Google entrepreneursResearch, Strategy and Business Planning

May 10 2013

The IPM agenda

• Idea

• People

• Money

Outcomes for today

Idea People Money

What does good look like? ?

How do I find this? ?

How do I build it? ?

Massively unscientific research base

• Seven charities started

• One Bank

• 250 offenders into own businesses

• And lots of thoroughbred cock-ups

Research topic #1: have you got what it takes?

Qualities of an entrepreneur?

• MBA• University degree• Genius at strategy• Money mastermind• Natural leader of people• Operational whizz• Jack of all trades and master of all.

So what do you need to succeed?

www.leadershippartnership.com

…and here’s something I prepared earlier

• The three E’s: energy, excitement and enthusiasm

• Delusional self-belief in your idea

• Hard work

• Resilience and optimism

The entrepreneur’s journey: how people react

“It will never work”

“It’s not really succeeding, is it?”

“you just got lucky”

“I could have done that, easily”

“it was all down to my help”

The IPM agenda

• Idea

• People

• Money

How to be creative: find your idea

• Copy an idea

– Ryanair, Future Leaders

• Solve a problem

– New Bank, Dyson, The Company Whose Name We Dare Not Say.

• Use your eyes and ears

– Virgin Atlantic, Teach First

Crowdsourcing some baby ideas

• What have you seen work elsewhere?

• What has annoyed or irritated you recently?

• What have you heard or seen recently that piqued your interest?

Hallmarks of a good idea

1. Big is good

2. Absurdly profitable

3. Hard for others to copy

4. Meets a customer need

5. Gets better the more it is challenged

A good value proposition simple.Very simple.

So how do you research your great idea?

Surprisingly, there are other resources…….

• Trade publications• Academic papers• Industry associations• Regulatory bodies• Planning applications• Annual reports• Company magazines

• Mystery shopping• Focus groups

Beware “as-was” thinking

Develop, design, discover

• Talk

• Test

The IPM agenda

• Idea

• People

• Money

Strategy

HR

Advertising

Market research

Book keeping

VAT returns

IT helpdesk

Fund raising

Facilitiesmgt

Skills

Versus

Values

So how do you find your team

• Talk

• Hustle

• Screen

• Test

• Incremental commitment

The IPM agenda

• Idea

• People

• Money

Elements of a good strategy

• Customers– Value proposition, segments

• Competition– Current, potential, substitutes

• Channels– How to reach customers, sales and marketing

• Costs– Financial model, scenarios, assumptions

How to ask for a billion…..

Size the Prize

Tell a story about customers and competition

• Incumbent banks

– ripping off SMEs with high costs and poor service

– no innovation on products, pricing or service for ten years at least

– Very costly and inefficient, and yet highly profitable

– Relationship managers vary from good to awful with little salary difference

Tell a story about customers and competition

• Incumbent banks– ripping off SMEs with high costs and poor service– no innovation on products, pricing or service for ten years at least– Very costly and inefficient, and yet highly profitable– Relationship managers vary from good to awful with little salary difference

• Our opportunity– Be slightly less greedy, inefficient and incompetent to succeed– Web based delivery allows us to be massively more efficient and competent– Poach best RMs for a big salary premium: hurt incumbents, help us.– Banks can’t retaliate without destroying their own profit sanctuaries

Spreadsheet perils and purpose

Test sensitivities

Pre-empt objections