Business School Blog: 12/9/06

The most prevalent source of new ideas tends to be experience as this helps us see connections between applications and the consumer. I was once an adviser to an engineering student with strong farming connections. He had come up with a simple device to monitor fertiliser application and so he went to business school to make this idea work and subsequently created a successful venture selling equipment to farmers.

Search, by contrast, is when we actively look for new ideas by asking friends, family, and colleagues for their input. We purposefully look for areas that are ripe for a niche opportunity either by reading more widely or by talking to entrepreneurs and experts. However, it can be much more difficult to achieve success in this way as we can easily become distracted by the ideas for which we don’t have the right expertise.

The last source of inspiration is, of course, plain luck – where a random event triggers an opportunity. I have talked to entrepreneurs who came up with ideas after they saw something in passing that got their wheels turning. They found a market need when they weren’t looking for one, quit their job and simply went for it.

We conducted a survey of our readers by asking ‘From where do you draw inspiration for business ideas?’ A substantial 44 per cent got their ideas from their work or knowledge base. As for search, 12 per cent noted ‘research’ and other information sources such as friends (two per cent), investors (two per cent) and media (five per cent); a total of 21 per cent. Finally, 30 per cent noted that they found a market or customer need.

If you were to ask me, ‘where can I get great ideas?’ the bankable answer is from your own experience. Failing that, keep your eyes open for passing conversations or something you see that is not quite right. Perhaps that will help connect the dots.

Good luck!

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