100 Great Business Ideas

//Know how to prepare a deep-dive prototype? //How’s your scenario planning? J //And are you up to speed with your psychographic e r profiling, value innovation and silo busting? e m y In the world of business, new ideas and energy are needed constantly—in many K ways and at varying times—to ensure success. This book contains 100 insightful o u and useful business ideas that will help you succeed. r d Written in a stimulating and flexible way, 100 Great Business Ideascontains i ideas with proven power and potency that actually work. The ideas are varied, 1 100 interesting, and thought-provoking, and some of the best ideas used in 0 business. Some are simple—sometimes almost embarrassingly so—while 0 others are based on detailed research and brilliant intellect. G Great If you have a restless desire and the energy to do well and stay ahead of the r e competition and a willingness to experiment and take a risk, this book will a inspire you to find out more or develop your thinking along new, creative lines, t Business B generating brilliant ideas for the future. u s JEREMY KOURDIis a successful writer and business adviser. During his career i Ideas he has worked with the Economist Group, HSBC, London Business School, IMD n e and the Chartered Management Institute. s s I d e a s Other titles in the 100 Great Ideasseries from leading companies around the world Jeremy Kourdi £8.99 in UK only BUSINESS www.marshallcavendish.co.uk Cover design: www.stazikerjones.co.uk SO8024_Business.indd 1 9/17/09 11:40:24 AM 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS FROM LEADING COMPANIES AROUND THE WORLD Jeremy Kourdi 111175-100 GI-Prelims.indd i 1/5/09 10:37:37 Copyright © 2009 Jeremy Kourdi First published in 2008. This edition published in 2009 by Marshall Cavendish Editions An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196 Other Marshall Cavendish of? ces: Marshall Cavendish Ltd. 5th Floor, 32–38 Saffron Hill, London RC1N 8FH, UK • Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 10591-9001, USA • Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd. 253 Asoke, 12th Flr, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand • Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited The right of Jeremy Kourdi to be identi? ed as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the publisher. The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and disclaim liability arising directly and indirectly from the use and application of this book. All reasonable efforts have been made to obtain necessary copyright permissions. Any omissions or errors are unintentional and will, if brought to the attention of the publisher, be corrected in future printings. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-462-09960-6 Designed by Robert Jones Project managed by Cambridge Publishing Management Ltd Printed in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd 111175-100 GI-Prelims.indd ii 9/15/09 2:35:27 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgments vi Introduction 1 The ideas 1 Building customer trust and loyalty 3 2 Scenario planning 5 3 Making your employees proud 7 4 Using customer information 9 5 The rule of 150 11 6 Information orientation 13 7 Franchising 17 8 Eliminating waste (muda) 19 9 Customer bonding 21 10 Psychographic pro? ling 23 11 Understanding demography 25 12 Mass customization 28 13 Leading “top-down” innovation 30 14 Social networking and transmitting company values 32 15 Achieving breakthrough growth 34 16 Deep-dive prototyping 37 17 Market testing 40 18 Empowering your customers 42 19 Cannibalizing 44 20 Increasing competitiveness 46 21 Clustering 48 22 Highlighting unique selling points (USPs) 50 23 The experience curve 52 24 The employee –customer–pro? t chain 54 25 Measuring employees’ performance 60 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS • iii 111175-100 GI-Prelims.indd iii 1/5/09 10:37:39 26 Brand spaces 63 27 Being spaces 65 28 Increasing accessibility 67 29 Partnering 69 30 Bumper-sticker strategy 71 31 Valuing instinct 73 32 Building a learning organization 75 33 Reinvention 78 34 Corporate social responsibility 80 35 The tipping point 82 36 Outsourcing 85 37 Keeping your product offering current 87 38 Experiential marketing 89 39 Information dashboards and monitoring performance 91 40 Flexible working 94 41 Rede? ne your audience 96 42 Vendor lock-in 98 43 Turning the supply chain into a revenue chain 100 44 Intelligent negotiating 102 45 Complementary partnering 104 46 Feel-good advertising 106 47 Innovations in day-to-day convenience 108 48 Lifestyle brands 110 49 Being honest with customers 112 50 Instant recognizability 114 51 Managing a turnaround 116 52 Diversity 118 53 Balancing core and the context 120 54 Business process redesign 122 55 Convergence 125 56 Cross-selling and up-selling 127 57 Kotter’s eight phases of change 129 58 Business-to-business marketing 132 iv • 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS 111175-100 GI-Prelims.indd iv 1/5/09 10:37:39 59 Employee value proposition 134 60 Built-in obsolescence 136 61 Avoiding commoditization 138 62 Developing employee engagement 140 63 Managing by wandering about (MBWA) 142 64 Precision marketing 144 65 Branding 146 66 Empowerment 149 67 Rethinking the budget 151 68 The buyer’s cycle 153 69 Direct selling 155 70 Age-sensitive management 157 71 Three-factor theory 159 72 Developing Islamic products 162 73 Support and challenge groups 165 74 Clear strategy 167 75 Six-hat thinking 170 76 Building business relationships 172 77 Learning together 174 78 Micro? nance 176 79 Surviving a downturn 178 80 Innovation culture 180 81 Resource building 182 82 Building trust 185 83 Emotional intelligence 187 84 The balanced scorecard 189 85 Developing a sales culture 193 86 Market segmentation 195 87 Audacity 197 88 Silo busting 199 89 Selling online 201 90 Value innovation 204 91 Talent management 206 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS • v 111175-100 GI-Prelims.indd v 1/5/09 10:37:39 92 The leadership pipeline 208 93 Hardball 210 94 Web presence 212 95 Viral marketing 215 96 Coaching and supervision 217 97 User-centered innovation 220 98 Internal promotion and succession planning 222 99 Developing knowledge and intellectual capital 