The Business Concept

The business concept is a summary model including the management team, distinct features of the product or service, benefits to customers supported by distinct features, the marketing plan, and the strategic advantage to shield profits from competition.

The Business Concept

To make a purchase decision regarding a product customers evaluate the costs, the benefits, and whether actual features support the advertised benefits [1]. Strategic advantage acts like a barrier preventing customers from switching to competitors. So the target customers, product, features, benefits, and strategic advantage are key elements of the business concept

The management team may or may not include founders serving in the following positions:

1. Chief executive officer (CEO). The person responsible for planning and executing the business model while leading the team and communicating with stakeholders.

2. Chief marketing officer (CMO). The person responsible for executing the marketing plan while communicating with customers.

3. Chief technical officer (CTO). The person responsible for development, production, and delivery of product to customers.

4. Chief financial officer (CFO). The person responsible for developing sources of cash and for helping the team wisely spend cash during execution of business plans.

Innovative management teams make persistent efforts to discover and develop new markets. This is actually a process of developing new products while learning how to serve prospective new customers. Startups and other innovative teams should pursue the goal of tuning and modifying the business concept using minimal product development and rapid customer feedback to find the benefits, features, and product most likely to attract many new customers in a scale up model.

References

[1] Guerilla Marketing Handbook, Jay Conrad Levinson and Seth Godin, Mariner Books, 1994.