Chapter 2

Learning Objectives
 1. Difference between ‘opportunity’ & ‘idea’
 2. Understanding Window of Opportunity
 3. How Entrepreneurs identify opportunities
 4. Personal Characteristics of Entrepreneur
 5. Idea generation through ‘Brainstorming’ & “Focus
groups’
Ideas & Opportunities
 Entrepreneurial firms are stimulated either externally
or internally
 1. Idea: A notion or an impression that creates
excitement in the mind of a would be entrepreneur,
which seems like a business opportunity, but often
people confuse ideas with real opportunities.
 2. Opportunity: A favorable set of circumstances that
create the need for a new product or service. However,
opportunities mostly offer a limited “Window”, which
can close quickly.
How to turn business ideas into
opportunity?
Window of Opportunity
• Capitalize on the window of opportunity (time period for market entrance),
which is limited and may close or narrow
How Opportunities are recognized
?
 1. Observing Trends (not to be confused with
passing fads):
(a) Economic Forces (economy, disposable income, consumer spending pattern),
(b) Social forces (social & cultural trends, demographic changes, what people think is ‘in’,
(c) Technological Advances (new technologies, emerging technologies, new use of old
technologies), (d)
Political & Regulatory Changes (new political or legal changes)

 2. Businesses for solving existing problems :

 3. Finding market gaps:
e.g. Security Webcams in Dhaka Apartment
Buildings, Lunch delivery services to offices, etc.
First Approach: Observing Trends
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Environmental Trends Suggesting
Business or Product Opportunity Gaps

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 Personal Characteristics for
Opportunity Recognition
“Difference between Opportunity & opportunity
recognition”
 1. Prior experience in the industry (the corridor
principal)
 2. Cognitive Factors (entrepreneurial alertness)
 3. Social Networks (Solo entrepreneurs vs network
entrepreneurs)
 4. Creative Flair (Process of generating novel or useful
idea)
Creativity
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Five Steps to Generating Creative

Ideas

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Full View of the Opportunity Recognition
Process
Depicts the connection between an awareness of emerging
trends and the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur

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Techniques for Generating Ideas

Brainstorming Focus Groups

Library and
Internet Research

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Brainstorming

 Brainstorming
 Is a technique used to generate a large number of ideas and
solutions to problems quickly.
 A brainstorming “session” typically involves a group of
people, and should be targeted to a specific topic.
 Rules for a brainstorming session:
 No criticism.
 Freewheeling is encouraged.
 The session should move quickly.
 Leap-frogging is encouraged.

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Focus Groups

 Focus Group
 A focus group is a gathering of five to ten people, who have
been selected based on their common characteristics relative
to the issues being discussed.
 These groups are led by a trained moderator, who uses the
internal dynamics of the group environment to gain insight
into why people feel the way they do about a particular
issue.
 Although focus groups are used for a variety of purposes,
they can be used to help generate new business ideas.

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