Stop Looking for Ideas, Look for Problems to Grow Your Business - India Chief Mentor - WSJ

This link has been bookmarked by 5 people . It was first bookmarked on 21 Apr 2010, by Alex Ko.

28 Mar 12

Konrad K
business ideas
- Stop looking for good ideas. That’s right, you read this correctly. Please don’t tell me about another good idea ever again. Instead tell me about good problems. They will most likely bring a business opportunity,
- If you look around there are problems everywhere. Question things you take for granted and think to yourself: Is there a better way? When you have your next business meeting, whether it is with a client or customer, ask them what their biggest problems are. You will be surprised by what people tell you. Hopefully, you will start to notice patterns and will soon identify a problem to solve. Better still, if it is a problem that affects you directly.
- Once you have identified your problem, assess your skills fairly and make sure that you have the capability to solve it. It’s okay, if you don’t, you just have to find somebody on your team that does. (Refer to my previous post on teams)
- Always remember to look for some type of existing solution for the problem. If no one has tried to solve it, I often wonder how big of a problem it is.
- If a solution does exist, that does not mean there is not a better one waiting. Perhaps there is an opportunity to make a more efficient or elegant solution, or a faster or cheaper one.
- When you think of the problem that you are going to solve, ensure that:
  
  You are tackling it for a sizable market
  
  People are willing to pay for your solution
  
  You assess your rivals
  
   
  
  The last one is important. Never think: “I don’t have any competition.” I cringe every time I hear those words because you always have competition! Sometime it is just the current, inefficient or expensive way and having a better solution does not always win.
4 more annotations...
06 Aug 10

Jorge Barba
entrepreneurship startups startup wsj innovation for:@twitter
21 Apr 10

mailsoumitra
Look for problems for ideas
- If you look around there are problems everywhere. Question things you take for granted and think to yourself: Is there a better way? When you have your next business meeting, whether it is with a client or customer, ask them what their biggest problems are. You will be surprised by what people tell you. Hopefully, you will start to notice patterns and will soon identify a problem to solve. Better still, if it is a problem that affects you directly.
- Another example is Ashish Chand and Dhruv Agarwal, who noticed that a lot of families were bringing their children to their casual-dining Chinese restaurant in Gurgaon. When they talked to customers about it, he realized they didn’t have many smart casual dining places to take the whole family. They were looking for something nicer than the cafeteria-style Haldirams but was still kid-friendly. So they turned the restaurant, Crazy Noodles, into that kind of place, with crayons, puzzles, and free caricatures for children. Even the glasses, which have rounded bottoms so they bounce around, are fun. They now have several restaurants with two in the NCR region and are starting to set up additional franchises.
Alex Ko
entrepreneurship
- Stop looking for good ideas. That’s right, you read this correctly. Please don’t tell me about another good idea ever again. Instead tell me about good problems. They will most likely bring a business opportunity,

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