Observing interactions of daily life and trying to judge whether they can be improved and have potential for technological innovation.
Transit Station
Observation
i. Passengers average waiting time 5 minutes
ii. Mostly people having conversation on cellular phone.
iii. Difficulty in getting continuous mobile network signal at few places on station.
iv. Getting disturbed by noise on transit station, hence bringing mouth closer to phone, putting one finger in ear
v. Looking to find some quiet place for cell phone conversation
Business Opportunity
i. Noise Cancellation Functionality: Including noise cancellation device, like in high end headphones, in cell phones will enhance experience of cell phone users in transit station (1)
ii. In building Cellular Base Stations: Using inbuilding cellular base stations, the quality of network signals will improve in transit stations (2)
iii. Private Booth for cell phone talks: Private Booths similar to earlier telephone or STD booths can be placed in transit stations. Commuters can use these booths for cell phone talk for better calling experience talk. This can be supported by advertisement revenue (3)
Restaurant
Observation
i. Waiting time between seating and food served is 30 Mins +
ii. Most customers seek information about food dishes, specialties or recommended best dish from waiters.
iii. Most customer call waiters for three main reasons – Water refill, Menu for additional ordering, Cheque at the end of dinner…Some times when waiters are not available around, little bit of anxiety disturbing the smooth dining experience
Business Opportunity
i. Wireless call button: Wireless call button at each table with four options – Water, Menu, Cheque, Others. This will be both convenient to customers as well as hotel staff (4)
ii. Table as surface computing: Table can act as surface computing with menu details and details about dishes, recommendation, and trivia stuff which can be accessed by touch screen. This will enhance customer experience, help in passing time during waiting period, also will have data for analysis for customer interest and menu changes – which dishes clicked by customers, what trivia interests customers (5)
Shopping Mall
Observation
i. Visitors searching for shops, asking directions for particular shop
ii. Calling on cellphone to ask directions to reach a particular restaurant or to track meeting place with their friends
iii. Visitors trying to find best deals, sales deals…first having a look around mall then deciding to shop
iv. Visitors having difficulty in finding parking slots in the shopping mall parking
v. Visitors billing in supermarket/ cold storage taking lot of time because of long queues.
vi. Surprisingly and ironically customers who are purchasing less items ( less than 10) are given fast checkouts versus large shoppers
Business Opportunity
i. Shopping mall maps on cellphone- like Map functions of google maps, indoor maps of shopping mall can be created with directions monitored by local positioning system. Also for each shop, sales deals can be indicated on the map. This will greatly enhance the shopping experience of visitors (6)
ii. Position locator on maps on cellphone: Functionality on indoor shopping mall maps to locate another person thru his cellphone by local positioning system and automatically getting movement direction to reach to that person. This will enhance the meeting and locating experience in shopping mall (7)
iii. Parking locator on cell phone- Indoor map on cell phone can help in identifying vacant car parking slots and giving driving direction to that point (8)
iv. Automatic Shopping Cart Billing in Shopping Mall- Instead of item wise billing, whole shopping cart can be billed at once using new bar code identification technology. This will significantly reducing the billing time of customers (9)
Photocopy Centre
Observation
i. Difficulty in selecting pages from book for photocopying. Marking by Post-it notes
ii. Whole book photocopying very laborious process. Page by page book has to be placed on the machine
Business Opportunity
i. Photo copy Automation Selection by Page – If page numbers input can be given like in Windows Printer and respective page numbers are automatically photocopied, this will significantly reduce user pain and increase his satisfaction(10)
ii. Photo copy Automation Complete Photocopying- Extending the above logic, If whole book can be photocopied without manual page changes that will reduce the human labor (11)
Vegetable/ Groceries Market
Observation
i. Generally customers buy grocery from first few vendors, without checking price and availability of the same stuff with other vendors.
ii. If customer find groceries available at lower price - huge dissatisfaction
iii. Vegetable vendors don’t have place to store / cool their vegetables. They keep sprinkling water and try to sell at reduced price in the evening. Some of the vegetable items go wasted.
