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613 : STEP ONE – SEEKING AND SHAPING OPPORTUNITIES

Within four years, Mattocks had sold his Internet Bookshop to
W H Smith for £10 million.

With reported profits of US $111 million for the first quarter of 2004
representing its third quarterly profit in a row, Amazon.com has achieved
a market capitalisation of around $14,370 million. Bezos’ superior ability
to shape the web-based opportunity which the giants of book publishing
and retailing had failed to see has made Amazon.com a true icon of the
e-commerce era.

don’t rush to headlong action Jeff Bezos represents best

practice in taking time to give shape to a business opportunity rather
than rushing into headlong action.

When you first hit upon your new business idea, your natural instincts
are to forge ahead, get your hands dirty and start the business. You tell
yourself that you know the market, you are aware of the gaps, problems
and issues which exist, and you have good insight into customer
motivation. You also remind yourself that any delay may be dangerous
because the apparent window of opportunity may slam shut. So why
waste time on testing out your ideas when all your gut instincts are to
proceed?

stumbling at the first fence It is surprising just how many

people do start up their businesses with just this set of assumptions. It
is perhaps less surprising that the vast majority stumble at the first
fence, gaining experience through failure rather than earning the fame
and fortune which they initially intended.

Trailfinders is a well-established award-winning specialist travel
agency. Mike Gooley, its founder, learned about business start-ups the
hard way, however. Gooley’s first business venture on leaving the army
was to put up £2,000 with five ex-army colleagues and head off for the
jungle in Guyana. Their efforts to establish a gold and diamond
prospecting business there foundered rapidly, because their venture
upset an ‘understanding’ between the locals and the government. They
were strongly encouraged to return to England.42

This example illustrates effectively how the level of emotional
commitment to the business idea was so high that the underlying
assumptions were not challenged, the overall market context was not