Tag Archives: venture creation

Blog, Ideation, Lean Startup Methodology, Legal and Regulatory Knowledge

What is ideation, the business idea generation process?

 Ideation is the systematic process of generating design ideas, developing idea variations, and identifying good ideas that point to promising venture creation.

Every business idea has to start somewhere

The Ideation process lies at the centre of the business startup process where entrepreneurs invest time in design thinking and connecting data sources to opportunities for innovation.Startup Ideation is about generating, developing, and evaluating ideas for launching innovative and viable new ventures.

The intention of Startup Ideation is to provide entrepreneurs with the chance to identify possible opportunities for their entrepreneurial pursuit. There are two types of entrepreneurs – those that have a myriad of business ideas but can’t pick one to run with and those that are aspiring entrepreneurs that are bright and enthusiastic but can’t come up with an idea. Startup Ideation will help aspiring entrepreneurs with idea generation.The ideation process can be split into four phases:

Ideation is a process

Ideation is the systematic process of generating design ideas, developing idea variations, and identifying good ideas that point to promising venture creation. The Ideation process lies at the centre of the business startup process where entrepreneurs invest time in design thinking and connecting data sources to opportunities for innovation.Startup Ideation is about generating, developing, and evaluating ideas for launching innovative and viable new ventures.

The intention of Startup Ideation is to provide entrepreneurs with the chance to identify possible opportunities for their entrepreneurial pursuit. There are two types of entrepreneurs – those that have a myriad of business ideas but can’t pick one to run with and those that are aspiring entrepreneurs that are bright and enthusiastic but can’t come up with an idea. Startup Ideation will help aspiring entrepreneurs with idea generation.The ideation process can be split into four phases:

Four Step Process for Ideation

  1. Opportunity Recognition
    1. Clarify the problem: What do we know? What don’t we know? What information is needed to help solve the problem? 
    2. Define the problem: What are our needs? 
    3. Force field analysis: Use this tool to help make decisions. 
    4. Problem Statement: Can we develop one sentence which defines the problem? 
    5. Adjacent Solutions: Who else have solve this problem or a problem like this? What other systems that attempt to solve our problem or inspire us with their design or functionality?
  2. Idea Generation: 
  3. Idea Selection and Evaluation: Picking the best ideas starts much before the beginning of the ideation process. It is essential that you fix the criteria by which the ideas are to be assessed, who would be responsible for evaluating the ideas, and how the top ideas would be given to the concerned internal teams for further assessment or execution. A proper selection process begins with the use of tags or labels to arrange the ideas into meaningful clusters.
  4. Idea Communication: The success of implementation is dependent on an organization’s ability to choose the top ideas and take action based on them. It also depends on the organization having appropriate workflows in place so that the right groups take part at the appropriate time in the three steps of the ideation process.
Blog, Skills Development

Do you know your Exit Strategy?

You will need to ensure you are motivated to exit the business and that means understand the path for your exit strategy. In every sense you must learn from the exit from your business and the experience should motivate you to build a new enterprise which is more amazing and motivated that this. The five common Exit Strategies are:

Initial Public Offering

The stock market offers you the opportunity to increase the capital available to the business, the money invested and also the rewards available to you. The motivation for being independent will have to reduce as shareholders and accountability move into play.

Acquisition

When you have created a truly unique, thriving and attractive business, it will be becoming an appealing proposition for other businesses. When they offer you the large sum of money for your business, what motivates you to say ‘Yes’? What will you do everyday when you no longer have your business to run? The opportunities are then truly amazing and you can become a member of ‘Serial Entrepreneurs’ club.

Liquidation

Walking along any footpath can be uneasy and the same is true about business. The vast majority of entrepreneurs have a company liquidation in there bag, an experience they will never forget, an event which created some the best lessons they have ever learnt. No expects you to walk straight away, so why do you expect to be able to manage a business from day one without making mistakes. This should be expected, however it is in the learning about business, enterprise and yourself which you can create a truly amazing and vibrant business next time around.

Sell to another Entrepreneur

One of my favour saying is that “People buy from people who are like them”. This is the case from buying your newspaper to buying a company. Entrepreneurs look for opportunities and therefore within your network you will know people who want to buy and run your company better and pay you for the chance.

Shareholder

This option which many entrepreneurs follow is to become a shareholder which then provides revenue for the rest of their lives (e.g. Bill Gates). In some cases the shareholder provides revenue for many generations to come, such as the Guinness family. This exit requires you to create a good team around you who are motivated to continue to move the business forward.

So before you start out on your venture, think about your exit strategy and  what you will need the business to look like for you to achieve your goal.

 

Enterprise Education, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Resources, Skills Development, Training

Venture Creation – BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme

In the last year I have had the amazing  opportunity to design a venture creation BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme which is oriented towards students who wish to combine study towards an honours degree with the opportunity to start their own business in a supported environment with guidance from specialist lecturers, practising entrepreneurs and mentors. Over the years I have seen many programmes and wanted to create something for Entrepreneurs, the student and for practitioners.

This is a practice-oriented degree, which focuses on the development of the students’ entrepreneurial effectiveness. This is achieved by embracing the concept of ‘learning by doing’ which ensures students are acquiring real knowledge and practical expertise to support their business start-up and business growth aspirations. There is a focus on real business experiences including master classes, enterprise events and interactions with local and global entrepreneurs. This philosophy is extended within the assessment primarily for (rather than ‘of’) learning Entrepreneurship (QAA (2012) Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education: Guidance for UK Higher Education Providers, pp9).

Similarly, although there is an inherent emphasis on learning within the learner’s own start-up venture, the Entrepreneurship skills acquired will be transferable to other business environments and learning opportunities.

This BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme aligns with the nation and international government agenda (The Impact and Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Policy, NESTA 2013) and seeks to increase the number of entrepreneurs in the economy.

A range of teaching pedagogies are adopted to ensure the curriculum enhances the learning of all students both in the startup and in group learning environments. In addition to lectures, seminars, videos, podcasts, presentations and visiting entrepreneurs, students will participate in action learning sets and interactive activities to apply learning from businesses experiences in their startup. These approaches are intended to take into account the principles of inclusivity: the types of learner, their startup business, their prior experience and expectations and how they learn and will be supported to learn effectively.

Given the focus on developing a continued learning environment in which students develop an entrepreneurial mindset, there is an emphasis within the BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme on tutoring and mentoring to support individual requirements, and also to reflect (at a meta-cognitive level) on their learning process. The programme is supported by more than 10 Entrepreneurs in Residence, regional business support agencies and local businesses.