LECTURE 2 - IDEAS & OPPORTUNITIES

IF YOU DONT TRY - then you will fail anyways
How to create and spot opportunies. One thing you have to know the difference between is an idea and an opportunity.


WHAT IS AN IDEA

• OCCURS AN TIME
• TO ANY BODY
• RANDOMLY
• SELDOM MATERIALISE

start to analyse you idea and see that if it is worth persuing

Ideas can be confused with PLANS - e.g. going into town, an idea to go to town or going to town. The idea becomes more imperative the further it progresses. 

Ideas dont mean alot unless you back it up with reason and research

OPPORTUNITY

This is a colision - factors, issues etc collige

• ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS MERGER - government, school etc
• THE RIGHT CONDITIONS
• THE RIGHT PLACE; THE RIGHT TIME

THE WRONG TIME

• invensions before their useful time e.g. helicopted, flying machine, machine gun, parachute
• P - Politicians could not see any benefits
• E - economics were fragmented
• S - society had no need
• T - technology to primitive

THE RIGHT TIME

• CONCORD - when it was first pushed through as an idea (after the Second world war) - Europe needed to mend a few relationships, some were better and some were worse. Everyone wanted a peaceful union - all types of technologies were developed as result of 2WW. 
• They put together a political need to travel and work together (with USA), social demand and spare money, needs to get there faster by business. 
• Needed to get people across Atlantic fast because phone links were so poor. 
• 1988, the first fibre optic cable was laid - this meant that the CONCORD became less and less relevant. Eventually it was superseeeded by the internet

SUPERSEDED BY THE INTERNET

• Political drive to aqlure and analyse more data
• Economics - ecohomy of scale international trade explanding, Air ttravel shrinks the glob
• Social need to connect and learn
• T - computers in the commercial use 1950

BIG BANG - changes to POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, TECHNOLOGICAL = OPPORTUNITY

• It is important to know what is going on all over the world rather than just gettting the general news about your country
• ECOHOMIC - Read a broadsheet news paper at leaste once a week e.g. Times, Telegraph (editorials) - you will have a far more informed view (look on website)
• POLITICS - local, national and international. Trade laws, tax breaks, human rights, Legalisation
• TECHNOLOGY - do you konw about the latest thinking of just what you see in the shops? Wired, Gardian, Economist - can inform your business/practice, don't be contstrained about the technology you know now, have information about what the techonlogy is going to be next year
• SOCIAL - what is affecting everyone or just what affects you. Work - life balance, Eco - awae, Ageism, Debt recovery, grow your own. 
• PEST ANALYSIS - MARKETING 101 = CAN MEASURE OPPORTUNITIES. Scan you environment accurately. The world is lead by SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE - start there and see if you can do something significantly different

PEST ANALYSIS - LEEDS CITY ART GALARY

• Wanted a public and private partnership in order to keep this gallary alive. 
• ECONOMIC - what would be the affect if they charged entry
• SOCIAL - if they closed half the gallery down, what does society want from this place. 
• TECHNOLOGICAL - How can techenological developments can they have to attract the visitors

The OPPORTUNities YOU SEE depend on what kind of creative you are

WHAT KIND OF CREATIVE ARE YOU

• EVOLUTIONARY - REVOLUTIONARY
• MANAGER - OPPORTUNIST
• CAUTIOUS - RISK TAKER

when you go into business, find someone who is at the other end of the spectrum from you to help and work with you

CREATIVE ENTREPENEUR (top to bottom) - depends on risk, caution, opportunity seeker depends on how you respont

• OWNER ENTRENEUR - interior designer, project manager, co-oroding, collaborators - could start off as a creative, then become a manager, then eventually become a manager - then you dont spent nearly as enough time at the computer. you are directing other people to create work for you. e.g. Damien Hurst - he comes up with a concept, has a conversation with a maker, then guides that person to make that piece of work. Also Anthony Gormley - he has his work mainly produced by Halifax, 
• OWNER MANAGER - creative with assistant, small practice, co-operative, retail = could be a creative practitioner who has a few assistants, may be like a dental practice/solicitors practice where you are all working together as a partnership> increases your capacity to work and opens opportunities to meet people. 
• OWNER WORKER - artist, crasftmen, one man band - entirely in charge of your own destiny

WHERE DO OPPORTUNITIES COME FROM 

• trends 
• technical developments
• political change
• economic boom and slump
• human need
• problems
• reserach

e.g. Richard Branson - travelled with British Airways and got annoyed so he decided to start a business of trans-atlantic flight with more choice and more entertainment - he turned it into a more exiting opportunity and and experience. 

