TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents ……………………………………………………… 1
Parts of this Module …………………………………………………… 2
What Is This Module About ? ........................................................................ 3
How Do You Use This Module ...................................................................... 5
Lesson 1 - Principles, Tools, and Techniques ............................................ 6
a.
b.
c.
d.
competition .................................................................................. 8
customers .................................................................................... 12
suppliers ...................................................................................... 16
competitors.................................................................................. 20
Lesson 2 - Types of Industries...................................................................... 23
a.
b.
c.
d.
agribusiness ................................................................................ 26
manufacturing ............................................................................. 27
retail and services ...................................................................... 28
international trade (exports and imports) ............................... 29
Lesson 3 - Identification of Business Opportunities .................................. 36
Answer Keys ...................................................................................
49
Reference......................................................................................................... 53
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Parts of this Module
This Module is mapped and aligned to the DepEd SHS Curriculum, designed to
be highly usable for learners. It contains classroom activities and pedagogical notes,
and is integrated with innovative pedagogies. All of these elements are presented in the
following parts:
1. Introduction and Motivation
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Highlight key concepts and identify the essential questions
Show the big picture and Connect and/or review prerequisite knowledge
Clearly communicate learning competencies and objectives
Motivate through applications and connections to real-life
Give local examples and applications
Engage in a game or movement activity
Connect to a real-life problem
2. Lesson Proper
•
•
•
•
Give a demonstration/lecture/simulation/hands-on activity
Show step-by-step solutions to sample problems
Give applications of the theory
Connect to a real-life problem if applicable
3. Practice and Assessment
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•
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Discuss worked-out examples
Provide easy-medium-hard questions
Give time for hands-on unguided classroom work and discovery
Use formative assessment to give feedback
Supply a diverse question bank for written work and exercises
Provide alternative formats for student work: written homework, journal, portfolio,
group/individual projects, student-directed research project
4. Enrichment and Summary
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Provide additional examples and applications
Introduce extensions or generalizations of concepts
Engage in reflection questions
Encourage analysis through higher order thinking prompts
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What is this module about?
Welcome to the world of Applied Economics!
This Module is a specialized subject which leads you to Applied
Economics Chapter III. Industry and Environmental Analysis: Business
Opportunities Identification. It covers 2 learning competencies that a
Grade 12 Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM) student like you
ought to possess, namely:
1. identify and explain different principles, tools, and techniques in
creating a business
2. distinguish the different services/products of business and
industry in the locality
These 2 learning competencies are covered in 3 Lessons. As shown
below, all Lesson is directed to attain the 1 content standards:
1. industry analysis, its principles, tools, and techniques leading to
the identification of business opportunities
Lesson 1 - Principles, Tools, and Techniques
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
competition
customers
suppliers
competitors
substitutes
Lesson 2 - Types of Industries
a.
b.
c.
d.
agribusiness
manufacturing
retail and services
international trade (exports and imports)
Lesson 3 - Identification of Business Opportunities
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Your success in this specialized subject on Applied Economics is
shown in your ability to perform the 2 performance standards:
1. apply tools and techniques for business opportunities like the
SWOT/TOWS analysis
2. conduct a survey of macro and micro environments affecting
business in a locality
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How do you use this Module?
This Module has 3 Lessons. Each Lesson has the following parts.
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction and Motivation
Lesson Proper
Practice and Assessment
Enrichment and Summary
References
To get the most from this Module, you need to do the following:
1. Begin by reading and understanding the Introduction and Motivation.
These tell you what you should know and be able to do at the end of
this Module.
2. Find out what you already know by taking the Pretest then check
your answer against the Answer Key. If you get 99 to 100% of the
items correctly, you may proceed to the next Lesson. This means
that you need not go through the Lesson because you already know
what it is about. If you failed to get 99 to 100% correctly, go through
the Lesson again and review especially those items which you failed
to get.
3. Read the text and passages for lesson proper. Be sure that you
understand the lesson to proceed in the next part.
4. Demonstrate what you learned by doing what the Activity /
Operation /Job Sheet directs you to do or answering the Practice and
Assessment.
5. You must be able to apply what you have learned in another activity
or in real life situation.
Each Lesson also provides you with references and definition of key terms
for your guide. They can be of great help. Use them fully.
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LESSON 1
Principles, Tools and Equipment
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Pre- Assessment
WORD HUNT: Search for the following word:
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A. Competition
Principles of Competition Competition is the quest for achieving superior results, the best results in
a specific field, in business, in sports, or in social activities, the best results
compared to others. Competition is the fight for a limited resource, for a prize or
for an award. The fighting around abilities and skills often takes place as a
somehow organized contest with rules that are agreed upon to be followed in
order to accurately measure the results. Other competitions are based on rivalry
- two parties are fighting to dominate a market, or they are fighting for the first
place in a race in sports, or in science.
Competition usually involves two or more competitors with the goal of
determining a clear winner. It is the simultaneous demand for a reward or for a resource
that causes competition.
Now, what about competing with yourself? You are the winner in every
competition you participate in and still declare yourself the loser. This is where
excellence comes into play; success in competition is about being the best while true
excellence is about being your best.
The main difference between being the best and being your best is the lack of
competition. You are only competing with yourself, specifically with your past self.
Competition is about finding out who is the best. But you don't have to find
out. I tell you who the best is. You are. You wouldn't participate in any competition
if you weren't sure that you are the best? Would you participate when you knew
you wouldn't be able to give your best? In order to compete you have to prepare
yourself for the competition. You train and you strive to excel. The goal is to be
your very best. Now, being your best, why do you need to compete with others?
You aren't getting any better anymore, anyway. And since you trained until
achieving personal excellence, you aren't getting worse than yourself either.
• You are the best. That's it. There is no competing with others. What is the
point in finding out who is better when the competitors are each at their
absolute, personal best? Other than vanity?
• Find out your best. Build on top of past successes or, even failures,
competing only with you. It's the most humble form of competition and the
hardest one at the same time.
• Discover how to be better than yourself. Chase excellence in whatever
you do. In pursuing excellence, creativity is freed from competition and
everything is focused on the act of creating. Only then do you arrive at
your very best.
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•
Do not hesitate to help your competitors achieve their best as well. In
order to determine the real best, do everything to have every participant in
any competitive situation to excel. Do not celebrate rivalry. Participate in
any competition only for fun.
• Excellence beyond competition is not being better than anyone else.
Excellence beyond competition is the necessity of giving your very best in
every situation and without competing for an award or profit or whatever
rewards you are usually fighting for.
• Excellence beyond competition is boxing without weight limits; it is small
business competing with big business. You are not going to abstractly win
but to give all that you are, whatever it takes. Win not against somebody
else, not even against yourself, but win being yourself.
One more thing: Never say give my best, never use giving your best as an
excuse, never mention that you are in fact and always giving your best. Just do
it. And win.
Tools of Competition
Comparing your business to competitors is a great way of seeing where
you are in the market. For example, who is your biggest competition? Is their
customer base growing faster than yours? Do they have the majority of the
market? How does your market share compare?
•
Positioning Comparisons.
This is a matter of branding and general positioning. How does you brand
behave, act and present itself in the market? And how does your competitor? By
comparing both, you can tell where the strongest features of your brand are and
have insights comparing both, you can tell where are the strongest features of
your brand and have insights on how to develop them furthermore. (Tools:
Gartner Magic Quadrant is the name of a series of market reports. The reports
contain a vast amount of research done on four types of technology providers in
fast-growing markets: Leaders, Visionaries, Niche Players, and Challengers,
allowing a broad view of your competitors and market share.)
