Think Next Opportunity – The way to find business opportunity in the chaos of everyday life
By Roger La Salle. Published by Rudders RLS Pty Ltd, Victoria, 2006. 162 pages. RRP $29.95 (pb). ISBN 0 9750711 1 4.
By nature, marketers tend to be creative, upbeat people. At the start of a campaign we spin off a million novel ideas that narrow to a workable few. We then invest these with relentless passion, throwing everything into the marketing mix to make them succeed.
But occasionally, even the brightest marketers and the best businesses run out of ideas. Or fail to spot that commercial opportunity sitting right there in front of them like a 300-pound elephant. And, after several campaigns on the trot, creative fatigue can reach the point where your ability to generate the big ideas needs a real boost.
Roger La Salle’s ‘Think Next Opportunity’ may help you spot that next great idea. His pocket-sized 162-page book looks at a different mental approach to unearthing the next business opportunity.
La Salle has developed an Opportunity Matrix that can be used equally by the scientist in the lab, the company exec anxious to jump to the next level, or the marketer looking for different ways for people to use their products or services. La Salle suggests opportunities are like diamonds in a field … they are there waiting to be picked up but first you need to know what you are looking for.
What should a marketing entrepreneur be looking for? La Salle argues that business opportunities present when you can find solutions to problems that involve widespread, predictable or repetitious activity. Or when you are setting a trend or can spot a good idea in one sector and then migrate it into your own industry.
When faced with problems, money-making solutions can suddenly appear by finding answers to questions such as:
- If I’m finding this hard, am I doing it wrong?
- If I fast forwarded to the future and look back, what am I doing now that I will laugh at then?
- Can this be fixed with new technology or using an existing technology differently?
- If I track this situation through from start to finish, can I see where the real issue is and then can I fix it?
- Can something which I know works elsewhere be applied to this problem?
- If I think “in reverse”, completely opposite to how I now think, can I find a solution?
La Salle’s Opportunity Matrix orders these and other variables into a simple grid. By completing the grid it is possible for your mental light bulb to suddenly switch on to illuminate an issue.
‘Think Next Opportunity’ is an interesting book. It demands the reader’s constant attention and it is not something you could skip a few pages and continue with. Nor would I suggest you read it on a train or other busy spot because it warrants full concentration.
La Salle’s logic can take some getting used to, but once it becomes apparent, the average marketer could move quickly through the problem identification/problem solution process.
This book would be great reading for a senior marketer who is mentoring junior colleagues in thinking outside the square, or workshop facilitators who, by asking pointed questions, can generate the most from group discussion.
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