5 Roots Of Opportunity 3,8/5 5222 reviews
Lack of Control: These basic causes should then be taken a step further to analyze the organization's overall loss control program, program standards and level of compliance with those standards to determine the underlying reasons why those basic causes exist. This level of analysis is a management function. Late 14c., opportunitie, 'fit, convenient, or seasonable time,' from Old French opportunite (13c.) and directly from Latin opportunitatem (nominative opportunitas) 'fitness, convenience, suitableness, favorable time,' from opportunus 'fit, convenient, suitable, favorable,' from the phrase ob portum veniens 'coming toward a port,' in reference to the wind, from ob 'in front of; toward' (see ob-) + portus 'harbor' (see port (n.1)). 7800 Harkins Road, Lanham, MD 20706 (301) 429-7400.
Simply asking “what job is the customer trying to get done?” can be a powerful way to enable innovation, because it forces you to go beyond superficial demographic markers that correlate with purchase and use to zero in on frustrations and desires that motivate purchase and use.
Seductive simplicity hides a rich, robust set of opportunity identification tools. Through our experience utilizing the “jobs-to-be-done” concept in a range of settings, my colleagues and I have developed five tips for would-be innovators: the five Cs of opportunity identification (modeled after marketing’s famous four Ps — price, product, place, and promotion).
1. Circumstance. The specific problems a customer cares about and the way they assess solutions is very circumstance contingent. A parent looking for a convenient way to diagnose whether their child has an ear infection thinks and acts very differently from someone who suffered a broken arm. In the first circumstance, MinuteClinic and other convenience-oriented, kiosk-based solutions work wonders; in the second they clearly fall short. Create a simple “job-circumstance” matrix that has primary jobs-to-be-done on one axis and common circumstances on the other axis. It is a simple way to visualize opportunities for innovation.
2. Context. Ask a customer to report what they did in the past and you are likely to get something that bears only a loose resemblance to reality. Ask a customer to describe what they will do in the future and you are going to get guesses that are less than accurate. As innovation thought leader and former Procter & Gamble executive Karl Ronn puts it, “You have no conscious memory of how you do routine tasks.”
The trick is to get to context — to find a way to be with the customer when they encounter a problem and watch how they try to solve it. Ronn, who helped P&G turn Swiffer and Febreze into billion-dollar brands, believes that small-sample contextual research is much more valuable than larger sample focus groups.
3. Constraints. One of the time-tested paths to growth is to develop an innovative means around a barrier constraining consumption. Southwest’s discount airline service, which attracted people who might otherwise take the bus or not travel at all, and Nintendo’s Wii gaming console, which appealed to families looking for simple entertainment, are but two examples of companies reaping the rewards of this strategy. One warning: understanding why a customer doesn’t consume is critical. If it is because existing solutions are too expensive, require specialized skills, or are inconvenient, then innovate away. If it is because of basic indifference, be careful. Success might not be quite as attainable as you thought.
4. Compensating behaviors. One of the biggest challenges facing the would-be innovator is determining whether a job is important enough to consider targeting. One clear sign is a customer spending money trying to solve a problem. After all, it is easier to shift spending then to create it. Even if customers aren’t spending money on a comparable product or service, they may be spending time by following a compensating behavior. That is, a customer using a product or service in an unintended way to try to solve a problem.
A classic example of an innovation springing from a compensating behavior is Intuit’s popular QuickBooks product. About 20 years ago, Intuit noticed that a number of customers of its personal financial software package Quicken self-identified as small business owners. That couldn’t be right, Intuit thought, because Quicken lacked the ability to do dual-entry accounting, the cornerstone of any robust financial system. It turned out small business owners had a very simple job to do: make sure I have enough cash to meet payroll at the end of the month. Professional packages were too complicated, so they used Quicken instead. Intuit quickly developed accounting software that hid the accounting, and took over the market lead in a month.
5. Criteria. Customers look at jobs through functional, emotional, and social lenses. Quality is a relative term; you can only determine if a solution is good by first understanding the criteria that matter to a particular customer. Have a look at my picture in my bio below, and ask yourself what matters to me when choosing a barbershop. I don’t care about the ability to do fancy styles, shampooing, or hair coloring. I want something simple, reliable, and cost-effective.