225 100 Decision making and the paradox of choice 228 Bibliography 233 Acknowledgments This book is the result of the support and encouragement of several people, and while the execution, style, and shortcomings are my own, their expertise and help must be acknowledged. Thanks go to Louise Kourdi, whose diligent research has been especially valuable, and Martin Liu and his talented colleagues at Marshall Cavendish, whose patience, energy, and expertise are much appreciated. Also, I have been very fortunate to work with some of the most stimulating, professional, and exceptional businesses, several of which are featured in this book. I owe a huge debt to all my clients and past employers who have, without doubt, provided the most interesting and exciting environments in which to work, learn, and develop. Finally, my gratitude goes to my wife Julie and son Tom, for their constant support, encouragement, and inspiration. Jeremy Kourdi vi • 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS 111175-100 GI-Prelims.indd vi 1/5/09 10:37:39 INTRODUCTION This is a book about some of the best ideas used in business. Some are simple—sometimes almost embarrassingly so—while others are based on detailed research and brilliant intellect. Most are perennial, as their logic, simplicity, or value will help them endure; while others are, to be honest, rather faddy. What unites these business ideas is their proven power and potency. They are not only insightful and useful, they have worked: often in a brilliant way or despite great adversity. The ability of the people who conceived and applied these ideas should be applauded. One word of warning: while these ideas have worked for the companies mentioned at the time they applied them, it is not to say that these businesses will always get everything else right, forever more. They produced a result at the time, but if this book has any general lessons it is that new ideas and energy are needed constantly— in many ways and at varying times—to ensure success. While these ideas are varied and, I hope, interesting and thought- provoking, it seems to me that there are several different themes that run through many of these ideas and the businesses that use them. These include a willingness to experiment and take a risk. This seems to happen because many of the businesses display energy and entrepreneurship—a restless desire to do well and stay ahead of the competition. This is often coupled with an ability to understand the root causes of an issue, opportunity, or challenge, and do something distinctive, rather than merely tinkering with the status quo. Simplicity and an understanding of the need to be practical and implement the idea are also common features. Some ideas, however, do result from extensive study and research. This seems to con? rm Peter Drucker’s point that great ideas and 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS • 1 111175-100 GI Business.indd 1 1/5/09 10:38:09 decisions are a blend of rigorous analysis and intuition. Clearly, sometimes one aspect is more important (depending on the idea), but both are signi? cant. Finally, the need to be practical, follow through, and ensure success is shown by the recurring need to monitor, measure, and re? ne the way the idea works. A word of guidance: if you are thinking of applying these ideas in your organization it may help to understand a little of the way that ideas are transmitted. Ideas tend to be passed on either by “blueprint copying,” which takes the whole idea and all its details and then replicates it elsewhere, or by “idea stimulation,” where the details are unknown or adapted but the gist of the idea is applied. For example, in his excellent award-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: A History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years, Jared Diamond cites the development of an alphabet as an idea that arose independently probably only once and was then copied elsewhere. Of course, these techniques are opposite ends of a spectrum, but, of the two methods, idea s timulation is surely more adaptable, robust, and likely to succeed. So, use these ideas to stimulate your thinking and make the speci? c adjustments needed to ensure success in your situation. I hope that these ideas will provide you with the inspiration to ? nd out more or develop your thinking along new, creative lines, generating brilliant ideas for the future. Jeremy Kourdi Please note that the ideas outlined in this book are listed randomly, for interest, rather than being grouped or ranked in a speci? c order. 2 • 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS 111175-100 GI Business.indd 2 1/5/09 10:38:10 1 BUILDING CUSTOMER TRUST AND LOYALTY Both selling and in? uencing suffer from the similar misconception that success requires you to aggressively or cleverly push a product or idea. This misunderstanding leads to inappropriate behaviors. For example, people can become evasive, “pushy,” and aggressive, or overly talkative and agreeable. Selling and in? uencing depends on getting behavior right, by moderating openness and assertiveness with warmth and competence. Combined with a great product or brand, this goes a long way to building customer loyalty. The idea Harley-Davidson overcame a turbulent past by building customer loyalty—one of its most enduring assets. It was one of America’s foremost motorbike manufacturers but, by the 1980s, sales fell dramatically following tough competition from affordable, high- quality Japanese machines. Harley-Davidson improved quality using the production techniques of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. The next challenge was to win back, and maintain, market share (it now enjoys a customer loyalty rate of 90 percent). Knowledge of customers’ needs and appealing to customers’ emotions helped Harley-Davidson to build trust and bond with customers. Their managers meet customers regularly at rallies, where new models are demonstrated. Advertising reinforces the brand image, to promote customer loyalty. The Harley Owner’s Group (HOG) is a membership club that entrenches customer loyalty, with two-thirds of customers renewing membership. 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS • 3 111175-100 GI Business.indd 3 1/5/09 10:38:10