•
Product Comparisons
Advertising campaigns, discounts, and specials are common knowledge, easily found
on websites, brochures, TV advertising, etc. What are you competitors offering that you
aren't? What discounts or prices are working for them and how do yours compare?
(Tools: What Runs Where is a handy tool for monitoring your competitors' ads. It covers
many ad networks and countries, allowing you to track competitors worldwide.)
•
Websites.
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These days, customers google your business or go directly to your website before you
even know they're a customer. So, analyzing your competitor's website is a great place
to start. "Is their website user-friendly?" "How many pages do they have?" "What's on
their home page?" "How does your site compare?" And most importantly, "how do you
know whether their website is successful?". (Tools: WooRank-helps to better your
website based on the results of a project analyzing either your site or your competitors.)
•
SEO
There are numerous tools to help determine how your website performs. There are also
ways of measuring keywords and key terms, all of which drive site visits. If you can
measure something, you can improve it. To get a better view of your market share, you
can analyze your competitor's site traffic too. "Where do your competitors rank in a
Google search?", "How many more website visits do your competitors receive?".(Tools:
Google Insights to understand industry trends, consumer insights and content
possibilities. It's a good way to compare yourself to the market and see where your
brand is placed.)
•
Social Media
A key factor in this marketing climate is analyzing the integration of social media into
their marketing strategy. "Does their website have social media share buttons?", "Does
your competition have an instagram account followed by millions?", "What are they
posting and why?", "Do they engage with customers through Facebook or Twitter?",
"How often do they post, when do they post, and what do they post?". The above things
to monitor aren't important solely in themselves, but monitoring their social media
followers - and the growth of this following - will give you an insight into whether your
competitor's marketing strategy is working (Tools: InfiniGraph-keeps you up to date with
trends in your specific industry. It's beneficial for both competitor analysis and improving
your own content.)
•
Blogging.
"Is your competitor driving website traffic by blogging?", "How often do they blog?",
"Does the content represent solely their products or spread industry knowledge?".
Subscribe to your competitors' blogs. Check out customer engagement through shares
and comments. Are your main competitors' blogs full of dynamic well-written pieces
worth sharing, or pictures and fun stories? Find out what makes their blogs successful.
(Tools: SocialMention-focuses on blogs and social media, tracking keywords and
company names, allowing you to keep track of what's said across social platforms - and
with what sentiment.)
Techniques of Competition
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Technique #1: Create Utility and Usefulness with your Product - The first marketing
technique you can use to beat your competition is to create utility, usefulness, and
satisfy the needs customers to achieve a specific result. This requires that you offer
them something they need and can use to accomplish their other goals. Look at your
market today. What will your customers and potential customers want, need, and be
willing to pay for in the months and years ahead? What are the trends in customer
demands in your market? If you can answer this accurately, you can often leapfrog over
your competition and dominate a new market even before it emerges.
Technique #2: Change Your Pricing - A second approach to sales and marketing is by
changing your pricing. By bringing your goods and services into the price range of your
customers, you can open up entirely new markets that do not today exist. How could
you price your products or services so that more customers could afford to buy them?
Many companies have been able to achieve market leadership by focusing on bringing
their prices into the affordability range of more customers. What we have found is that
the greater your market share, and the lower your cost of production, the lower is the
price that you can charge.
Technique #3: Emphasize Your Product's Key Benefit to the Customer - adapting to the
customer's reality, both social and economic. The ultimate aim of your marketing plan is
to make selling unnecessary. But this is seldom achieved. The product almost always
needs to be sold to the end customer. As it turns out, each product offers a "key benefit"
that is the primary reason why the customer would buy. Each product or service also
triggers a "key fear," which is what holds the customer back from buying the product or
service in the first place. Customers are terrified of risk. They are afraid of paying too
much, getting the wrong product, losing their money, and getting stuck with something
that is inappropriate for their purposes. This is the main reason that qualified prospects
hold back from buying any product or service, at any price.
Technique #4 Deliver True Value of Your Product to your Customers – the fourth
approach to marketing plan is for you to deliver what represents “true value” to the
customer. True Value is something that can only be identified by working closely with
your customers. What represents true value to your customers? How could you
structure your product or service offerings in such a way that people could be more
comfortable purchasing them from you rather than from your competitors?
B. Customers
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Principles of Customers.
Performance in any field is guided by a few core principles. Say you want to
improve at swimming. One way would be to go for a daily swim at your local lake.
Will you improve? Sure. But only until you reach a certain plateau. A deep
understanding of a field's core principles sets you up for an autonomous and
continuous path of improvement.
•
Speed
Speed or responsiveness shows up in almost all studies as a main determinant
for service quality. According to a Warwick University study, responsiveness has
the highest impact on both customer satisfaction (fast response) and
dissatisfaction (slow response).
•
Accuracy.
Besides being fast, your service answers should, obviously, be correct.
Johnston's study shows that customers regard accuracy as the minimum. It won't
raise customer satisfaction, but inaccuracy definitely causes dissatisfaction.
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Transparency.
"What the hell is taking so long!?" We all recognize this feeling. Not knowing what
is happening or why makes us feel uneasy. Which is why transparency is just as
critical to service as speed and accuracy.
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Accessibility.
If your customer has a problem, how easy is it for him or her to get in touch? For
a long time, the entire customer service theory focused on delighting the
customer - on exceeding expectations. A research by CEB, however, showed
that it pays off more to focus on reducing customer effort instead. While effort
also depends on factors like speed and accuracy, accessibility is its biggest
hurdle.
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Empowerment.
We all like to feel in control. A good service offers this feeling to its customers.
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Flexibility.
The reason we hate bureaucracy is because it lacks flexibility. When there's a
corner case issue, and there always is, a bureaucratic machine jams. That's
again why empowered employees are crucial.
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Ratings/comments.
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If you've just received the best or worst service of your life, you want to express
that. Besides providing valuable feedback to the company, a service rating gives
customers a sense of control.
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Self service.
There are few things more empowering than taking care of things yourself. Some
people don't like to be assisted at all. For them, well structured self service
options are crucial.
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Transparency,
"Knowledge is power." Not knowing what is happening or why makes you feel
powerless, which makes transparency worth repeating here.
•
Friendliness.
There's one major downside to eCommerce. It has stripped away most of the
human interactions that used to be commonplace in everyday transactions.
Service experiences are one of the few remaining moments of humanity. Yet
plenty of companies manage to ruin that as well by making their service entirely
inhumane. They speak in overly formal language, use service clichés, withhold
service rep identity, etc.
• Efficiency
You can have the world’s best service, but what’s the use when it’s eating up all
your profits? Efficiency will always be a crucial factor in customer service. What
has changed is technology; some tools let us bypass yesterday’s trade offs. Take
speed and costs. Back when phone was the only channel, you couldn’t offer fast
service at low costs. To offer instant service, you’d have to maintain an army of
idle phone reps to cover for peak times. Queuing was the only way to press
costs.
Tools of Customers
More and more organizations are providing customer service tools to encourage
consumers to have greater interaction with their brand.
1. Online communities.
Statistics show that 25% of people choose to engage with brands because they
"want to join the community of brand fans." Online communities allow customers to
engage with other customers, give direct feedback on products, and share their passion
for your product or brand. Maintaining online communities is the company's opportunity
to monitor customer feedback and improve brand experience. Online communities can
be accessed via social media and there are also several marketing applications that can
help you build your own online community (ahem, like our Community Cloud).