Business Opportunity
i. Low Cost Community Cold Storage: in Vegetable Markets where vendors can keep their vegetables cool and fresh overnight (12)
ii. Information about price and availability in vegetable/ grocery market by shops on sign board (13)
Car Parking in Houses, Condos
Observation
i. Mostly Open Parking in India
ii. Car owners having hard time in morning: After getting ready for office, cleaning the car in formal wear.
iii. At traffic light junctions, children pretending to clean the cars and asking for tips
Business Opportunity
i. Automatic Car Cleaning Machine: in Apartments where car can just walking and get itself cleaned thru machines without driver getting down, similar to the way it is done in some gas stations (14)
Mobile Operator Shop
Observation
i. Customers trying to understand different pricing plans and trying to figure which is the best deal for them
ii. Dissatisfaction at the end that they are not getting the best plan
Business Opportunity
i. Self adjusting optimal pricing plan: What ever the usage every month, self adjusting plan can automatically adjusts the bill according to most optimal pricing plan. Increase customer satisfaction for best deal (15)
Car Driving
Observation
i. Difficulty in overtaking/ taking turn while driving since cannot know speed of vehicles coming from different directions on same road (without divider)
Business Opportunity
i. Intelligent Windscreen which estimates Speed of vehicle: ahead and coming from opposite side. This can advise real-time best opportunity for overtaking and turning (16)
Shopping at Bargain/ Discount shop
Observation
i. Difficulty in distinguishing original from fakes
Business Opportunity
i. Mobile Image Tester for Counterfeit Products: can help to test any particular object or garment, whether it is original or not. Image tester can verify real-time by product number verification or original seal recognition (17)
Shopping at Super Market
Observation
i. Some customers come to shop alone via shopping list prepared by their spouses/ partner
ii. Calling their spouses / partner from cell phone to discuss the products and hence find it difficult to explain/ describe the product in talk.
iii. Similar scene at other shops (garments, shoes etc) too -Cannot take decision alone in buying new products
Business Opportunity
i. Goggles which can capture and transmit live images or transmission: as seen by eye. By wearing this goggle, whatever scene eyes are seeing is live transmit thru mobile and can have visual joint shopping experience (18)
Calling/ Receiving calls on Cell phone
Observation
i. Call drop off in between conversation
ii. Call cannot get thru because of low signal , higher traffic
iii. Cannot receive the call
iv. Call automatically going to voicemail without ring
Business Opportunity
i. Higher call priority for people who can pay for it: like used to have urgent, lightning call in good old PSTN landline days. High priority call plan will have higher grade of pricing monitored with guaranteed SLA(19)
Experiencing Regular Power Cut in India
Observation
i. Regular Power Cuts – Simple demand and supply problem
ii. Power Cuts treating rich and poor equally
iii. All homes have alternative/ backup arrangement – inverters, generators
iv. All commercial establishments have backup arrangement with more than 24 hours backup – increasing both capital and operations cost
Business Opportunity
i. Higher power availability for customers who can pay for it: Applicable for both homes and businesses at time of power shortage with guaranteed SLA. This will also improve business case of renewable energy at the time of power shortage (20)
Watching Cable/ Satellite TV
Observation
i. Often one catch the good movie or any program episode in the middle
ii. Miss some viewing moments as were attending phone calls, natures call, or some other work
iii. For TV serials, missed few episodes or cannot recollect the last episode
Business Opportunity
i. Ability to Readjust program/ movie from start: like in flight entertainment movie, program can be rewinded from start (21)
ii. Option for viewing last episode / movie : will help in having continuous viewing experience (22)
Shopping with credit, debit or loyalty cards
Observation
i. So many debit and credit cards in wallet
ii. So many loyalty cards from supermarkets, shopping chains, airlines, hotels etc
iii. Wallet has become card storage
iv. Small shop owners / hotels cannot afford loyalty card issuance and management
Business Opportunity
i. Master smart card where new card can be added as software: will be very convenient to carry for customers. Small shop owners and hotels will be able to afford software upload on loyalty cards (23)
Cinema, Entertainment in Small Town/ Rural Area
Observation
i. Single screen cinemas with old pictures,
ii. Villagers gathering around TV shops for watching movies, sports transmission
iii. Have TV, Cable but doesn’t work because of power shortage
iv. Have lower end model – black and white or old colored TV
v. Pirated CDs and DVDs present poor quality
Business Opportunity
i. Open Air Theatres of 50 Pax capacity with Direct Movie/ Sports Telecast: like done by Paid Channels of Satellite TV’s. Small ticket price (24)
TV shops in Town on Cricket/ Football Match day
Observation
i. People gathering around TV shops for watching live sports transmission ( Cricket Football)
ii. Most of the viewers are from lower middle class or daily wage earners
iii. Most of them have lower end mobile phone with non colored screen
Business Opportunity
i. Black and White Live Sports Broadcast for low end mobile phones: So far focus has been on live mobile TV on high end smart phones. In this category, live mobile TV is competing with other devices – Laptops – HDTVS etc. There is market out there where target segment is ready with relatively less competition. Quality can be like analogy of dot matrix printer with laser printer. Since this black and white transmission will be competing against non consumption ,so it should work (25)
Shopping Options and Experience in Small Town, Villages
Observation
i. No shopping malls in small towns, where one can have pleasant shopping experience. No chance of shopping therapy
ii. Some shops are there, but variety and stocks limited because of low demand
iii. Mainly shopping of groceries and household items
iv. Visitors coming and seeing products – white goods or aspirational products, but not buying. Reason as discussed with shopkeepers that visitors go to big town first, see the variety and then come back and buy if cheaper here.
