The last 20 meters...it could be a worthy pursue

Hi Friends,

I met up with some entrepreneurs recently and one of the interesting topics that we dwell upon was in regards to the commercialization of the innovation and invention from researchers in universities and institutions. It is not a new phenomenon that many pieces of innovative work gets established and patented but not many are being taken to finish the course, of having it commercialised. In a way it is such a waste as certainly there could be a number of them that could be beneficial to the economic and social well being of a nation.

There are a number of reasons as to why these innovation had stayed at the patent level. Among them are due to the mindset of the researcher that their primary role is just to discover and impart those new found knowledge. They do not see the need beyond that. They may have little exposure to the commercialization aspect of it and how it should be done. Their career path could hinges on the number of patents being registered (and not necessarily commercialised). There are also some who wish to have their innovation commercialise but may faced with certain roadblocks like financing or find the whole commercial aspect of it a task too daunting to handle. Other contributory factors could be due to the research being too much towards a pure research and not applied research. In fact one of the very key success factors is to develop strong linkage between the researchers and industry so that the potential market needs can be better gauge. There are many neat inventions out there but one would wonder how many of them are with real commercial substance, created with real voice (though could be flimsy initially) of the potential customers. Otherwise many of these inventions are purely paper assets and not realised assets.

Researchers (beside those who focuses on pure research which have its own purpose and intent)who have their invention built should endeavour to finish the last 20 meters (of the 100 meters race) to commercialise it, hence realising the benefits of it. To take an invention, beyond prototype to the next stage requires a great need to listen to the Voice Of Potential Customers (VOPC). There are various ways to do that but one need to listen...what is the voice of the potential customers saying?.....what is their pain point?...how painful is it?....is your invention the solution?


Looking Out:

1. Social games developer who wish to learn how to commercialise their development

2. Social philanthropy - Willing volunteers who wish to share their thoughts on Cloud computing for a school project


Catch up the next time,
KH

Planning is a must, Ignore it at a cost

Hi friends,

In this update I wanted to share that in any entrepreneurial endeavour, the matter of Planning is very important. I cannot stress enough of it. This term has been so much talked about whether in classroom lectures or seminars but unless one takes it to heart and have a proper time to plan, such lackness can spell setback for them. Planning, of course covers many aspect of the business from financial to after-sales services. As many as it is, the need to plan is absolutely crucial and it has to be done at the very beginning and review on an on-going basis.

Many entrepreneurs that I know of are so busy with their business activities that they did not pay enough or little attention to planning out their business. As the famous saying goes, if we fail to plan, we plan to fail. How true it is in many cases. There are businesses that I know of, struggle in the early path of their entrepreneurial journey. When they analyse the reason as to why their business is not moving forward (it will be fortunate if it is not at least going backwards) one glaring issue that pops up is lack or no planning. They could have done one at the beginning of their business start-up or they have this mentality that it is enough to just have it in my head. But unless one can lay it out in a documented fashion, those thoughts are not known to anyone, lest so the team.

Without a clearly define and executable business objective, it is even further off to talk about business road map. I strongly encourage entrepreneurs and start-ups to devote sufficient time to think and map out this seemingly basic but most often miss out action item. The time one spent on doing a proper planning for his business activities will not only create a clear road map for himself being a leader but also align the activities of his team to set their mind and attention to the same one goal. And even if there is a misalignment along the way, the road map with its objectives and milestones will help everyone to get back on track. Entrepreneurs know very well that each and every of their resources is precious but limited. Therefore the ability to come up with a good planning and be able to execute it with the support of the entire team will bring about a successful venture. Hence set your focus on the right footing and monitor its actions. Like a compass, it will lead you to the correct direction (at least you are on the path that you wanted to go). Okay, for now I need to spend some time to bring that start-up company back to the planning pathway.



Looking Out:

1. Anyone interested to joining a US MNC as a SCM Manager
2. There is also look out for a Costing Manager
3. Any investor interested in social game start-up company

Have a great weekend,
KH

You cannot know it all

Hello friends, I created this blog because I wanted to share with like-minded people about what I learn from entrepreneurship. However this is not intended to be a series of lectures and notes that you can get much more comprehensive materials from various sources. Humbly this is only meant to be a sharing of personal learning that I gathered through my readings, observations and experiences. It meant to be brief and hopefully this would also inspire some to venture into something that they believe in or passionate about.....something ventured, something gained...whether in monetary form or life experiences.

As an entrepreneur, one needs to be aware that he cannot know it all. There are just too many roles and functions that needs to be fulfilled. Hence there is a need to have an entrepreneurial team to support the venture. In fact even if one can know it all, it is still not advisable to do them all. The law of comparative advantage tells us that we should focus on doing what we are most efficient at (which logically translate into lower cost for that task, and if we are an entrepreneur, we should be spending time building the business and talking to customers!) and delegate or engage others to those task that we do not have a cost or benefit advantage. Successful entrepreneurs do this very well. As one very successful entrepreneur says, an entrepreneur is like a F1 driver and his primary task is to drive (and drive as well as he possibly could) while leaving the rest of the car and maintenance support to his crew. In this way he increases his winning probability ............to be a champion!

Going forward in each of my blog update I will also be indicating under a header "Looking Out" on some of the opportunities that I come across that may benefit some of you. Have a look at it. Here it goes for this first blog..

Looking Out:

- investor who is interested in bio tech business
- professional marketers in technology equipments
- knowledgeable person who like to exchange thoughts on cutting technology


Catching up the next time
KH