Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): HKSTP TecONE BizLink for Business Acceleration

BizLink was TecONE monthly event and this time invited professionals to share the fundamental elements for business acceleration. BizLink offered a platform to learn from others and built up business network. Mr. Michael Au (LEAP Program, HKSTP) was the speaker. Firstly, he briefed our service including tailor-made consulting, strategic connections, mentor/domain expert, professional panel, etc.

Then he explained “Business Acceleration” meant that “Reach your milestone FASTER.” He questioned to entrepreneurs “Are you ready for Business Acceleration?” There are three stages below.

Stage 1 – Basic (0-1): it needed to focus on R&D, Proof of Concept (POC) and Proof of Market (POM) (Good concept did not necessary to have market.)

Stage 2 – Ready (1): It should have stable Revenue and to check its differentiation and Scalability.

Stage 3 – Acceleration (1-100): It achieved Product Market Fit (PMF) that is about customers (users) need. It can be EMOTIONAL FIT or INTELLECTUAL FIT.

Mr. Au also used POM tool – Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to explain how to test the market. We didn’t need too many functions but minimum function that user needed. He also quoted Kano model to explain the delighter (Delight Quality) to differentiate your product.

Some case studies were briefed such as Instagram, Flickr, Yelp, YouTube and Slack. They all served a specific need in the beginning and then stick core customer for product improvement. Finally, the product became PMF.

After that Mr. Au introduced 4 fundamental scopes for business acceleration. (You need to think the follow items)

1) Investment

Why do you NEED that money? How much? For what?

Find the Correct Strategic Investor.

Align your target/Interest with investors.

1 Minute Pitching: Problem-Solution, Differentiation, Scalability, Team

2) Team Expansion

Core members, management

Company by functions, by size

Regional offices – local wisdom

Cash burn

3) New Product / Target Segment

New and similar product (e.g. Apple – iPod → iPhone → iPad)

New but different product (e.g. Daniel Wellington from watch to bracelet)

New Audience (e.g. Abbott – mike power for baby → for mother → for old lady)

Geographical (e.g. DinTaiFung, Insight Robotics)

4) Business Model Changes

Direct Sales → Channels

Physical shop → eCommerce

Projects → SaaS

Inhouse → Outsource

He also said Key Performance Indicators were tool for progress check which could measure your company’s milestone. There were three key KPIs below.

i) Conversion Rate (equal to or more than 100%)

ii) Churn Rate (客戶流失率) (If > 4%, it needs to rethink your business. If >8%, your company will disappear in one year.)

iii) Market Share

Mr. Au introduced AARRR model for checking user conversion. In the left side funnel, many people expected the user decreasing like a funnel. However, many user actually stopped use your produce after “Activation”. If your product was Product Market Fit (PMF), users were not only retention but also referral to others and then made profit. That the conversion rate would be more than 100%!