QB House, a business with branches in Singapore and other regional markets, nails these criteria. The company has designed a set of processes to deliver simplicity and reliability. Its tagline is “10 minutes, just cut.” QB House isn’t for everyone — you don’t see many people with perfectly coiffed hair when waiting there — but it does a wonderful job of appealing to customers like me who are looking for the basics.
Finding the job not done well that serves as a platform for innovation need not be guesswork. Methodically looking for the five Cs can bring clarity to the search for innovation opportunities.
The root of every opportunity is a problem.
I learned this at a really early age.
Here is a really old photo of me in Hong Kong with the first sales team I built… circa 1969. Let me share how this created a huge problem… for me at least, that was the roots of an incredible opportunity.
The bubble of the late 1960s was the US stock market which had risen steadily since the end of WWII. This spawned the concept of the overseas mutual fund which coincided nicely with the very minimal background I had in business. I had married at a very young age (a whopping 18) which put more than a little pressure on my college student budget. To keep going to school and support my now growing family, I started selling life insurance for Prudential Insurance.
Prudential did not teach much about investing but it did teach us how to sell, This was handy because it prepared me to do more than could have imagined. The overseas mutual fund bubble was built on the export of American sales technology. The end of WWII saw the emergence of a middle class in America like none that had ever existed before. This demographic wave had wealth like no other and the desire to reach this wealth refined the technology of marketing including the art of salesmanship ranging from car dealers to fuller brush salesmen to door to door encyclopedia and insurance sales.
When middle class Americans started having enough savings to invest in the stock market, the era of the mutual fund began.
Selling became an art form in the US from the mid 1940s through the 1950s but was unknown in Europe and Japan because these nations were still rebuilding. Asia and Latin America were yet to emerge… so there had been no huge middle class.
By the mid 1960s this has changed and a growing middle class stimulated investment, insurance and encyclopedia salesmen to venture abroad. We were like a virus! Sales resistance had grown in the US… but overseas… the population was vulnerable to a salesman’s charms.
I did not understand this perspective then. A businessman I approached about insurance was starting up an offshore fund. He offered me a job and a huge territory… Asia. I was on my way…. never expecting what was to come.
Business was great. As mentioned this was a bubble and at the top sales are frothy. I was the 8th employee hired by that man and within three years the company had 2,000. They had an IPO at $20 a share. As an early employee I had an option for 50,000 shares at $1… so I was a millionaire… on paper.
Please note, I have underlined those last two words.
As bubbles tend to do… this one burst and before two years were over… the industry collapsed and I was out of a job… with plenty of really angry investors who had invested in Wall Street because “US shares always went up.” Of course due to my inexperience I had not exercised my option nor sold a single one of those shares that were no worth… zero.
In short I was 25 or 26 years old… broke… stranded in Hong Kong… divorced and not feeling very good.
That was the problem.
I sat down and thought about this and realized that I was not the only person who was broke. Salesmen… just like me… of real estate… of insurance… of investments… and such in Hong Kong, in Asia and all over the world, were all in the same stew. So I started a business called the “Merchant Brokers Exchange” that helped these people to exchange products and clients all around the world.
This was not a great idea, but had enough seeds of truth that it led me to write my first book “Passport to International Profit”. I have been writing and talking the global perspective since. This privilege to be able to share what I have experienced and learned has been gratifying and profitable beyond my wildest dreams.
Believe me… back then… when that company went bust… I just saw one big problem. It took many years before I realized what a great opportunity had been handed to me.
Economic corrections over the past few years have created problems for many readers. This fact was on my mind when a friend of many years told me about a new business called “Tworkz” a business that is focusing on turning unemployment and the weak economy in to an opportunity that helps people earn extra income.
I am not involved financially in any way but believe this may help some readers so am passing this on in the hopes it may help readers who are looking for ways to create extra cash flow.
Here is an overview that the people at Tworkz have sent that I share here with you.