2. Discussion Forums
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A forum is a specific type of online community that creates an opportunity for
crowdsourcing. Here, you can collect and respond to customer feedback. Popular
forums will quickly grow in popularity and become a place where product experts who
many not even work for your company can combine forces with your own customer
service agents, creating a community that can chime in about a products or help to
resolve issues in a much more timely matter. You get the benefit of seeing a lot of
customer feedback, and you can see how customers react to the solutions that are
provided in the community.
3. Social Media
Social media is an essential tool for businesses of any size. Maintaining a
static social page is not enough. Nowadays an inactive social media profile is the
online version of having an empty store. Create a social media presence and use
it to engage with customers, connectig with them and responding to their
problems or issues on a timely basis.
4. Automatic callback
We've all had the unpleasant experience of being put on hold for an
annoyingly long period of time. By the time an operator is able to assist you,
you're already irritated at having had to wait for X amount of time. If your service
system allows a user to enter their phone number for an agent to call them back
without losing their place in the service queue, even better.
5. Live chat
As more people shopping online, there are people are looking for online
support. Offering a live chat option (like the one included in the Salesforce
Service Cloud) is another way to foster a good online experience for your
customers. Live chat options can be used for more than just customer service
questions-it's also a good way to provide information that might encourage a
purchase decision. For example, clothing retailers often offer live chat with a
"style consultant", and department stores service sometimes offer a live chat for
help with gift registries.
6. Customer satisfaction surveys
Customer satisfaction surveys are important at various touch points, such
as after a sale or after an issue is resolved. Allowing your customers to give
feedback provides you with valuable information on how to build a better
customer journey, and it can help instill trust in your brand. This trust is important
to build, because it can cost five to 15 times more to acquire a new customer
than gain repeat business from an existing one.
Customers Techniques:
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1. Engage in active listening.
Active listening is essential for effective communication. It allows for a better
understanding of the customers' needs and shows a willingness to help. Allow
the customer to talk without interruption, reflect back their main question or
concern and ask clarifying questions when necessary.
2. Highlight understanding.
Ensure that each customer is aware that you understood their needs. By using
active listening techniques and asking relevant questions, you will communicate
that you understand them and are making an effort to help solve their problem.
3. Be Courteous
Be polite and have respect for your customers. Always use "please" and "thank
you" and create an inviting environment for the customers.
4. Call the customer by his name
Ask the customer their name and pronounce it correctly. This communicates
respect for the customer and lets them know that they are important.
5. Go the extra mile.
Demonstrate through actions that the customer is important by giving more than
the minimum effort required. By taking the initiative to provide better service or
give the customer something extra, customers will feel valued and appreciated.
6. Ask, don't demand.
Statements can sound harsh. Asking appropriate questions makes the
conversation more collaborative.
7. Empower.
Empower customers with adequate information to make informed decisions.
When there are options, thoroughly describe each available alternative. By
offering choices, customers will be more involved in solving their problems. This
results in a higher level of customer satisfaction.
8. Be proactive
Engage in proactive steps to satisfy the customer's needs. Being proactive will
also help to reduce barriers when problem solving.
9. Highlight pros and cons
When describing a product or service, include both its strengths and weaknesses
relative to alternatives. By providing balanced recommendations, customers will
view you as more credible. This increases trust and customer satisfaction.
10. Explain.
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Customers are not always familiar with your company's policies or procedures.
Thoroughly explain to customers what you're doing and why you're doing it. A
clear understanding tends to decrease customer frustration
11. Use of plain language
Avoid technical terms, jargon and acronyms. Be professional, concise and clear.
C. Suppliers
Principles of Suppliers
The media has been dominated by horror stories of supply chain failure
over the past several weeks. Despite an increasing number of organizations
embracing supplier relationship management (SRM) in recent years, most
implement programs with insufficient skills and capabilities at their disposal, and
a lack of understanding of the capacity or bandwidth required to assure
sustained success.
1. Relationship with applicable laws.
In addition to complying with the provisions of these Supplier Conduct
Principles (hereinafter the "Principles"), the Supplier shall comply with all national
laws and all laws applicable to the Supplier and its operations. Where the
requirements of such applicable laws and the Principles differ, or are in conflict,
the Supplier shall comply with the highest standard consistent with applicable
laws.
2. Human rights.
The Supplier shall respect internationally recognised human rights,
including those expressed in the United Nations International Bill of Human
Rights. The Supplier shall conduct its business consistently with the United
Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
3. Labour rights and
principles and rights
working
conditions:
3.1
Fundamental
labour
The Supplier shall respect internationally recognized rights and principles
as set out in the International Labour Organization's Core Conventions[1] and
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
4. Health and Safety.
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The Supplier shall promote the good health of Workers, and shall provide
and maintain a safe and secure working environment in accordance with
applicable laws and internationally recognized standards. Hazards shall be
identified, risk assessed, mitigated and monitored and the necessary
precautionary measures taken to prevent accidents, occupational diseases and
foreseeable emergency situations. The Supplier shall establish and implement
appropriate systems for recording, investigating and implementing learning
points from accidents and emergency situations.
5. Environment
The Supplier shall take a precautionary approach towards environmental
and climate challenges, ensure that responsible practices for managing
environmental impacts are in place, and encourage the development and
diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. The Supplier shall comply with
applicable laws and internationally recognised standards.
6. Privacy, freedom of expression and data protection:
The Supplier shall appropriately recognize and respect privacy and
freedom of expression within the Supplier's operations. The Supplier shall use
due skill, care and diligence and implement adequate and documented security
controls and take necessary precautions to protect any data against
unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction,
damage, alteration or disclosure. If the Supplier processes personal data the
Supplier shall ensure the care and awareness which is required according to
laws and regulations in order to safeguard the interests of the data subjects.
7. Prohibited Business Practices: 8.1 Competition
The Supplier shall always meet competitors in an honest and professional
manner. The Supplier shall not cause or be part of any breach of applicable
competition laws and regulations, such as illegal cooperation
on pricing and illegal market sharing.
8.2 Bribery, Corruption and Fraud:
The Supplier shall comply with applicable laws and regulations concerning
bribery, corruption and fraud. The Supplier shall not offer, give, ask for, accept or
receive any form of bribe, facilitation payment or undue or improper advantage,
favour or incentive to/from any public official, international organisation or any
other third party (either in private or public sector), whether directly or through an
intermediary.
Tools to the Suppliers:
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A good relationship with suppliers is a vital part of business success.
Suppliers not only provide you with the goods and services you need to
run your business. they can also be an important source of information, advice
and trade credit.
The following tips will help you to maintain good relationships.
•
Talk to your suppliers regularly.
•
Pay your suppliers' accounts promptly.
•
Communicate with a supplier before the due date for payment, should you
foresee a delay in paying an account.
•
Build good relations with your current suppliers' representatives. Be fair but firm
with industry sales representatives - they can easily take up a lot of your time.
•
Avoid rush orders wherever possible - they can cause significant stress in your
business and put a strain on the relationship with your suppliers.
•
Monitor the financial position of your suppliers - talk with industry colleagues and
competitors about the general financial stability of those businesses that supply
goods and services to you.
•
Address any issues of concern in relationships with your suppliers as they arise.
Refer damaged or faulty goods to the supplier promptly, with supporting
documentation. Be prepared to review and renegotiate the terms of trade with
your suppliers from time to time.
