Write It Out

If you have a week and a couple hundred thousand dollars you can go to camp at Doug Halls' Eureka Ranch in Newtown Ohio. In Doug's words, "it's a collection of disciplined and structured systems that when applied with diligence will double your odds of profitable success and triple your speed to market."

But, if you're like me you will have to settle on reading Doug's book Jump Start Your Business Brain.

The book is geared more to marketing than innovation, but Doug ties together science and creativity, math and muse.

One concept which stuck with me was the need to write in words exactly what makes the idea unique. Why is this so important? Well, I can think of a couple of easy ones:

1. It is too easy to focus on the science, estimates, technology, forecasts and projections but completely miss the "value" to the customer. The Segway is a great example. Dean Kamen very innovatively provided a mode of transportation which no one needs.
2. It is also too easy to miss the issues between the numbers. These are problems not reflected in all of the analysis, such as resource limitations between product lines or departments, senior level buy-in, or shifting corporate strategy. Critical relationships between projects are left unspecified. As a way to deal with this problem, Gordon Shaw of 3m began to require managers write out, in paragraph form, their reports. Please read the article, Strategic Stories: How 3M is Rewriting Business Planning, by Harvard Business Review.

So if you are on the very front end of an innovative thought, write out the following formula:

Customer + Benefits + Channels = $

• Customer: Who exactly is the intended customer
• Benefits: What exactly does this product / service provide that is different
• Channels: How will this product / service make it into the hands of customers
• $ = What amout of profit potential and cash fow resulting from the equation

(Thanks to Dr. William Gartner of Clemson University for this information)

By so doing you can tweak the business proposition at the least amount of cost, and possibly avoid offering something no one wants, no matter how technically advanced it may be.