Business opportunity: breaking new ground
In all business activities, there are stages that shape your vision of the business activity: from the opening of a new company, its first steps until it becomes stable, its development and the fluctuation of various factors that will influence the company’s progress.
All this, the ability to research and make decisions in the short and long term will be just a couple of tools that can help keep the business afloat, dissolve it or make it grow. After more than 37 years of history, Industrias Químicas Iris has gone through all the stages in constant growth and without losing sight of new horizons.
Why look for opportunities?
It seems very simple to “list” points of why we should not stop evlucionar and invest in new markets but the reality is that the importance of not being a static entity in our days is vital. All of the following points, broadly speaking, are key to being able to develop and grow a company.
- Expansion of current markets.
- Facing crisis situations.
- In response to threats from new products or competitors.
- To make underutilized capacities profitable.
- To take advantage of the synergies generated by our knowledge, technology and talent.
What does this search consist of?
Although it can sometimes be instinctive, there are processes or techniques that facilitate the task (customer interviews, market observation, trade fairs and trends, brainstorming, etc.). We must make the most of our knowledge of the market, adapt to what we know how to do and focus on the unmet needs of the market and our customers.
We can limit the search to active customers in the portfolio and their needs (technological, commercial, logistical, etc.). Or we can broaden the scope to potential customers. It can consist of completely new customers or seek to increase presence/quota in existing customers. The key is to present an operational product capable of meeting one or more previously identified unmet needs.
How?
By identifying needs to be covered. We can take advantage of the knowledge of what needs we satisfy in our customers and see if it is possible to extend the use (same sector, same utility in different sectors, satisfy assimilable or other different needs, etc.). That is why it is important to know in depth the intrinsic values of the company and our strengths (brand recognition, SAT, experience, technological level, additional advisory services, cooperation, etc.).
Although it is more complicated, we must keep in mind that there may be market niches that are not being addressed or needs of our current or potential customers that are not covered or problems that some customers do not have solved (service, assistance, training, etc.).
Information gathering channels must be established: direct sources (customers, trade fairs, etc.) and indirect sources (Chambers of Commerce, professional associations, etc.).
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