If you have read my previous
post Differentiate or Die
or attended a #mystrategyis workshop you will have
got the message loud and clear that for small businesses to thrive you need to
be different from your competitors, to stand out in some way that creates value
to a certain group of customers, a sustainable competitive advantage. The question
I am often asked is how, and the key is innovation, finding new ways to
change the competitive ‘playing field’
However, whether you are looking
to create a completely new business, a new product or service or to find a novel
way to deliver an existing offer to customers, coming up with ideas can be one
of the biggest challenges for small business owners.
There is an air of
mystery around great ideas, where a business owner goes off to a retreat and
is able to generate fantastic concepts from thin air (Bill Gates was well known
for his ‘think week’, when he would spend time alone at his cabin in a forest
and return with a plan for the next big thing) – whilst it is true that when
our conscious mind is busy with some day to day tasks (taking a shower, walking
the dog or driving) the subconscious mind can work on those ideas that have
been lurking at the back of your mind. The reality is that good ideas are
rarely a thunderbolt from the blue, and you should start by looking at what
already exists and consider ways to do things differently, as Mark Twain said
SCAMPER is simply an acronym
(Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify or Magnify, Put to other use, Eliminate, Reverse
or Re-arrange) that provides a checklist of idea-inducing questions to allow you
to look at a business model or individual product or service in 7 different
ways.
The key to this technique is
to frame your question very specifically, for example if you are a florist you could look for new ideas by asking
What can be substituted
in the flowers?
What can I combine
with the flowers to make it
something else
What can I adapt
to the flowers?
How can I modify
the flowers?
What can I magnify
or add to the flowers?
What other uses
can I find for the flowers?
What can be eliminated
from the flowers?
What is the reverse
of using flowers?
What re-arrangement
of the flowers might be better?
(Modify and adapt can be considered
as very similar, specifically here adapt means ‘suit or make to fit something
else’ whilst modify is to ‘partially change’)
This technique can be
used to look at products and services or your processes such as prospecting
and is valuable when seeking to create ideas with others as it avoids starting
with a blank sheet of paper, offering a useful structure to kick-start discussion.
So, if you are looking for
new ideas for your business or even for a new business – start with what
already exists, explore it through the SCAMPER approach, and remember that creativity
is not just for the select few, it simply requires us to look at things in a different
way, be open to new, to unconventional, even the crazy, after all
“The day before something is
truly a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea― Peter H. Diamandis
(*SCAMPER questions were originally posed by Alex Osborn (also the
author of the technique of brainstorming and later arranged by Bob Eberle into
this mnemonic)
Janet Doran,
is based in North Yorkshire, UK she works with freelancers, sole traders and small business owners helping them to answer questions such as ‘how can we stand out from our competitors, attract customers and win new business?’, developing business strategies to create sustainable Competitive Advantage.
Find out more at www.thepositivepen.co.uk
or call 07505 120051
Follow on twitter https://twitter.com/thepositivepen
