Business Innovation and Creativity

[ksl]

I thought it was about time, to see if there are any potential talented people out there, that are struggling with their business ideas..like manufacturing, or anything else!

Because there must be enough talent on this board to provide a total solution, its just a matter of bringing all the parts into play!

I am not refering to hawker stalls, or push carts, but innovative industrial development.. No need to give too much away about a business idea at this point! It's about knowing if anyone has begun something creative or inventive and is struggling, to get it off the ground.

[luxiana]

well,

I must say I have a creative and innovative mind (lol)
though my first attempt to become a millionaire thanks to a skill game website failed and this project is on hold.

got another one on the hook that would be ready by early january.
media agency + website... we'll see how it goes


as for industrial ideas: are they worth implementing in singapore? I have in my mind that indonesia and malaysia are way cheaper in terms of labor cost...

[sundaymorningstaple]

luxiana,

You might want to check his signature and do a little research on ksl. He's not a Singaporean nor is his wife. But she is Chinese by race. The whole world is his oyster. His vision isn't limited by boundaries. Nor should yours be.

[ksl]

well,

I must say I have a creative and innovative mind (lol)
though my first attempt to become a millionaire thanks to a skill game website failed and this project is on hold.

got another one on the hook that would be ready by early january.
media agency + website... we'll see how it goes


as for industrial ideas: are they worth implementing in singapore? I have in my mind that indonesia and malaysia are way cheaper in terms of labor cost...

Well luxiana sorry to here about your venture! You are also quite right about the labour cost of Indonesia and Malaysia!

Industrial inventions and creative ideas are always worth investigating in Singapore, and possible prototyping, can be outsorced for construction, Singapore is in actual fact a very serious player in the import & export of products...and take it from me, I do have the qualification, of an International Business Consultant, having specialised with a diploma from a state authorised Export Academy in Denmark, not only to study a companies accounts, but also to make recommendation to improve their economies of scale, or restructuring if need be.

Basically the export side, would be to evaluate the companies ability for a sustained export penetration attempt, which in fact includes a great deal of desk top research for the feasibility to be assessed, roughly 3 months would be appropriate to see if a product had any chance at all.

The next stage would be field research in the chosen Country, for your export target, of which I would produce the necessary report and apply for your European Export Grants' if one is available, from there it would be my duty to fulfil that product penetration within the overseas market.

Having researched a reputable agent or distributor, I would oversee the whole scenario, projects are normally about 3 years, So yes i feel quite confident, that when i do something, my desk research, would be sufficient, to assess any feasibility of success or failure!

Kind of like working for the chamber of commerce in the International Trade Department...

Ideas and innovation is an exciting field to work with, not all people are capable of writing the strict business planning, required to fulfil, there goals, so I do in fact feel more than qualified to be their sparring partner, in any business setup, including the business planning stage, of which is the foundation to build on.

I mentioned industrial manufacturing for a reason, becasue there is a link on this forum, of which I find very interesting, I was wondering if anyone had picked up on it yet, although it does concern new technology, of which isn't implemented in Singapore yet, it appears to be a very good project to look into...

One thing you must refrain from, is jumping to conclusions, based on what you think you know, without doing proper research and referring to the source of your data.

I must say I have a creative and innovative mind (lol)
though my first attempt to become a millionaire thanks to a skill game website failed and this project is on hold.

Now can i ask if you did a proper assessment of this start up, because i have my doubts, that you didn't do your home work, before the launch, because i do have my doubts....based on the fact that Singaporeans are not the best people for paying by credit card on line, and even though you say the website is legal...my first research on the subject of

Singapores online legality of gambling, produced this result
http://www.wwlegal.com/index.php?module ... &pageid=53

I would like to see the results you have to say that picking a co-ordinate, where the ball is supposed to be, is a skill, and not a wager? I have not yet read the full legality of the link i hav posted, I just briefly scanned it.
But my point is, if it is legal, then you should have the information on your website homepage, so that Singaporeans can see, that it is legal.

My second point is for everyone concerned, that planning for business startups, entails very sound and strict procedures, that need to be followed, and monitored to be successful... and the reason I posted this thread, is to let you everyone know, that I am a sparring partner for your success, nothing more nothing less...and there is an abundance of success stories in Singapore, by expats.

Many may well be members of the forum, with a wealth of experience, of the difficulties, of business startups in Singapore.

Even before I even went on my business studies degree, I took advantage of the course of Starting a Business, simply because I had the interest then, to be my own master, after leaving the forces and not adapting to civvy life, without rehabilitation.

Working for myself was the only option, for me to find contentment.

