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CONTENTSx

chapter 3 step one – seeking and shaping opportunities / 57

• Amazon.com – shaping the internet opportunity / 58
• don’t rush to headlong action / 61
• give yourself time to develop alternatives / 62
• treat your first business idea as purely tentative / 66
• total immersion in the market / 68
• fact-finding / 70
• tools for seeking and shaping opportunities / 72
• moving to step two – acknowledging catch-22 / 97
• Iridium – the imperfect solution to an opportunity which

never existed? / 99

chapter 4 step two – generating new ideas / 103

• Howard Head – an analogical approach to business success /

104

• Eureka? / 107
• the mind gym: six mental workouts and their related

routines / 110
• ground-rules for productive mental workouts / 111
• mental workout one – checklists / 114
• mental workout two – stimulus materials / 119
• mental workout three – combinations / 122
• mental workout four – free association / 131
• mental workout five – analogical thinking / 136
• mental workout six – upside-down thinking / 147
• moving to step three / 151
• Thomas Alva Edison – idea generator par excellence / 152

chapter 5 step three – evaluating and selecting ideas / 159

• Karan Bilimoria – brewing the criteria to achieve the ‘big
one’ / 160

• evaluation allows development, not just selection / 162
• two-phase screening process / 164
• evaluation frameworks for screening ideas / 166
• criteria to use within the frameworks / 176
• business-focused criteria / 177
• person-focused criteria / 185
• prototyping / 193
• Gary Mueller and Internet Securities, Inc. – selecting a

venture to suit his needs / 198