Opportunity Seeking

What is an opportunity? In a business sense, it is an idea that has commercial potential.

Something you can make money with, develop a business around it, or create value with it.

As Industrial Technology graduates in the future, you will be surrounded with opportunities
around you, you can create businesses such as manufacturing or service operations applying your
knowledge acquired in your course.

Questions: How can we open a new business in the Philippines? Aren’t we in crisis?
Haven’t we discovered everything already? Aren’t products perfect already? Isn’t it too
crowded already for a new enterprise? How can you survive as a new enterprise?

Answer: Really, we don’t know. If we go through the process, maybe we will know.
More often, the answer is in YOU! The opportunity presents itself WHEN YOU ARE
READY.

Example: When there is a typhoon, what do you see?

---flooding, stalled vehicles, upper respiratory diseases, deaths from drowning, destroyed
houses, fallen trees, and power lines

What don’t you see? umbrellas and raincoats for sale; tulak-tirik boys; new flood control
projects; funeraria; more sales of construction materials

An ordinary mind will see nothing when experiencing a crisis, an entrepreneurial mind
will see something, AN OPPORTUNITY.

SOURCES OF OPPORTUNITY:
1. Innovation / Creativity
2. Deterrents, Delays, Irritants, Problems, Complaints
3. Hobbies/ Interests/ Skills
4. Consumer Preferences

INNOVATION

Ex. Food cart

Street food
Noodle meals
Sachet marketing
E-load / Daily load
Technology
Before: VHS, DVD, film digital cameras, fax machines
Now: cellphones, Wi-Fi satellite communications

What pisses you off? What needs are not satisfied? What are new satisfactions?
BEFORE, You can’t have:

o Food eaten outside the house

o Movie Theater
o Malling

NOW, You can have:

 Pizza delivered in 30 mins or less

 Home Theater
 Online shopping

Types of Product Innovation

 Create an entirely new product

 Alter / modify an existing product
 Re-brand / Reformulate an existing / old product

Internal / Personal

Past jobs
Hobbies
Social network
Travel

Ways to Innovate

 Make it LARGER

Ex: Family size, thick crust pizza

Jumbo Airbus

 Modify – change the name, color, container, shape, creative copying

 Make it Stronger / Faster

Ex. 4x your daily calcium needs

Whiter teeth in 1 brushing
Skin whitening in 7 days
Fast relief
Fast-acting
Delivered in 30mins. or less
Be seated in less than 10 minutes
Food served in less than a minute
Overnight package delivery
Instant money remittance
  Make it smaller / lighter

Ex. Netbook
iPad
Cellphones in1988 vs. Cellphones now
Hatchback – smaller, less fuel consumption
Energy-efficient appliances
Condo-type furniture

 Substitute materials/methods

Materials:

Ex. Paper to plastic

Cork to plastic
Metal parts in cars to plastic – lighter, cheaper, easier to make
Metal to carbon fiber – lighter, stronger
Leather to leatherette

Methods:

Ex. Bicycle Washing Machine

Frying to Steaming
Fast cook to Slow cook
Cooked in the Kitchen to Cooked in front of you

TAKE A WALK.
Walk along a road or street.
Observe, Observe, Observe
What customer needs can still be met?
Observe competition.

Remember always:

Start with the CUSTOMER NEEDS

Be sure there would be a large number who share the same aspiration / frustration.

The customer cannot be completely satisfied.

There is no perfect product.

In the distant future, YOU ARE THE INNOVATION!

You and your SKILLS.

You and your IMAGINATION. “IMAGINATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN
KNOWLEDGE” –Albert Einstein

You and your NETWORK.

You and your PURPOSE.

You and TECHNOLOGY.

YOU, Welcome to your world!

You and your VISION.

You and your MINDSET.

Nothing is impossible.

You and your ENTERPRISE.

“If you build, they will come.”

You and your PASSION.

Live an INTERESTING LIFE! It’s a wonderful world! You are the universe’s greatest
miracle.

ACTIVITY:

Based on your experience, what opportunities had you grabbed to earn some money
or to benefit something. Describe the circumstances and how you profited from it.