© 2011 Martin Coulthard

Martin Coulthard, BEN Director

www.bristolenterprise.com

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

winning

finding the competitive advantage

Martin CoulthardBath & Bristol Enterprise NetworkScience City Bristol3 February 2011

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

overview

• approach

• kinds of competitive advantage

• examples

• finding the advantage

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

context

• business is competitive, like sport

• what does ‘winning’ mean to you?

– get your idea/product out there?

– social benefits?

– lifestyle business, to pay the bills?

– fast growth of sales and profit, leading to a big exit?

• if you do not know where you are going you will probably not get there!

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

3 levels

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

level 1 – broad competence

• do (almost) everything well

• actually, basic competence in all areas is often enough!

• a ‘me too’ business can achieve a level of success if it consistently deliver good quality product/service, on time, in the right market

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

level 2 – competitive advantage

• different + better

• what do you do or offer that is different to and better than your competitors?

• if this is not protectable / sustainable then others will quickly copy

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

level 3 – sustainablecompetitive advantage

• you keep your advantage

• because the competition is not able, is not allowed, or does not want to copy it

• or you keep getting better at it, changing it or finding a new one!

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

where is the edge?kinds of competitive advantage

intellectual property protection

C. other opportunities

A. formal intellectualproperty rights

innovation!

B. other approaches toIP protection

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

A. intellectual property rights

1. patents

2. trademarks

3. copyright

4. design rights

©Reg. Des. 1111111

TM ®

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

B. other approaches to IP protection

• if not legally protected by IPR,copying is not illegal!

• so what else can you do?

• confidentiality agreements – and other legal agreements

• secrecy

• copy protection technology – e.g. encryption, DRM (Digital Rights Management)

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

C. other opportunities

product orservice

team market

funding strategy

know howunique skills

hard workpassionculture

qualityfirst to marketcost structure

'sticky' productsbrand / reputation / trustchoice of market segment / focuscontrol of routes to marketdomination of target market segment

pricingsize

funding

complexity / difficulty design / user experience

object of desire‘the whole product’

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

startup & early stage – where’s the edge?

1. innovation

2. flexibility and speed

3. low costs

4. entrepreneur

• skills, technical knowledge

• market knowledge, experience, connections

• vision, passion, commitment, determination, hard work!

look at yourself!

5. but if you find an edge, is it sustainable?

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

case study 1 –IPL Information Processing

• software projects and consultancy services – not products or applications

• 0 patents

• focus on large corporate/public clients

• and quality of delivery– business & technical– trust & reliability– responsiveness & agility– excellence

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

case study 2 – Stonecube Ltd - IPR

• invention: realistic, moving visualisation of objects with printed/decorated surfaces

• key inventive step was a way to model the physical printing process to generate a 3D model

• UK application went

• US patent granted!

• the vision, team and expert knowledge also critical to competitive advantage

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

conclusions

• finding the right competitive strategy is a journey

• climb quickly through levels 1, 2 and 3

• in a tech business IP often has an important part to play – look for the patenting opportunities

• search for the best mix of elements of competitive advantage

• innovation and continuous improvement are essential

• seek the holy grail of long term sustainable advantage

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

image attribution• slide 1: England Rugby Squad 2003 by BombDog CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

• slide 5: stack of cards by Fraser Waters CC-AN-2.0 CC-BY-2.0

• slide 6: Wood and CFRP tennis rackets overlayed by CORE-Materials CC-AT-2.0

• slide 7: Jahangir Khan by Mr Ian CC-AT-2.0

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

business model canvas

• Lean Startup - Steve Blanc and Eric Ries

• Alex Osterwalder business model canvas

• adapted by Ash Maurya

• http://www.ashmaurya.com/2010/08/businessmodelcanvas/

• find the ‘unfair advantage’

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

Ash Maurya business model canvas – document the hypothesis

© 2011 Martin Coulthard

Ash Maurya business model canvas – document the hypothesis