Introduction
The identification of new business ideas is undoubtedly the core of all entrepreneurial activity, once the person has carried out a conscious self-assessment process through which he / she manages to identify those aspects that characterize him / her as an individual, with which he / she will have to deal to the challenge of being an entrepreneur - ENTREPRENEUR.
The exercise of identifying new and innovative business ideas implies, above all, a broad knowledge of the reality that surrounds us, without this prior knowledge, well founded of course, the future entrepreneur - entrepreneur runs the risk of falling into the trap of starting activities in segments of saturated needs, where the logic that would prevail would be that of “more of the same”, something like what we observe daily in our environment, congested cities with the same businesses, almost the same in their proposals for goods and services, with little or no advantage that sets them apart from the competition.
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Needs Segment |
Column 1 Innovative Products |
COLUMN 2 Satisfied Needs |
COLUMN 3 Characteristic Innovative |
COLUMN 4 New Needs |
COLUMN 5 Product - Solution |
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Foods |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Locker room |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
living place |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Health |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Security |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Education |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Recreation |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Communication |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Transport |
1.2.3. | ||||
|
Affected |
1.2.3. |
The result of this limited knowledge of businesses is the permanent closure of many of them, with the consequent economic and social impact for the community, not counting the impact that a well-intentioned individual may suffer, but not sufficiently knowledgeable. and informed of the daily events of business and everything that configures its reality.
The process must begin with a detailed analysis of all those forms that society itself has produced and legitimized to meet its needs. The products, be these goods or services, must meet the objective of satisfying in man each of the requirements of life in community.
Eating, dressing, educating oneself, providing a habitat, communicating, transporting oneself, are among others some of the needs that any person in society must cover to maintain their condition of being social and therefore worthy of living in community. What has happened in the food segment in the last 10 years in terms of new, highly innovative products that meet people's real needs? It is the type of questioning that must be formulated by any individual who intends to start an entrepreneurial process, in order to create a new and innovative company.
It is the first question, but not the only one that we must ask ourselves. Based on your response, we begin an exercise that must necessarily lead us to identify new and innovative ways to satisfy needs, which may well become potential business ideas.
Matrix
The matrix exercise is made up of six columns arranged on any format that facilitates its expansion as information about it and the extent to which it is wanted to be developed is downloaded.
The column on the left margin (see figure at the beginning of the document) shows a broad list of segments of needs or what could also be called areas of opportunities. For the present case there are ten segments of needs:
1. Food
2. Dress
3. Housing
4. Health
5. Security
6. Education
7. Recreation
8. Communication
9. Transportation
10. Affection or Feelings
The ten segments make room for all those manifestations of life in society; The person will seek their satisfaction according to their ideals, economic possibilities and available alternatives represented in companies whose businesses are the satisfaction of any of them.
The exercise should consider each segment as broadly as possible, so that each of them can accommodate all the forms that together constitute the primary concept referred to. Let's see an example: In the case of Food, all those final and intermediate goods are considered, that is, both those that are added to industrial production and those that go directly to the consumer.
This segment would also include all those products that a food industry or the commercial activity of food requires for its normal operation, be these inputs, machines, technology, packaging, containers, or services etc. The objective is to analyze in detail each segment in such a way that it allows to identify all the manifestations of their condition of human need, an inexhaustible source of progress and well-being for those individuals capable of identifying, formulating and developing new ways of satisfying them.
It is pertinent that the exercise handles a time range in consideration of the dynamics that the business world shows today and in the future. In these times of great technological and scientific advancement, the life cycle of products tends to be very short, the latest generation concept has ended up imposing itself in business activity and is considered as a strong reason for competitiveness and of course acceptance in the market. Therefore, it is suggested that the range to be used for the analysis of each of the columns is 10 years. Prudent time frame to observe the behavior of a market based on its business.
Column 1: Innovative Products.
On this column and for each of the previously defined needs segments, innovative products that have entered the national market in the last 10 years must be identified. These products must be characterized by their solid innovative condition, that is, they have substantially improved the attributes of similar products and even substitutes.
Innovation should be considered broadly and not only subject to technology, a product can be innovative in its packaging, in the way it is advertised or promoted, in the name of the product itself, in the geographical location defined for the point commercial or service, in the mix that is made with other products to expand the margin of satisfaction of needs. The possibilities for innovation are wide and varied to the extent that the observation of the reality that surrounds the determined business segment is equally broad and detailed.
The objective pursued by the exercise is to identify new and innovative ways to satisfy needs, for this it is pertinent to examine what currently exists and an alternative is, without a doubt, the identification of products that meet the condition of innovators, that is to say that the foundation of its commercial success is centered in the full satisfaction of the need for which it was conceived, surpassing the offer of competing products. Complementary to this condition, the products must be within the time frame provided for the exercise, which allows not only a detailed analysis, but also an updated analysis of market behavior.
Column 2: Needs Met.
With the column of innovative products arranged, the next step is to identify and detail for each product the need it satisfied. This answer cannot be given in elementary terms, that is, only referring to the segment of need to which the product in question belongs.
As an example: Answering that the cell phone supplies the need for communication is to do it in the simplest and most comfortable way, on the contrary, trying to identify those situations or needs that have been resolved by the product is to give greater scope to the analysis. In the case of the cell phone, multifunctionality, coverage, and ease of communication from anywhere could be more elaborate and enriching answers for the continuity of the exercise.
It is therefore a matter of finding the justification for the existence of a product in its condition of solver or facilitator of man's life in society. From this premise it should be noted that a product that does not respond to an authentic need or problem of the market has little chance of surviving in it or its survival will be complex, exhausting and expensive.
