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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS28

young boys in C5s in a football park rather than images which
emphasised the C5’s positioning as a serious road transport alternative.
Much of the actual advertising copy, however, invited comparison of the
C5 with motor cars.

Annual sales were envisaged to grow from 100,000 in the first year to
500,000. From a buoyant start of around 1,000 sales in the first week,
sales dwindled and production was discontinued in September 1985 –
14,000 units were produced during the product’s lifetime and not all
were sold at full price. When the receivers were called in, debts were
reported to stand at around £8 million.

key points

G Avoid the temptation to implement your first idea immediately
without fully challenging it – you will miss the opportunity to
develop a potentially much stronger alternative

G Following the iterative four-step idea development process – seeking
and shaping opportunities; generating new ideas; evaluating and
selecting the emerging business ideas; and planning for
implementation – significantly increases your chances of
entrepreneurial success

G Maintain sufficient emotional distance from your initial idea so that
you can accept constructive feedback from others or let the idea go if
it simply will not work

G Even if you abandon an idea, no information or idea is ever wasted
because in failure lies the seed of further opportunity

G Always remember that the acid test of a business opportunity is your
ability to sell products or services in sufficient quantity to real
customers to generate sustainable cash flows and profit

G Combining rational and intuitive thinking at appropriate steps
throughout the idea development process creates new perspectives
and competitive advantage for your initial business idea

G Getting started with the idea development process is the best way to
evaluate whether your initial idea represents a potentially valid
business opportunity and to gauge the strength of your personal
commitment