade equipment. Eventually, everything will break if it doesn't become obsolete first. This concept applies to brand management and HR as much as it does to machines. Make maintenance a priority, it keeps the enterprise fresh.

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Distinguishing the difference between efficiency and effectiveness can be impossible without the right perspective. Perfect efficiency does not mean much if the efforts don't match the overall goals of the organization. Measuring progress indicators is a good start, but how do you validate which indicators to use? PI provides confirmation and guidance for organizations that seek to make the greatest positive impact with the resources available.