How did you come up with the idea ?

I was part of a senior executive program within a large corporate where I held a senior management position. One rung under the top level. Our challenge, as part of the program, was to develop a real business opportunity that we had to pitch to the executive committee for their endorsement. The opportunity had to involve a merger, acquisition or joint venture.

The task sent a large majority of the elite program members into a tail spin. I saw it is an opportunity to explore where value opportunities were laying dormant within the organisation.

To get my creative juices flowing I performed a value chain analysis of the business. The business is quite complex so it was a reasonable task to get the analysis to a level where I could start to identify the opportunities.

I identified three opportunities within the business.  I described them in very simple terms to help trigger further thought processes.

I then explored each opportunity with an open creative mind. When hitting an obstacle or a stale patch I descried the obstacle and post noted it on my desk to consider other ways to look at the idea. After addressing the obstacles that I could, I culled the list down to the most compelling, interesting and potentially valuable idea that seemed most achievable.

Then started the research to see if some of the technical obstacles which remained could be overcome. After completing the research I learned that the key remaining obstacles I was wrestling with would actually make the opportunity even more compelling.

I will blog about the pitch to Executive Management in my next blog.

Why did the large corporate let your idea slip through the cracks?

The business opportunity certainly looked like it was going to be taken up by the company I worked for at the time. In a presentation to the Executive Committee comments received included ....

• "...this is something that we have to look into"
• "this casts a whole new perspective on [our product]"
• "..this has the potential to take our competitive advantage to a whole new level" 

An external consultant who reviewed the work also commented

• " This has the potential to own the customer's experience in a way that no other competitor will be able to match over time"

With so much support, why did it stand still for nearly three years with no plans to pick it up?

 To put some context around the situation, the technology that the company needed to make the idea fly was delayed for two years. Also the industry is strongly impacted by the economic environment and began to close down or halt any unnecessary capital expenditure.

So why hasn't the company revisited the opportunity now that Australia's economy, and the global economy (to a degree), are starting to move ahead?

I am not entirely sure as I don't work there anymore. In my experience as a top level advisor in the company and to other companies of similar size, innovative ideas struggle to get momentum in large corporations unless their is a credible precedent.

Too often I have experienced discussions about an idea only to see it shelved because the answer to

"...and what other company has done this successfully" could not be answered.

Obviously each opportunity needs to be assessed on its risk-reward proposition and its fit with the strategic objectives of the organisation. However, amongst the ideas that got squashed and trampled on there were many that had a significant upside for relatively low investment.


The problem in these instances is that there is a hidden expense that is added which represents the will of Management to venture into uncharted waters.

A bit more information about the business opportunity

As time goes on I will disclose more information about the idea.

If you are thinking that I am just another crazy entrepreneur who has dreamed about an opportunity without a realistic perspective of the industry, and appreciation for it's potential to fly, well you might be right. But here are a few credentials to suggest it might get closer to flying than staying on the ground.

I have 7 years experience in the industry where the opportunity exists. At the time that I birthed the business opportunity, I was a senior executive in an advisory capacity with one of the largest players in the market and the C' suite bought into it. It then got shelved as the company went into austerity mode in the face of the global financial crisis. Subsequently the company has indicated that the opportunity is not in their plans.

The idea utilises emerging technology to develop a capability that has the potential to significantly increase revenue per customer in a market where this metric is a critical factor for success.

Another favourable part of the opportunity is that it has a significant first mover advantage which will make it difficult for competitors in the industry to become fast followers.

Once established, it opens a wide range of other opportunities to own the customer experience from start to finish.

I will continue to blog about the opportunity and progress made towards getting 5 minutes with Richard Branson and beyond.

Feel free to Tweet or post comments as you see fit and spread the word.