Expert gives startups pointers for success

AS THE local startup community works to find its niche in the mobile and online space, learning how to innovate and stabilize becomes essential in their bid to avoid ending up as flash-in-the-pan business stories.

Thus, Kickstart Ventures Inc., Globe Telecom's wholly-owned business incubation company, invited global marketing strategist and social business architect Braden Kelley to its Kickstart Startup Mixer event to give startups useful pointers on creating strategies that provide them with competitive advantage.

Kelley is the author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire and has been advising companies on how to increase their revenue and cut their costs since 1996. He writes frequently on the topic of continuous innovation and works with clients on effective customer marketing, organizational change, and improved organizational performance. He has maximized profits for companies while living and working in England, Germany, and the United States. Kelley earned his MBA from top-rated London Business School.

"Building a startup is very cool and exciting but with very fierce competition, innovation has become a necessary ingredient in most organizations. Innovation is about looking for and creating new things, maximizing the resources available, and managing the tension between the entrepreneurial mindset and the executive mindset. Innovation takes strength of commitment, flexibility, focus, and incredible strength of purpose," Kelley said.

He pointed out the importance of value creation, value access, and value translation for any innovation to succeed.

"You can create something very, very useful but if it’s not valuable to people, then they will not be willing to part with their hard-earned money. Many startups think that they have this great solution to a problem. The truth is every problem is already solved in one way or another," he said.

Thus, Kelley underscored the need for value creation or creating something more efficient and more effective to deliver emotional or psychological benefits that were not present in the past.

Once value is created, the next step is for people to have easy access to it, therefore, the emphasis on how products and services are made available to the consumers. Even great ideas must be marketed well for people to understand how it will fit into their life. The more disruptive the innovation is, the more education and explanation needed not only to the target market but also to people inside the organization, the investors, or even regulatory agencies for them to support the idea.

"Startups must be willing to punch a hole in the barrier that the status quo has placed in the minds of the consumers," he said.