In this report you will try to engage creatively in identifying a business opportunity that is meaningful for you, and sow the seeds of an idea around which a potential new venture can be built. The bugs’ function is to produce ideas with the potential of becoming new products and services. Innovation begins with identifying the outcomes customers want to achieve; it ends in the creation of items they buy. The most successful products are responses to problems or needs that someone has. Many entrepreneurs get ideas for new products from their own or others needs or problems by following appreciative inquiry. Leo Gerstenzang invented the cotton swab in the 1920s. His wife had used a toothpick with cotton stuck on the end to clean their baby’s ears, and Leo invented cotton swabs to replace her “invention.” George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, invented Velcro in 1948 after noting how well the burdock seeds clung to his clothing during hiking.
Divergent Thinking: Phase 1: What Bugs You? The first part of this assignment asks you to generate a list of 20 things that really aggravate or irritate you. You must reflect on your own life, your personal needs, activities in which you are involved, things you like to do, relationships that you have, things that you observe in your everyday world, and so forth. Then make a laundry list of particular things that bug you. Be creative and innovative in presenting your report. You can use a number of techniques such as observation, free association, imaginative thinking, etc. It is important to put down all ideas. Do not preselect or evaluate at this stage. One example of a bug may be that a light bulb burns out without warning and, one possible solution may be to create a sensor that senses the life of the light bulb and beeps when it is about replace the bulb.
Convergent Thinking: Phase 2: Filtering and Selection, Identifying business potential. Inventions follow a path that is not dissimilar to that of “natural selection.” Some ideas may work well in a laboratory experiment but not in the marketplace. Only about 6 percent of inventions develop by independent inventors actually reach the marketplace (Astebro, 1998). In the second phase, you need to filter their bugs and select the 3 most promising concepts for future business enterprises. Thus the most promising bugs and their solutions should echo market deficiencies (both current and potential) and help you identify various business opportunities.
In the second phase the following questions are to be answered: What is the problem (write one problem on each line). What solution are you suggesting to resolve the problem? How are you going to implement the solution? You need to suggest a very specific service/product that would solve the problem. Do you need to protect the idea (intellectual property issues)? What is the name of the product/service? Who will be the potential buyer of this product? Explain the target market: What is the profile of your typical customer. Why do these buyers buy your product? How much does your typical customer willing to pay for this product? How are you going to promote your product? Where are you going to sell your product?
Macro and Ethical thinking Phase 3: What is the Potential for Impact? Here you need to think of larger consequences of your solution to the world. List next to the 3 chosen bug opportunities the potential that your solutions have in creating positive, negative or no change in society. Examine its potential to improve the quality of human life.
“I criticize by creation, not by finding fault” –Cicero
“In dreams begins responsibility” – William Butler Yeats
Note: The assignment should be about 1-2 pages of typewritten material, single spaced that addresses the 3 phases above. Please ensure that the bugs you list are not in violation of law, common decency, of intensely personal nature, embarrassing, objectionable, or disrespectful of others. The work you turn in should be your own. Late or emailed assignments are not accepted.
Also remember that we need to have 3 separate industry contexts for the 3 ventures. That is, do not go for all 3 ventures in IT, and try to avoid an exclusive App based solution.
*No “Chindogu”: A Japanese term (meaning “unusual tool”) coined by Kenji Kawakami, that refers to everyday inventions, that on the surface appear to be ideal solutions to a problem. However Chindogu had another unique feature, i.e., they are totally useless and potentially embarrassing inventions. Anyone attempting to use it will be faced with so many new problems as to render the invention effectively useless. See Kawakami’s books: 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Art of Chindogu; and 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions.
Recognize therefore, that the mere act of creation does not guarantee its positive impact.
