We were talking today in class about the shift that needs to happen in the entrepreneurial process between discovery (creativity) and exploitation (focus).
Most of the class is clearly stuck in the discovery phase. We love talking about different ideas, being creative, and dreaming big.
The exploitation phase isn’t as much fun. It’s real. You need choose one idea and forgot about everything else. It’s about executing.
Without focus your ideas will remain just that, ideas.
As entrepreneurs we must identify the change period in a project life where we shift from discovery to exploitation. Make sure that you communicate this change to your team and ensure that you have executors on board. Make progress. Get results.
For tips on improving your productivity while maintaining creativity in your work check out the Behance company at: www.behance.com.
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 9, 2009 at 10:06 pm
seda
I think exploitation part also involves creativity since there is no exact formula how to execute that idea. For instance I am much more excited now, because i finally focused and looking forward to experience a good execution process. May be it is because i will go thorugh all the design process by myself not finding people to do it … so it is gonna be a quite personal project for me.
But i think entrepreneur minded people like following noticing and talking about things and then jumping into solution easily and starting a new journey.
December 9, 2009 at 10:58 pm
guypage
Totally agree Seda.
Being creative in the execution phase is definitely important and something that companies like Behance held people balance with productivity.
But in terms of developing business ideas, at some point you have stop, focus on one idea, and make it happen.
December 10, 2009 at 4:17 pm
xiang
Executors on board is very important. It’s very easy to think big, but the reality is quite cruel.
No doubt, 90% start up die in 2 years. so, for me, I think as an Entrepreneur, the execution is much more important than the idea itself
But Ben, you always got good ideas:) HAHA