Saturday, September 05, 2009

Entrepreneurs: Be An Enabler


Having a brilliant idea is still far from real entrepreneurship; striving to provide real value to real customers is.

One efficient way to do that is to be an enabler, an enabler in technology, relationship management, customer service, supply chain, or whatever area that is critical for your customers to do their business.

1. Develop a process, or as people in academia like to call, methodology.

It's better to know a whole lot about one thing, than a little bit of everything. Any Ph. D. graduate will tell you that a methodology with good theory can save a lot of hard work. Be an expert. Use the expertise to invent new ways of doing things, selling staff, or managing operations, not just a little better, but 10 times or 100 times better than the ordinary.

Sometimes, it requires a few genius minds to work things out. Just check the TED talks for some mind blowing new inventions, like the wireless power transmission; or the processor with order of magnitude less power consumption from PA Semi (accquired by Apple).

Other times, it's just a bag of accumulated tips and tricks. John Chow, like other probloggers, has developed a system of how to make a living through blogging, and enjoys a good life style teaching others doing the same.

2. Develop an algorithm to automate the process.

Don't stop at the methodology. Automate it. Turn it on and forget it, if you can.

Google is a great example of process automation. You hardly need to talk to a real person when dealing with Google services. It uses algorithms to figure out where the hotspots on the web-sphere are; uses algorithms to match buyers and sellers through keywords; uses algorithms to pull and push information to just about every corner of the web.

The electronic design automation (EDA) industry itself is enabling semiconductor design companies to tape out their chips faster, cheaper, with better quality. It emerged from simple drawing tools like magic and zero revenue in the early 80's, to now a $4 billion industry (estimate).

3. Duplicate the process.

With a methodology and automated process, all that's left is to enable everyone to do the same, so the entire world runs more efficiently. There goes your entrepreneurship dream and global impact.


Just some thoughts. If you liked it, good, subscribe the newsletter for more exciting updates; otherwise, let me know and let's start a conversation.

image credit estherase