Think this way before you think about any business idea
Two days back, I was attending a conference on innovative development in engineering applications in an engineering institute. Lots of research paper were submitted by various participants and delegates but what stood out was the presentation given by the Guest of Honor of the valedictory function, Dr. Pawan Kapur, Director, CSIO, Chandigarh.
Being a reputed figure in the field of scientific instruments, it was delightful to listen to his talk and also informative on many fronts.
One of the things that concern our present article was business ideas around technology and engineering. He gave a simple imagination thought about two-axes. I put the imagination into a pictorial form for your to understand better.
He gave us four scenarios where ideas could be explored.
We will now refer our pictorial representation.
Block 1: Business Ideas for which market is available and technology is available
You can simply think of any business idea around products that have both the market and the technology. For example, pick a business idea about launching new mobile products. You will have to focus on costs because there is already a lot of competition in the market and there is technology available to launch the product. This business model was picked by China where they developed cheaper products and sold them into the market thereby cutting the competition.
Block 2: Business Ideas for which market is available and technology is not available
This is an area where scientific research, R&D departments of any organization or the country play a crucial part. During the conference, multiple speakers talked about the GDP spent on research work in India, which is pretty low, as compared to other countries. This is something which can be tapped by big organizations because they have the resources to put into research work and develop technology that can generate business ideas which already have a market demand. For example, instruments used for early detection of cancer. Such machines are highly specialized and need more and more research to make the technology commercially viable for the medical industry.
Block 3: Business Ideas for which market is not available and technology is available
I would say that in this block, web entrepreneurs come into fore. The technology is available but there is no demand of the product in the market. Usually, lots of entrepreneurs develop websites that sell products or services that have no demand in the market. Entrepreneurs should be smart enough to think whether they can push the product/service in the market.
Use of social media for advertising and marketing is an example of this one. The technology is available but till recently the market was not available. But now, even the big companies are focusing on this area. The cost is low but the impact is high.
Block 4: Business Ideas for which market is not available and technology is also not available
This is a red hot area where you come up with totally unique ideas. You develop the technology as well as the demand of that idea in the market. Google stands as the classical example for that. They pioneered the search engine and they created the demand too. Apple also did the same thing–they created various iproducts and the demand for those products.
I would say that this is where creative minds should really focus and come out with totally unique ideas which could be introduced to the market.
Conclusion
Though the conference was about engineering and technology, I still would say that this point was very insightful. Business ideas need technology and market both. Entrepreneurs should not run too fast to implement an idea before they assess the technology and market for the idea.