[luxiana]

wow, that's quite long post.

as for the homeworks: i did my share.
the thing is: not being a resident for a long time doesnt give you a full understanding of how things work.

and the most thorough business plan doesnt prevent you from failing. It has never been a warranty of success.
it's by trial and errors that you succeed (and you know pretty fast whther it is going to be successful or not in singapore given the size of the market)

as for the legality of the website, in doubt please be my guest and check with the authorities as I did. you may also be interested in the few articles in the common gaming houses act.

Since they still have caning sessions in Singapore you can easily imagine that I checked the legality BEFORE doing anything...

anyway: all the regulation is to be reshuffled since they are opening casinos in singapore.


I guess this first attempt was a good thing as I have learnt a lot from it.

got a friend of mine who has tried something like 5 times before finding the "right" idea.


As for singapore vs other countries in the area: I guess singapore is a pretty good hub for financial services (political stability, low tax rates...) and for import/export (since the port is one of the busiest on earth). I know virtually nothing on Imp/Exp. seems to be a pretty interesting business though.

got a friend of mine who's considering setting up a factory in singapore.
to the question "why?" the answer was: "others are too relaxed to do a good job"

I guess quality comes at a price

[Parka]

I believe that anyone can be creative and innovative if they put in effort and time.

If you were to think of business ideas every single day, you would have 365 ideas in a year. You can then cross out the ones you think are not good.

Or you can use the Pixar strategy they used in movie making, which I adapt to business planning. Think of just ONE idea and work on it until it succeeds.

Anyway, a good business idea is always second par to execution.

Let's say there's a company with an average business idea but is run by Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet and Donald Trump.

Another company has a brilliant business idea run by average people.

Which one would you invest?

[luxiana]

well: these 3 guys have minions now

but I must say I am pretty amazed by them... Nobody would have invested in Steve Jobs when he started Apple. now he's like the Messiah

good looking products, pretty good performance, perfect marketing and they managed to turn their clients into sales!

The dream of any marketer!

[Parka]

well: these 3 guys have minions now

but I must say I am pretty amazed by them... Nobody would have invested in Steve Jobs when he started Apple. now he's like the Messiah

good looking products, pretty good performance, perfect marketing and they managed to turn their clients into sales!

The dream of any marketer!

If I were to find Steve Jobs business plans for the iPod, iMac and iTunes, I won't be able to pull it off on such a grand scale like he does. It's the people running the show that counts. People power.

But all these successful people have one common characteristic: perseverance and determination.

[ksl]

Parka and Luxiana, you are both quite right!

Although business studies, only introduce you to the theories of business.
Business start up procedures are there to be followed, Business economics and international trade and export, widen your horizon, to the many failures of business....You can actually stand back, away from the problem and analyse....

I can see, straight away, that luxianas explanation of doing his home work, was an half hearted attempt, at nothing!

For an online business, you need to know if you can sell something, which means research! And one only as to look at ebay.sg or yahoo.sg auctions, to see if theirs any customers, to get an idea, of credit card spending online, i there's very few transaction, what does it tell you....That's all it took me, to see that his project was a failure from day one! I'm sorry, but I'm not at all impressed.

Making business work is about minimising risks and he never even did the basic! There is a possibility he worked in a bank for a short while, although, he really shouldn't believe, that professionals, or even people with practical experience cannot see what is going on.

Come on luxiana, you have to admit it, otherwise you haven't got any chance whatsoever of moving on with your life, if you cannot be honest with yourself and others, who can you be honest with!

[luxiana]

But all these successful people have one common characteristic: perseverance and determination.

tell me about it!


As for apple:

I remember the ad in my country a few years ago for the Imacs: "computers specifically designed for internet"

what a laugh I had!
it was such a smart tag line that nobody has ever tried!

people didnt have a clue that every single computer with a network card was "specifically designed" for internet. it was comforting to know your computer was "internet ready"

the design was cool, it was user friendly: you just had to plug the mouse and the keyboard and you were good to go!

and they managed to sell these Imacs were Compaq failed to sell the exact same product just 2 years earlier (screen + central unit in the same container)

now they have even crossed the boundary: you can run Windows on your mac...

They have applied what others had problems to implement:
- excellent customer care (you send via fedex a faulty item it is returned to you in a week or so. you jsut have to fill up a form online...)
- generating revenues not only from selling the hardware but from services: Itunes and now the from the Iphone. they managed to get a retrocession fee from the mobile phone operators!


as a side note: they also manage to rip off a singaporean company -Creative- of its patent on the navigation system...


the guys at apple are in my top 5 of IT companies with microsoft, skype yahoo and google... (for mass market products)

[sundaymorningstaple]

now they have even crossed the boundary: you can run Windows on your mac...

