On a Business Idea vs. Concept

Ziya G. Boyacigiller

This presentation was created and given by Ziya Boyacigiller who was leading Angel Investor and a loved mentor to many young entrepreneurs in Turkey. We have shared it on the web for everyone’s benefit. It is free to use but please cite Ziya Boyacigiller as the source when you use any part of this presentation. For more about Ziya Boyacigiller’s contributions to the start-up Ecosystem of Turkey, please go to www.ziyaboyacigiller.com

Business Ideavs

Business Concept

Learning Objective:

We will learn how to present our business idea clearly.

We will learn how to tell a story that will describe our business concept.

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Side Bar:Strategic Stories: How 3M is Rewriting Business Planning*

Example:

We will: Increase market share (SOM) by 25% Increase profits by 30% Increase product intros to 10 a year.

Q: What is causing what here?

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

•HBR, May-June 1998

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Example:

What is implied by the bullets, in the previous slide?

Is the cause-and-effect chain:

A.

SOM Profits Product Development

or,

B. Product Development SOM Profits

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Side Bar: Bullets don’t work well…

Bullet lists are too generic

Bullets leave critical relationships unspecified

Bullets leave critical assumptions about how the business works unspecified

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Tell a Story…

Narrative stories overcome these issues:

1. Set the stage(who are the actors / situation)

2. Define dramatic conflict (difficulties / “pain”)

3. Resolution(how you win / eliminate pain)

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Benefits of Story Telling:

People remember stories much better,

People will understand the situation, problem, and your proposed solution clearly,

Cause-and-Effect relationships are clear in a story.

Business Plans should be communicated just like a story, so they are clearly received by the listeners.

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Business Idea vs. Business Concept

Business Idea:“I want to get into Internet security…”

Q: Is this a good business?

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Business Idea vs. Business Concept

Business Idea:“Get into Internet security…”

Business Concept:

1. Who is your customer?

2. What value will you offer them?

3. How will you deliver the value to them?

4. How will you reach these customers?

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Business Concept Statement

1. Customer:

SMBs (KOBI) that make use of Internet to run their businesses, which are currently being ignored by the larger IT companies.

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Business Concept Statement

2. Value Proposal:Security system that is updated and maintained over the Internet, so SMBs would not need to spend time and money to do this themselves or by using outside contract labor.

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Business Concept Statement

3. Delivering Value:

All services would be installed via a “hardware box” that connects in between the Internet connection and the intercompany network.

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005 EMBA

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Business Concept Statement

4. Reaching Customers:

Get contact information from the Chamber of Commerce, and use direct sales personnel.

Ziya G. Boyacigiller (c) 2005

EMBA

Tell the Story Now…