Column 3: Innovative Feature.
It is essential that the information on the need that a product satisfies is complemented with an analysis of the same based on the innovative characteristic that has allowed its positioning in the market as a product - solution.
The information in this column makes it possible to endorse what was consigned in the first when innovative products were identified, to the extent that it highlights that condition or characteristic that has allowed one product to be classified as innovative over another, in this order of ideas it is likely that when reaching column three a product is reaffirmed or, on the contrary, discarded because its innovative characteristic cannot be identified.
Innovation in the good or service is associated with the need that he has satisfied, but at no time are they the same. As an example: The cell phone satisfies the need for coverage and clarity in communication, these aspects cannot be considered as simply an innovative feature, it must be found in the mechanism or device that allows wide geographic coverage in its associated operation to the sharpness of the signal.
The answer to column three implies knowledge of each product in its operation, only through this information will it be certain about its innovative feature in detail. In other words, it is about finding the differentiating element through which a product stands out among the others and makes it innovative, improving its conditions by means of which it satisfies the need for which it was created.
Just as the only possibility of innovation should not be considered in technology, the only option to define an innovative characteristic will not be only in technology. If the innovation has been in advertising designed for the product, the innovation will have to be found in the type of message, in the medium used for that purpose and in the very conditions that characterize this new way of advertising. So the innovation in a product is not necessarily found in its physical structure as a product, but in the form used to get the information about it to the target market.
Products with worldwide coverage such as Coca-Cola represent a good example in this regard. The format of the drink in terms of its external presentation has changed many times throughout its long history: Large and medium glass containers, smaller presentations; the disposable plastic container, the tin container, the increasingly functional type of lid, etc. The possibilities have been and will continue to be many.
However, as far as the content itself is concerned, the flavor has undergone very little variation compared to the time it has been on the market. Another element of high innovation in this product has been its advertising, which has been adapted to the cultural variations of different times.
Innovation has great significance today, since it allows the Colombian company to become more competitive in the face of the offer of foreign products. Improving and adapting the product to the new and complex characteristics of the demand is achieved through a well-planned innovation strategy.
Column 4: New Needs.
The preceding columns have allowed us to observe the behavior of each segment of needs from the perspective of those products called innovative, whose success is based on the accuracy to solve problems of a market that demands answers to its new needs and, this is what exposed the man in his daily life in community: improves their living conditions in certain aspects and chain new needs are generated that must be satisfied according to their economic possibilities and the offers that exist in the market for this purpose.
This column is an invitation to identify new needs or problems that have arisen around the product on which the analysis is being carried out, that is, the product that was identified in the first column.
The detailed observation of the product will give an interesting vision in this regard, because in many cases it is the product itself that allows us to detect certain flaws in its configuration that in some way the market has already detected, but by not finding a solution at hand, the only one The alternative is to continue using it. This is where a potential business idea begins.
In this column, it is possible to associate or merge different products that come from different segments of needs, that is, at a given moment a product can satisfy two or three segments of needs simultaneously. Such is the case of the Internet as a solution to various needs of man in society. It can be associated with the Education segment and would still be valid in the Communications segment. The same happens with the entire line of integral or Light products, which are currently so widely accepted in the market, could be considered in the Health segment, as well as in the Food segment.
The foregoing is explainable to the extent that we accept the new dynamics of the industrial and commercial world which is mediated by the option of service, the prevailing premise is: The more services a product provides, the greater its chances of success in the market. Therefore, integral or Light products, in addition to satisfying the physiological need for food, fulfills a double objective, which is to preserve in the individual certain standards of health and well-being, which are additionally associated with the self-esteem of the individual who consumes them and finds them in them a solution to a social requirement of our days such as personal presentation. It could even be thought that here the product would be touching a third segment such as Feelings or Affection,to the extent that its incidence is not only associated with the biological, but with the emotional and psychological. Good biological health has positive effects on the mental health of the individual.
We have then that, identifying new needs implies reviewing the extent to which a certain product is satisfying the need for which it was created and those others that arise as a consequence of the first. A product may be responding to a specific problem or need, but being very limited in response to other problems or needs.
Column 5: Product - Solution.
To every problem, a solution; here the idea is to identify from a need which would be the product –good or service- that would best respond to the previously described need. It is therefore about designing a solution with all its variables, in such a way that they adjust to the particularities of the need. It is worth noting that the success in the design of the solution lies in the detailed observation that is made of the need or problem.
It would be like fitting various pieces into a cavity, until you find the one that best fits that empty space. It often happens that many companies are limited in their ability to compete in a market, because their products do not exactly fit the need they are trying to satisfy.
This adjustment has to do with many and diverse variables: the size of the product, the quality of the materials, the resistance to exposure to certain environments, the packaging in its entirety or segments of it, the weight, the consistency and in general all those attributes of the product or good to be launched on the market. In the same way, other variables such as: price, service, guarantee, which shape a comprehensive product option, be it a good or a service, must be considered.
The production of a prototype and its testing could guarantee future success in its marketing. In short, the product must respond with innovation to the demands of the demand, that is, the addictions that have been made to the product must be clearly identifiable in terms of improving any current offer of the same type of product.
It can also be possible in the development of column 5, that the product does not obey the improvement of what already exists, but rather the creation of something new and novel, as often happens in countries that are at the forefront. of production and technology.
In any case, it should be added that any product, no matter how innovative it may seem, will always be in the line of evolution of another, however it is assumed as a creation due to the very shape that its design keeps, due to the characteristics of its configuration and due to the new responses that it brings to society.
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