For all their genius, they eventually "HAD" to go across the boundary as even with their slick marketing (on the PC side) they couldn't keep the profit margins in their computer lines. Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

Your statement should properly read "Now they have HAD to cross the boundary as their processors couldn't keep up with Intel/AMD AND the availability of sufficient programs that would run on both systems wasn't being produced and would only run a much slower speeds using interface programs like Crossover and such.

The only benefit in the last dozen years that apple have had is in the styling department. Not the performance department.

[Parka]

luxiana,

Note that Apple's strategy right from the start is not to go into pricing competition. Hence they spend a lot on marketing and R&D to make their computers stand out among the crowd.

They knew what their niche market was. In the beginning, they were mainly targeting designers and the publishing industry. That's why nowadays you'll sometimes hear people say that Apple computers are only good for design work.

With the iPod they are targeting the lifestyle section of people. You see a lot of colourful ads with black silhouette of people dancing away.

With the release of the PC vs Mac ads, they are now beginning to target specifically the PC users. It's obvious, isn't it? To compare a Mac directly with a PC. They are trying to go into the main consumer market slowly. They are hoping that they can ride their iPod momentum to sell their computers.

Everything that is done has a reason behind it, specifically to achieve a certain business objective.

-------

Regarding the main topic on innovation and creativity, it reminds me again of another podcast that I heard whose main idea goes something like...

Innovation itself without any business application isn't really innovation at all. If it doesn't bring in economic returns, it doesn't really serve a purpose. But I guess that applies to commercial entities.

[luxiana]

I am not myself a Mac user (even though I have a sticker on one of my Pcs )

Yet, there are many sides of the story:

from a technical perspective: mac has been lagging behind for years since they were using the Ibm technology (powerpc).

from a marketing perspective: the marketing department managed to make wonders...

- they embraced the new era were you don't just make money on hardware but also the services.
- they also managed to turn the processor switch from powerpc to intel into a marketing selling speech (you can't now use microsoft AND mac on the same platform)

from a user perspective: mac has been used primarily by audio, video, image professionals as they regarded Mac as a reliable computer. the company has been developing softwares used by professionals (like Aperture for photographers for instance). since video, photo... are no longer a domain reserved to professionals only with the arrival on the market of really affordable digital cameras many users have been looking for easy to use and powerful softwares to help with their creativity.

I believe Mac works on the emotions and has managed to develop a unique relationship with its users. It is no longer just "another computer brand".

Macs are cute (kawaii) and cute sells...
Macs are cool: coolness sells
and maybe Macs are better (still to demonstrate...) but being the best doesn't always help selling.

now: i'm not going to burn my computers using windows because mac is cool... Bill Gates had a different vision (the Os should run on any machine) but the company seems to be stuck between Google and Mac and Mozilla/Firefox. Linux not being that much of a threat for now.

a friend of mine wrote this interesting article on the Iphone:
http://coolbranding.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/52/

describes pretty well how apple works in terms of marketing.

[Ivyrami]

I don't have any brilliant inventive ideas, and am still struggling to find my way towards early retirement. I was thinking of bringing the Krispy Kreme doughnut franchise to Singapore, but the requirements are way off:
"Our franchisees must possess the capital sufficient to fund the development of the market. We currently grant franchises on an area development basis. Specifically, our area developers are required to build multiple stores (10 or more) in a market. The minimum net worth requirement is $30 million or $1,000,000 per store to be developed, whichever is greater. For instance, a 15-store market requires a minimum net worth of $30,000,000."
I don't even have 1% of that, so am scrapping the idea for the moment.

Got all my money stuck in a business venture which is stuck in a deadlock - since the banks won't guarantee the loan, and the sellers won't refund the deposit. Still struggling to find a way out of this one. Its a very, very costly lesson.

Thinking of investing the pathetic $ I'm left with, but very wary of the subprime bubble in US.

All i can say is ARGH!

[ksl]

I don't have any brilliant inventive ideas, and am still struggling to find my way towards early retirement. I was thinking of bringing the Krispy Kreme doughnut franchise to Singapore, but the requirements are way off:
"Our franchisees must possess the capital sufficient to fund the development of the market. We currently grant franchises on an area development basis. Specifically, our area developers are required to build multiple stores (10 or more) in a market. The minimum net worth requirement is $30 million or $1,000,000 per store to be developed, whichever is greater. For instance, a 15-store market requires a minimum net worth of $30,000,000."
I don't even have 1% of that, so am scrapping the idea for the moment.

Got all my money stuck in a business venture which is stuck in a deadlock - since the banks won't guarantee the loan, and the sellers won't refund the deposit. Still struggling to find a way out of this one. Its a very, very costly lesson.

