Friday, September 14, 2012

Markets and Models for Startup Businesses

Greetings from the Innovation ACT Strategy, Markets & Business Models Seminar. at the Australian National University in Canberra. First Miguel Carrasco, Partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)is presenting on the external environment and future demand for a product. He asserted that the goal of a strategy should be to win and have a long term sustainable business.

BCG are known for their Growth-share matrix , Experience curve and Advantage Matrix. Their wide range of work is shown by recent reports. But this presentation avoided too much jargon. One point was to look out for disruptive technology which may suddenly change an industry. The Smart Phone was given as an example.

There are about one hundred people at the seminar, who are members of teams competing for innovation prizes. The number of people has dropped from the first seminar in the series and the atmosphere has got very much more serious. Several of the participants taking notes on a laptop or tablet computer (the person next to me is using a laptop and a tablet computer and a smart phone). This has gone to a relaxed Friday night drinks (although there are drinks before the seminar) to something like a military briefing (yes I have been to military briefings).

A table of demand drivers for a product were shown, with the key drivers. Also there was an emphasis on the value chain and the cost model.

After the BCG presentation, the use of bplans.com was mentioned. Coming up in the Innovation ACT program are a series of challenges for the teams, including a market survey and two pitch sessions. It seems to me that the Innovation ACT program has outgrown its origins as a student volunteer run competition and has become a fully fledged innovation course.

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