Miners and Rock Polishers Working Together

After my earlier July blog, I reminisced about one of the entrepreneurs I worked for who told me he was not a creative person, he was more of a rock polisher. 

Mike said he was not creative, he could never mine a good product idea, but he could reshape an idea and make it shine.  I would not have called Mike a rock polisher because of his passion and drive.  He was right though, it takes more than passion and drive to create something from nothing.  I call that mining process, business development.  What does it look like?

1. It may be creating a new product from scratch, and bringing it to introduction
2. It may be finding a new path to market and launching it with a new partner
3. It can be anything to motivate a customer to buy that hasn’t been tried before.

 
The cool thing about Mike is that he understood it took risk to do these things so he fostered an environment that trying something new was not a punishable crime.  He also understood that this business development “thing” was a company strength, we needed it to grow.
 
What are the particular set of skills that a business development type person will bring?

1. They run a project to ground.  They have an ability to see a problem and see it as an opportunity for growth.  They see the shortfall and apply the scientific method.  They define the problem, generate alternatives, pick one and implement it.  They follow the process through-they don’t hand it off at any stage until it succeeds-then they give it to the rock polisher that can smooth out the rough edges.
2. They make a plan.  They explain the plan to all around them. And create expectations and a timeline so that the project has a beginning and a middle.  (They may not be around for the maturation stage).  They work the plan.
3. They are analytical.  They rationalize what they are doing by visualizing the future and quantifying it.
4. They build relationships.  Their curiosity and energy makes others want to join their project.  The relationships usually endure the project and more.
5. They don’t let a rigid NPD process manage the project and feed the naysayers.  Process is good, however, chaos drives innovation.  Business developers don’t try to schedule chaos and innovation-it does not work and slows down the launch.

 
What they are not is good politicians.  They don’t care about the credit because it is shared with everyone involved. http://www.jimthomasintl.com/blog/archives/04-2017  I have read many articles about fostering innovation and creativity.  They are all good and have an element of truth.  I hope this blog can be added to that stack of innovation articles sitting somewhere in your inbox.

Do you want to have a free fifteen minute discussion so we can discuss business development? Sign up on my web site http://www.jimthomasintl.com/ or contact me directly by phone.


Good Selling!