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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS202

leading investment banks: ‘The client was like a kid in a candy shop. It
was one of those moments when you know you’re really on to
something.’153

Gary Mueller founded Internet Securities, Inc. (ISI) in 1994 and
launched ISI Emerging Markets into Poland in 1995. Expansion into other
Eastern European countries soon followed. In 1999, Euromoney
Institutional Investor plc purchased 80 per cent of ISI for $43 million.

Internet Securities, Inc. now delivers online hard-to-get information
from more than 8,500 information providers on more than 55 emerging
markets, with 22 regional offices in addition to worldwide and European
headquarters in New York and London respectively. Professional
recognition includes a ‘must-have’ ranking from Information World
Review, a first place ranking by the Wall Street Journal Europe among
business websites and ‘Best of the Web’ rating from Forbes magazine
for four years running.

key points

G The best idea to take forward from this step will not only offer the
greatest chance of success in the market but will also most closely
match your personal goals, skills, resources and appetite for risk

G Be honest with yourself in assessing what you want and are able to
put into the business idea and what you wish to take from it

G There are few right or wrong answers, only what is best for you

G Remember that this step of the process allows you to continue
reshaping, reconfiguring or combining your emerging business ideas

G Follow a two-phase process, with a coarse-screen exercise followed
by a more detailed, finer-screened evaluation of those ideas which
survive

G Quick-and-dirty analysis which rapidly highlights a potential show-
stopper is worth its weight in gold

G Prototypes are worth a million words

G This key step in the idea development process needs intuition and
imagination just as much as logic and analysis