v. Difficult to keep larger variety because of demand and inventory issue
Business Opportunity
i. Mobile Shopping Van Experience : can both act as point of Sales and as pleasant Shopping Experience Therapy for Visitors (26)
ii. Virtual Visual Shopping Catalogue: where shopkeepers can connect customers virtually to larger shops and shopping stores with very large variety. By watching visuals of large variety of products live, customers can make better informed choice (27)
Health Clinic and Pathological testing
Observation
i. Some Local Health Clinics, Physicians don’t have even basic or first level, pathological testing capabilities. They recommend to other labs for testing. Time consuming and uncomfortable process
ii. Testing process is unnatural. One need to isolate and then specifically test at intervals – blood pressure, urine or stool test
Business Opportunity
i. Image Testing: Take samples of blood and test using high image resolution real time for first level testing. Only for level 2 testing, one can go for real sample testing in pathological lab (28)
ii. Automatic testing from pot: Make Pot as network point and automatic first level testing capability of Urine, stool. Can be implemented in homes and also small clinics (29)
iii. Automatic blood pressure, temperature measurement from clothes : Instead of using a separate blood pressure measuring device, thermometer and heartbeat measurement - these parameters can be measured using clothes we wear ( of course with help of some special thread/ fiber) (30)
Updates in Social Networking Site
Observation
i. Social Networking sites contacts from all groups – friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, colleagues, customers, competitors or even strangers
ii. All updates become public to contacts and cannot control homepage visibility by contacts
iii. Limited functionality on some sites to restrict notification or access but not sufficient
Business Opportunity
i. Individual / Group Privacy: where one can control access to any particular activity or update on who to see – by groups or individuals. This will increase the relevance of social sites (31)
Working with E mail
Observation
i. Difficulty in finding contacts across outlook, multiple web emails, social networking sites, mobile phone
Business Opportunity
i. Master Email Address book on clouds: This can access emails from outlook, all email sites, social networking sites and mobile phones. This will be like personal Salesforce.com (32)
Operating Gadgets
Observation
i. So many remotes. Taking large space on table and Confusion on what to use when. (On last count I have 8 remotes in my room- TV, DVD, Music System, Web drive, Cable, Aircon, Digital Frame, Alarm,)
ii. So many chargers (different mobiles, iPod, blackberry) and charging cords (different laptops, netbooks, ereader). Gadgets are increasing every year. Need multiple units for both in office and home and sometime forget while travelling. Also multiple wires gives untidy look
iii. The wall is full of screen gadgets (taking additional space and doesn’t look organized) – TV, Photo frames, computer screen, paintings etc.
iv. Difficulty in accessing music playlist across laptop, mobile, iPod- separate list for each and multiple updation requirement
Business Opportunity
i. Remote master where remote is hardware: and additional gadget functionality is updated as software will decrease number of remote requirements in house (33)
ii. Standardization of Chargers, Universal Wireless chargers: First across product categories - Laptop, mobiles, ebook. Later development of universal charger like international adaptor and making it wireless (34)
iii. Full Wall as virtual screen: from which permanent screen space can be given to different gadgets – TV, computer, video conferencing, multiple photo frames, and electronic board. Size can be increase or decrease like in iPhone if required. (35)
iv. Music List on clouds: which can be accessed by all players and gadgets and can be updated centrally (36)
Communicating with different nationalities on Phone
Observation
i. Language difficulty in communication
ii. Using translating sites to translate and then speak
iii. Pronunciation and usage is not correct
Business Opportunity
i. Automatic Language Translation on Mobile – where real-time basic conversation can be translated from one language to another. That will be true globalization where language constraint will be removed in connected world (37)
Airport and Flight Experience
Observation
i. Some Passengers browsing books in book shop but very few are purchasing books ( Footfall to sales conversion is 10 :1)
ii. Multiple security checks (personal and luggage)- making airport experience unpleasant
iii. Inside aircraft airhostess counting passengers with punch clock multiple times
Business Opportunity
i. Airport security thru E-Nose : can reduce the per person/ baggage multiple security requirements and make airport experience pleasant(38)
ii. Airport Book Rental: Opening chain of book libraries across airports, where passengers can rent books at one airport and can return it at any other airport. Instead of random browsing, passengers will pick up a book or two and read in waiting time and during flight and can return it back upon reaching their destination. The renting fees can be nominal say 10% of the book value or Netflix kind of monthly rental fees. Cell phone images can be used for receipt and identification purpose (39)
iii. Automatic Aircraft passenger counting system: can use count by sensor at aircraft entrance or sensors at passenger seats. This will decrease the counting effort and time by airhostesses (40)
Amusement Park ( Universal Studios)
Observation
i. Full day ticket inclusive of all rides
ii. Waiting time at few rides more than 1 hour.
iii. No centralized real time information to check waiting times at different rides and plan the scheduling…
iv. Have to take round multiple times and suffer disappointment at few rides.
