In the startup world, we look for indicators which could be catalytic for the success of any idea. Besides the team, execution capability, and the playbook, if those indicators are not there, the startup will fail. As a result of that, most strategists think that timing the market is where you separate the boys/girls from the men/women.
And that timing means understanding that without smartphones in Nigeria, we would not have the fintech era as we do. It is having the awareness that without logistics in Okigwe that an ecommerce business will struggle there. So, the timing is essentially making sure that you are launching that business at a specific period when other factors are available to cushion its success. Yes, VR/AR may be a great idea today in Nigeria but the timing is way off right now!
In this Tekedia piece, Samuel Ajiboyede posits: “A study conducted about reasons startups fail showed that timing accounts for 42 percent of team successes or failures in any business, higher than any other factor. The timing was seen to be more important than execution, funding, team, and even the idea. More than every other factor, timing is most critical to the success or failure of any startup.”
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Pay attention to all the factors around that business.
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Comment 1: How can Timing be more important than the very Idea it’s complementing? Isn’t that a fallacious thing to say? It’s like saying that a means is more important than its end. What good is a Cause that has no Effect or a Means to no End? These things work hand in hand. The means is equally as important as the end.
Likewise, the role Timing plays, as means to an end, in the success of an Idea or a Mission cannot be overemphasised. We live in a 4 dimensional universe in which Time is the 4th Dimension. It maybe abstract and seemingly unreal, but its impact can be Felt and Measured in every actionable event and that makes it very real.
It’s real in mathematics and every branch of science. It’s real for the meals cooking in the kitchen and the elements doing the cooking, it’s real for every musical note on any music sheet, it’s real for the atoms and molecules of our bodies that are constantly in motion, it’s real for our every programs, meetings, events and church schedules, it’s real for everyone and everything that happens in our day to affairs, so why wouldn’t it be real for Ideation and Innovation? You ignore Time at your own peril.
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