Entrepreneurship: is a full time job with 100% motivation

Starting up a new business is hard to do and even more difficult to be a successful new business. Why is it that many people starting of? What makes the difference between a Winner and a Laggard?

Oké, one logic explanation to start is that I got fired and nobody wants to hire me and the only thing I can (not wanted to) do is put a sign in my front yard with my name and twitter account on it hoping for the best. I know I’m good (or at least I was good) but the problem is that nobody knows it, or even worse nobody needs my goodness anymore. Instead of being an entrepreneur I become a day-worker for hire. So just starting on your own doesn’t mean you are an entrepreneur?

What are the key characteristics of an entrepreneur? Much is well documented in the startup owner’s manual from Steve Blank and Bob Dorf.

Knowing to start with untested hypotheses. It starts with a vision of a missing job-to-be-done (something what customers need to get fulfilled but can’t find yet). Although he has clear ideas of product or service to get the job-done, the entrepreneur will start immediately checking his vision with real customers.  The entrepreneur will spend more time with customers than inside his office.

Understanding the need for speed, learning and iteration. From the start you understand that the business plan will not survives the first contact with the customer. The first day, you will learn that the brutal facts in the market is different as will be the next day and you need to adjust your product, service and process to the willing customers.

Monitoring the cash-burn-rate, time (number of months cash in the bank). Understanding the key financial metric that only matter to do the job. In the time you have left, you need to find the right business model to survive. Understand (structured process for testing) what is absolutely necessary to spend time and money on to get your money machine up and running (business model hypotheses).

The motivation and courage to get into action. This is the most important internal driver for any entrepreneur to become a winner versus a laggard. Watch the nice clip of Tom Corson-Knowles explaining what I mean by that.

Evolution of Innovation management will be published on the 15th of February 2013

A new book of Evolution of Innovation management will be published on the 15th of February 2013, edited by Alexander Brem and Eric Viardot. The book is about the fact that Innovation is seen as a key driver for performance and growth in business. It provides a strong competitive advantage and is one of the best ways to speed up the rate of change and adaptation to the global environment. Concurrently, the topic of innovation is also gaining increased visibility and interest among academic communities worldwide.


However, some of the challenges of innovating are remarkably consistent and recent times have shown the emergence of new ways for stimulating and

managing the innovation process, especially from an international perspective. Even if these processes are taking place in very different industries, there are many parallels in successfully managing them.

The new book explores these new routes and assesses their value both for markets and companies. More specifically, the book is organized around three themes:
• Innovation Strategies
• Innovation Management Tools
• International Perspectives

Together with Robin Chu (team member in my Business Innovation team and one of our top strategic analyst) I wrote chapter 15: “Creating an Environment for Successful Innovation - A Management Consultant's Perspective”

To view detailed content of the book, please visit Palgrave

Notes on Contributors

Symbiotic Innovation: Getting the Most Out of Collaboration; R.J.Thomas & Y.Wind

Performance Measurement of Co-Creation Initiatives – A Conceptual Framework for Measuring the Value of Idea Contests; V.Bilgram

Measuring the Success of Open Innovation; E.Brau, R.Reinhardt & S.Gurtner

Can SMEs in Traditional Industries be Creative?; J.M.Zabala-Iturriagagoitia

Scenario-based Learning Architectures as a Management Tool; N.Pfeffermann & H.Breuer

Social Network Analysis – an Important Tool for Innovation Management; G.Drexler & B.Janse

The Evolution of Mobile Social Networks through Technological Innovation; V.Ratten

Exploring the Role of Early Customers in the Commercialization of Innovation; F.Frattini, G.Colombo & C.Dell'Era

Managing Communities of Practice to Support Innovation; S.Borzillo & R.Kaminska

Joining Innovation Efforts using both Feed-forward and Feedback Learning: the Case of Japanese and Korean Universities; I.Oh

Innovation Management Reflections: a Brazilian Market Perspective; F.A.Salum, R.S.Reis & H.Ferreira Braga Tadeu

The Global Importance of Innovation Champions: Insights from China; A.Kriz, C.Molloy & B.Dennes

Frugal Innovation; P.M.Banerjee

Flexible Working, Mobility and IT Innovation and ICT in 2012 – The Case of Flexible Working; R.Costa-i-Pujol

Creating an Environment for Successful Innovation - A Management Consultant's Perspective; K.Klokgieters & R.Chu

Conclusion; A.Brem & E.Viardot

Digital Transformation: a new Industrial Revolution will boost Innovation

Capgemini Consulting, the global strategy and transformation consulting brand of the Capgemini Group, has announced that its study conducted with the MIT Center for Digital Business -- ‘Digital Transformation: A road-map for billion-dollar organizations’ -- was ranked among the top 5 thought leadership publications of the last decade by Source*, following a thorough analysis of some 22,000 consulting reports globally.


Source, a leading market analyst firm for the consulting industry, assesses firms’ Thought Leadership performance through its White Space initiative. To celebrate 10 years of White Space, Source has identified five pieces of thought leadership from the last decade which have stood out and have been rated particularly highly. Capgemini Consulting was selected for a thought leadership research study revealing that only one third of large companies are succeeding in reshaping their business through digital technologies. The first phase of the study was published in November last year and phase two is due for launch later this year.

Didier Bonnet, one of the co-authors of the report and sponsor of Capgemini Consulting’s Digital Transformation programme, said: “We strongly believe that understanding the business implications of the new digital economy is at the top of the transformation agenda of business leaders. It is therefore very pleasing that Source has recognized the quality of our thinking on this critical topic.”

