Opportunity may burst forth or be hidden in each of Six Sources

Exclusive First Read. Every week through October 2013, we will post a short excerpt from our Summer Innovation Book Club Pick: Killing Ideas - You can kill an idea, you can't kill an opportunity By NewEdge CEO, Dr. Pam Henderson


The Six Sources of Opportunity include our technologies, brand expression, business models, organizations, market, and environment.


The market is the collective of our customers, distribution, and retailers. Complex and constantly evolving, it is a continual Source of new opportunity.


From the emergence of a middle class in developing countries to the aging of populations in developed countries, shifts in buying power change what people want across almost every product category.


Technology is the backbone of what we sell. Spurred by our inventive spirit, it is a catalyst of opportunity. Technology broadly refers to what we make and the know-how behind it. It is the food in the package, the goo in the bottle, the packaging materials, the shelf it sits on, and the infrastructure of the store in which it is purchased.


Our organization is the who and how of the value we create. While markets drive what we produce, within our own walls we are the masters of how we produce. Cost reduction and process improvement often add to the bottom line more reliably than new products. Opportunity expands further when the people of opportunity meet.


Our business model defines how we make money. It encompasses our basic business structure from for-profit to not-for-profit, public to private, etc.


Expression is how we communicate who we are to the world'it's our brand, positioning, messaging, tone of voice, and design aesthetic. Through it we create emotional engagement far beyond that of any of the other Six Sources, resulting
in extreme loyalty and revenue.


Our environment is all around us. It includes the forces of governments, regulations, education, the economy, culture, and the media as well as individual influencers such as opinion leaders, celebrities, activists, and bloggers. The influences of one to many and many to one cascades across each of the other Sources creating a multitude of tipping points. - Killing Ideas, Ch 3, Big Sources

- See our Summer Innovation Book Club Pick: Killing ideas. Participate in the Author Q&A here.