4

Recognizing Opportunities

Don’t Let the Good Ones Slip By

Key Topics Covered in This Chapter

  • A method for recognizing value
  • Rough-cut business evaluation of opportunities
  • Tips for enhancing opportunity recognition

INNOVATIVE IDEAS are exciting. They’re fun to uncover and discuss with colleagues. But there’s a big difference be-tween an interesting idea and an idea that represents a real business opportunity. Can you tell the difference? Motorola had an idea for using a constellation of satellites to provide cell phone service everywhere on the planet (the Iridium project). It was a neat idea, but, as its development revealed, not much of a business opportunity. In contrast, 3M scientist Art Fry had an idea for using a weak adhesive to make ...

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