The Road to Bankruptcy Court is Paved with Good Ideas…Don’t Be on That Bus

How many times have you heard, “Hey, I got a great business idea?”  American ingenuity is the pulse of our economy, but so many great business ideas are anything but great.  I have spent a lot of time not only strategizing with new business owners, but executing their business vision.

But, like in building a house, the planning stage is the most important.  This business concept came across in a good, though complex article Managing Innovation Complexity by Braden Kelly.  Kelly uses a six part framework in analyzing a business innovation concept.  Actually, I have discussed some of these concepts in prior articles.  Here are the concepts using my house-building scenario:

1. Changes for Customers: You have to listen to the marketplace.  Like in building a house, if you build a futuristic house for a person who likes Tudor style designs, you missed your mark.  The Blue Ocean Strategy addresses some ideas on this business outlook.
2. Changes for Employees: The usual term for these changes are the business environment.  If you want to build your Tudor house, you need craftsmen, not all concrete contractors.  The training and mindset of your employees have to buy into the vision, or get new employees.
3. Changes for Suppliers: Your supply chain is essential.  In a business sense, a supply chain is the chain of events from your vendor to your customer.  This business treadmill has to run seamless.  You can’t build a house waiting for materials once a month.
4. Changes in Distribution: The caboose of the supply chain is the distribution point.  Do you have a long tail? Are you restricting your growth to a brick and motar concept, or can you leverage e-commerce?  In our house building, how are you going to sell it to someone?
5. Changes in marketing: This is where so many fall short.  The Internet has immense capacity for small businesses.  Use Internet marketing to list your built home.
6. Changes in Operations:  Here is the glue that holds the whole operations together.  Building a business, or a house, requires hard, coordinated work.  But, if the other business elements are not present, the foundation collapses.

Bring an idea to fruition requires a consistent effort and vision.  But, the business idea is not stagnant.  The business idea is an ever changing picture altering tactics along the way.