Fiona Czerniawska, Joint Managing Director, Source and Founder of White Space, said: “Capgemini Consulting’s work on digital transformation stands head-and-shoulders above other material in this space and will help put the firm in a strong position in this key market.”

White Space includes thought leadership from about 30 of the world’s leading consulting firms and provides detailed analysis. This analysis is updated regularly, giving up-to-date market intelligence on the state of the thought leadership market.

Co-creation beyond the hype

"When a word is used too many times a year and the context in which the word is used broadens in every article, it is very likely that the management community develops a sort of immunity. There are multiple examples of management terminology being coined as fast as falling out of favor.
Co-creation, as a phenomenon, was destined to have a similar lifecycle. The question that arises in such matters, is whether the term was a hype introduced by some management gurus, or an emerging domain just struggling with its maturity. As we see the world now, co-creation is here to stay. No matter what you would like to fit in the definition, co-creation is the result of a broad and irreversible shift in the society and corporate culture. During the growth to maturity we wonder what is left beyond the hype. What is the essence of co-creation? Which forms of co-creation proved to be most beneficial for the initiators and participants? Which processes are most suitable for ‘outsourcing to the crowd’?"

In a new report we will give you insights into the current status of co-creation, as perceived by top managers out of the FEM500 business list.
 

Co creation beyond the hype global survey

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What makes a company an Innovation Winner?

As the knowledge partner of the World Innovation Forum, Capgemini Consulting has recently completed its global innovation survey on the current state of innovation. The study offers a unique perspective by looking at the differences in behavior of 375 innovation leaders vis-à-vis laggards across five key areas (Innovation Strategic Outlook, Innovation Capabilities, Innovation Technology, Innovation Function, Innoation Spending Outlook) in order to identify what drives the success of companies that view themselves as successful innovators.


In summary, the study reveals that:

- Given the strategic priority companies allocate to innovation and their corresponding spending plans, the maturity of their formal innovation governance structure lags behind considerably. To overcome many of the innovation bottlenecks encountered, it is time to establish an innovation function that is able to deal with this kind of innovation governance and decision-making.

- Furthermore, there is an enormous unlocked potential for innovation in the involvement of external parties in the innovation process. Innovation leaders may have out-paced their peers by simply being better at involving external parties, leveraging a much broader innovation network and increasing innovation potential.

- Also, the study shows that more value, in terms of impact on business results, is to be expected from business model innovation, than from any other form of innovation. Targeting new business opportunities in emerging markets is much more likely to be successful when approached outside of the traditional competitive landscape.

Global innovation survey

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Business Model Innovation, yes you can!!!

I mentioned many times the high impact on business value of innovating the Business Model of a company. We choose 2 years ago to adapt the Business Model Framework of Alex Osterwalder. With my team we adjusted the framework in more detail while working with a significant amount of our key clients. The results are far above any expectations. This is the reason that we as Capgemini choose to co-work with Alex and his network. Two members of our team: Bas van Oosterhout and Daan Giesen represented us in the co-creation of the new book: Business Model generation, written by Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur. It is the first extended handbook for innovators working on changing the business models for the future. Besides the superb content, a lot of effort is put into the design and accessibility of the book.

All this is support by a strong community of co-workers facilitated by the Business Model innovation Hub. We expect a lot of this initiative where all global brains on this theme will meet, work and enjoy the near future state of doing business.


The next challenge will be the integration between the Innovation Strategy, New Business Modeling and capturing the implications for the current Operating Model of the company. Integration of these three dimension will be key to implement the full range of business transformation in order to harvest the new business value in the market. The first draft model of this overall Business Innovation approach is already out of our Innovation Lab in the Netherlands and bringing into practice with our key clients.

I never experienced so exiting breakthroughs in innovation and this will accelerate only more in the near future!

Innovation in the consumer market: new and disruptive concepts

As I wrote the last time, during the credit crisis companies continue proactively looking for innovations to growth their business value. However, the credit crisis has significantly changed the perspective of the consumer. Before the crisis the consumers are mainly driven by an almost unconscious impulsive buying behavior now the consumer’s attitude is mainly focused on deliberately making choices. Capgemini’s research (published in October): trends in Retail 2009-2010: uncertain consumers back to square one, it appears displays the purchase decisions on the knife-edge.

"Partly as a result of the economic instability perceptions and value sets of consumers are finally changed in the last eight months. In addition to the focus on so-called “price-set”, responsible “Choice-set” and the attractive alternatives became essential. Striking is that a good service (ease), and a high level of attractiveness (pleasure) of the formulas by the consumer to be regarded as a hygiene factor: they are not distinctive, but they will be missed if they are not directly be observed by the consumer. "

Companies of consumer products and services, would do well to proactively anticipate on the new trends and translate these in new concepts. However, I hear you thinking: this is much easier than done. And I will not deny that it isn’t easy to put successfully new concepts on the market, but it is certainly possible. Richard Brandson describe his successes in his book: Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur. I highly recommended this book. Despite the sometimes detailed descriptions of specific cases it makes it very clear what, according to Richard, what is the core to be successful by putting new concepts in, for him, new markets. I cherry-picked the following aspects:

• Never include a legacy of someone else, but start your own business
• Have patience, create great plans (large) but building the concept slowly
• New concepts needs to be as simple as to be executed in your own
• You need to stay full of passion for your own idea all the way
• Take every opportunity to clarify the new concept and be consistently
• Highly regulated environment will create medium results
• Take people on the basis of their mentality, skills training is always possible
• Teams are perishable and will continuous change of composites
  

The fun of the book by Richard Branson is that we in our innovation team, recognizes a great deal of his approach and experience the success in doing business.