Business Opportunity
i. Amusement park real-time waiting time information: on mobiles or centralized electronic boards (similar to Parking bay information is displayed in parking slots). This can help in planning the activities better and better utilization of all rides (41)
Telemarketing and New Number Calls
Observation
i. Telemarketers calling on mobiles and disturbing. No incentive to listen to marketing call
ii. New number calls are difficult to identify. Always a dilemma worth attending or not, degree of importance
Business Opportunity
i. Telemarketers should pay money to customers for attending their call –This will create incentive alignment between telemarketer and customer to have the conversation. Money can be credited in talking time on customers mobile thru telecom operators (42)
ii. City Telephone directory on cloud: That will give option to cell phone owners to check the details of new numbers real-time that are not in their contact list. The dilemma and anxiety will be reduced and decision of attending the phone can be made much easier (43)
Cheque Deposit in Bank
Observation
i. Queue in bank for cheque deposit
ii. Why cheques are not deposit in ATMs? While banks share their ATMs with other banks for coverage but no sharing of cheque deposit facilities
Business Opportunity
i. Cheque submission by camera mobile phone- by capturing cheque image and sending it to bank personnel. Bank personnel can verify cheque by image recognition and process it accordingly (44)
Health at home
Observation
i. Portable water quality questionable. Even local mineral water supply is not reliable
ii. Fake mineral water bottles present
iii. Gas leakage in home or environment is not detectable
Business Opportunity
i. Glass as potable water tester – can test quality of water daily and transmit data on computer or mobile (45)
ii. Mobile as toxic gas tester – using gas and chemical sensors. This can detect the toxic gas in environment and help in early warning (46)
Ordering at Starbucks
Observation
i. Self service. Long queue for orders
ii. Time is wasted while standing in queue for order and delivery
Business Opportunity
i. Ordering food and beverages by clicking picture from mobile: clicking on sample picture menu and sending picture to order taker at counter will avoid pain of standing in queue. When order arrives, mobile can receive sms back from counter, thus avoiding waiting time at collection counter. Payment can be debited from Mobile only (47)
Net Surfing while travelling
Observation
i. Local internet connection for short period very costly
ii. Buy costly hardware, deposit a minimum a month fee
Business Opportunity
i. Short term internet package for travelers: with daily or weekly package. Usb attachment can be given on rent also (48)
Testing new gadgets iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Mobile
Observation
i. Visitors confused while selecting a new gadget
ii. Asking lot of user experience and performance related questions
iii. Wish they could use it for a day and then decide whether they want to buy
Business Opportunity
i. Gadget Daily Rentals: where new gadgets like iPhone, iPad, new mobile phones, ebook readers can be given on daily rent. This will help customers to test the gadgets before making purchase decision (49)
Locality based emergency communications
Observation
i. Need for official emergency communication – local theft, missing person, natural emergencies, official communication
Business Opportunity
i. Location Based SMS/ MMS system by local authorities: where instant communication can be made to all cell phone owners in given location area. This could lead to timely intervention in detecting and avoiding crimes and other disasters. For missing persons picture MMS can also be send too (50)
I am sure some of these ideas might be getting implemented in some parts of the world and the rest might be in development stages either in garages or in corporate labs. Ideas are function of time, not function of mind!!
Transit Station
Observation
i. Passengers average waiting time 5 minutes
ii. Mostly people having conversation on cellular phone.
iii. Difficulty in getting continuous mobile network signal at few places on station.
iv. Getting disturbed by noise on transit station, hence bringing mouth closer to phone, putting one finger in ear
v. Looking to find some quiet place for cell phone conversation
Business Opportunity
i. Noise Cancellation Functionality: Including noise cancellation device, like in high end headphones, in cell phones will enhance experience of cell phone users in transit station (1)
ii. In building Cellular Base Stations: Using inbuilding cellular base stations, the quality of network signals will improve in transit stations (2)
iii. Private Booth for cell phone talks: Private Booths similar to earlier telephone or STD booths can be placed in transit stations. Commuters can use these booths for cell phone talk for better calling experience talk. This can be supported by advertisement revenue (3)
Restaurant
Observation
i. Waiting time between seating and food served is 30 Mins +
ii. Most customers seek information about food dishes, specialties or recommended best dish from waiters.