Tworkz Overview
Tworkz.com has been developed to help consumers, who spend the vast majority of their income in local businesses, easy access to current information and pricing on the products and services they use everyday. At the same time, Tworkz will help millions of businesses, especially the small entrepreneurial local businesses that drive the nation’s economy to provide potential customers and clients information on their products and services.
Tworkz.com will serve as a platform to become the principal provider of local information in every market throughout the country. It will connect thousands of local consumers and local businesses like no other site on the Internet.
The financial potential of this site is significant for the positive financial impact the site will have on tens of millions of consumers and millions of local businesses, especially in today’s poor economic climate.
CONSUMER NEEDS
Today more than ever, consumers need to save as much money as possible. Statistics support the fact that the vast majority of every consumer’s income is spent on local products and services. “Local” is the relevant word and even today, there is not a website that maintains current and comprehensive information on the 20,000,000+ local, entrepreneurial businesses that are the backbone of the US economy. Consumers need a website that offers quick, comparative and current information on a wide range of local products, services, sales and pricing. TWORKZ.com has been designed to be “user friendly” and allow consumers to find the best local deals in “real time”, on the products and services they need right now.
Even more relevant today, is the need of tens of millions of consumers to earn money on a part-time or a full-time basis. In the US alone, there are 15,000,000+ people unemployed, over 12,500,000+ underemployed, 80% of college graduates who are unable to find employment in their degree field and millions more who desperately need to earn more money.
One of the principal features of the site is the method that participating consumers qualify to earn money by providing “current” information on local businesses. In this extremely difficult economic environment, the ability for millions of consumers to supplement their incomes will have a major positive impact on consumers and the economy in general.
BUSINESS NEEDS
Now more than ever, businesses of all sizes are struggling to survive. Today especially, every business needs to reach new customers and clients. The 20+ million small entrepreneurial businesses that drive the nations economy are at a disadvantage when competing with their larger competitors for methods to advertise. This has always applied to conventional advertising, (newspapers, radio, TV, magazines etc.) but even now with the Internet, the prevalence of “pay per click” and banner ads, continues to lend far greater advantages to larger businesses.
In recent years, we have seen the Internet become a financial windfall for businesses that market their products or services nationally and/or globally. For the millions of small local businesses however, that make up over 80% of all U.S. Companies, most still do not have an Internet presence other than possibly their name address and phone number. Even those that do have a website, have a difficult time getting their website in front of potential customers and clients as they search for specific products or services. Any standard websites by nature – do not usually provide up to the minute information on sales, deals, pricing and more.
All businesses, large and small, need a fast, easy and inexpensive way to reach local consumers and provide “comprehensive and current information” on their products, services and pricing. And the businesses need to be able to update their information easily and advertise sales, coupons, job openings and more – anytime.
THE SOLUTION
Tworkz will potentially be a “Game Changer” on the Internet. It will provide every business, big or small, instant access to thousands of new local consumers. It will also allow consumers to search local businesses, products and services, as well as the ability to earn money, serious money, on a monthly basis. These features will provide a steady stream of consumers that have a vested and continued interest in the website.
IN SUMMARY
Tworkz has been developed to help millions of consumers, struggling in these touch economic times, save money and make money based on their level of participation on the site. At the same time, Tworkz will help millions of small entrepreneurial business, the backbone of the US economy, compete with their larger competitors for to attract more customers and clients.
It’s a “win, win” situation for all. Consumers can win because they can gain access to the most current information from any business on products, services and special pricing and save money every day. Businesses win because they can immediately post information “live” to consumers and even submit bids to potential customers and clients. And every consumer can win, because they have the potential to earn money by helping us create the most current database of local products and services ever.
Tworkz invites you to visit its website. Simply click here.
There you have a great opportunity created by today’s economic problems.
Once again, I am not involved in Tworkz and have passed this on as a service. I hope this idea may be of help to you and if you have questions or would like further information simply click Joe Cox’s code (link) below.
Once again, I am not involved in Tworkz and have have passed this overview on as a service. If you have questions or would like further information please go to the link above.
Gary
Learn other ways to earn with your own business at our February International Business Made EZ seminar.