Page 36 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

Hoth ratninal and intuitive thinking may occur at this stage,
hist it lent i t ication is largely a rational process. Key questions

to be asked include the following: 7

What happened or will happen?

2. Who does it or will it affect?

3. Where did it or will it have an impact?

4. When did it or will it happen?

5. How did it or will it occur?

6. Why did it or will it occur?

7. What could we do to be more successful?

In asking these questions you are primarily interested in get-
ting to the core problem or identifying the real opportunity.
The benefits of doing so are aptly illustrated by the case of
Frito-Lay, described in The Innovative Edge in Action 2.1.

Making Assumptions

It is necessary to make assumptions about the
condition of future factors in the problem situ-
ation. For example, what will the state of
the economy be when the new product is
to be launched? Or, how will your man-
ager react to a suggestion? Remember
that assumptions may be a major con-
straint on the potential success of a solu-
tion, or may cause you to overestimate the
potential of a particular alternative to solve

the problem effectively. One of my assumptions
in writing this book was that there was a growing number of
people interested in innovation processes. Theretore, this
book would sell many copies. When I started in 1985, my

assumption was wrong. But by 1993 it was right.

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