1.1 Role of ideas
“The idea serves as a seed from which a business may or may not develop. without proper selection, cultivation, and harvesting, the seed has very little value” (Zimmerer & Scarborough 1996:82). Success depends on the degree to which the idea is nurtured than on the idea itself.
Entrepreneurs must focus on a few promising ideas. With experience comes the skill to “sniff out” valuable nuggets. Entrepreneurs seek promising ideas and turn them into profitable ventures. This is done through creative thinking and innovation. Opportunity is created when innovation is creatively applied to business ideas. Few businesses are founded on one original idea (Timmons 1999:76). Often ideas are moulded – augmented or rationalised, combined with or replaced with other ideas – before an
opportunity appears.
Developing an idea is a step-by-step trial-and-error iterative process before a crude and promising product or service fits with what the customer is willing to pay for. Product/service attributes are changed continually. Shapes, sizes, colours, textures and quality are modified to suit tastes. Once an idea is refined, modification continues until and after the product launch. Howard Head made forty different metal skis before he finally made the model that worked consistently.
It is worth noting that having the best technology or idea by itself does not make the critical difference in success (Timmons: 1999). He continues that having the best idea first is by no means a guarantee of success. Unless having the best idea first also includes the capacity to pre-empt other competitors by capturing a significant share of the market or by creating difficult barriers to entry, being there first can mean proving for the competition that the market exists to be snared. Recognising ideas which can become entrepreneurial opportunities stems from a capacity to see what others do not – that one plus one equals three or more.
Definition
A business idea is a concept that can be used for financial gain that is usually centred on a product or service that can be offered for money.
1.1 Role of ideas