BEST = Better than the Rest

I found Assignment 3 to be a very challenging and particularly useful experience. Developing an idea for a start-up company that is socially-responsible, for-profit, and technology-related was certainly harder than I expected. On top of that, using $1 million to solve three societal problems was even more troublesome and definitely an exercise for the mind. I certainly learned a lot in the process, and I was hoping to share some of that with others who may have had similar experiences in completing this assignment.

As I began working on this assignment, I recalled a conversation I had with one of my friends. Like most university students (I think), one day we were just discussing ways to earn easy money, get rich fast, and hopefully retire by the age of 40. After throwing a bunch of ideas in the air, one by one, his eyes lit up and he said, “We should create a mobile application. Something that everybody needs but doesn't have. We can sell it for cheap, like $1. If a million people buy it, we'll be worth a million dollars...MILLIONAIRES!” I looked at him with the usual suspicious and doubt. After some thought, I realized that what he said had some merit. It made sense: Build something so cheap and important that people demand and would easily pay for. If enough people buy it, then it can be very lucrative.

So when it came time to thinking of an idea for this project, I was stuck. Initially, I couldn't come up with a genuine idea that could be marketed, was for-profit, or even used technology to solve three problems in the world. I was puzzled for a few days and thought the idea would eventually come to me. Then I thought for a second, why am I trying to come up with a unique and novel idea. Why reinvent the wheel, when you can just improve it? As long as you do it better (faster, smaller, bigger, cheaper, etc.) than your competitor, you have a potential marketable and successful idea. Then ideas began to flow.

Using this style of thinking, I began to analyze the industry. Facebook (and Twitter) is by far the most powerful social networking website out there. But it certainly was not the first. However, it did what it was supposed to do better than MySpace, Orkut, or Friendster. The iPhone (and other Apple products, e.g. iPad) has a similar story. People line up and make early purchases of this product. But the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone. Several companies made smartphones but this one particular phone stands out. Why? Because it is better than the rest.

While I was able to successfully finish my assignment, it proved to be a very good mental exercise. I'm curious to know what sorts of challenges others faced in doing this assignment. So feel free to comment and share!

DISCLAIMER: The thoughts of the writer are opinions and not established facts.