23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources with VRIN Analysis:

1.     Passion

·      Passion is valuable because it drives one to achieve what they want done. Not everybody who has a goal in mind has enough passion to go through the hardships or challenges necessary. You cannot substitute passion. However, one can try to imitate it, but will not succeed if they do not have their own.

2.     Experience with the issue

·      When one has personal experience with the issue that they are trying to resolve, it is beneficial because they have the targeted customer’s perspective. Those that do not have this perspective usually find it more challenging to meet the customers’ needs because they do not fully understand it. There are no other resources than can provide the same benefits that personal experience does and it is hard to imitate.

3.     Goal-orientation

·      Being goal-oriented is very valuable because it makes a plan toward that goal clearer. Without a clear goal, there is no set way to approach it. This is rare. Many business start-ups fail because they do not approach it in the right way, due to lack of a stable and set goal. All goals are different, which make them inimitable and non-substitutable.

4.     Good problem-solving skills

·      Problem-solving skills are crucial in order to successfully start a business. There are constant problems that will arise. Having the sufficient skills to solve difficult problems puts one at a higher advantage over their competition and is rare. Not everybody has enough exposure to problem solving; therefore, it is difficult to imitate and substitute because everybody approaches particular problems differently.

5.     Value of the customer

·      Many people who start up a business are only concerned about the business’ own profit, rather than their customers. Empathizing and putting in an excess of effort into the customers’ needs is very important in order to succeed. Companies that end up well in the long run put their customers first, and many fail because they put themselves first.

6.     Adaptability

·      The ability to adapt is important because the world constantly changing. For instance, technology is rapidly booming. Adaptability is rare because not every company can keep up with such a fast-changing environment. People cannot imitate adaptability because each company adapts in its own way, depending on the type of company it is. Adaptability cannot be substituted – a company has the ability to adapt or not.

7.     Teamwork/collaborative skills

·      Having teamworking capabilities are essential in order to keep a business running or to simply start one up. One must work with others in order to get things done because not everything is done alone. This is rare because not everybody can work with others and are more efficient doing things themselves. Others are also impatient with people whose working skills do not line up with theirs. Teamwork is can be learned; therefore, it can be imitated. It cannot be substituted.  

8.     Connections

·      Knowing the right people leads to many open doors. Networking allows a company to expand and have others on its side. It can be very rare to find the right people, especially at the right time. It is also hard to imitate knowing the same type of people and to substitute them because each connection is different.

9.     Funds

·      Without having the funds, a company cannot start up. It is not rare because there are a plethora of ways to find money. For example, one may raise money from investors. It cannot be substituted because money is money. However, it can be imitated.

10.  Organized

·      One must be organized in order to start a business or it will get messy and fail. Not everybody is organized. However, it is not hard to learn how to be organized and it is easy to imitate. You cannot substitute organizational skills.