Cross Over The Bridge
by Phil Phillips, PhD
Contributing Editor
Chemark Consulting
Agood friend of mine who happens to be in investment banking uses the term “cross over the bridge” when referring
to start up companies entering the market place
and need investment capital.
Making the
transition from idea
to the marketplace.
What does he mean in this context?
To understand and to provide some guidance to those persons or startup firms who
have a potentially unique product or service
offering idea, this column will provide some
situational guideposts.
If you have read some of my past columns I
refer often to the always attributable three questions one must answer to qualify a product or
service idea as a “real” opportunity:
1. Is it real?
2. Can we win?
3. Is it worth it?
Let’s assume in the market, there is a bona
fide need and or want; the customer can and will
buy; there is a product idea and, it can be made.
What more could we need to bring this product
to market successfully?
Well, we have one more critical sub-question
to answer and two more major questions to address before we can cross-over-the-bridge into a
successful product and or service launch.
The ultra-critical sub-question is the last part
of the, “Is it real?,” question, and is, “Will it satisfy the market?
An offering organization can perform all
the lab tests it desires, including scale up into
a product offering but, if the product is not
fully vetted in and of the commercial market
environment by the targeted end-users and on
their terms, it cannot cross-over-the-bridge
successfully.
This stipulation is especially true in mature
industries such as the appliance, agriculture
equipment, extruded mill shapes and yes, the
paints, coatings, adhesives and sealants indus-
try. These industries have, in their collective
minds, “seen it all” and they want proof of per-
formance on their terms, and until totally vet-
ted by this industry, it’s a “lab curiosity.”
The first question, “Is it real?,” deals with the
sub-questions, “ Is the market real?,” and, “Is the
product real?”
The options left to these innovative startups are:
60 | Coatings World
www.coatingsworld.com
April 2012
