Page 186 - DNBI_A01.QXD

1635 : STEP THREE – EVALUATING AND SELECTING IDEAS

The over-arching spirit of Step Three is that the less promising ideas are
eliminated early and with the minimum effort possible so that the
maximum resource can be directed to the enhancement of the most
promising ideas, the best of which goes forward to Step Four. The
process is analogous with the medical system of triage, which rapidly
screens out the cases which do not require specialist intervention from
those which do.

The best idea resulting from Step Three will be the one which not
only offers the greatest chance of success in the market but also most
closely matches your own personal goals, skills, resources and
appetite for risk.

The final outcome of the entire idea development process itself will be
a robust and viable business idea which can subsequently be expressed
in the detailed and structured formality of a business plan. This
business plan will codify all the information which you have already
gathered and interpreted to date in support of the business idea you
have selected.

keeping development options open Crucially, and in

contrast to the final business plan, which provides a fixed plan plus
supporting context for a given business idea, both Step Three and Step
Four actively encourage and enable ideas to be developed further –
reshaped, reconfigured, combined and enhanced.

We saw in the opening entrepreneurial profile how Karan Bilimoria
established criteria for Cobra beer which screened out all products
currently available on the market, requiring him to reshape his idea so
that he commissioned his own brew direct from India, packaged in
outsize but highly distinctive bottles. By the same token, we saw earlier
how Thomas Edison developed selection criteria for the light bulb
filament which would allow him to achieve his grand vision of
conquering a mass market. Edison’s selection criteria therefore ranked
component cost and continuity of supply above pure technical
performance. In contrast to his English competitor Swan, these criteria
led Edison to reject the technically optimum solution of platinum
because its cost was high and continuity of supply could not be
guaranteed. Instead, Edison selected carbonised bamboo for the filament
because it satisfied the leading criteria of cost-effective implementation
and guaranteed supply.