Advivo ICP Managing Director Trevor Holmes unpacks the most common errors that businesses and start-ups make when launching a new product or service.
Statistically, around 80% of innovations fail.
We can do better.
Seriously, with less than a 20% chance of commercial success, why do people continue to try and innovate? The reality is… most innovators do not comprehend just how difficult and challenging it can be to bring an innovative idea to market, successfully. In fact, so many clients that we speak to have so much belief in their brilliant idea, they cannot comprehend why it could fail.
We are still seeing far too many innovators come to us far too late; they have exhausted their funds on either
a. having built what they consider a “better performing” product and/or
b. trying to go after a market that is not ready or does not see the value in their great idea.
Often, we are unable to help at this stage which really pains us knowing how much we could have helped if they had come to us when they had that first “ping” of an idea.
Our recent poll asked the question “What is your first action when considering launching a new idea?” The results – with validating the market need taking 83% – gave us faith that people out there do understand the need to validate their market opportunity as a priority. Please keep spreading the word.
All of the above are necessary at some point of an innovation’s commercialisation roadmap. Protecting your new idea is a vital strategy; understanding what it is going to cost you is also critical as well as ensuring you can find the capital to fund the entire commercialisation process.
But think of it this way; why on earth would you spend money protecting an idea, or go through the effort of costing a project, or go and try to raise capital IF you have no idea of whether a market truly exists for your idea? While it sounds illogical, we see it on a weekly basis.
We cannot impress enough that your first step when you have a brilliant idea that you believe could be the next Canva, Atlassian, Cochlea Implant or Subway business model, is to VALIDATE that a market exists.
Validating the market does not include a) asking Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary b) asking friends at a BBQ c) having a chat to a few existing customers or doing desktop research to discover if your idea already exists (although the latter is at least a small step in the right direction).
“Validating the market does not include asking Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary.”
Too many clients tell us “We’ve already looked and we are the only ones in the world that have thought of this”; only for us to use our Data Science tools and discover that there are literally thousands of companies worldwide already developing something similar.
And it is not just individuals who are guilty of this.
Recently a Government department thought they were way ahead in an innovative space only to discover there were literally hundreds and hundreds of others around the world far more advanced. Fortunately, they were not too far down the track to be able to pivot their strategy.
The Advivo ICP Difference
In years gone by, conducting research was very expensive, time consuming and also took an exorbitant length of time to conduct, compile and assess, therefore usually only “accessible” to large corporates, universities and government. But with the advancements in technology, the fact that EVERY business leaves a digital footprint, today we can literally map an entire global market, providing insights to who the competitors are, what the market segments look like, where the opportunities are and who may be potential channel partners to market, literally in a matter of days. Not only is this presented in a 3D model that allows us to identify connections between market segments, but we also get a print out, listing every company in an excel spreadsheet. Just imagine what we can learn from this.
Our Data Science tools provided exclusively to us by Linda Ginger of Attractor Network through Growth Science (USA) in the commercialisation space, are making the collection of Market Intelligence more accessible, simple to use and much lower costs compared to traditional methods. The three key factors of disruption.
So, charged with this knowledge; if you have a brilliant innovative idea that you believe could storm the world and make you rich, what do you do?
Just remember, the word “Research” is derived from the Middle French word “recherche”, which means “to go about seeking”.
So please… it’s a great idea… just go about seeking FIRST!
Contact our Managing Director Trevor Holmes today and book a free consultation using our latest Product Launch Tool.
