Question

What steps would you take to identify and evaluate opportunities for a new business, or one within an existing business? Would it matter if the new business were completely separate, or within an existing enterprise? If so, why? How would you approach any differences as may exist?

Answer 1

In order to identify any opportunities available to start a new business we need to first analyse and understand our capabilities and the resources available with us. If it is a completely new one we can decide on what type of business we want to start and what are the requirements to start that business. But if it is from an existing business, we need to estimate the extra investment that would require for us to start that business and how the already available resources can be utilized. In some businesses waste material left can be used to start some other business and we need to identify that opportunity. We need to keep up to date of all the activities and the output levels so that we can identify such opportunities.

The business can be a completely new one when compared to the existing business and might also be something that supports the existing business. In any case we need to have a separate team to handle the business . We need to have complete knowledge before getting into the business. We need to understand the differences between our existing business and the new one and we need to plan our investment and time accordingly. This helps in balancing both the businesses efficiently.