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Questions for Andrea Kates, Founder, Business Genome™
Tell us in a couple of sentences what the Business Genome project is all about.
I have been working for more than 20 years to identify business ideas associated with success and rapid growth that could conceivably be applied to a wider spectrum of business opportunities.
It seems so foreign to some of the people I’ve worked with over the years that a great idea from one context can be used very powerfully in another context, even in a different industry. The lessons you learn from a great waiting room experience, for instance, can be tapped to create businesses like Jiffy Lube. Or, look at the gradual evolution from cooking at home to eating in restaurants to grabbing fast food to casual dining to gourmet carry out. Or, consider the possibilities that RFID offers to the whole world of commerce. I’ve also been interested in the collisions, intersections, adjacencies and transformations that happen when seemingly unrelated facts or business situations create a big bang, and sometimes lead to extinctions of whole industries like vinyl records and faxes. Business Genome™ is designed to monitor the movement of forces that lead to growth. With Business Genome, people can sort through data in much more interesting ways, so that their hunches can be tested to accelerate growth in their own companies. |
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This concept sounds huge--what makes you think you can do this?
First of all, I specialize in data patterns and metaphors, so I can squint at facts and look creatively at possibilities. Second, I’m not arrogant???I don’t think that Business Genome can provide hard, fast answers. It’s really a mechanism for asking questions in a totally different way. Third, it’s about creating a community that links lots of existing data and lots of businesses and lots of people in new ways.
What does the Business Genome™ engine do today? What will it do in the future?
Today, the Business Genome™ engine attracts data into a central repository and makes it easy for business leaders to see patterns, determine where different types of data intersect and track how lots of other businesses are reacting, both from an economic perspective and from a product creation and distribution perspective. Business Genome overlays financial data so that we can start to trace the DNA of successful business ideas. Right now, it’s a tool for exploration and comparison. It’s based on thinking about possibilities using a different set of questions. Once we characterize the basic genomic structures of lots of business situations, we’ll be able to offer a much more powerful set of lenses for reading the world of business today and thinking through ideas for the next opportunity. Business Genome™ helps people move beyond the mindset that ideas for the future come only from analyzing past results. We allow people to see new trends, successful innovations, and emerging issues and implant promising ideas into their own companies.
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www.business-genome.com
Business Genome™
is based on thinking
about possibilities using
a different set of
questions. Once we
characterize the basic
genomic structures of
lots of business
situations, we’ll be able
to offer a much more
powerful set of lenses
for reading the world of
business today and
thinking through ideas
for the next growth
opportunity. |
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Why now? Why hasn’t anyone ever done this before?
I’ve been attending TED for a few years (Technology, Entertainment, Design: www.ted.com) and it struck me that the conditions were right to synthesize new technologies into a tool to accelerate business growth. It’s really a natural evolution of how tools have progressed over the past 5 years or so. The tools of the trade in the old days weren’t designed to project the possibility of a black swan. They were designed with the notion that you had to know which fish you were looking for before you could pick the right single pole to fish for it. Remember when you had to ask, “which is selling better, Cheer or Tide”, when what you really needed to find out was a bit fuzzier… ”Where might there be new business opportunities related to laundry? Technology has enabled us to deal with the grey area much more powerfully. ”
How is Business Genome™ different from data mining?
Business Genometm is dynamic and takes input from a constantly varying community of business leaders looking for a new edge by learning about the experiences of others. Business Genome views the same dataset in a completely different manner depending on the context and perspective. Business Genome produces hunches that are constantly tested against the experiences of other users in a Wiki-like collaborative environment.
Tell us about your personal background.
What led you to creating Business Genome™?
In 1989, I founded a consulting firm, SUMA Partners (www.suma.com) and Business Genome is the tool that captures the insights learned from 250+ projects. I don’t usually tell my corporate clients (AIG, Shell, Continental Airlines, Audi, Brinker International) that I started as a choreographer, studied with Twyla Tharp, and founded a dance company at age 20. Or, that I worked at PBS and then became an Emmy-winning television producer in the medical arena. I usually start with the MBA and expert systems and quantitative analysis and aggregate market research background so that they feel comfortable.
Why genome?
Each business has a history, a philosophy, a progressive series of business models, a corporate culture, a market sweet spot and unique approaches to distribution and product development. This represents the “business genome” of each company. Our engine makes comparisons across different regions of this “business genome” to find specific gene clusters that are more likely to lead to success.
What’s next?
Once we finish the beta version of the Business Genometm engine, we’ll start to collect “use cases” that apply the tool to rapid growth companies. We’ve got a few sites committed: Seattle, LA, Houston, New York. Next, we’ll go live. And then, the magic will begin.
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www.business-genome.com
Business Genome™
helps people move
beyond the mindset that
ideas for the future come
only from analyzing past
results. We allow people
to see new trends,
successful innovations,
and emerging issues and
implant promising ideas
into their own companies.
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