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Growth and Value through Great Ideas

By Ed Bernacki |

A company director recently told me that her company does not need new ideas. She said they have lots of ideas but can't find the time to do anything with them. It's ironic that the company is struggling for profits, yet it can't create opportunities from its ideas. It's too busy.

Many businesses have the same problem. They get too concerned with day-to-day survival that they forget how to focus on creating value and growth. Although business is full of truisms, I will add one more. "It is easy to sit on good ideas, but it is hard to sit on good opportunities!"

Successful innovators make a distinction between "ideas" and "opportunities". Let's look at the words.

Creativity helps us to find new or original ideas. Innovative people look at ideas and select ones that offer the most advantage. They focus to see how the ideas can be developed into something of value by adding to the concept. They find options that make the idea more marketable. They look for long-term revenue sources. They look for partnerships and other strategic ways to grow the idea into a powerful business opportunity. They look for ways to make it efficient and effective before any actions are taken.

How do you define a good idea?

Forget investment criteria or rationale measures. A good idea turns your head, gets you enthused, and forces you to ask, "It's so obvious. Why didn't I think of that before?" The innovative person knows that a good idea can start with a single thought. Then they apply themselves to create the "opportunity" that lives within the idea. To create a business opportunity, give yourself 30 minutes and a piece of paper to focus on these steps:

  1. Describe your idea in a few sentences. Describe the vision or picture of the successful idea in action. Who will benefit? How? What advantage does it produce?

  2. List three or four options or features that may add value (and profits) to the idea.

  3. Enhance the idea through various partnerships, joint promotions, or other non-traditional ways of doing business (do not get bogged down with your perception of reality). Can you create synergy?

  4. What would have to be in place for synergy to occur?

  5. Finally, what opportunities could this successful idea create for the organization? Why is it better or different to what your competitors could offer?

If you start with your idea and use the steps to satisfy these questions, I guarantee you that you will distinguish between good ideas and great ideas, as only great ideas will create great opportunities.

Transforming the idea into an "opportunity" need only take a page or two of notes and an hour of your time. Your goal is to focus on creating value, not a lengthy academic analysis.

One last warning: never jump to the action plan without creating the opportunity. This leads to one thing: mediocrity. Thinking time is most critical at the early stages of innovation. It provides the focus we need.

Far too many ideas are implemented without being converted into opportunities. Can a company struggling with profitability ignore new ideas? Yes it can. It also has the right to go bankrupt.

But if such a company took the time to focus on a few good ideas and create opportunities from them, something interesting would begin to happen.

Focus is a powerful force that breathes life into opportunities.

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