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151 : THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING STRONG IDEAS

with right-brain insightful thinking, encouraging you to sense the
‘bigger picture’ rather than become bogged down in spurious detail.

The outcome of this step is the identification of the leading contender
to be taken forward to the final step in the idea development process,
that of planning for implementation. As was the case with step two,
insights arising from ideas ‘rejected’ at step three may yet provide the
stimulus for further ideas and are fed back into earlier steps.

The case study on Karan Bilimoria highlights how his structured
approach brought such heady success to his Cobra brand of beer. The
case study on Internet Securities, Inc. demonstrates how careful
evaluation of opportunities allowed it to buck the dot.com trend of
high-profile failure and to build a high-value and sustainable internet
business model.

step four: planning for implementation The fourth step

explains how you can increase the likelihood of your idea’s success by
identifying, and then resolving, potential blocks to implementation.
Blocks will adopt many forms, from competitive reaction to lack of
technical know-how, from lack of finance to inability to protect your
idea.

A range of techniques exists to help you identify the blocks specific to
your particular idea, including reverse brainstorming, force-field
analysis and commitment charting. The effective application of these
techniques continues to require your whole-brain creativity. As we
discuss in more detail in the following chapters, planning for
implementation is emphatically not just a question of ‘non-creative’
planners determining the logical steps to commercialise the business
idea which their ‘creative’ colleagues have ‘thrown over the wall’ to
them.

The very process of planning for implementation may lead to
modification or refinement of the original business idea. As the 2003
Lambert Review of Business–University Collaboration eloquently
phrased it: ‘Innovation processes are complex and nonlinear. It is not
simply a question of researchers coming up with clever ideas which are
passed down a production line to commercial engineers and marketing
experts who turn them into winning products. Great ideas emerge out
of all kinds of feedback loops, development activities and sheer
chance.’11