Tag: idea evaluation

Nigel Malone keeps his favourite ten keynote slides related to strategic business development – his “Ten Commandments” – close to his chest at all times. Okay, sometimes he puts them down to bathe, but they are never far from his thinking. His favourite slide number 2 is Wind and Webster’s ‘Six buying roles’ model. Developed initially in the 1970s, it was designed to explain the many buying roles within a large organisation, but is equally applicable to a family unit facing the challenge of deciding upon what to eat for dinner.

People have their best ideas in the oddest places, but one of the most common places is the shower (perhaps all that singing gets the creative juices going). This proved sufficient inspiration for Aquanotes, a waterproof notepad, pencil and suction cups to ensure that you never, as the website says, "let another great idea go down the drain!"

Nigel Malone keeps his favourite ten keynote slides related to strategic business development – his “Ten Commandments” – close to his chest at all times. Okay, sometimes he puts them down to bathe, but they are never far from his thinking.

If you developing a product or service that’s designed to meet a consumer’s need, here’s the reason why you can’t just be better than what currently exists. Or you can’t just be really useful. You have to be insanely, grossly, massively, obviously, simply and wonderfully useful.

The New Year is a great time to take stock and prepare your business to gear up for a new operating environment. Westpac’s Sian Lewis provides the following New Year’s resolutions to kick-start your business for the year ahead…

With a domestic marketing of 300 million customers, the United States represents an alluring yet often an elusive opportunity for foreign entrepreneurs. Phil Rogers explains why it is vital that foreigners doing business in America understand and respect US business culture -- from nuanced buying processes to seasonality, ethnicity and evolving attitudes towards selling.

People who say social media is a fad have a profound misunderstanding of the internet and the reasons why people love it so, writes Leela Cosgrove.

In this clip from the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, angel investors Ron Conway and Mike Naples answer the question, "Would you invest in someone...

An influential personal brand is a heady and unpredictable mix. If it were a recipe, I’m convinced it would be one of those fiercely guarded family secrets dating back hundreds of years. For this reason, while many have tried, few succeed in capturing in writing the essential X-Factor elements for success. It’s a big ask, but I hope to change all of that for you, right here, right now.

Have you ever worked in a company where the boss or your manager hoards information? Unfortunately, this is not all that uncommon. The old saying goes that "Knowledge is Power", and those who are insecure in their abilities or feel threatened by those around them try to remain in control by hording information.

How often have you come across an idea that sounds really great, but, when it comes to the actual execution, it just doesn’t fly? These often involve the deployment of technology solutions dreamed up by non-technical people. Take the idea of putting an RFID chip in a passport...

During this two hour seminar and networking event, attendees will learn from five of Australia’s leading experts on venture capital and business development - real investors, currently seeking investment opportunities, and successful entrepreneurs, who have ‘been there’ and secured private funding for their growing companies.

The December and January period is normally a slow time for small-to-medium sized businesses, with most customers on holidays, suppliers operating on skeleton staff and budgets on hold. The Interface Financial Group’s David Hechter offers his top five tips for surviving the Christmas slowdown.

I spend a lot of time thinking about new companies finding, nurturing and winning over their first lot of customers and I’ve realised that there are a lot of similarities with forming habits. Here are five...

Yesterday I was in a meeting and the term “best practice” came up. It wafted across the table and went straight up my nose. The meeting was nearly over and I’d made a big enough menace of myself that day to launch into my tirade on “best practice”, so I’ll let you hear it now. It might change the way you think...

To succeed, innovation needs to be more than a nebulous desire to foster creativity in an organisation. It needs to be a concrete business process driven from the top. Roger La Salle explains.

The new year is a perfect time to clean out your desk, head and bad habits. Rowena Murray offers 15 tips for streamlining your business, renewing focus and retuning for a bumper 2010.

Some quick thoughts on one of the hardest things to do as an entrepreneur (or intrapreneur) -- holding both a big vision and a brutal focus in your mind at the same time. They sound like contradictions and in many ways they are the endlessly feuding families of a new venture. You need to make them happy neighbours though.

Week 6: For me, whether it’s speed dating or a business proposition, a great pitch should help others understand your vision and get them excited about it as quickly as possible. For some reason my spiel has never generated that much enthusiasm in the speed-dating world, but the business environment is different (I hope). Generally speaking, my pitches usually follow a formula, which explains (in order) the following...

In 2001, Frank Levinson of Finisar Corporation delivered this no-nonsense talk in which he offers his top 10 things you must have to start a business. And just like the lecture itself, the overriding theme is to keep things simple.