Prepared for SSC presentation to TEKES BIO-IT meeting September 2013

1. Towards Sustainable Start-ups
Sheila Ash
Strategic Scientific Consulting
September 2013

2. Transform ideas into revenue stream

3. Best is not always most successful
• BetaMax had 4 advantages
over VHS
– Sharper picture
– Faster tape-winding mechanism
– Smaller cassettes
– Problem free high-speed
duplication
• Sony cut back on promotional
activity once selling well
• With little or no BetaMax
product placement and
marketing about, potential
customers only saw, and
bought, VHS

4. Brilliance is not everything
• Development cost > $100M
• Aimed at $300 billion-plus
transportation industry
• To be used on factory floors, in
offices, in parks, on battlefields,
on downtown sidewalks,
displacing cars from city centres
• But unable to wow regulators –
still not allowed on roads in most
countries
• Relegated to one market segment
- theme parks
Electric vehicle, mimics human body's ability to
maintain balance – gyroscopic stabilisation
system.

5. Customer is king
• Wowed its stakeholders
• the recording industry and musicians
• providing a wide-scale music
distribution system
• preserving artists rights and revenues
• Created a comprehensive solution -
hardware (iPod) and content (iTunes)
• Delighted its customers way beyond
what its customers originally
expected - music anywhere, anytime not the first mp3 player
not always the cheapest

6. The Remarkable Apple of Success
• Product development driven by
want/need, not by technology
• Non techie customer majority
wants simplicity
– Apple adopts a “keep things
simple” mantra
– Ease of use paramount
– Limited range of products
• The Apple Store is the
embodiment of these principles
– All staff speak with confidence
about every Apple product
– 50% of buyers are new to Apple
• Designers at Apple strive “to make
something that they love. So they
know that other people will love it too”
• “Our goals are very simple — to
design and make better products. If we
can’t make something that is better,
we won’t do it.”
Jonathan Ive, Apple Designer

7. Lessons
• Keep it simple
• Be the best you NEED to be
• Ensure ALL staff speak
with confidence about ALL
your products
• Court stakeholders
• Listen, listen and listen
again to customers/potential
customers
• Deliver to them what they
WILL buy
• Brilliance is not everything
– remember the Segway
• Best is not always most
successful
– remember BetaMax v VHS
• Customer is king, and kings
like an easy life
– remember Apple