Imagine the room in which several graduate business school student groups have gathered, tasked with coming up with an idea for a business plan competition.\u00a0 The group ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Thinking3-300x198.jpg\")
starts with a blank sheet, and toils through idea after idea, trying to come up with a product or service that might become the next FedEx.\u00a0 That is tough work, and not a very productive way to start a process.\u00a0 Sometimes, the result is spectacular.\u00a0 Most of the time, this form of thinking produces a plan that requires real work to imagine success.<\/p>\n
The thought exercise with injected insight<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019d advise the students to do it differently.\u00a0 I\u2019d advise them to pick a growing industry.\u00a0 Then find a short list of users, customers, and consultants in that industry who are known to be advanced in their thinking as demonstrated by their prior work.\u00a0 Then I\u2019d advise them to visit the CEO.\u00a0 And ask, \u201cWhat is it that bothers you most about your operation?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhat is you biggest problem, other than working capital?\u201d \u201cWhere\u2019s your bottleneck in production or sales or development?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIf you could invent a solution, what would it be?\u201d<\/p>\n Find the pain…<\/strong><\/p>\n Then remove it<\/strong><\/p>\n [Email readers, continue here…]\u00a0<\/em><\/span> \u00a0If you have a better way to do something, create something or market something, you have a head start.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re trying to think of what you want to produce, start with finding the pain in the marketplace, and set out to remove it.<\/p>\n Henry Ford famously said, \u201cIf I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said \u2018a faster horse.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 As a mechanical genius, even that comment might have led Ford to envision a way to provide reliable, fast, inexpensive, mechanical horsepower.\u00a0 It is the process of leaping from a need to an eloquent solution that creates demand and ultimately success in the marketplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most innovations come from responding to a customer\u2019s needs, or finding a niche where products need improvement or extension.\u00a0 It is rare to innovate using a blank sheet of paper in a room with bare walls and no other contributors. … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Thinking2.jpg\")
Now that\u2019s how to find pain in an industry.\u00a0 And yet, few think to use this form of investigation.\u00a0 Yes, you can argue that probably Fred Smith might not have thought of FedEx if he had just interviewed rail or postal customers.\u00a0 But maybe someone would have given Smith the bare idea from which he could imagine a much bigger opportunity.<\/p>\n