•
Refer damaged or faulty goods to the suppliers promptly, with supporting
documentation.
•
Be prepared to review and negotiate the terms of trade with your suppliers from
time-to-time.
Suppliers are essential to almost every business. Without raw materials to
make what you sell or manufacturers to provide what you resell, you will have a
tough time growing. There are also many supplies and services your business
consumes as part of general overhead, from paper clips to Internet access.
Suppliers and vendors the terms are used interchangeably here can do much
more than merely supply you with the materials and services you need to do
business. They can also be important sources of information, helping you
evaluate the potential of new products, track competitors' actions and identify
promising opportunities. Vendors can turn into partners, helping you cut costs,
improve product designs and even fund new marketing efforts. If you don't make
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selecting good suppliers and vendors a part of your growth plan, you're likely to
regret it.
Techniques to the Suppliers:
One of the most important aspects of running a business has to do with how you
manage your suppliers. Remember that as supplier isn't just "a company that you
hired to boss around." A supplier is an entity that you need to establish a
successful and beneficial relationship with in order for both organizations to
achieve all of their goals. As a business owner or manager, there are a few
techniques you can use to more effectively manage your suppliers in the future.
Regular communication
One important quality of managing your suppliers is regular and constant
communication. Remember your suppliers aren't mind readers. If there is some
aspect of your business relationship you feel they could be doing better, you
need to let them know. If your goals for the next quarter have suddenly changed,
you need to make sure they're aware of that fact as soon as possible. You'll also
want to regularly get in touch to help keep your supplier on the same page and to
make sure they're keeping up with your needs, especially if you're in the type of
industry where those needs are likely to change on a regular basis. One of the
cornerstones of any type of relationship is mutual understanding. The only way
you're going to be able to maintain mutual understanding between your business
and your supplier at all times is through regular communication practices.
Putting objectives in place.
Another important step you can take to better manage your relationship
with your supplier has to do with putting objectives in place at the beginning of
the production process.
If you have a very specific goal in mind, you need to make sure your
supplier is aware of it. Doing so will help keep them on the same page with
regards to exactly what it is that you're trying to accomplish. If you decide to
update or change those objectives in any way based on recent trends, you'll also
need to make sure your suppliers have that information as soon as possible.
Putting objectives in place will define a number of factors including minimum
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threshold requirements you may have, clearly defined measures you'll use
moving forward and more.
Regular meetings
Regular meetings are another way to insure effective communication
between your business and your supplier. By regularly having an in-person
meeting with a representative from your supplier, you'll be able to more easily
communicate certain goals and objectives that can be difficult to get across in
text. Communicating through a combination of meetings and written
correspondence will help make sure that everybody stays on the same page at
all times.
Putting things in writing.
One of the most important things you can do when it comes to managing
your relationship with your supplier involves putting things in writing. For the
business that operates in multiple locations there are professional document
sharing solutions to help manage your project and relationships effectively. Doing
so is an easy and efficient way to avoid confusion and to make sure everyone
has an idea of what goals you are collectively working towards. If any questions
arise, your supplier will always have a hard copy of a document they can refer
back to. They'll always be able to clearly know what your objectives are without
necessarily getting in direct contact.
Make sure you're focused on your supplier's needs, alongside yours.
Just as your business has its own unique requirements which need
attending to, so will your supplier. Keep in mind that many suppliers depend on
the prompt payment of invoices to move forward with their own business models.
Even one delayed payment can make things significantly more difficult for that
business moving forward. Always try to see things from the perspective of your
supplier and do whatever you can to make things as easy for them as possible.
The supplier, in turn, will likely afford you the same courtesy and it will create a
much better relationship that is mutually beneficial moving forward.
D. Competitors
Tools of Competitor's
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Getting to know your competitor's strengths and weaknesses is the
foundation on which to base good strategy. For brands, the growth of online
activity has seen competitor analysis methods, metrics and tools blossom. There
is now no shortage of competitor analysis tools on the market, and each can offer
insights relevant to its own particular niche and contribute to competitive
benchmarking. We've compiled a list of tools that cover a range of areas, from
paid adverts to email marketing. You just need to decide which part of your
competitor's business you want to spy on.
1. Similar Web
Widely used as a traffic estimation tool, SimilarWeb has loads of cool
features that let you peek behind the scenes at your competitor's strategy. Find
out which channels are driving traffic to your competition with stats for traffic
distribution, top organic & paid search keywords, top ad networks, audience
interests, and competing websites.
2. Audience
This service will help you analyze your competitors' audience based on
their Twitter followers. See stats on location, gender, interests, and the languages
of those who follow your competitor.
3. BuiltWith
Dig deep into your competitor's website technologies and tools with this
handy service.
web server, advertising services they use, analytics technologies, and much
more. You can even find out which email services a given website is using.
4. Simply Measured
A free tool from Simply Measured called Facebook Competitive Analysis
can easily compare your Facebook fan page with that of your rival. It will show
you general engagement stats for posts and a valuable metric of 'Engagements
as % of fans.
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5. Rival IQ
Rival IQ will analyze your social media performance across all the major
social networks and compare it to your competition. Add your competitor's
website to your dashboard to compare audience growth, post engagements, and
top posts.
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Quiz
1.
is the quest for achieving superior results, the best
results in a specific field, in business, in sports, or in social
activities, the best results compared to others.
2. The first marketing technique you can use to beat your
competition is to create utility, usefulness, and satisfy the
needs customers to achieve a specific result.
3. Adapting to the customer's reality, both social and
economic.
4. A
second
marketing.
approach
to
sales
and
5-10 Tools of Competition.
11-15
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Give
at
least
5
Principles
of
Customers.
LESSON 2
Types of Industries
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Pre – Assessment
Choose the correct answer in each number and write it on your paper.
1. It is a business activity, which is related to the raising, producing, processing,
or manufacturing of products.
a) Economy
b) Industry
c) Production
d) None of the Above
2. The industry from the Old Latin word
, which means ‘diligent active’
a) indostruus
b) industri
c) indostria
d) industriu
3. It is a type of industry which encompasses all enterprises that take place
inside and outside the farm gate, bringing products from the field to
consumers.
a) Agriculture
b) Manufacturing
c) Retail and Services
d) International Trade
4. Who are the two Harvard Economics coined the term “Agribusiness” in 1957
a) Gregor and Zyad
b) Mohamed and Jabari
c) John Davis and Rey Goldberg
d) Adur Marcel and Abe Daichi
5. It is type a type of industry which engaged in transforming raw materials into
finished products with the help of machines and manpower.
a) Agriculture
b) Manufacturing
c) Retail and Service
d) International Trade
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6. It is a type of economy in manufacturing industry that indulge in mass
production and make them available to the customers by earning profits.
a) Modern Economy
b) Collectivist Economy
c) Capitalist Economy
d) None of the above
7. It is a sale of goods to end users, not for resale, but for use and consumption
by the purchaser.
a) Manufacturing
b) Retail
c) Service
d) International Trade
8. It is a type of industry that produces value that is primarily intangible such as
customer service, management, advice, knowledge, design, data and
experience.
a) Manufacturing
b) Retail
c) Service
d) International Trade
9. It is a type of industry that refers to the exchange of goods and services
between countries. This type of trade gives rise to a world economy, in which
prices, or supply, and demand, affect and are affected by global events.
a) Manufacturing
b) Retail
c) Service
d) International Trade
10. A product that is sold to the global market is an
a) Export
b) Import
c) Letter a and b
d) None of the above
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.
