We at Confidis work extensively with entrepreneurs. Needless to say it is an exhilarating experience to be part of teams led by people with fire in their belly. These organizations could be start ups or even mature organizations that are keen to deliver innovative services and products in the market.
During our conversations with entrepreneurs we often encounter this question:
“Should an entrepreneur research the idea that they are planning to work on before they actually start working to make the idea a reality?”
Most entrepreneurs that we work with are of the strong view that the very essence of being an entrepreneur is to take ideas that others may not feel are worth it, and turn them into successful businesses. Doing research around the idea, finding out if anyone has tried it before, assessing market size etc. does not appeal to them. The argument is that such studies prove nothing and that an entrepreneur should just follow his/her “gut instinct“. We certainly have many examples of this approach. Our experience with clients has been mixed.
One of our clients, a pioneer in the Indian security market, developed a SaaS offering without any market research or feasibility study. During discussions, the founder revealed that he believed in working on ideas without getting any input from the outside. He felt that this diluted the idea and the final output would not be innovative and path breaking. When asked what would happen if the final product co-incidentally resembled an existing product in the market despite being developed independently, he merely shrugged his shoulders and said that it would be “tough luck”. A point worth mentioning here is that the final product was indeed innovative and ahead of its time not just in India but in the world.
However, more often than not, we have experienced that the above “gut instinct” based approach is risky. Another client of ours decided to launch a paid mobile security app. They felt that such an app would enhance its brand and position them as a more diversified company. Development of the app started right away and features were decided by the developer based on their experience of similar apps. We were invited after 3 months to review the app and provide our recommendations. When we reviewed the app, we found that the app had plain vanilla features and several similar apps existed in the market. Worse still, these apps were free and to top it they not doing well despite being free. After a thorough review of similar apps, we provided recommendations that required the developer to almost redevelop the app completely. To sum it up, the app delivery timeline was affected and some key features recommended by us were never implemented.
These sort of experiences have made us wary of the “BLINKERS” Badge of Honor that entrepreneurs wear. The pride that entrepreneurs have in being able to successfully operationalize ideas using purely “gut” feel rather than market data is fraught with risk.
Confidis’ recommendation
We at Confidis respect entrepreneurial instinct. It is this risk taking and creative nature of entrepreneurs that keeps pushing the boundaries of services and products being offered to society.
However, we feel that the entrepreneur must NOT wear blinkers. Rather than seeing research as a tool that impedes creativity and risk taking ability, there is a need to look at research objectively as a tool that increases chances of success. Qualitative and quantitative research enables entrepreneurs to discover more about the ecosystem that they will be launching their idea in. They will not just find out more about existing competition but also what “they don’t know that they don’t know”. At the end of the day, it is definitely the call of the entrepreneur whether to proceed or not. However, one thing is sure; he will be making an INFORMED decision rather than a BLINKERED one!
What do you think? Please share your views!
(Confidis, is a company that works at the intersection of Business and Technology. Confidis has helped various organizations with feasibility studies, market research, bench marking studies etc. You can contact us: info AT confidis DOT co)