The Unexpected Competitor
Posted by Lawrence Bruder on May 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
A key facet of any business plan is a thorough and diligent competitive analysis which stands as a foundation to any market potential assessment. Don’t make the common mistake of simply reviewing other technologically similar, commercially available products. Competitors come from many directionsTake the time to extend your investigation to include other technologies that could be a possible choice for your intended customers. Also, you clearly don’t want to neglect the IP search. If the customer need is real and urgent, I’d guarantee that another group is working on a similar, albeit technically different solution. It may be that they are also on the verge of launching a competing product to your target customers. Map each of these competing solutions with key strength and weakness attributes, and you’ll begin to understand how the competitive environment will impact your market potential.
The Enabling Technology
Posted by Lawrence Bruder on May 31, 2005 | Permalink |
How many times have you heard the term “enabling technology” within the startup or early stage Bioscience business? A common aspect of the Life Science industry is that many businesses are founded on a key piece of enabling technology that serves as a platform for growth. The problem for the biomarketer is that in order to assess market potential, you really have to explore the applications accessible by the technology, and unfortunately, enabling means the technology can do a lot. You need to triage these opportunities at a very high level, then drill down on the few that make sense. Just the other day, I reviewed a startup business plan that intends to grow through penetration in the clinical, research and bioterrorism market segments – wow, that’s really unfocused. Pick your best opportunity, go for it, and extend into the others in later phases. Your commercialization plans will be more focused and will stand a better chance of successful implementation.
Copyright 2004 Biomarketing Partners, Inc. All rights reserved.