Industry
The production side of business activity is referred as industry. It is a
business activity, which is related to the raising, producing, processing or
manufacturing of products. The products are consumer's goods as well as
producer's goods. Consumer goods are goods, which are used finally by
consumers. E.g. Food grains, textiles, cosmetics, VCR, etc. Producer's goods
are the goods used by manufacturers for producing some other goods. E.g.
Machinery, tools, equipment, etc. Economic activity concerned with the
processing of raw materials and manufacture of goods in factories.
Agribusiness Industry
Agribusiness encompasses all enterprise that take place inside and
outside the farm gate, bringing products from the field to the consumers.
Agribusiness consisted not only of food production by itself, but included other
processes such as generation or acquisition of production inputs, use of farm
produce in different forms through processing and trading of farm products.
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Examples of Agribusiness Companies
Deere & Company, which makes John Deere equipment, may be one of
the best-known examples of a classic agribusiness company. The firm doesn't
own farms or produce food products, but nearly every farmer owns a John Deere
tractor, baler, or some other piece of the quintessential green and gold farm
equipment.
Monsanto Company, which manufactures the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate),
plus various Roundup Ready genetically modified seeds, is another example of
an agribusiness company. Another, Dow AgroSciences LLC (a wholly owned
subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company), makes pesticides, herbicides, and
fungicides, in addition to marketing seeds.
Manufacturing Industry
Manufacturing industry refers
to those industries which involve in the manufacturing and processing of items
and indulge in either creation of new commodities or in value addition. The
manufacturing industry accounts for a significant share of the industrial sector in
developed countries. The final products can either serve as a finished good for
sale to customers or as intermediate goods used in the production process.
Moreover, is any business that uses components, parts or raw materials to make
a finished good. These finished goods can be sold directly to consumers or to
other manufacturing businesses that use them for making a different product.
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Manufacturing businesses in today's world are normally comprised of machines,
robots, computers, and humans that all work in a specific manner to create a
product.
Retail Industry
Retail is derived from French word ‘Retailer’ which refers to cutting off, clip
and divide. It is defined as the sale of goods to the public at large in small
quantities for predominantly self-consumption. Retail is the sale of goods to end
users, not for resale, but for use and consumption by the purchaser. The retail
transaction is at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturers sell large quantities
of products to retailers, and retailers attempt to sell those same quantities of
products to consumers. It is basically the sale of goods and services from
individuals or businesses to the end user.
Types of Retail Industry
•
•
•
•
E-Tailers Malls
Departmental stories
Super Market
Mom & Pop General Stories
Four Major Categories of Retailers:
•
•
•
•
Hardlines – things that tend to last a long time, such as appliances, cars, and
furniture
Soft goods or consumables – things like clothing, shoes, and toiletries
Food – things like meat, cheese, produce, and baked goods
Art – things like fine art, as well as books and musical instruments.
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Service Industry
A service industry is any industry that produces value is that primarily
intangible such as customer service, management, advice, knowledge, design,
data and experiences. Advanced economies are experiencing a long term shift
whereby service industries are becoming a larger component of economic output
relative to other industries such as manufacturing and agriculture. The following
are common examples of service industries.
Example of Service Industry:
Information Technology
Information technology is shifting away from products such as packaged
software towards services such as software as a service.
Hospitality
Any service that hosts guests such as a hotel, restaurant or pub.
Travel
Travel services such as a flight or tour.
Transportation
Daily transportation services such as a train.
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Media
Media such as a newspaper, blog or video.
Entertainment
Entertainment such as a video game, theme park or movie.
Sports
Sports including facilities such as gyms and spectator sports such as
professional football.
Healthcare
Healthcare services such as a hospital, clinic or doctor's office.
Wellness
Wellness related services such as a spa.
Finance
Financial services such as a bank that offers bank accounts, loans and
investments.
Insurance
Services that cover risks for a fee.
Professional Services
The services of a recognized professional such as a lawyer or accountant.
Consulting & Staffing
Offering knowledge and labor as a service.
Design
Creating designs as a service such as a graphic design or product design.
Marketing & Sales
Marketing services such as event promotion and sales services such as a real
estate agent.
Energy
Energy services such as metered power from a grid or managed solar panel
systems.
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Management
Management services such as asset management or facility management.
Information
Information services such as a market data service.
Markets
Services that provide a two-sided market for buyers and sellers. For example, an
auction service for products or assets.
Retail
Retailing such as a fashion shop.
Ecommerce
Any service that conducts business electronically such as a streaming media
service or ecommerce retailer.
Culture
Culture industries such as art, music and cultural events.
Education
Educational institutions and companies such as a university or professional
training company.
Asset Rentals
Providing access to assets such as construction equipment for a rental fee.
Product as a Service
Wrapping a product in services such as support, maintenance and self-service
tools. This may allow a firm to charge a monthly recurring fee for a product.
International
Trade Industry
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or
International trade is the exchange of capital,
goods, and services across international borders
territories. Carrying out trade at an international
level is a more complex process than domestic
trade. Trade takes place between two or more
nations. Factors like the economy, government policies, markets, laws, judicial
system, currency, etc. influence the trade. The political relations between two
countries also influences the trade between them. Sometimes, the obstacles in
the way of trading affect the mutual relationship adversely. To avoid this,
international economic and trade organizations came up. To smoothen and justify
the process of trade between countries of different economic standing, some
international economic organizations were formed. These organizations work
towards the facilitation and growth of international trade.
Furthermore, is the exchange of goods and services between countries.
This type of trade gives rise to a world economy, in which prices, or supply and
demand, affect and are affected by global events. Political change in Asia, for
example, could result in an increase in the cost of labor, thereby increasing the
manufacturing costs for an American sneaker company based in Malaysia, which
would then result in an increase in the price that you have to pay to buy the
tennis shoes at your local mall. A decrease in the cost of labor, on the other
hand, would result in you having to pay less for your new shoes.
Trading globally gives consumers and countries the opportunity to be
exposed to goods and services not available in their own countries. Almost every
kind of product can be found on the international market: food, clothes, spare
parts, oil, jewelry, wine, stocks, currencies, and water. Services are also traded:
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tourism, banking, consulting and transportation. A product that is sold to the
global market is an export, and a product that is bought from the global market is
an import. Imports and exports are accounted for in a country's current account
in the balance of payments.
QUIZ
A. Matching Type
Write the letter of the word being ask in statement A in statement
1. It is a French word which refers to cutting off, chip and divide.
2. A type of industry that uses raw materials, parts and components
to assemble finished goods
3. The production side of business activity is referred to
.
4. It is a product that is sold to the global market.
5. It is a product that is bought from the global market.
6. It refers to the agriculture-related activities that put farmers,
processors, distributors, and consumers within a system that produce
process, transports, markets, and distributes agricultural product.
7. Is an industry that produce value is that primarily intangible such
as customer service, management advice, knowledge,
8. It is an Old Latin word of industry.
9. It refers to the exchange of goods and services between
countries.
10. It refers to the sale of goods to end users, not for resale, but for
use and consumption by the purchase.
A. Agribusiness
b. Manufacturing
c. Retail
d. Service
e. Industry
f. International Trade
g. Indostria
h. export
i. import
j. retailer
k. indostruus
B. Enumeration
a) 4 Types of Industry (4pts)
b) The two Harvard Economists coined the term "Agribusiness" (1pt)
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Definition of Terms
Agribusiness - an industry engaged in the producing operations of a farm, the
manufacture and distribution of farm equipment and supplies, and the
processing, storage, and distribution of farm commodities.