iii. Most customer call waiters for three main reasons – Water refill, Menu for additional ordering, Cheque at the end of dinner…Some times when waiters are not available around, little bit of anxiety disturbing the smooth dining experience
Business Opportunity
i. Wireless call button: Wireless call button at each table with four options – Water, Menu, Cheque, Others. This will be both convenient to customers as well as hotel staff (4)
ii. Table as surface computing: Table can act as surface computing with menu details and details about dishes, recommendation, and trivia stuff which can be accessed by touch screen. This will enhance customer experience, help in passing time during waiting period, also will have data for analysis for customer interest and menu changes – which dishes clicked by customers, what trivia interests customers (5)
Shopping Mall
Observation
i. Visitors searching for shops, asking directions for particular shop
ii. Calling on cellphone to ask directions to reach a particular restaurant or to track meeting place with their friends
iii. Visitors trying to find best deals, sales deals…first having a look around mall then deciding to shop
iv. Visitors having difficulty in finding parking slots in the shopping mall parking
v. Visitors billing in supermarket/ cold storage taking lot of time because of long queues.
vi. Surprisingly and ironically customers who are purchasing less items ( less than 10) are given fast checkouts versus large shoppers
Business Opportunity
i. Shopping mall maps on cellphone- like Map functions of google maps, indoor maps of shopping mall can be created with directions monitored by local positioning system. Also for each shop, sales deals can be indicated on the map. This will greatly enhance the shopping experience of visitors (6)
ii. Position locator on maps on cellphone: Functionality on indoor shopping mall maps to locate another person thru his cellphone by local positioning system and automatically getting movement direction to reach to that person. This will enhance the meeting and locating experience in shopping mall (7)
iii. Parking locator on cell phone- Indoor map on cell phone can help in identifying vacant car parking slots and giving driving direction to that point (8)
iv. Automatic Shopping Cart Billing in Shopping Mall- Instead of item wise billing, whole shopping cart can be billed at once using new bar code identification technology. This will significantly reducing the billing time of customers (9)
Photocopy Centre
Observation
i. Difficulty in selecting pages from book for photocopying. Marking by Post-it notes
ii. Whole book photocopying very laborious process. Page by page book has to be placed on the machine
Business Opportunity
i. Photo copy Automation Selection by Page – If page numbers input can be given like in Windows Printer and respective page numbers are automatically photocopied, this will significantly reduce user pain and increase his satisfaction(10)
ii. Photo copy Automation Complete Photocopying- Extending the above logic, If whole book can be photocopied without manual page changes that will reduce the human labor (11)
Vegetable/ Groceries Market
Observation
i. Generally customers buy grocery from first few vendors, without checking price and availability of the same stuff with other vendors.
ii. If customer find groceries available at lower price - huge dissatisfaction
iii. Vegetable vendors don’t have place to store / cool their vegetables. They keep sprinkling water and try to sell at reduced price in the evening. Some of the vegetable items go wasted.
Business Opportunity
i. Low Cost Community Cold Storage: in Vegetable Markets where vendors can keep their vegetables cool and fresh overnight (12)
ii. Information about price and availability in vegetable/ grocery market by shops on sign board (13)
Car Parking in Houses, Condos
Observation
i. Mostly Open Parking in India
ii. Car owners having hard time in morning: After getting ready for office, cleaning the car in formal wear.
iii. At traffic light junctions, children pretending to clean the cars and asking for tips
Business Opportunity
i. Automatic Car Cleaning Machine: in Apartments where car can just walking and get itself cleaned thru machines without driver getting down, similar to the way it is done in some gas stations (14)
Mobile Operator Shop
Observation
i. Customers trying to understand different pricing plans and trying to figure which is the best deal for them
ii. Dissatisfaction at the end that they are not getting the best plan
Business Opportunity
i. Self adjusting optimal pricing plan: What ever the usage every month, self adjusting plan can automatically adjusts the bill according to most optimal pricing plan. Increase customer satisfaction for best deal (15)
Car Driving
Observation
i. Difficulty in overtaking/ taking turn while driving since cannot know speed of vehicles coming from different directions on same road (without divider)
Business Opportunity
i. Intelligent Windscreen which estimates Speed of vehicle: ahead and coming from opposite side. This can advise real-time best opportunity for overtaking and turning (16)
Shopping at Bargain/ Discount shop
Observation
i. Difficulty in distinguishing original from fakes
Business Opportunity
i. Mobile Image Tester for Counterfeit Products: can help to test any particular object or garment, whether it is original or not. Image tester can verify real-time by product number verification or original seal recognition (17)
Shopping at Super Market
Observation
i. Some customers come to shop alone via shopping list prepared by their spouses/ partner
ii. Calling their spouses / partner from cell phone to discuss the products and hence find it difficult to explain/ describe the product in talk.
