Just because you are called Leonardo da Vinci does not make you an entrepreneur
Now here’s a thought. What does it take to turn an idea into a good commercial business? Turn it on its head and wonder if being the greatest scientist and scholar of the century means you’re a successful entrepreneur.
Take Leonardo da Vinci. Described as an Italian polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention.
Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics. Or so it says in Wikipedia. What a guy!
But guess what – by 1500 he was so hard up he had to go and earn some pin money painting portraits of the Gioconda family – and in the process gave the world the Mona Lisa.
So what’s the point? We all know that Leonardo was a genius and he’ll still be revered when you and I are probably pushing up daisies. But he wasn’t an entrepreneur. The inventions he came up with did not meet the needs of paying customers at the right price – let alone the capability of building the products in the first place.
Now maybe Leonardo didn’t mind too much being broke. But fact is that if you want to turn your ideas into commercial reality you need to make sure that you:
- Have a clear customer proposition
- Know exactly who represents your first core market segment?
- Can answer the question ‘Is my proposition compelling’
Want to know more? Find out how to introduce your innovation into the marketplace so that it spreads like a wild fire.
View the Bush Fire effect for yourself…
Death by Business Plan
Do you ever get that horrible sinking feeling that goes to the pit of your stomach when you’ve got to do tedious bureaucratic stuff that adds no value to anyone least of all you?
So if you’ve got an exciting business idea that you want to get off the ground fast why not completely kill it by filling out a business plan first?
Over the last 20 years or so, I’ve written more business plans that it’s fair to throw at a convicted criminal (ok, maybe bankers put aside). Do you know how many got read cover to cover? Spot on, absolutely ZERO! Now you may say that’s because I can’t do them and you could be right.
However I’ve done them in start-ups, early-trading companies and working for large corporations such as Amex, Cadbury-Schweppes and Cable & Wireless. And a fair share of the proposals actually got funded – but … it wasn’t down to the business plan.
The fact is that for some dumb reason investors, VC’s, bankers and corporations get a lot of comfort out of seeing business plans – glossy, 80-page, pie-chart-filled carbon-wasting pap.
Why? Because they can touch and feel it and believe that unless you’re prepared to go to such lengths you can’t be committed to your proposition.
So here’s what you do if you’ve got a great business idea that you want to take to market.
Firstly, don’t start with the business plan – only do it when you’ve figured out:
Do I have a clear customer proposition?
Do I know exactly who represents my first core market segment?
Is my proposition compelling?
Some see business plans as road blocks on the runway to commercial success. If you’re the dude having to do it then it’s a pain in the gluteus maximus.
So please, do yourself a favour and do the essential stuff first. Because if the customer proposition’s not great and you’re not clear on your first market ‘beach head’ then even a brilliant business plan crafted by Ernest Hemingway isn’t going to save you.
Want to know more? Find out how to introduce your innovation into the marketplace so that it spreads like a wild fire.
View the Bush Fire effect for yourself…