Agriculture - the science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops,
and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the
resulting products cleared the land to use it for agriculture.
Business - An organization or economic system where goods and services and
exchanged for one another or for money.
Consumer - An end user, and not necessarily a purchaser, in the distribution
chain of a good or service. See also customer.
Economics - a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of
the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economists - one who practices economy and a specialist in economics.
Economy - An entire network of producers, distributors, and consumers of goods
and services in a local, regional, or national community.
Export - To send goods or services across national borders for the purpose of
selling and realizing foreign exchange.
Import - to bring (something, such as merchandise) into a place or country from
another country.
Industry - The manufacturing or technically productive enterprises in a particular
field, country, region, or economy viewed collectively, or one of these individually.
International Trade - The exchange of goods or services along international
borders. This type of trade allows for a greater competition and more competitive
pricing in the market.
Manufacturing - The process of converting raw materials, components, or parts
into finished goods that meet a customer's expectations or specifications.
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Raw materials - crude or processed material that can be converted by
manufacture, processing, or combination into a new and useful product.
Retail - to sell in small quantities directly to the ultimate consumer.
Retailer- a person or business that sells goods to the public in relatively small
quantities for use or consumption rather than for resale.
Service - the action of helping or doing work for someone.
Trade - the action of buying and selling goods and services.
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LESSON 3
Identification of Business Opportunities
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Pre- Assessment
Arrange the jumbled words.
1. S O M C N S E U R
2. D O G O S
DNA
6. S E A I D
RECSVESI
3. I D T B O N S R I U T N
CN LHANE
4. M E N V G E O R N T
5. R S R C H E A E
NAD
7. R B I A N T S M N I G O R
8. V I N E N R T Y O
N LAAY I S S
9. M P O C T E T I R O S
DOVELEPTNME
10. S C I E N L T
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
A business opportunity involves the sale or lease of any product, service, equipment and
so on that will enable the purchaser-licensee to begin a business. It is a packaged
business investment that allows the buyer to begin a business. (Technically, all
franchises are business opportunities, but not all business opportunities are franchises.)
Unlike a franchise, however, the business opportunity seller typically exercises no
control over the buyer's business operations. In fact, in most business opportunity
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programs, there's no continuing relationship between the seller and the buyer after the
sale is made.
Types of Business Opportunities
There are many entrepreneur opportunities you could choose. Here is a brief look at
different types of business opportunities available.
1. Buy a Franchise
Many entrepreneurs like to have a business going full speed right off the bat.
Rather than spending time reinventing the proverbial wheel, an entrepreneur will buy a
franchise opportunity. A franchise is an existing business with a solid business plan and
process already in place.
An entrepreneur can operate a new business under a recognized business
name. They can then receive support from the franchise headquarters with marketing,
promotional materials, new business products or services, etc. Good examples of
popular franchises are McDonalds and Subway restaurants, home cleaning businesses,
Dollar Store, or fitness centers.
2. Distributorship or Dealership
Another place to find business opportunity leads is with distributorships and
dealerships to sell other people’s products. A distributor is a person or business that has
an agreement to sell products or services produced by another company. Think of an
Amway distributor or Avon distributor as a good example.
A dealer is much like a distributor, but more focused on one product. An auto
dealership may sell only Hondas, or an insurance agent might be considered a ‘dealer’
in life insurance.
3. Network Marketing
While an Avon lady might be considered a ‘distributor,’ there is much more to this
type of business opportunity. In addition to distributing the products or services offered
by the parent company, a network marketer also strives to recruit other distributors.
By creating a “network” of distributors, you can earn considerable income
through residual commissions made from the distributors working under them. This
entrepreneur opportunity is also known as Multilevel Marketing.
4. Licensing
You might also find highly profitable business opportunities through licensing.
Licensing is where you can take a new or existing product and use your talents to
market it. For example, you could take almost any product and try to get a license to a
name brand, icon, or trademark of a widely recognized business.
Think of Disney products. An inventor may come up with a great idea for a child’s
toy that would become a big seller if the famous Mickey Mouse was associated with the
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product. By getting a license from Disney, the inventor could produce his product and
share the profits with the licensor (Disney).
5. Filling a Niche
While pre-made or other types of business opportunities can be lucrative through
a parent or franchise company already enjoying great success, entrepreneur
opportunities also exist for a person to simply find a consumer need and discover a way
to solve it.
Perhaps you are a new mother who finds a need for a baby product not on the
market. So, you create and distribute one of your own. Or you are a specialist who finds
that other businesses will pay for your consultation and expertise in improving a
business function.
Any entrepreneur who wants to make a business of his or her own has many
types of business opportunities to explore.
How to Select the Right Opportunity?
Step 1: Identify Your Business and Personal
Goals
Step 2: Research Your Favorite Industries
Step 3: Identify Promising Industry Segments
Step 4: Identify Problem Areas and
Brainstorm Solutions
Step 5: Compare Possible Solutions with
Your Objectives and Opportunities in the
Marketplace
Step 6: Focus on the Most Promising
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Identification of Business Opportunity: Idea Generation
and Opportunity!
In general sense, the term opportunity implies a good chance or a favorable situation to
do something offered by circumstances. In the same vein, business opportunity means a
good or favorable change available to run a specific business in a given environment at
a given point of time.
The term ‘opportunity’ also covers a product or project. Hence, the identification of an
opportunity or a product or project is identical and, therefore, all these three terms are
used as synonyms. The Government of India’s “Look East Policy” through North East is
an example of ‘opportunity’ to do business in items like tea, handicrafts, herbals,
turmeric, etc.
Opportunity identification and selection are like comer stones of business
enterprise. Better the former, better is the latter. In a sense, identification and selection of
a suitable business opportunity serves as the trite saying ‘well begun is half done.’ But it
is like better said than done. Why? Because if we ask any intending entrepreneur what
project or product, he/she will select and start as an enterprise, the obvious answer
he/she would give is one that having a good market and is profitable. But the question is
how without knowing the product could one know its market?
Whose market will one find out without actually having the product? Whose
profitability will one find out without actually selling the product? There are other
problems, besides. While trying to identify the suitable product or project, the intending
entrepreneur passes through certain processes.
The processes at times create a situation, or say, dilemma resembling ‘Hen or
Egg’ controversy. That is, at one point, the intending entrepreneur may find one product
or project as an opportunity and may enchant and like it, but at the other moment may
dislike and turn down it and may think for and find other product or project as an
opportunity for him/her. This process of dilemma goes on for some intending
entrepreneurs rendering them into the problem of what product or project to start. Then,
how to overcome this problem of product identification and selection?
One way to overcome this dilemmatic situation is to know how the existing
entrepreneurs identified the opportunity and set up their enterprises. An investigation
into the historical experiences of Indian small enterprises in this regard reveals some
interesting factors.
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To mention the important ones, the entrepreneurs selected their products or projects
based on:
a. Their own or partners’ past experience in that business line;
b. The Government’s promotional schemes and facilities offered to run some
specific business enterprises;
c. The high profitability of products;
d. Which indicate increasing demand for them in the market?
e. The availability of inputs like raw materials, labor, etc. at cheaper rates;
f. The expansion or diversification plans of their own or any other ongoing
business known to them;
g. The products reserved for small-scale units or certain locations.