iii. Similar scene at other shops (garments, shoes etc) too -Cannot take decision alone in buying new products
Business Opportunity
i. Goggles which can capture and transmit live images or transmission: as seen by eye. By wearing this goggle, whatever scene eyes are seeing is live transmit thru mobile and can have visual joint shopping experience (18)
Calling/ Receiving calls on Cell phone
Observation
i. Call drop off in between conversation
ii. Call cannot get thru because of low signal , higher traffic
iii. Cannot receive the call
iv. Call automatically going to voicemail without ring
Business Opportunity
i. Higher call priority for people who can pay for it: like used to have urgent, lightning call in good old PSTN landline days. High priority call plan will have higher grade of pricing monitored with guaranteed SLA(19)
Experiencing Regular Power Cut in India
Observation
i. Regular Power Cuts – Simple demand and supply problem
ii. Power Cuts treating rich and poor equally
iii. All homes have alternative/ backup arrangement – inverters, generators
iv. All commercial establishments have backup arrangement with more than 24 hours backup – increasing both capital and operations cost
Business Opportunity
i. Higher power availability for customers who can pay for it: Applicable for both homes and businesses at time of power shortage with guaranteed SLA. This will also improve business case of renewable energy at the time of power shortage (20)
Watching Cable/ Satellite TV
Observation
i. Often one catch the good movie or any program episode in the middle
ii. Miss some viewing moments as were attending phone calls, natures call, or some other work
iii. For TV serials, missed few episodes or cannot recollect the last episode
Business Opportunity
i. Ability to Readjust program/ movie from start: like in flight entertainment movie, program can be rewinded from start (21)
ii. Option for viewing last episode / movie : will help in having continuous viewing experience (22)
Shopping with credit, debit or loyalty cards
Observation
i. So many debit and credit cards in wallet
ii. So many loyalty cards from supermarkets, shopping chains, airlines, hotels etc
iii. Wallet has become card storage
iv. Small shop owners / hotels cannot afford loyalty card issuance and management
Business Opportunity
i. Master smart card where new card can be added as software: will be very convenient to carry for customers. Small shop owners and hotels will be able to afford software upload on loyalty cards (23)
Cinema, Entertainment in Small Town/ Rural Area
Observation
i. Single screen cinemas with old pictures,
ii. Villagers gathering around TV shops for watching movies, sports transmission
iii. Have TV, Cable but doesn’t work because of power shortage
iv. Have lower end model – black and white or old colored TV
v. Pirated CDs and DVDs present poor quality
Business Opportunity
i. Open Air Theatres of 50 Pax capacity with Direct Movie/ Sports Telecast: like done by Paid Channels of Satellite TV’s. Small ticket price (24)
TV shops in Town on Cricket/ Football Match day
Observation
i. People gathering around TV shops for watching live sports transmission ( Cricket Football)
ii. Most of the viewers are from lower middle class or daily wage earners
iii. Most of them have lower end mobile phone with non colored screen
Business Opportunity
i. Black and White Live Sports Broadcast for low end mobile phones: So far focus has been on live mobile TV on high end smart phones. In this category, live mobile TV is competing with other devices – Laptops – HDTVS etc. There is market out there where target segment is ready with relatively less competition. Quality can be like analogy of dot matrix printer with laser printer. Since this black and white transmission will be competing against non consumption ,so it should work (25)
Shopping Options and Experience in Small Town, Villages
Observation
i. No shopping malls in small towns, where one can have pleasant shopping experience. No chance of shopping therapy
ii. Some shops are there, but variety and stocks limited because of low demand
iii. Mainly shopping of groceries and household items
iv. Visitors coming and seeing products – white goods or aspirational products, but not buying. Reason as discussed with shopkeepers that visitors go to big town first, see the variety and then come back and buy if cheaper here.