SONY WALKMEN

• sony thought that if they could make it small and fit the headphones and be able to carry around they they could listen to music

NIKE

• Problem - new surface on the running track at uni
• Solution - new sole with a better grip - waffle sole

INNOCENT FOODs

• its hard being healthy in this modern society
• created first recipes
• went to music festival
• conducted research - YES/NO bins - they stopped everything and made smoothies because of social pressure

POST IT's

• mistake, trying to produce a low-tak glue, wanted to get a book mark that would stick to the page. They realised they could stick the pieces of paper to gether. 

PUSH & PULL - 2 ways of looking at opportunities

• TECHNOLOGICAL PUSH - sony put the walkmen out there and see what happened
• MARKET PULL - where the market is demanding something e.g. innocent foods

WE are designers, we offer services and are not going to be making/inventing stuff

We HAVE OPPORTUNITIES in...

• project management - have to be able to visualise a period of time, understand a body of work that needs to be executed, and to be able to PLAN a path way. Have to understand how to organise yourself to get from A to B
• know how to find the right people - work experience, favours etc,
• know where to source stuff - in specialist areas so know how to get stuff e.g. materials, equipment - what ever it is you want to use, need to be resourceful. 
• can work with a team - have to be albe to get one with all sorts of people, skilled and successful at managing all sorts of different relationships. 
• gets along with all kings of people - 
• optimistic - anybody who is creating concepts for the future has to have this. See opportunities where other people don't
• communicates well - constantly having to communicate effectively

PROJECT MANAGER SKILLS

• Define problems, 
• build confidence
• problem solving
• risk analysis
• physical resources
• planning
• human resources
• quality control - this skill takes time to development, producing consistent quality is the mark of a successful business, you admire any place that you want to get a job opportunity at. You need to be able to analyse your work and set some criteria for yourself. Get your list of value statements, and check off how closely you have met these in the piece of work you produced. Not just hope, you have to measure it. 

SO  YOU THINK YOU HAVE SPOTTED AN OPPORTUNITY?

• SKILLS - technical - process - work out where you are going to get these skills from if you dont have them - quality, management, communication etc
• APTITUDES - teamwork - entrepreneurs do not do it alone - surround yourself with people you will bring those skills in, spot is and then think who could help - dont think that the partnership you make is going to be a marrage, pick them up, use skills then seperate at the end. 
• PERDISPOSITION
• risk/caution
• evolution/revolution

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT IS A GOOD OPPORTUNITY?

• look at your COMPETITORS
• how many are there
• how well are they doing it
• what do they do well/badly
• what could you improve upon

WILL ANYONE BUY IT?

• MARKET DEMAND

ACCESSING COMPETITORS

• have a look at what they are doing and assess their strengths and weaknesses in order to work out what sort of oportunities you could have
• also work out the THREAT
• STRENGTHS - what can you learn from the things they do well - the 4 P's - product, price, place, and promote
• WEAKNESSES - what is not good enough about their 4 P's
• OPPORTUNITIES - look at your own 4 P's and then the P.E.S.T
• THREATS - P.E.S.T analysis. Marcro environment

ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF THE OPPORTUNITY

• for me
• for the customer - what is different about the way you are doing things that is going to benifit them
• for the planet - environmentally friendly
• for the other stakeholders - anyone who is affected by your business; employee, local business, family etc

INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT - 

• your skills, resources, life style

MICRO ENVORMENT - what immidiately touches on you

• your network of friend and associated
• your competitors and other practitioners
• your suppliers
• your local community
• stakeholders

MACRO ENVIRONMENT (fill in the bullets0

• world market conditions - currency, populations, cultures
• economics
• technology
• social trends
• politics
• the evironment

SWOT ANALYSIS - PERSONAL, OWN BUSINESS, OPPORTUNITIES SPOTING

PEST ANALYSIS - STEP, STEEP, PESTILE

STAKE HOLDERS

MARKET PUSH AND PULL

SUPPLY AND DEAMAND.