8A- Solving the Problem


My selected opportunity is the inefficiency of modern elevators and especially older and outdated ones. The programming of these essential machines is not what it could be, and I find this to be an obvious hassle in everyday life, when it could be solved by anyone with the ability to understand and write a fairly complex program that could boost the efficiency of every three or more story building in the world. Having interviewed several users of the product (fellow tenants and people working in multi-level business offices), I now have a better grasp on the concept and the opportunity in order to form my product/service and how I can market and monetize the idea.
The solution to the problem of inefficient elevator programming lies in the code itself. All elevators run on a similar program of “open doors at the closest floor to its current location” and “go to the floor designated by the button.” There are several faults in this, however. If a person on Floor 10 presses the button to go down, let’s say to Floor 4, the elevator will start going to Floor 10 from Floor 1. However, if a person on Floor 9 hits the button to go down to floor 4 before the elevator gets to Floor 10, the elevator will open on Floor 9 and the person on Floor 10 will be left waiting for another elevator. My vision is that the elevator will be able to recognize that both people, the two on Floors 9 and 10, want to go down, and would pick up the person on Floor 10 first, then Floor 9. This makes it less inconvenient all in all.
The true determination of what is the best way to pick up patrons would be in statistical analysis. Some of my interviews revealed that not all people believe that my presented vision is the best way for an elevator to operate, but in prioritizing the lobby, higher paying tenants, the first person to hit the button should get priority. These all sound great but they cannot be combined if they are mutually exclusive. This is where I changed my theory to handle these options, if they are profitable. Different buildings may want different things. I could sell this product (the lines of code necessary to program into elevators) to the real estate companies and building owners themselves, or the elevator companies that produce and distribute the product. I could potentially sell it for a high price to the major companies in the industry, or exclusively to one of the companies for an even more lucrative deal. After this, for better or for worse, the solution would be out of my hands. If I sell to the real estate companies and the building owners, they could decide for themselves what they would like to prioritize. If a residential apartment building wants to prioritize the lobby over tenants’ floor because they believe it is more important to get up to apartments, that is up to them to decide. Professional offices might prefer the statistical optimization.
There are a few roadblocks to accomplishing this goal and solving the problem. While I do not know how to program, it is not always an entrepreneur’s job to handle every aspects of a business. Delegating these duties to employees or outside firms while maintaining the ability to patent these lines of code and their variations would keep me in the loop while seizing the opportunity. While it would not take a long time to develop this program, it would take months, years, maybe even decades to update all the elevators that would need this. Therein lies an issue of “what will be the opportunities then?” and how those opportunities and developments affect my business. These are all things to consider as I continue with this class and beyond.

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