90% of startup initiatives fail because they are unable to find a profitable market that scales.
Startups Fail When
- They develop a solution for a problem that no one cares about or would pay to fix.
- They overdevelop and run out of cash before building something a customer would want to buy.
- There aren’t enough customers to sustain revenue growth.
Startups Succeed When
- They save time by executing a disciplined process for validating product/market fit.
- They save money by executing agile product development.
- They rapidly grow revenue by implementing a repeatable/scalable sales process.
Cognicient prepares your startup for the opposition it will face when you begin your mission to take market share from established global competitors. These two opposing forces (OPFOR) will manifest as:
Internal Opposition
Threatens your right to exist and affects your adaptability and ability to execute. i.e., Corporate culture, customers, competitors, suppliers, the market, and channels, etc.
External Opposition
Threatens your right to continued existence as well as your ability to scale. i.e., Population and Demographics, economics, socio-cultural, technology, legal, political and environmental concerns, etc.
Cognicient is a lean market development advisory that guides the strategic and tactical operational decisions of business leaders who struggle against the oppositional forces (OPFOR) that threaten their existence. We leverage seasoned cross-industry domain expertise (Retail Distribution, Healthcare, Public Sector, etc.), high-tech domain expertise (Big Data, Cognitive Computing, Decision Management, etc.) to deliver the game-changing business results that our client’s demand.
Developing a bulletproof profitable business model that scales is vital to building a defensible startup. To help our clients achieve those goals we are actively pursuing four global strategic initiatives:
Cognicient Lean Market Development Framework
The Cognicient Lean Market Development Framework is a management consulting methodology that turns innovative ideas into profitable business models that scale. Our seasoned team domain experts leverage this framework to help our clients reduce the time, money and resources needed to bring innovation to market.
Project Acumen: Cognitive Business War Games
Project Acumen is a global initiative that will harness the power of cognitive computing to automate the market development process. We will offer an operational business war game that brings the realism, the training, and the expert coaching strategy of a military war game into the daily collaborative process of creating a successful startup.
Cognicient Global Advisory
Cognicient Global Advisory is a team of subject matter experts (SME) who offer advice across industry (i.e., Retail Distribution, Healthcare, etc.), across technology (Data Science, Cognitive Computing, Advanced Analytics, etc.) and across business function (Market Development, Systems Integration, Strategic Planning, etc.). They provide the thought leadership and practical know-how needed to deliver measurable and sustainable business value to our clients.
Cognicient Partner Ecosystem
TheCognicient Partner Ecosystem is a global business initiative focused on recruiting a diverse team of global business partners and alliances capable of designing, developing and implementing our cognitive computing system application framework. Our global partners offer best of breed cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, professional services, advanced analytics, systems integration, application development, world-class technical support, training and education.
There are 3 levels that a startup must aspire to reach before it can justify to stakeholders is worthy of financial support in the pursuit of market dominance. They include:
Level 1: Discovering Your Market
- Focus on a major problem your target market is experiencing and develop a series of hypothesis that describes its current impact.
- Confirm the depth of the problem with a small group of customers and acquire their perspective.
- Determine the size of the market that is experiencing this problem.
- Develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that expresses how your solution solves that problem.
- Confirm how well the MVP solves the primary problem with a small group of customers.
- Develop a business model scorecard hypothesis that defines your go to market strategy and success metrics.
Level 2: Validating Your Market
- Confirm the size and interest of your target market with a larger group of early adopters.
- Develop and test a polished MVP that includes key features based on customer feedback.
- Formulate and test a sales/marketing roadmap that generates 2x+ more revenue than costs incurred.
- Pursue an agile solution development strategy that reduces time to market and conserves cash.
- Develop a demand creation plan and test customer willingness to “pay.”
- Update business model scorecard and confirm roadmap to scalability.
Level 3: Scaling Your Market
- Creates end-user demand and drive it into your preferred sales channel by executing an aggressive marketing strategy.
- Hire business executives and subject matter experts to lead formal business units and execute the validated business model strategy.
- Enhance market capabilities and competitive position by pursuing complementary merger and acquisition targets.
- Establish local community affiliations that increase brand visibility, customer intimacy, and market awareness.
- Pursue international partnerships that expand global reach and reduce revenue portfolio risk.
- Accelerate your speed to market and speed of customer acquisition by recruiting a diverse advisory board.
Cognicient Cognitive Computing Partner Ecosystem
Delivering the next generation of customer experience and building an operational augmented intelligence framework requires teamwork on a global level. Cognicient is building a global team of futurist, domain experts, market leaders, system integrators, advanced analytics professionals, industry analysts and technology domain experts. Join the team this is gearing up to disrupt the management consulting industry.