Idea Assessment: Barringer & Ireland (2006) suggest (p. 28) "An opportunity is a favorable set of circumstances that creates a need for a new product, service, or business. ...An opportunity has four essential qualities: it is (1) attractive, (2) durable, (3) timely, and (4) anchored in a product, service, or business that creates or add value for its buyer of end user." Furthermore, the entrepreneur must hit the "window of opportunity" for which the opportunity exists. In this sense, a window of opportunity is defined as that too often short period of time during which an opportunity must be acted on or missed. (For those who "were there," "Window of Opportunity" is an episode of the science fictiontelevision seriesStargate SG-1 as depicted to the right. What does it mean then, that an opportunity must have the above cited four essential qualitites?
Attractive Opportunity implies one that appeals to both the entrepreneur from the aspect of most consideration criteria, and the target market from a value creation perspective. Attractiveness involves BOTH the entrepreneur as a provider, and the target market as a consumer. The opportunity under consideration must be attractive to both.
A Durable Opportunity is one that is not a fly-by-night, but will create value for the customer in the long run, and positive monetary returns to the entrepreneur. Think hula hoops.
A Timely Opportunity suggests there is an alignment in the Social, Technical, Economic and Political (STEP) arenas for the introduction of the product/service under consideration. Example: Boo.com introducted the concept of selling clothing to the 14+ female market using essentially Web 2.0 methodology when it had not been invented. Their web site required broadband to operate properly, when the world was on 56K dialup. The market was there; the technology wasn't.
An opportunity is anchored in a product/service/business that creates value for the customer is the most basic of requirements. Customer value is conceived variously as utility, quality, benefits, and customer satisfaction.
Contents
The Process of Opportunity Analysis
From: http://www.stanford.edu/class/e145/opportunity_analysis.shtml#process 2/11/07 and modified thereafter
1
Stanford suggests there are five basic steps in the process of analyzing an opportunity:
1.Identify potential opportunities: There are two primary options for you in identifying potential opportunities:
The first is to brainstorm. Combine your own personal experiences and creativity with external forecasts and trend analysis. How is the world changing with respect to new technologies? What is the impact of globalization on current solutions? What new requirements will those changes produce? Recent media articles on trends are often a good place to start.
The second is to select an invention from the recommended list provided during Session 2. (Stanford Specific) The Tech Search (http://stanfordtech.stanford.edu/technology) contains short descriptions of over 900 inventions in various stages of development. These technologies were invented by Stanford faculty and students and are being marketed to potential commercial licensees.
1. Review the handout of recommended inventions from Session 3 and look up its description at Tech Search. Please email the licensing contact listed at the bottom of the description. The licensing contact may provide you with additional information and also put you in contact with the inventors. 2. Browse Tech Search. If you find something that interests you, please email the licensing contact with regard to the latest status of that invention and whether it would be suitable.
For general questions about (Office Technology Licensing) OTL , please contact Linda Chao, (650) 725-9408, linda.chao@stanford.edu .
You may also wish to review the patents and trademarks held at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The US Patent and Trademark Office provides a search engine that allows you to search for patents and trademarks under a variety of categories.
2.Define your purpose and objectives. Identify your most promising opportunity, being careful to discriminate between an interesting technological idea and a viable market opportunity. Prepare an outline of your anticipated finished paper which will help you to determine what types of data and information you need to demonstrate the attractiveness of your chosen opportunity.
3.Gather data from primary sources. It is crucial for you to obtain data from primary sources for the OAP. Potential investors will place more trust in well conducted primary research than in stacks of data from secondary sources. There is simply no substitute for talking to potential customers from the target market in order to validate the opportunity you have identified. Consequently, we prefer that you spend time gathering data from primary, not just secondary, sources. Please see Tips for Interviewing Primary Sources for some helpful tips and advice. Also check out SurveyMonkey (below).
4.Gather data from secondary sources. Countless secondary sources exist on the Internet and in Stanford's various library resources. The Jackson Library GSB Database Resources and the GSB librarians are especially helpful. Appendix C of the Dorf and Byers textbook offers a good summary of secondary research sources. Try not to get too bogged down in financial and accounting data.
5.Analyze and interpret the results. The written paper and the oral presentation will require you to persuasively summarize your results.
With business development, as with most things, you must start at the beginning. The beginning for business development is an idea or concept of how you can make money. To make money you must extract money from the marketplace. So you must make a product that people are willing to buy. After you have identified a concept of a product that people are willing to buy, you organize a business around the concept that will deliver the product to the marketplace.
An important step in assessing a business idea is to identify the Value Proposition of your idea. This is a statement that identifies and briefly describes the unique value that you bring to your customers that your competitors are not.
When you start this process, your idea or concept may be broad and have several variations or alternatives. On initial investigation you may eliminate several of the variations. However, during the process you may uncover new variations or directions to investigate. Slowly you will narrow your investigation and sharpen the focus on the alternatives you want to investigate.
As you sharpen your focus you will need to do more in-depthmarket research to conduct your investigation. Eventually you will need to conduct a feasibility study to provide you with the analysis needed to sharpen your focus to a single alternative. The study will also help provide an analysis to help you make the important decision of whether you want to go forward with creating a business around the alternative.
Uploading ....
in a product, service, or business that creates or add value for its buyer of end user." Furthermore, the entrepreneur must hit the "window of opportunity" for which the opportunity exists. In this sense, a window of opportunity is defined as that too often short period of time during which an opportunity must be acted on or missed. (For those who "were there," "Window of Opportunity" is an episode of the 