The idea euthanator competition: How kill your bad idea

Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith was put to death Thursday night by nitrogen hypoxia, marking the nation’s first known execution using that method. Now Alabama’s attorney general wants to help other states interested in using the new form of capital punishment.

Ideas are many times more common than an invention, discovery, improvement, or innovation. Most do not have commercial or value generating potential and are hard to kill non the less.

An idea is something that sticks in your mind and never sees the light of day. It is neither an invention, discovery, technology nor a business.

Here are some places to look for the next good idea.

When it comes to white coat entrepreneurs, my observation is:

1. Everyone thinks that they have a great idea. I sure do.
2. Most of the ideas are just that and will never move forward. Most of mine don't.
3. Even if their idea had translational potential, the ideator wouldn't know what to do next. I'm still trying to figure it out.
4. We don't teach ideators what to do next or offer them the education, resources, networks, experience, peer to peer support or non-clinical career guidance to take the next steps. We're trying to change that.

Many pitch competitions and business plan competitions are really idea fests masquerading as a startup pitch competition.

You might as well put up a lot of suggestion boxes instead and save your money.

Successful entrepreneurs not only have to engage in entrepreneurship processes—the knowledge and skills to turn an idea into a business—they also need an entrepreneurial mindset that looks for problems and solutions. Critical thinking is crucial to both of these elements. Throughout the entrepreneurial journey, from customer discovery to idea generation to business model innovation and beyond, critical thinking skills are necessary to engage these complex tasks in a meaningful, useful fashion.

Entrepreneurship education must therefore include critical thinking skills, and fortunately, the messy nature of starting a business is the perfect subject matter for teaching critical thinking.

Carla Firetto and Abdullah Konak have outlined six tools that entrepreneurship educators can use that teach both entrepreneurship and critical thinking.

Here is an exercise to help you decide whether you want to dip a toe in the water and if you want to spend your and other's time, money, and effort translating your idea into a desirable, feasible, financially viable, and adaptable platform, model, good, or service that will add multiples of value compared to the status quo or a competitive offering and is statistically likely to fail.

HOW TO ORGANISE AN IDEA EUTHANATOR COMPETITION

1. Make sure contestants understand the definition of a value proposition and how to communicate it. One model , described by Geoffrey Moore in his book “Crossing the Chasm”, is to use the following template and just fill in the blanks: For (describe the target customers-beachhead segment only) Who are dissatisfied with (describe the current market alternative) Our product is a (new product category) That provides (key problem solving capability) Unlike (the product alternative or competition) We have assembled (key whole product features and benefits )
2. Organize teams with 7-9 members. Task them with designating a leader, a scribe/reporter to report findings, and a referee to be the group meeting process observer. It is best for the competition organizer to assign people to different teams instead of allowing team members to self-select since it results in better teams that have demographic, functional and cognitive diversity.
3. The assignment is to identify a customer/stakeholder who has a specific problem, propose a solution, and create a team derived value proposition for that solution.
4. After 30-45 minutes, each group scribe/reporter has 5 minutes to describe their team's value proposition using the same scripted format:
5. For (describe the target customers-beachhead segment only)
6. Who are dissatisfied with (describe the current market alternative or problem statemen t)
7. Our product is a (new product category)
8. That provides (key problem-solving capability)
9. Unlike (the product alternative or competition)
10. We have assembled (key whole product features and benefits)
11. The other teams then comment on the presentation.
12. Each team then decides whether they want to persevere, pivot, or punt on the idea and why.
13. The referee of each group answers: "What was the biggest group dynamics. problem solving challenge you encountered and how did you overcome it?"
14. Use a sieve, not a funnel
15. How to know whether to pivot, persevere, or punt

The decay of rules-based trade means that companies can no longer find growth as easily by expanding to new locations or expanding demand through low-cost single point sourcing. In this context, companies seeking growth must develop innovative offerings to expand demand. These offerings are products of imagination — conceiving of and realizing new possibilities — a challenge that companies struggle with. In this article, these authors present a six step-cycle that is at the foundation of a corporate “imagination machine.”

1. Embrace anomalies

2. Treat assumptions as choices

3. Collide ideas with reality: test your ideas

4. Learn to spread ideas

5. Create evolvable scripts

6. Start all over again

Innovation starts with being a problem seeker, not a problem solver.

Diagnose first, treat later.

Teams find this first step hard and will take several iterations to decide whether they want to proceed.

Most will die a merciful death but offer many lessons learned.

Here are some reasons why your intrapreneurial initiatives will fail.

Others are:

1. You don't create product-market fit because you don't have a compelling value proposition
2. You don't have a VAST business model
3. Lack of an entrepreneurial mindset
4. You are not sufficiently motivated to do it
5. Not powerful enough carrots and sticks to change.
6. Being overwhelmed by the size and pervasiveness of problems and not knowing where to start
7. Paralysis by analysis
8. You lack leaderpreneurship competencies
9. You don't have the right people covering your back
10. Not enough WIIFM
11. Employee disengagement
12. A stifling bureaucracy that creates soul crushing friction in getting things done Many workers report that they are dissatisfied in their positions. Thirty-three percent of employees in the U.S. felt engaged in their jobs last year, according to research from Gallup. Separate surveys have shown that employees worry about layoffs because of AI or broader corporate cost-cutting.
13. You did not sufficiently derisk your idea

Here's what to do when someone calls your baby ugly.

You should quit on your idea but don't quit on yourself. Make it personal but don't take it personally.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack