Upload
dave-jarman
View
259
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Martin Coulthard of BEN's talk on Strategic advantage
Citation preview
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
Martin Coulthard, BEN Director
www.bristolenterprise.com
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
winning
finding the competitive advantage
Martin CoulthardBath & Bristol Enterprise NetworkScience City Bristol3 February 2011
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
overview
• approach
• kinds of competitive advantage
• examples
• finding the advantage
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
context
• business is competitive, like sport
• what does ‘winning’ mean to you?
– get your idea/product out there?
– social benefits?
– lifestyle business, to pay the bills?
– fast growth of sales and profit, leading to a big exit?
• if you do not know where you are going you will probably not get there!
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
3 levels
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
level 1 – broad competence
• do (almost) everything well
• actually, basic competence in all areas is often enough!
• a ‘me too’ business can achieve a level of success if it consistently deliver good quality product/service, on time, in the right market
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
level 2 – competitive advantage
• different + better
• what do you do or offer that is different to and better than your competitors?
• if this is not protectable / sustainable then others will quickly copy
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
level 3 – sustainablecompetitive advantage
• you keep your advantage
• because the competition is not able, is not allowed, or does not want to copy it
• or you keep getting better at it, changing it or finding a new one!
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
where is the edge?kinds of competitive advantage
intellectual property protection
C. other opportunities
A. formal intellectualproperty rights
innovation!
B. other approaches toIP protection
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
A. intellectual property rights
1. patents
2. trademarks
3. copyright
4. design rights
©Reg. Des. 1111111
TM ®
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
B. other approaches to IP protection
• if not legally protected by IPR,copying is not illegal!
• so what else can you do?
• confidentiality agreements – and other legal agreements
• secrecy
• copy protection technology – e.g. encryption, DRM (Digital Rights Management)
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
C. other opportunities
product orservice
team market
funding strategy
know howunique skills
hard workpassionculture
qualityfirst to marketcost structure
'sticky' productsbrand / reputation / trustchoice of market segment / focuscontrol of routes to marketdomination of target market segment
pricingsize
funding
complexity / difficulty design / user experience
object of desire‘the whole product’
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
startup & early stage – where’s the edge?
1. innovation
2. flexibility and speed
3. low costs
4. entrepreneur
• skills, technical knowledge
• market knowledge, experience, connections
• vision, passion, commitment, determination, hard work!
look at yourself!
5. but if you find an edge, is it sustainable?
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
case study 1 –IPL Information Processing
• software projects and consultancy services – not products or applications
• 0 patents
• focus on large corporate/public clients
• and quality of delivery– business & technical– trust & reliability– responsiveness & agility– excellence
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
case study 2 – Stonecube Ltd - IPR
• invention: realistic, moving visualisation of objects with printed/decorated surfaces
• key inventive step was a way to model the physical printing process to generate a 3D model
• UK application went
• US patent granted!
• the vision, team and expert knowledge also critical to competitive advantage
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
conclusions
• finding the right competitive strategy is a journey
• climb quickly through levels 1, 2 and 3
• in a tech business IP often has an important part to play – look for the patenting opportunities
• search for the best mix of elements of competitive advantage
• innovation and continuous improvement are essential
• seek the holy grail of long term sustainable advantage
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
image attribution• slide 1: England Rugby Squad 2003 by BombDog CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
• slide 5: stack of cards by Fraser Waters CC-AN-2.0 CC-BY-2.0
• slide 6: Wood and CFRP tennis rackets overlayed by CORE-Materials CC-AT-2.0
• slide 7: Jahangir Khan by Mr Ian CC-AT-2.0
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
business model canvas
• Lean Startup - Steve Blanc and Eric Ries
• Alex Osterwalder business model canvas
• adapted by Ash Maurya
• http://www.ashmaurya.com/2010/08/businessmodelcanvas/
• find the ‘unfair advantage’
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
Ash Maurya business model canvas – document the hypothesis
© 2011 Martin Coulthard
Ash Maurya business model canvas – document the hypothesis