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Business Review - 30 Seconds To Success

Making revolutionary ideas bite-sized is critical for them to become a reality.

Dr. Greg Leman helps people dream big by teaching them how to make ideas bite-sized. As director of launch, an innovative business accelerator, Leman says a great idea needs to be concise enough to fit on a cocktail napkin.

“What you can write on a napkin is the core of your business and its whole future. What is this massive problem that I am passionate to fix, that I think I’ve got a solution for?  And the second thing is:

why am I going to win if I do this? It’s a lot like giving a thirty-second elevator speech.”

The reason to narrow the focus of a great business idea is two-fold, Leman says.

“For yourself, you need to know where true north is. What am I trying to accomplish in the world, and what’s my path to get there, what’s my path all about.” 

Leman recommends talking to potential customers early in the process to help clarify the purpose and the path.  A successful business plan will showcase both the problem and the solution, connecting with people in a way that is deliberate and precise.

“Everybody you talk to needs to be able to get it really quickly. They need to be compelled by what you say.  If it’s just a song you hear playing in your own head but nobody else can get it, then they won’t join you and you won’t make progress. Until you can say that in a way that other people say, “Oooh, I want to know more about that,” then you know you’re not ready to go past the napkin yet.”

The Business Review is a production of KWBU, Livingston and McKay, and the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.