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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS98

number of definitions of where the opportunities lie, it pays to identify
clusters or ‘hot-spots’ of similar definitions. Clustering does not lose
any opportunities; you are merely prioritising them for further work.

Having created a long list of 20 possible product areas, Jeff Bezos
identified a cluster of two – music and books – which presented the
characteristic which he regarded as key, namely more individual
products than the largest physical retailer could possibly stock.

This need to prioritise reveals that you are in a Catch-22 position – in
order to prioritise rationally the opportunities for refinement and
evaluation at steps two and three of the idea development process, you
need to have already undergone the second and third steps.

adopt a whole-brain approach The best way for you to break

out of the impasse of prioritising from among multiple opportunities is
to use a whole-brain approach. You may have discovered market data
which allows your left-brain to influence the decision – some market
opportunities may appear significantly more attractive from a financial
perspective than others. You may also reflect whether the opportunity
appears durable, timely and capable of sustaining a product or service
which creates or adds value for its buyer or end-user.

In large part, however, you will have to rely on your gut-feel and
intuition to make your decision. Having been through the techniques
explored in this chapter, you are probably the person best placed to
make that subjective judgement. After all, Jeff Bezos was a book
industry outsider before he founded Amazon.com.

At all times, maintain sufficient emotional detachment from your ideas
so that you can avoid the catastrophic crash to earth described in the
following case study of Iridium, the global telephone service which did
not work and no one wanted.

in large part you will have to rely on your
gut-feel and intuition to make your decision