Now, having gained some idea on how the existing entrepreneurs selected
products/projects, the intending entrepreneur can find a way out of the tangle of which
opportunity/product/project to select to finally pursue as one’s business enterprise.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
One of the ways employed by most of the intending entrepreneurs to select a suitable
product/project is to firstly generate ideas about a few products/ projects. Accordingly,
what follows next is a discussion idea generation about products.
Idea Generation and Sources of Ideas:
In a sense, opportunity identification and selection are akin to, what is termed in
marketing terminology, ‘new product development.’ Thus, product or opportunity
identification and selection process starts with the generation of ideas, or say, ideas
about some opportunities or products are generated in the first instance.
The ideas about opportunities or products that the entrepreneur can consider for
selecting the most promising one to be pursued by him/her as an enterprise, can be
generated or discovered from various sources- both internal and external.
These may include:
(i) Knowledge of potential customer needs,
(ii) Watching emerging trends in demands for certain products,
(iii) Scope for producing substitute product,
(iv) Going through certain professional magazines catering to specific interests like
electronics, computers, etc.,
(v) Success stories of known entrepreneurs or friends or relatives,
(vi) Making visits to trade fairs and exhibitions displaying new products and services,
(vii) Meeting with the Government agencies,
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(viii) Ideas given by the knowledgeable persons,
(ix) Knowledge about the Government policy, concessions and incentives, list of
items reserved for exclusive manufacture in small-scale sector,
(x) A new product introduced by the competitor, and
(xi) One’s market insights through observation.
In nutshell, a prospective entrepreneur can get ideas for establishing his/ her
enterprise from various sources. These may include consumers, existing products and
services presently on offer, distribution channels, the government officials, and research
and development.
A brief mention about each of these follows in turn:
Consumers:
No business enterprise can be thought of without consumers. Consumers
demand for products and services to satisfy their wants. Also, consumers’ wants in terms
of preferences, tastes and liking keep on changing. Hence, an entrepreneur needs to
know what the consumers actually want so that he/she can offer the product or service
accordingly. Consumers’ wants can be known through their feedback about the products
and services they have been using and would want to use in future.
Existing Products and Services:
One way to have an enterprise idea may be to monitor the existing products and
services already available in the market and make a competitive analysis of them to
identify their shortcomings and then, based on it, decide what and how a better product
and service can be offered to the consumers. Many enterprises are established mainly
to offer better products and services over the existing ones.
Distribution Channels:
Distribution channels called, market intermediaries, also serves as a very
effective source for new ideas for entrepreneurs. The reason is that they ultimately deal
with the ultimate consumers and, hence, better known the consumers’ wants.
As such, the channel members such as wholesalers and retailers can provide ideas for
new product development and modification in the existing product. For example, an
entrepreneur came to know from a salesman in a departmental store that the reason his
hosiery was not selling was its dark shade while most of the young customers want
hosiery with light shade. The entrepreneur paid heed to this feedback and accordingly
changed the shade of his hosiery to light shade. Entrepreneur found his hosiery enjoying
increasing demand just within a month.
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Government:
At times, the Government can also be a source of new product ideas in various
ways. For example, government from time to time issues regulations on product
production and consumption. Many a times, these regulations become excellent sources
for new ideas for enterprise formation.
For example, government’s regulations on ban on polythene bags have given new idea
to manufacture jute bags for marketing convenience of the sellers and buyers. A
prospective entrepreneur can also get enterprise idea from the publications of patents
available for license or sale.
Besides, there are some governmental agencies that assist entrepreneurs in obtaining
specific product information. Such information can also become basis for enterprise
formation.
Research and Development:
The last but no means the least source of new ideas is research and
development (R&D) activity. R&D can be carried out in-house or outside the
organization. R&D activity suggests what and how a new or modified product can be
produced to meet the customers’ requirements.
Available evidences indicate that many new product developments, or say, new
enterprise establishments have been the outcome of R&D activity. For example, one
research scientist in a Fortune 500 company developed a new plastic resin that became
the basis of a new product, a plastic molded modular cup pallet. Most of the product
diversifications have stemmed from the organization’s R&D activity.
Methods of Generating Ideas:
As seen above, there could be variety of sources available to generate ideas for
enterprise formation. But, even after generating ideas to convert these into enterprise is
still a problem for the prospective entrepreneur. The reason is not difficult to seek.
This involves a process including first generating the ideas and then scrutinizing of the
ideas generated to come up with an idea to serve as the basis for a new enterprise
formation. The entrepreneur can use several methods to generate new ideas. However,
the most commonly used methods of generating ideas are: focus groups, brainstorming,
and problem inventory analysis.
These are discussed as follows:
a. Focus Groups:
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A group called ‘focus group’ consisting of 6-12 members belonging to various socioeconomic backgrounds are formed to focus on some particular matter like new product
idea. The focus group is facilitated by a moderator to have an open in-depth discussion.
The mode of the discussion of the group can be in either a directive or a non-directive
manner.
The comment from other members is supplied with an objective to stimulate group
discussion and conceptualize and develop new product idea to meet the market
requirement. While focusing on particular matter, the focus group not only generates
new ideas, but screens the ideas also to come up with the most excellent idea to be
pursued as a venture.
b. Brainstorming:
Brainstorming technique was originally adopted by Alex Osborn in 1938 in an
American Company for encouraging creative thinking in groups of six to eight people.
According to Osborn, brainstorming means using the brain to storm the issue/problem.
Brainstorming ultimately boils down to generate a number of ideas to be considered for
the dealing with the issue/problem.
However, brainstorming exercise to be effective needs to follow a modus operandi
involving four basic guidelines:
1. Generate as many ideas as possible.
2. Be creative, freewheeling, and imaginative.
3. Build upon piggyback, extend, or combine earlier ideas.
4. Withhold criticism of others’ ideas.
There are two principles that underlie brainstorming. One is differed judgment, by
which all ideas are encouraged without criticism and evaluation. The second principle is
that quantity breeds quality. The brainstorming session to be effective needs to work like
a fun, free from any type of compulsions and pressures.
Each member needs to have willingness and capacity to listen to others’
thoughts, to use these thoughts as a stimulus to spark new ideas of their own, and then
feel free to express them. As such, efforts are made to keep the brainstorming session
free from any sort of dominance and obstruction derailing and inhibiting discussion to
proceed in a desired manner to serve its purpose. A normal brainstorming session lasts
for from ten minutes to one hour and does not require much preparation.
Here is an example of brainstorming used to generate ideas to make the
organizations presence noticed.
A national level institute of the Government of India took its faculty to a resort in
Himachal Pradesh for a brainstorming session for two days to generate ideas on what it
can do to be known, noticed and recognized at the national and international arena.
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The seven major ideas generated were to:
(i) Open courses like PGDM for the general public,
(ii) Introduce new courses to meet the emerging market requirements,
(iii) Introduce research activity in terms of research projects and fellow programmer,
(iv) Sign Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) with reputed national and
international academic institutions,
(v) Start courses in collaboration with the Government and industry,
(vi) Nominate especially young faculty members to join the Faculty Development
Programmes conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA),
and
(vii) Publish the Institute’s research journal.
Problem Inventory Analysis:
Problem Inventory analysis though seems similar to focus group method, yet it is
somewhat different from the latter in the sense that it not only generates the ideas, but
also identifies the problems the product faces. The procedure involves two steps: One,
providing consumers a list of specific problems in a general product category.
Two identifying and discussing the products in the category that, suffer from the specific
problems. This method is found relatively more effective for the reason that it is easier to
relate known products to a set of suggested problems and then arrive at a new product
idea.