v. Difficult to keep larger variety because of demand and inventory issue
Business Opportunity
i. Mobile Shopping Van Experience : can both act as point of Sales and as pleasant Shopping Experience Therapy for Visitors (26)
ii. Virtual Visual Shopping Catalogue: where shopkeepers can connect customers virtually to larger shops and shopping stores with very large variety. By watching visuals of large variety of products live, customers can make better informed choice (27)
Health Clinic and Pathological testing
Observation
i. Some Local Health Clinics, Physicians don’t have even basic or first level, pathological testing capabilities. They recommend to other labs for testing. Time consuming and uncomfortable process
ii. Testing process is unnatural. One need to isolate and then specifically test at intervals – blood pressure, urine or stool test
Business Opportunity
i. Image Testing: Take samples of blood and test using high image resolution real time for first level testing. Only for level 2 testing, one can go for real sample testing in pathological lab (28)
ii. Automatic testing from pot: Make Pot as network point and automatic first level testing capability of Urine, stool. Can be implemented in homes and also small clinics (29)
iii. Automatic blood pressure, temperature measurement from clothes : Instead of using a separate blood pressure measuring device, thermometer and heartbeat measurement - these parameters can be measured using clothes we wear ( of course with help of some special thread/ fiber) (30)
Updates in Social Networking Site
Observation
i. Social Networking sites contacts from all groups – friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, colleagues, customers, competitors or even strangers
ii. All updates become public to contacts and cannot control homepage visibility by contacts
iii. Limited functionality on some sites to restrict notification or access but not sufficient
Business Opportunity
i. Individual / Group Privacy: where one can control access to any particular activity or update on who to see – by groups or individuals. This will increase the relevance of social sites (31)
Working with E mail
Observation
i. Difficulty in finding contacts across outlook, multiple web emails, social networking sites, mobile phone
Business Opportunity
i. Master Email Address book on clouds: This can access emails from outlook, all email sites, social networking sites and mobile phones. This will be like personal Salesforce.com (32)
Operating Gadgets
Observation
i. So many remotes. Taking large space on table and Confusion on what to use when. (On last count I have 8 remotes in my room- TV, DVD, Music System, Web drive, Cable, Aircon, Digital Frame, Alarm,)
ii. So many chargers (different mobiles, iPod, blackberry) and charging cords (different laptops, netbooks, ereader). Gadgets are increasing every year. Need multiple units for both in office and home and sometime forget while travelling. Also multiple wires gives untidy look
iii. The wall is full of screen gadgets (taking additional space and doesn’t look organized) – TV, Photo frames, computer screen, paintings etc.
iv. Difficulty in accessing music playlist across laptop, mobile, iPod- separate list for each and multiple updation requirement
Business Opportunity
i. Remote master where remote is hardware: and additional gadget functionality is updated as software will decrease number of remote requirements in house (33)
ii. Standardization of Chargers, Universal Wireless chargers: First across product categories - Laptop, mobiles, ebook. Later development of universal charger like international adaptor and making it wireless (34)
iii. Full Wall as virtual screen: from which permanent screen space can be given to different gadgets – TV, computer, video conferencing, multiple photo frames, and electronic board. Size can be increase or decrease like in iPhone if required. (35)
iv. Music List on clouds: which can be accessed by all players and gadgets and can be updated centrally (36)
Communicating with different nationalities on Phone
Observation
i. Language difficulty in communication
ii. Using translating sites to translate and then speak
iii. Pronunciation and usage is not correct
Business Opportunity
i. Automatic Language Translation on Mobile – where real-time basic conversation can be translated from one language to another. That will be true globalization where language constraint will be removed in connected world (37)
Airport and Flight Experience
Observation
i. Some Passengers browsing books in book shop but very few are purchasing books ( Footfall to sales conversion is 10 :1)
ii. Multiple security checks (personal and luggage)- making airport experience unpleasant
iii. Inside aircraft airhostess counting passengers with punch clock multiple times
Business Opportunity
i. Airport security thru E-Nose : can reduce the per person/ baggage multiple security requirements and make airport experience pleasant(38)
ii. Airport Book Rental: Opening chain of book libraries across airports, where passengers can rent books at one airport and can return it at any other airport. Instead of random browsing, passengers will pick up a book or two and read in waiting time and during flight and can return it back upon reaching their destination. The renting fees can be nominal say 10% of the book value or Netflix kind of monthly rental fees. Cell phone images can be used for receipt and identification purpose (39)
iii. Automatic Aircraft passenger counting system: can use count by sensor at aircraft entrance or sensors at passenger seats. This will decrease the counting effort and time by airhostesses (40)
Amusement Park ( Universal Studios)
Observation
i. Full day ticket inclusive of all rides
ii. Waiting time at few rides more than 1 hour.
iii. No centralized real time information to check waiting times at different rides and plan the scheduling…
iv. Have to take round multiple times and suffer disappointment at few rides.
