A critical area for turning entrepreneurship into an ongoing
enterprise is the ability to identify problems and frame them correctly. While
the popular assumption is that entrepreneurs are individuals with a vision and
drive, most successful entrepreneurial ventures start out as a joint collaboration
between at least two compatible, but different, types of thinkers – innovators
and adapters.
Think of the Disney brothers, Walt and Roy, for example.
Walt was the man with the ideas; Roy ran the business side. The double pattern
runs through the history of successful ventures: Richard Warren Sears and Alvah
Curtis Roebuck (Sears - 1891), Sam, Jack, Albert, and Harry Warner (Warner
Brothers - 1923), Bill Hewlitt and Dave Packard (HP - 1939), Richard and
Maurice McDonald (McDonald’s - 1940), Bill Gates and Paul Allen (Microsoft -
1975), Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple - 1976), Ben Cohen and Jerry
Greenfield (Ben and Jerry’s - 1978), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google - 1998)
and Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Noah Glass, and Jack Dorsey (Twitter - 2006).
Many companies sell ice cream, food, computers, and movies.
Social media providers come and go (Remember Friendster or Myspace?). What did the
leading companies do that other competitors missed?
We would argue that the difference was in the way they
framed the problem they then went on to solve. A well-defined problem indicates
the direction in which to seek the solution.
This is why it is so important to define the problem at the start of the
process: the better defined, the faster and more clearly the solution can
reveal itself.
The Frame
Framing a problem is stating a problem situation, the goal
in solving the problem, and the connection between the two: the domain of
theory or experience expected to provide the solution if applied in the right
way, by the right people, in the right sequence. Brainstorming is often used to generate
solutions to problems without any clear idea of the problem itself. They ask, “How do we sell more product?”
rather than “How do people actually find value in our product?” The question
should be “Forget what it was designed for. How do people actually use it?”
McDonalds understood that they were not just selling
hamburgers--they were saving their customer’s time. For Americans, time is a
finite commodity to be constantly managed. From childhood, we are warned
against wasting time. Apple and Ben & Jerry’s sold a lifestyle. Disney and
the Warner brothers provided us with a shared cultural mythology.
In short, they framed the problem in human terms.
The underlying problems that beset a marketplace are very
rarely mentioned in corporate conference rooms. It is just assumed that
everyone in the industry “knows” what the problems are. The dominant problem usually is phrased as “How
to make more sales?” But if the problems
in the marketplace are so well-known, then why haven’t they been solved? For
nearly three decades, everybody in the movie industry “knew” that “nobody likes
pirate movies anymore.” Then entered Disney’s money machine, the “Pirates of
the Caribbean” franchise.
Hollywood was operating with an ill-defined problem. The problem wasn’t with the pirates – kids
love pirates (not to mention dinosaurs) and pirate costumes have been an adult
Halloween standard for decades. Pirates of the Caribbean was one of the most
popular rides in Disney parks since its inception in Disneyland in 1967. Disney’s
pirate was an outlaw in the American style – a lone wolf fighting corrupt
officials and evil pirates – he had flaws but also a (very) strange charm. He
was that prototypical American type: the antihero. That was a pirate an
audience could identify with.
What we think of as business problems are, in fact, cultural
problems – rooted in human beliefs and behavior. We can’t relate to isolated facts.
We can only relate to stories. That’s why identity marketing and branding
problems must be framed in human terms. You may think of your brand as an
entity you created, but in reality, it only exists as an idea in the heads of
the public, not yours.
And ideas are very changeable.
People can’t tell you what they want with any degree of
accuracy because they don’t really know – since the drivers of choice are
rooted deep in the subconscious. But they can recognize what they want when
they see it with 100% accuracy. So
problems need to be framed in terms of human behavior. What do people actually
need and how do they meet those needs?
Not what they say they want, not what they believe they want, but what
do they actually do when faced with a choice? Consistent patterns of behavior are
the only true indicator of belief.
As analysts and predictors of future group behavior, we frame
issues by combing the historical landscape of human endeavor, searching out
consistent patterns of behavior across generations – from our prehistoric
history in small groups to the present megacities of many millions. We define ancient, contemporary, and future
human problems in cultural terms: by reviewing the history of human values,
gender, social group, age stage, and immediate context.
Analyzing group behavior with cultural analysis can accurately
predict the future because we cheat – we predict the past. What people do today
is defined by what their group has done for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of
years in the past. Whatever humans have done consistently for a century or more
– our patterns of thinking and decision-making – is not going to change
tomorrow, next year, or anytime soon.
Human Needs
To frame a problem, getting the human factors right is the keystone
of good entrepreneurship. Having the
enterprising mindset and resilience is only half the story. Entrepreneurship is not about the Big Idea.
It’s about filling an unsatisfied need. Before you can propose a solution, you
first have to define the need and the cultural issues clearly for yourself and your
investors.
In-between the present state and the future state is the
murky ground of method. How do we get
from where we are to where we want to be, by putting in place what changes or
intelligence, and how? This area is
usually assigned to market research, but without any specific idea of how it
will be put to use. Analysis depends on
evolving a good problem frame within which to work on a solution. The outcome is intelligence: the result of turning
knowledge into a tool. Most ill-defined
problem-solving breaks down quickly for lack of any clear pathway leading from
what is known to what needs to be known.
At the outset, few could see the practical applications for
the computer, the telephone, the lightbulb, vaccines, or even coffee. In 1876
Western Union turned down Alexander Graham Bell’s offer to sell them the rights
to his telephone, declaring it “a toy.” In 1920 The New York Times once flatly stated “A rocket will never be able
to leave earth’s atmosphere.” They issued a retraction in 1969. Decca Records
declined to sign The Beatles in 1962 because “Guitar music is on the way out.” Steven
King’s first novel, Carrie was
initially rejected, as was The Diary of
Anne Frank, and 15 publishers turned down Harry Potter because – you know –
“everybody knows” that sort of thing doesn’t sell anymore.
These creations simply didn’t appear to fit the way people’s
routines and thinking worked at that moment in time. It’s the creative imagination (and social adaptability)
that leads to the integration of new technology into the mainstream. But that is the point where creativity meets
the road of reality and of popular culture, which has to be able see the value
of letting a novel product take its place among established ideas and
routines. And we should be reminded that
technology, as anthropology studies it, is by no means only digital or
electronic—late developments—but began with the discovery of fire, the rope,
the wheel, and the blade. These touchstone
technologies were created in the ancient world, along with written language and
mathematics, making all subsequent inventions possible.
When you frame the problem correctly, the solutions often
present themselves. It is the ill-defined problem that sinks the
entrepreneur. Understand this and you
can figure out how to solve prime problems uniquely.
