From the ideas from strange places department:
Papaw didn’t get out to use his grill early enough this year and so someone else set up shop.
Now, some would have said it is a bad idea to build a nest in a grill with summer parties around the corner.
But mom and dad bird had a different idea. Metal roof. Small perfectly sized entrance. Back door for fast escape. Seems perfectly modern.
In some places this would not have ended well. All the work disposed of to make room for ribs and burgers. But in this case they have found my in-laws, warm hearted folks who admire the birds creativity, spunk and stick-to-itiveness. So the new residents are protected and safe until they take flight. Even the dog is on watch for four-legged prowlers.
Nature has a great way of finding new uses for under-used nooks and crannies.
Discovering the under-used space to set-up shop in is one of the trickier parts defining a new business. Obvious places to build are often over crowded with competition ready to turn up the heat. Nook and cranny creativity pushes you to find solutions that are less obvious.
The problem with nook and cranny creativity is often others don’t quite see the opportunity. So getting started might be difficult, getting funding next to impossible.
Have you seen any nook and cranny ideas lately?
I spent the afternoon at Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Innovation Entrepreneurship Summit. Experienced speakers were great, learned a lot. Students presenting as part of the NU Venture Challenge were better.
Five teams made their final business plan presentations looking to split quite a bit of award money. Many of the ideas were well beyond the dream stage. What I enjoy most about young entrepreneurs is that they simply won’t visualize how hard what they want to do is going to be. — “People will buy it. 20% market share, 50% market share. Positive cash flow year 3. FDA Approval simplified. Patent no problem. License it!”
When the first concept was being presented I caught myself thinking about all the difficulties the team was going to run into.
I caught myself with negative thoughts. ‘Turn up the heat’ negative thoughts. Ouch. Is that the way I’ve been thinking lately? Is that the filter I’ve been using?
Great Ideas are always going to be tough. The obstacles are going to be huge. And great ideas are going to be built in places we least expect.
So. Flip the switch. Reboot. Let the optimism flow through you. Let the problems hit when they hit. Let ideas grow.
The students may have been building ideas on a grill, but the Farley Center was certainly looking for ways to moderate the heat. Great contacts, professional review of their ideas, encouragement.
The students did a great job of identifying niches and it was an interesting concept mix that made it to this stage. Not all Web 2.0, thank goodness. Three of the ideas were medical device/pharmaceutical plays. One was a medical information play and one was a logistics knowledge/web 2.0 play. For now that’s all the description I’m going to give. (While I find the idea of an open source business plan interesting, I don’t want to needlessly turn up the heat on these ideas with promise.)
Time to reboot. Think possibilities. Look for nooks and crannies and find ways to keep the heat turned down.
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Nice article, Fred. .-= Ja-Nae´s last blog ..NPR wants to know: Who hates Voicemail? =-.
Hi Fred, Nature doesn’t like anything to be wasted, including bbg grilles in the off season. (And what could be more natural than a bbg grille?)
This type of creativity makes me think of beef jerky. Several years ago, somebody came up with the idea of packaging all the useless trimmings in a meat packaging plant and calling it beef jerky. Today, it’s – I’m guessing – a nine-figure food segment.
Brad Shorr’s last blog post..Are You a Social Media Doer or Dabbler?
Amazing what folks can figure out to do with left-overs. I love jerky but I tend to not think about it too much
I’ve heard venture capitalists say they increasingly vote for the team, versus the idea alone, as they know the idea will be changed/evolved as the team learns more.
I love the notion of “unused” or “underused” space as an image for a market opportunity. Sometimes the result is terrible (huge ads on the side of buses, for example, that reduce light inside the bus) but other times they are rich (products that turned a back yard into an oasis against the stress of life).
Have a good day, K
kay plantes’s last blog post..Growth Strategy During a Recession
There was quite a bit of discussion about how investors of various stripes had changed how they viewed proposals coming across their desks. In addition to being very focused on the abilities of the team they were also very interested in whether the team appeared to be in it for the long haul or just looking for a quick event to cash out with. ‘Sustainable business model’ kept coming up.
That’s one reason why I was impressed by the concepts presented. They were all focused on innovations that solved real, existing problems for people and companies.
Dividing niches and narrowing the focus is a winning pattern. I like your nook and cranny angle.
J.D. Meier’s last blog post..The 20 Percent Spike
Thanks J.D. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Fred,
Back when I was in university, I participated in a program called Young Achievers Australia (YAA), a program aimed to help young people to develop entrepreneurial skills by joining teams and starting up and running a part-time business venture.
Our product was obvious but there were very few people who had actually thought of it. Most people, when they load up their computer screen, see a somewhat standardized version of wallpaper behind their icons (‘wallpaper’ is the background behind the icons when you start your computer). Our idea was to get some high quality photographs taken of famous spots around Melbourne (my home city), scan a selection of them on to disks and sell the disks at tourist shops. Using our product, users could replace their standardized wallpaper background and instead have as their background their choice of one of their favorite places in Melbourne. Kind of like postcards, but on the background of a user’s start screen.
This idea was novel back in 1997 anyway. We didn’t actually end up doing that well, and our product, being new, was difficult to explain, but it certainly was an enjoyable experience to have a go and to be fair to its inventor (it was not my idea personally), the idea was a creative way to add color and interest to what appeared at the time to be a fairly standardised space which could use a little sprucing up.
Andrew’s last blog post..Climbing to the top
Andrew, Sometimes the challenges an entrepreneur faces are more educational than the successes. And explaining a new product can be terribly difficult even with a large budget. That sounds like a great program you were involved with.
Fred,
Yes, I sure learned a great deal, and it represented a great way for young middle/high school and university students to gain first hand practical experience in terms of the processes of turning an idea into a viable enterprise.
A thoroughly worthwhile program.
Andrew’s last blog post..Climbing to the top