[AI-Driven New Business Creation] The Challenges of New Business Development

Hello to everyone visiting the Qualiteg blog. I am Michele. Working on AI-driven new business development and marketing, I frequently receive certain questions from clients. Through this blog, I would like to offer my own answers to the challenges that anyone considering an AI-based business is likely to face.

Many companies want to pursue new business development to take their organization to the next level, yet at the same time we hear from many that, while they want to work on new business, they cannot come up with good ideas, or they do not know how to turn the ideas they do have into a business case. Today, I would like to discuss the challenges most commonly shared by our clients in the course of our new business development consulting.

Challenge 1: No Clear Method for Exploring New Business

• We do not know the procedures or frameworks for service planning
• Our "planning" work has been about successor models or feature extensions of previous products, so we do not know how to generate ideas from scratch
• We can do market research after a fashion, but we do not know how to connect it to anything
• We were told to "do DX" with the solution decided in advance, but we do not know where to start

Challenge 2: No Clear Method for Generating Ideas That Leverage Our Strengths

• We do not know how to generate ideas
• We do not know how to refine our ideas
• We do not know how to understand our target users
• We end up imitating ideas that other companies are already doing

Evolving technology, shifting markets, diversifying customer needs: the environment surrounding companies is changing rapidly. Qualiteg's Innovation-Cross is a co-creation support program for adapting to and getting ahead of this change. Through current-state analysis and trend research, we forecast future changes and formulate strategies for transformations that are "difficult to tackle alone."

Through idea workshops we explore creative responses to change, and through open innovation and partner development we foster collaboration with external players at the forefront of that change. Our experienced expert consultants, including support for leveraging cutting-edge AI technology, design innovative approaches that turn change into an opportunity rather than a threat. Rather than being at the mercy of change, make change your ally: we bring about that turning point through the power of co-creation.

Challenge 3: No Clear Method for Commercialization That Actually Contributes to Revenue

• Even when new proposals come out of ideathons or workshops, they end there
• We have no one who can turn ideas into a business model
• Even when ideas emerge, they often fade away without ever leading to sales or profit
• Most ideas are small in scale, nothing emerges that could become a future pillar of the business, and we cannot win management's approval

To summarize the challenges we hear most often, the three points above are what companies are struggling with. I plan to explain how to address each of them in detail in subsequent articles.

Thank you very much for reading this column to the end. At Qualiteg, we provide training and consulting on AI technology and new business planning methods. If this has piqued your interest, or if you have specific requests, please feel free to contact us via the inquiry form here.

We also run a well-received workshop for those who want to master the steps of new business creation. The training focuses on having each participant think about the business from an executive's point of view, and the content is designed not only for planning staff but also for their counterparts in engineering, design, and marketing.

We sincerely look forward to hearing from you. Please stay tuned for the next column.