Ten Innovation Questions To Ask When You Think Of Getting Your Practice Into A New Market

In every Optometry practice, a process for shaping innovations and new products into the practice develops over time and we often think that this process should be used even when we are trying to enter a product or service into a new market or open a totally independent entity. Almost all innovative ideas that pop up in the minds of leaders have the form of a half-baked idea rather than a fully-fledged one. Then it has to go into the practice’s iterative process of shaping innovative ideas before it is transformed into a business ready to get funded. Throughout the process, the final idea that emerges at the end of a process often comes out completely different than the initial one. This is because the reshaping process has changed the idea to fit the organization whereas it should have been shaped to fit the market. For example, if we have a successful product line of optical frames, sunglasses, contact lenses, and an adorable talented, and skillful eye doctor that are at the core of the success and growth of one practice we try to emulate the same recipe when deciding to open a new practice in a new location whereas we should be adopting ingredients based on the patients and customers demand of the new market.

Management guru and professor of innovation at Harvard Business School, Professor Clayton Kristensen, used to emphasize ten questions every innovative leader should ask when building new growth businesses. Those questions should return answers about the following:

1- Ways to beat the competition;

2- The customers that the new business should target;

3- The products that the new customers want to buy;

4- The distribution and communication ways that the business will use with customers;

5- The things that should be done in the practice and the things that should be outsourced;

6- Ways to avoid commoditization;

7- Who should be included in the management team;

8- The best organizational structure for the new business;

9- How to know when to change course;

10- Investment capital sources that help and sources that hurt.