Have you ever known a time when ideas have been more important, nor so plentiful? Ideas are everywhere lately! Huge ideas, game changing ideas, groundbreaking ideas. All meant to fuel the ever-rising consumer demand for innovation. Creative problem solving has developed into an everyday activity for hundreds of thousands of eager and impressive business people around the world. The problem is, most don’t have a Read More »
Harvard professor Clayton Christensen coined the term disruptive innovation to describe “a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors.” An example of disruptive innovation is the cell phone (disruptor) displacing fixed line telephony. There’s never been a better time to be a disruptive Read More »
The United States Senate has passed the America Invents Act, the patent reform legislation that has been working its way through committees for several years. Because the Act passed the Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, a form of it is also likely to be approved by the House of Representatives. Changes are also possible as leaders in the House have their own ideas about Read More »
Entrepreneurs must carefully craft their value proposition, a clear statement about why a buyer in the selected target market should purchase their innovation. (As noted in one of my previous blog posts about the strategy sweet spot, the value proposition is integrally related to a company’s choice of target market.) The best value propositions focus on the key benefits –not features or attributes – that Read More »
Good customer service is as important today as ever before. But with a growing number of transactions occurring over the world wide web, the rules of customer service have changed dramatically. Treating customers well and giving them what they want in person is one thing, while creating a positive shopping experience over the impersonal world of the internet requires a whole new set of tools Read More »
Why Tradition? Today’s economic environment is characterized by the recent financial crisis, the re-thinking of business models, the emerging of new customer needs, and the continuous necessity to differentiate products and processes. To compete effectively, firms are re-discovering their roots, showing a renewal attention towards the notion of tradition.
The primary purpose of starting a business (at least in most cases) is to make money, and lots of it. Entrepreneurs pick a business idea they are sure will be popular, with product and service features they know will be irresistible to consumers. Their thoughts are filled with how many customers they need to meet their projections, how much traffic they need to draw, and Read More »