Thinking of investing the pathetic $ I'm left with, but very wary of the subprime bubble in US.

All i can say is ARGH!

Krispy Kreme Doughnut, I've never heard of, although there are thousands of franchises, around, and just because they have been successful in one Country doesn't mean you should risk your money bringing it into another Country for their benefit, if you understand what i mean...first, you need to negociate, with this in mind. Why don't they lay out the first card, or support you with 50% on the initial venture, if they wont...drop it!

I have seen them queuing for doughnuts in Raffles Place, although i don't know if its a franchise or not, but it appears to have good potential...

My other point would be, to not to be overly ambitious, excellent desk and field research is required, on your behalf, small is manageable and can be made to be cost efficient, with smaller risk factors, I would think twice about overly fatty foods...with my thoughts being on the trends of today, rather than on the fads of today. More research in this field is needed for doughnuts in Singapore I would think!

Fast food Chains have been around along time...but in my opinion, the food is horrible, yet we still buy it occassionally, to please the kids....or we are desperate to eat something quickly and there is nothing of quality great quality around, with subway probably being the healthiest.

I can see much room for improvement in the fast food area's...and the big players need the competition...Although Singapore is a disaster, when it comes to customer service...and the fast food chains, don't live up to their names of being so fast and efficient in many cases!

Don't risk big money unless you have a sound knowledge of the industry, with a fool proof business plan to back it up.

Analysis of a business plan, by an experienced person, can sometimes shatter your dreams...keep grounded, when making a business plan, otherwise the analysist, may conclude, you are dreaming, and dreaming is okay, if, realistic!

Passion and focus is the magic word for success, but this cannot be achieved, without good monitoring skills, of the implemented tasks, at hand!, Quite often several tasks at hand, can be very challenging and frustrating, for the inexperienced to handle....it's a little like being in the kitchen to cook a meal for the very first time, one is running around trying to prepare without any real practical experience, it takes time, to do it right, and even then you can burn the food if your not careful!

In business, there are so many things to have insight into, that it is impossible to remember them and do them correctly, no matter how good we think we are, errors and unexpected events will occur, so I can only suggest, that all businesses must run by the book, have a check list to refer to at all time, and monitor events, when they are implemented, for best results and control. For myself, I am always thinking "what if" and I will refer to my check list...to ensure, I haven't missed a vital point, that could be very costly!

Thinking of investing the pathetic $ I'm left with, but very wary of the subprime bubble in US

Back in early 2000, I met a guy at Computex in Taiwan, he was the manager, working for a digital camera manufacture, this guy had the gift of the gab, he could talk the hind legs off a donkey, talk about passion for his job, it oozed from his lips like a sermon.

To cut a long story short he started for himself, and asked me has a friend if I could help out, with finding distributors, in Europe...of which I didn't have a clue and told him so, anyway he asked if I was computer literate, of which i was and he knew it, because I was in the component and building of such, with a friend of mine.

Anyway he offered me a commission, with no retainer, of which i agreed to do my best, although he shouldn't expect anything, because I had never entered this field before...

So I started to build the website and eventually started marketing it online, with the very minimum of cost, it was a real pain, with lots of frustrations and spamming hitting my mail box, through link exchange programs, it had to be expected, because i was unwilling to pump money into something i didn't know.

The manufacturer was dreaming of selling in thousand units at a time, because the bubble hadn't broken fully back then, in the early stages of 2000, but it had by the time he started for himself, and i told him, he was being over ambitious, I had people waiting to buy his unknown product, but only 1 box at a time...20 units..I convinced him to sell, this way, forget your dreams of a thousand units, until you get exposure.


I had recruited 15 distributors world wide, and they had soon moved on from selling 20 units a month to 50 units a month, by the time they were selling 100 units a month, manufacturer discontent about my commission was obvious, I was getting through 5000, units a quarter, after 18 months of online marketing....and I wasn't having to work for it, only monitor the sales and public feedback!

So you see, you can actually start something from nothing, at very little cost...my cost was my time and effort, while living in Taiwan, without employment....in the same period, I started also investing in the Taiwan stockmarket from 9am to 1.30pm each day...and also turned money, into profit..enough to get by on, in the beginning...I guess it's all about passion of enjoying what you are doing, which is half the battle.

My wife would go mad, because i wasn't getting the sleep I needed, marketing website, through the night, and doing stocks in the morning, it was great fun..because i was bitten, by two bugs at the same time..learning how to market online, and investing.

If I can do it, anyone can do it, for very little cost, other than, the will to succeed! Passion, and knowing that problems are there to be resolved, not walked away from.