Assignment 11A - Idea Napkin No.1

You.:

My strengths include having a high level of responsibility, a drive to achieve, and being deliberative in my decisions and actions. I can make sense out of chaos, and can simplify complex situations. Analytical thinking comes naturally, and I can flex between the tactical and the strategic. I have extensive experience in leadership, and aspire to roles with increasing responsibility and challenges. This business I see as life changing (and life-saving), as it plays a key role in shifting the current culture regarding how we think about driving and the responsibility that privilege demands.



What are you offering to customers?:

The product I am offering is literally a life-saving product. Customers will be able to utilize a tool that prevents them, and prevents their fellow drivers, from being able to utilize their distracting smart devices while behind the wheel of a vehicle while it is in operation. It places constraints on those drivers that cannot self-regulate their own actions, and provides a safer environment for all drivers on the road.



Who are you offering it to?

While this product will benefit all people that come within proximity of any road, not all people will be customers. The demographics of those that will use this product are none of the traditional ones we typically think of. (Although, the only possible ones could be age, that you must be the legal driving age within the state you reside, as well as religious beliefs that prevent driving or the embracing of technology.) However, largely, this customer is demographic “neutral”. All customers have only these two things in common; they drive motorized vehicles, and they own a smart device.



Why do they care?:

The customer will care because they will be concerned with their safety, the safety of their friends and family, as well as the safety of the strangers they share the road with. They will also care if regulation requires that they comply to avoid adverse legal consequences. The last reason I can think of is if insurance companies offer incentives for using the product, as it will be an element to a driver’s overall risk assessment.



What are your core competencies?:

My main edge is that currently nobody utilizes this type of technology for this specific purpose. Therefore, a patent on the idea is priority. Also, initial customers could include insurance companies, as well as smart device producers, for contracts and deals that help protect (at least for a time) the proprietary technology.



I believe that these elements do fit well together, and it is a viable solution to a problem that current deterrents have not been able to affect. While I do not feel like it is out of joint, my competency is potentially the weakest part of the business concept. As with any technology like this, this is not one that cannot be replicated. This is why immediate, upfront efforts to protect the product from immediate competitive entrants into the market will be critical for success while differentiating aspects of the product are developed.