It is important to gather information from the customers previous to developing a successful, innovative, new product to launch into the market. But, even if you got all the information necessary about customer desires and needs, you have to come up with a brilliant idea of how to fulfil those needs and desires in such an innovative way that will make you attract consumers.
Many times, entrepreneurs forget that what makes possible the production of goods and services is technology. On a broader scale, what makes a company successful is the proper cooperation of its components, starting from the suppliers to the salesman and customer-contact staff. It is like a ‘clock’ where all the parts should perform their function perfectly in order for the whole body, the company, to benefit from it. Thus, we have a network composed of the company’s components, different interest groups around it, the technology of the time, etc. As Hargadon states:
“The networks we are interested in are those that link people, ideas and objects together in ways that form lasting communities and technologies.”
In order to manage to build a successful network, a company has to have a highly detailed business plan. This detailed business plan should demonstrate clearly the phases and intentions where it wants to go, how does it intend to do that, and when is it predicting to do that. The first step in a successful business plan is to recognize that without the proper technology, you cannot, and will not, have innovations and new product development that will make you lead the market. But most managers are mistaken when they think of technology only in terms of software, hardware, or any other material-based machine that will make you produce the material good faster.
In fact, technology is the network of people and ideas that surrounds you. Physical objects are “deeply enmeshed in particular networks of people, ideas and other objects. To work as intended, they need skilled people and appropriate ideas.” Thus the first step toward successful entrepreneurship is the building of a very capable management team. After that, you should create a network of links with all the people and institutions that deal with the area of interest in which you want to launch your product or service. Practically it would help if you created a network with all the interest groups that relate to the area of interest of your company.
In order to create this network with all these interest groups, the company should have a detailed and convincing business plan. This plan should be drafted and laid down correctly in order to avoid all possible mistakes and offer a satisfactory ‘standard of proof’. In the case of business research, the standard of proof needed only has to be what will convince an internal group of decision-makers, external supply or value-chain partners, an investor or financing source that the proposed course of action is sound. The case of 3M is a good example of a company building a sustainable network through its business plan. This case demonstrates how that network, in turn, made the company gain better positioning in the market.
At 3M, the problem that rose was that during the years, they had managed to stay on top by doing partial upgrades of their existing lines of products and services, but this was not sufficient to build a better future. In fact, in the long term, if companies fail to address this concern will not have sustainable growth and can even risk ‘shrinking.’ A well-drafted business plan by a very capable group of people (the managing team) will serve as a passport for the other interest groups to show their interest in the company.
This situation will inevitably draw the attention of investors who would be keen to participate in your project. This way, the company will have the necessary liquidity to make the appropriate investments. So, it can now have the breakthrough in the ‘physical part’ of technology required to produce goods or services. This way, even another interest group will approach your company for collaboration. This is an example of how people and ideas come together to produce objects and the proof that creative thinking and interrelations are the basis for a successful enterprise.