Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Why a consistent emphasis and approach for new business creation is beneficial but difficult to achieve
- I The business environment
- II The management culture
- III The corporate executives
- IV The division general manager
- V The division and its top management team
- 15 The identification and pursuit of new business opportunities
- 16 Other new business creation challenges for the division
- 17 The division's organization, competence, and collaboration for new business creation
- 18 The effectiveness of the division's top management team
- VI Putting it all together
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
15 - The identification and pursuit of new business opportunities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Why a consistent emphasis and approach for new business creation is beneficial but difficult to achieve
- I The business environment
- II The management culture
- III The corporate executives
- IV The division general manager
- V The division and its top management team
- 15 The identification and pursuit of new business opportunities
- 16 Other new business creation challenges for the division
- 17 The division's organization, competence, and collaboration for new business creation
- 18 The effectiveness of the division's top management team
- VI Putting it all together
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines how the identification and pursuit of new opportunities by the division influence new business creation (Table 15.1).
New business creation requires the generation and exploration of new business opportunities, their proper specification, and a commitment to pursue them despite the attendant technical and market uncertainties.
It pays to generate and explore a large number of new business opportunities in order find the most attractive ones to specify and commit to. A disciplined system for doing this – consisting of project phases, milestones, reviews, and technical audits – yields better results than less disciplined approaches.
Generation of new business opportunities
New business opportunities can be generated by conducting market and competitor intelligence, by resurrecting discarded business ideas, and by using formal mechanisms such as a new product group or committee.
Conducting market and competitor intelligence
DGM Mike Walker of AMP Sigcom emphasized the importance of market intelligence:
My concept of business is economic warfare. The Art of War by Sun Tzu and The Book of Five Rings [by Miyamoto Musashi] are extremely pertinent. But first you need market intelligence — weather data, supply capabilities, the generals competing against you. You can know your marketplace, map out the battle plan, and make decisions [concerning threats, opportunities, and initiatives] by using intelligence. Read trade journals; talk to your suppliers, customers, and your competition. If a guy left a competitor, you interview him. You collect drops of data.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Corporate EntrepreneurshipTop Managers and New Business Creation, pp. 215 - 236Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003