Business Opportunity
i. Amusement park real-time waiting time information: on mobiles or centralized electronic boards (similar to Parking bay information is displayed in parking slots). This can help in planning the activities better and better utilization of all rides (41)
Telemarketing and New Number Calls
Observation
i. Telemarketers calling on mobiles and disturbing. No incentive to listen to marketing call
ii. New number calls are difficult to identify. Always a dilemma worth attending or not, degree of importance
Business Opportunity
i. Telemarketers should pay money to customers for attending their call –This will create incentive alignment between telemarketer and customer to have the conversation. Money can be credited in talking time on customers mobile thru telecom operators (42)
ii. City Telephone directory on cloud: That will give option to cell phone owners to check the details of new numbers real-time that are not in their contact list. The dilemma and anxiety will be reduced and decision of attending the phone can be made much easier (43)
Cheque Deposit in Bank
Observation
i. Queue in bank for cheque deposit
ii. Why cheques are not deposit in ATMs? While banks share their ATMs with other banks for coverage but no sharing of cheque deposit facilities
Business Opportunity
i. Cheque submission by camera mobile phone- by capturing cheque image and sending it to bank personnel. Bank personnel can verify cheque by image recognition and process it accordingly (44)
Health at home
Observation
i. Portable water quality questionable. Even local mineral water supply is not reliable
ii. Fake mineral water bottles present
iii. Gas leakage in home or environment is not detectable
Business Opportunity
i. Glass as potable water tester – can test quality of water daily and transmit data on computer or mobile (45)
ii. Mobile as toxic gas tester – using gas and chemical sensors. This can detect the toxic gas in environment and help in early warning (46)
Ordering at Starbucks
Observation
i. Self service. Long queue for orders
ii. Time is wasted while standing in queue for order and delivery
Business Opportunity
i. Ordering food and beverages by clicking picture from mobile: clicking on sample picture menu and sending picture to order taker at counter will avoid pain of standing in queue. When order arrives, mobile can receive sms back from counter, thus avoiding waiting time at collection counter. Payment can be debited from Mobile only (47)
Net Surfing while travelling
Observation
i. Local internet connection for short period very costly
ii. Buy costly hardware, deposit a minimum a month fee
Business Opportunity
i. Short term internet package for travelers: with daily or weekly package. Usb attachment can be given on rent also (48)
Testing new gadgets iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Mobile
Observation
i. Visitors confused while selecting a new gadget
ii. Asking lot of user experience and performance related questions
iii. Wish they could use it for a day and then decide whether they want to buy
Business Opportunity
i. Gadget Daily Rentals: where new gadgets like iPhone, iPad, new mobile phones, ebook readers can be given on daily rent. This will help customers to test the gadgets before making purchase decision (49)
Locality based emergency communications
Observation
i. Need for official emergency communication – local theft, missing person, natural emergencies, official communication
Business Opportunity
i. Location Based SMS/ MMS system by local authorities: where instant communication can be made to all cell phone owners in given location area. This could lead to timely intervention in detecting and avoiding crimes and other disasters. For missing persons picture MMS can also be send too (50)
I am sure some of these ideas might be getting implemented in some parts of the world and the rest might be in development stages either in garages or in corporate labs. Ideas are function of time, not function of mind!!
Read: WHO IS THAT LADY?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Little bit of information of my new book:
"WHO IS THAT LADY?"
Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/WhoIsThatLady
A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"
Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"
The book is about an idea that is converted into a billion dollar business, about a belief that an idea can be implemented and about formulating right strategy for converting an idea into a business. The plot harmoniously weaves around complex business fundamentals, required to set up, run and make a business successful, presented in lucid, easy to understand style. The novel is about implementation, about challenges that can be overcome, about success, about friendship, about passion, and about fun above all! All in all a hilarious and inspiring story on entrepreneurship and idea possibilities!
The book has got good and encouraging reviews from readers so far.
Dr. T. R. Madanmohan ( Ex Associate Professor IIM Bangalore ) says, “Reading ‘Who is that lady?’ brought vividly the moments of celebration and anguish of "identification of business opportunity", validation and construction of business model and implementation. A wonderful, written as a novel, that should be read by all current and future business leaders. Wish the book was available around 2005 for my class of Managing Technology led business at IIM Bangalore. I am sure the class would have devoured and gained much more from the book.”
Sathish Sheshadri ( Management Consultant at IBM) says, “India is renowned for using stories to convey great life lessons. Who is that Lady could well become such a legendary story on the topic of innovation and entrepreneurship. Everyone from students to CEOs will find a lot to reflect on, from the pearls of wisdom that the authors have shared through the protagonist, Pratik.”
Major Pooja Gupta says, “The book makes you think... if there is anything in this world which is impossible.”
Subir Dhar (Principal Consultant at Infosys) says, “This book will inspire India ’s restless youth to take up entrepreneurship.”
Neerav Nimesh (Entrepreneur) says, “An entertaining book, which is not only a good novel but also a very good book on management. The author has been able to explain the fundamentals of every aspect of business whether marketing, planning, strategy, organizational structure, H.R., lines of communication, team work, goal setting etc and has done so without appearing to dispense "gyan".
Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
