23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage


1)     Persistent Need for the Solution
Value: Incredibly valuable. If something is always a problem, a solution would be life changing around the world.
Rarity: This is not rare because a lot of problems are constant.
Imitability: Because of the lack of rarity, the imitability is high.
Non-Substitutability: The only other way to provide this urgency was if it was an emergency venture.

2)     Niche Industry
Value: Very valuable. Not a lot of competitors and it is hard to come up with such a unique idea.
Rarity: Not rare, there are almost an infinite number of unique industries.
Imitability: It is hard for someone to copy an industry as unique and complex as elevators.
Non-Substitutability: There are other types of industries that can provide the wealth that I seek in this one, other industries that can provide the happiness I find in helping others.

3)     Combination of Sales and Design Experience
Value: Not very valuable. Lots of people have sales and design experience, but the two together make for a helpful combination.
Rarity: While not rare, the value overwhelms the lack of rarity.
Imitability: Very easily copy able by competitors.
Non-Substitutability: There are other combinations of skills that could replace these two like financial prudence or programming or industrial/systems engineering.

4)     Start-Up and Small Business Experience
Value: Very valuable for this project because of the nature of the business. I would be hypothetically starting this firm to complete a project, which I have experience with my family’s different business ventures.
Rarity: Not very rare, lots of people have experience in small businesses, not always successful, but good experience.
Imitability: Hard for someone to imitate while trying to actively and successfully compete against me in an industry.
Non-Substitutability: It is hard to find another resource with which to benefit the venture other than large firm and programming experience.

5)     Unique Perspective
Value: This is a valuable resource if it is constructive. A perspective based on business and experience with the issue we are solving is the best kind to have in this scenario, elevators.
Rarity: Unique means that it is rare.
Imitability: A competitor would be unable to imitate this because it takes time to build, like small business experience.
Non-Substitutability: Experience can replace perspective even though one is a fraction of the other.

6)     Being Able to Read Quickly
Value: This is a great human quality that has helped me excel in school and life.
Rarity: Having interacted with literate people my entire life, I can judge that I am fairly unique in my resource of being able to read significantly faster than other.
Imitability: This is a very hard skill to imitate because it is natural for me, and no one else I have met can do it.
Non-Substitutability: Being able to listen well or write quickly are two easy substitutes for this human capital.

7)     Wealthy Stakeholders
Value: Very valuable for the industry, but as the lectures state, money is the least valuable resource to an entrepreneur.
Rarity: Not very rare because a lot of people have money.
Imitability: Easily imitable, but not all industries are this way.
Non-Substitutability: Wealth can be substituted by charitability, environmentalism, and other positive qualities of an industry.

8)     Simple Solution
Value: Very valuable to me because of the work/profit balance leans less towards effort.
Rarity: Sometimes simple solutions are the right ones to complex problems.
Imitability: A simple solution can sometimes be so simple, that it covers all bases in terms of simplicity and you need to move on to considering complex problems.
Non-Substitutability: Complex solutions could be thought of as well.

9)     Perpetual Industry
Value: This is very valuable because the elevator industry and the efficiency industry will be around for pretty much the rest of humanity’s time on earth. It’s not like people will stop suing elevators for almost any imaginable reason.
Rarity: There are not a lot of things that will continue to exist alongside people forever, like cars may go away, fast food may pass, but elevators and statistical efficiency are things that a firm could stay open forever on.
Imitability: Very hard to copy an entire basis of an industry, but if a competitor was to start their own efficiency firm, it would be a tight race.
Non-Substitutability: Perpetual industries could be substituted with just a long-lasting one or a very short-lived industry, both can be profitable like a perpetual one.

10)  Ease of Access to Industry
Value: This is important because the elevator industry is not full of movers and shakers. I have not once in my lifetime read about dynamic new revolutions in the elevator business.
Rarity: This is pretty rare because most industries are hard to get into and enjoy market share. Restaurants fail and small technology businesses are crushed.
Imitability: This can be copied if the industry chosen by a competitor is already easy to access.
Non-Substitutability: This can be substituted with already being a part of the industry. Being an in-house efficiency firm at an elevator company could rival a new up-and-coming firm.

The most important resource of all of these is that the idea is a simple solution. A solution can be patented, it can be sold for large amounts of money. Coming up with the idea was the hardest part, and it was not hard for me. Sometimes ideas just come to people. Others always see a simple but effective idea on TV and say, “why didn’t I think of that?” Because the amazing and profitable idea is already made, establishing a firm should be the easy part, if it is even necessary.

Comments

  1. Myles FinnJuly 22, 2019 at 4:59 PM

    Hello Jacob,
    You business is one that I have not heard of until this point, but it certainly is one that is needed. Most elevator companies do not try to be and innovate as you which is a great quality to have. While your business is unique, it is still inimitable seeing as people these days copy ideas and put a little twist on it and call it their own. Hopefully you will not have to deal with that type of competition.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melissa DavisJuly 22, 2019 at 10:08 PM

    Jacob
    Great job on your resource list. Very detailed and your VRIN on each seems to be right on the mark for your listed resource. I can see where you chose the Simple Solution as your most important, however I would also place Perpetual Industry right there with it. There is not another invention to disrupt the elevator industry which would mean that your solution to make them more efficient and speedy would give you a competitive advantage.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Connor BrennanJuly 22, 2019 at 11:51 PM

    Hey Jacob, overall great post! I like each number had a very detailed explanation. My favorite advantage that you said you had dealt with being able to read quickly. That's a skill that's very good to have and it definitely gives you an advantage. Keep the great work!

    ReplyDelete

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