This is my second blog for my Entrepreneurship class. This is all about creativity and the business idea. This is based on Chapter 5 of Hisrich's ENTREPRENEURSHIP 6th edition and backed up with supplementary articles from several business people. I hope you will all get something from this one.
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Our markets are filled with varieties of products and services shaped to meet our daily needs and wants. Most of us are enjoying these comforts as we go on in the course of life. But have you ever wondered who are behind all these life comforts we continually enjoy?
Well, I guess we have to be grateful to the entrepreneurs for these. It is really amazing how they were able to come up with businesses that would drive the market in. Indeed, entrepreneurs are great thinkers and remarkable idea generators. Their skill to bare ideas out of on hand circumstances and to make a good deal out of it, is perhaps very noteworthy. Of course, in reality not every idea is always feasible. But we have to make a clean breast that every product and service available to us right now started from a simple idea. The companies SM and IBM—the owners of Asia Pacific College, will not be in existence if not for the idea of the entrepreneurs behind them to start such venture.
You might be wondering how entrepreneurs harvest such ideas. Actually, not all ideas are of quality. But I have learned in my class that quality is not of great importance in idea generation. Quantity is. There are several sources and methods of generating ideas. Some of these ideas may come from the personal experience of the entrepreneur. Other possible sources of ideas include consumers, existing products and services, research and development, distribution channels and government. Ideas may also be generated through techniques such as focus groups, brainstorming and problem inventory analysis. The most widely and commonly used technique; however, is brainstorming. Other helpful techniques include reverse brainstorming, brainwriting, Gordon method, checklist method, free-association and the big-dream approach. These techniques are of useeven for a simple school group presentation.
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Moreover, I have also learned through the articles by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne entitled, Knowing a Winning Business Idea When You See One, handed to us during classroom discussions that innovation is found to be the driver of a profitable growth in many countries and companies. Yet, innovation is very risky. To reduce such risks and uncertainties, the authors actually provided us with these tools namely: Buyer Utility Map, the Price Corridor of the Mass and the Business Model Guide. Michael Rappa; furthermore, enumerated a number of business models available on the web that the entrepreneurs may choose from. The list includes brokerage, advertising, infomediary, merchant, manufacturer, affiliate, community, subscription, and utility. Kim and Mauborgne, by the way, are also the people responsible for Blue Ocean Strategy which pertains to making a competition irrelevant.
After all these learning and readings, I have come to realize that all ventures definitely started from an idea. And every idea; be it wild, simple or crazy, must be entered in the list for screening because it has the possibility of driving a new business to be born. In today’s generation, the importance of creativity and timeliness of an entrepreneur is of growing importance. Business opportunities are everywhere. A late action on an opportunity might be great loss on you in the end. But the timely respond to a feasible business idea plus the spice of added creativity on it will equal to a potentially successful venture. I have realized this after several weeks of dealing with my Entrepreneurship subject under Professor Ramon Duremdes.
From the very start, I had already dreamt of starting and growing my own business. Nevertheless, I knew that to be a successful entrepreneur someday, I have to be born with the characteristics of one. I believe that taking up the Bachelor of Science in Accountancy will equip me to be one great entrepreneur someday. As Mr. Duremdes has always been saying, “Think big. Start Small.”
