WBW 4: How to come up with a great idea to win half the venture battle

A lot of people want to start their own venture to make tons of money. That’s a good dream to have. However, it doesn’t always work that way. In fact, it always entails a lot of thinking and re-thinking, and a good measure of looking at the world to get influences and inspirations, and finally synthesizing them. Mark Ruiz, a social entrepreneur and an innovation junky, helps explain the birth pains of great entrepreneurial ideas in a manner that’s very easy to understand, without scaring the aspiring entrepreneur of the real challenges ahead.

Who is Mark Ruiz?

After graduating from the Ateneo de Manila with a degree in BS Management Engineering, Mark spent 7 years in a multinational corporation. He eventually left to chase his dream of making a difference, as a social business entrepreneur. That dream, is simply to create valuable Filipino jobs.
 
As such, for the past (2) years since resigning, Mark has pursued his passions of innovation, entrepreneurship, social development, and education. He is currently energized by companies he has co-founded, currently serving as Managing Director of MicroVentures / Hapinoy, a microfinancing business development services company; Founding Partner and Board Member of Rags2Riches, a social business enterprise helping a depressed community create fashion-designer items from recycled rags; Founding Partner of the WhyNot?Forum, an innovation website of Inspiring Filipino Ingenuity; Chief Marketing Inoventor of InoventDesign, an industrial design firm which just launched a prototype of the world's first LCD iTV, and Innovation Guru and Partner of Kolektib, an innovation and collaboration organization.

He also serves as part-time faculty at the Ateneo de Manila University, creating and teaching energetically a class entitled Business Innovation Management. We've talked to some of his students and they attest to Mark's energy as manifested by the numerous stories and ideas he can share in a single class - in short, madaldal si Mark.

When asked what's his greatest failure?

When asked what's his greatest success?

Show notes:

Need for sound, solid ideas before going into business

• Other people just jump into business without a good idea
• With a great idea, the business battle is half won
• Even if you don’t have a 200-page strategy, but you have a great idea, it’s like going to war with a nuclear weapon

Generating ideas

• Fill your head up with a lot of ideas
• Read and experience as much as you can
• Shopping for ideas is like going to a buffet – pick up a little of everything, go back for a second round, picking and selecting only those that you like
• Mix and match the ideas that you have seen and inspired you
  
• Creativity and great business ideas is about making connections and combinations to unleash new things
• Innovation equations should be brought into the world before you can own it
• Ideas are not yours until you act on them

A great website mentioned by Mark: www.TED.com

Lesson

Ideas do not come from thin air. They are all around, and you just have to be observant and perceptive, able to gather them and put them together to come up with an idea that you can claim as your own, by making it come true.

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