However, experiences available suggest that problem inventory analysis method
should better be used for generating and identifying new ideas for screening and
evaluation. The results derived from product inventory analysis need to be carefully
screened and evaluated as they may not actually reflect a genuine business opportunity.
For example, General Foods’ introduction of a compact cereal box in response to the
problem that the available boxes did not fit well on the shelf was not successful, as the
problem of package size had little effect on actual purchasing behavior. Therefore, to
ensure the better if not the best results, problem inventory analysis should be used
primarily to generate product ideas for evaluation.
All of above sources and methods may give a few ideas about the possible
projects to be examined as the final project or product.
Following are some illustrative sources of generation of business ideas:
a. Realizing that especially service class people find it inconvenient to take milk pot with
them to office that they need to buy milk while coming back from the office in the
evening, to provide milk in sachets or tetra packs could be a new business idea.
b. Having faced difficulty in finding out accommodation and transport facility while on
visits to a new/tourist place may give one an idea to start a travel agency providing
complete package of facilities to the visitors to a new / tourist place.
c. Knowing that many people have hobby or even develop passion for gardening may
give rise to an idea of setting up one’s own nursery.
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d. Seeing that most of the people coming from outside to a particular place buy its
unique items as souvenir like tea from Assam, the Model of Taj from Agra, etc. may give
idea to produce the local item as souvenir.
e. Recognizing the increasing application of computers in offices as well as business
organizations, irrespective of its size, may give an idea to set-up a computer-training
center.
Once ideas have being generated following the above process, the next step
comes is identification of above generated ideas as opportunities.
Opportunity/Product Identification:
After going through above process, one might have been able to generate some
ideas that can be considered to be pursued as one’s business enterprise.
Imagine that someone has generated the five ideas as opportunities as a result of above
analysis:
1. Nut and bolt manufacturing (industry)
2. Lakhani Shoes (industry)
3. Photocopying unit (service-based industry)
4. Electro-type writer servicing (service-based industry).
5. Polythene bags for textile industry (ancillary industry)
An entrepreneur cannot start all above five types of enterprises due to small in
size in terms of capital, capability, and other resources. Hence, he/she needs to finally
select one idea which he/she thinks the most suitable to be pursued as an enterprise.
How does the entrepreneur select the most suitable project out of the alternatives
available? This is done through a selection process discussed subsequently.
Having gone through idea generation, also expressed as ‘opportunity scanning’ and
opportunity identification, we can distinguish between an idea and opportunity. We are
giving below the two situations that will help you understand and draw the line of
difference between an ‘idea’ and an ‘opportunity’.
Four ways to identify more business opportunities
To be successful entrepreneurs, we need to be continually innovating and looking
for opportunities to grow our startups.
But how do you find new opportunities to take your startup to new markets and growth
levels? Here are four ways to identify more business opportunities.
1. Listen to your potential clients and past leads
When you’re targeting potential customers listen to their needs, wants, challenges and
frustrations with your industry. Have they used similar products and services before?
What did they like and dislike? Why did they come to you? What are their objections to
your products or services?
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This will help you to find opportunities to develop more tailored products and
services, hone your target market and identify and overcome common objections.
2. Listen to your customers
When you’re talking to your customers listen to what they saying about your
industry, products and services. What are their frequently asked questions?
Experiences? Frustrations? Feedback and complaints?
This valuable customer information will help you identify key business opportunities to
expand and develop your current products and services.
3. Look at your competitors
Do a little competitive analysis (don’t let it led to competitive paralysis though) to
see what other startups are doing, and more importantly, not doing? Where are they
falling down? What are they doing right? What makes customers go to them over you?
Analyzing your competitors will help you identify key business opportunities to expand
your market reach and develop your products and services.
4. Look at industry trends and insights
Subscribe to industry publications, join relevant associations, set Google alerts
for key industry terms and news and follow other industry experts on social media.
Absorb yourself in your industry and continually educate yourself on the latest
techniques and trends.
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LET’S EXERCISE! - QUIZ
1. Identify Your Business and Personal Goals
2. Research Your Favorite Industries
3. Identify Promising Industry Segments
4. Identify Problem Areas and Brainstorm Solutions
5. Compare Possible Solutions with Your Objectives and
Opportunities in the Marketplace
6.
Focus on the Most Promising
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Answer Keys
LESSON 1
PRE - ASSESSMENT
Competitor Accuracy
Accessibility
Suppliers
Blogging
Social
Media
Customer
Competition Empowerment Environment Audience Efficiency
Friendliness
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Quiz
1.
Principles of Competition –
2.
Create Utility and Usefulness with your Product
3.
Create Utility and Usefulness with your Product
4.
Change Your Pricing
5-10
5.
Online communities.
6.
Discussion Forums
7.
Social Media
8.
Automatic callback
9.
Live chat
10.
Customer satisfaction surveys
11-15 choose only five.
11.
Speed
12.
Accuracy
13.
Transparency
14.
Accessibility
15.
Empowerment
16.
Flexibility
17.
Ratings/comments.
18.
Self service.
19.
Transparency
20.
Friendliness.
21.
Efficiency
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LESSON 2
PRE-ASSESSMENT
1) B
2) A
3) A
4) D
5) B
6) C
7) B
8) C
9) D
10) A
QUIZ
Part I:
1) J
2) B
3) E
4) H
5) I
6) A
7) D
8) K
9) F
10) C
Part II:
a) Agribusiness, Manufacturing, Retail and Service, International Trade
b) John Davis and Ray Goldberg
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LESSON 3
Pre- Assessment
1. CONSUMERS
2. GOODS AND SERVICES
3. DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL
4. GOVERNMENT
5. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
6. IDEAS
7. BRAIN STORMING
8. INVENTORY ANALYSIS
9. COMPETITORS
10. CLIENTS
Quiz
The answers are subjective based on the student preference.
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References
Akrani, G. What is Industry? Meaning - Classification Types of Industries. March
5, 2011.
Business Opportunity. Retrieved from www.etrepreneur.com
Chait,
J. What is Agribusiness. December 5, 2018. Retrieved
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/wualankcloy/agricultural-business
from:
Chunekar, G. Retail Industry. Retrieved from: https://www.slideshare.net/
Economywatch. Manufacturing Industry. June 29, 2010. Retrieved from:
http://www.economywatch.com/ world-industries/manufacturing/?page=full
Four
ways to identify more
www.smartcompany.com
business
opportunities.
Retrieved
from
Heakal, R. What is International Trade?. December 5, 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.investopedia.com/insights/what-isHow
to
Select
the
right
Opportunity.
Retrieved
www.gdeepak.com/presentation
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/wualankcloy/agricultural-business
from
Identification of Business Opportunity. Retrieved from www.yourarticlelibrary.com
Industry. October 2018. Retrieved from: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/industry
Jamandre, W. Agribusiness: Perspective. Retrieved from: Retrieved from:
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/wualankcloy/agricultural-business
Materialscientist. International Trade. December 2018.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_trade
mobile/GRISHMACHUNEKAR/retail-industry-49628371
Retrieved
from:
Spacey, J. 25 Examples of Service Industry. May 11, 2018. Retrieved from:
https://simplicable.com/new/service-industry
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Sustainable Development Indicator. Manufacturing Industry. June 4, 1996.
Retrieved from: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/iwgsdi/Manufacturing.html
Types of Business Opportunities. Retrieved from www.morebusiness.com
Principles, Tools and Techniques. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.
com/document/370785709/Principles-TooLs-And-techniques.
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