Wild Boar and Focusing on the Target

I was astonished to read how a wild Russian boar was hit by a car and killed in central Massachusetts. No one has any idea how this usually southern creature ended up roaming the local woods until he chose to cross the road.  This reminds me of how some companies bring their products into new markets only to meet hardship and untimely death.

Going into new markets is a common activity for many companies that develop new technology.  The research folks come up with a good idea that gets some other folks excited leading to the development of a new product.  All is well and good until some wise guy asks, “so who is going to buy this?”  Thus, it is like the wild boar in Massachusetts exploring the markets (the woods) trying to find opportunity (food) and he ends up as sausage (he actually did).  There has to be a better way…and there is.

The first approach is to spend considerable time and effort as early as possible in the development program to determine the best target applications for the potential new product.  This will give the needed focus to insure that the product is of value to the customers.

The second approach is to forget the technology and first look to the marketplace to determine where there is a significant problem.  Then, focus the efforts on finding a solution to the problem.  This was illustrated to me by two companies who were successful with this approach.  Ken Rapp, CEO of VelQuest heard people complaining about having to manage piles of data, results, and notes in the laboratory.  They were trying to use this information so they can make better decisions in pharmaceutical development.

He then spent a few months talking to the researchers to really understand the nature of the problem.  At that point he started to develop the solution needed for these people using off-the shelf components.  When ready for the market, his electronic notebook was warmly received and success followed.  As Ken said – “begin with the end in mind.”

The other example of this was from Stan Lapidus who is the founder of several successful life science companies.  When he raised $400,000 to start Helicos BioSciences, he spent nearly all of this determining clearly the problem that people had.  His assumption is unless you understand the targeted problem very well, you will probably be wasting money.  Helicos is currently one of the leaders in next-generation genomic sequencing.

So rather than wandering the woods with your new product searching for opportunity, be sure to have a clear view of the landscape and the problem that you are solving.  You don’t want your products to end up as sausage.