Game Plan

Tony Wanless is the business mind behind Game Plan, the BCBusiness column that seeks to craft a DIY lesson out of a tale of business success or failure in BC. Each month, Wanless goes to the Game Plan blackboard; go with him to see all that's light and dark in entrepreneurship in BC.

May 07, 2012 Game Plan: Technology

Tio Networks: The Continuous Pivot

Successful growth depends on maintaining the agility of a startup.

When new businesses change direction to find better markets or other revenue-generating opportunities, it is usually referred to as a “pivot.” However, as business conditions change ever more rapidly, larger and established businesses are also continuously pivoting to take advantage of changing market conditions and business landscapes. Tio Networks Corp., a North Vancouver company that has been operating for almost 15 years, has pivoted several times.

The Problem

By 2008, Tio, formerly known as Info Touch...

April 02, 2012 Game Plan: Mobile and Wireless

Roam Mobility: From Prototype to Profit

To succeed, think like an automaker: take your idea for a test run.

The old saying about ideas being worth a dime a dozen is particularly true in the world of entrepreneurship. For every thousand people with an idea for a business, maybe a dozen will actually build a viable one.

The Problem

Like many others, Emir Aboulhosn, a Vancouver software engineer who often worked in the U.S., had an idea. Feeling he was paying too much in roaming fees while using his cellphone in the U.S., he wanted to create a business that would provide Canadians with a more cost-effective method.

The...

March 05, 2012 Game Plan: Start Ups

Business Startups: Back To Basics

A Squamish business startup learns a lesson about carts and horses.

Business startups often begin with a plan to develop a product on the workbench and then bring it to market. But testing that product in the crucible of the marketplace sometimes reveals that potential customers have a widely differing idea of how that product should work. As one Squamish company learned last year, it’s hard enough to get it right the first time, but it’s even harder if you lock yourself away in the lab instead of listening to the market.  

The Problem 

Tiipz is a Squamish-based...

February 06, 2012 Game Plan: Business Planning

Entering a New Market: Building Versus Buying

Victoria’s Custom House provided a key component for Western Union to enter a new market.

When a big business decides to enter a new market, a question inevitably pops up: Should it build a new operation, or buy an existing one and convert it to a division of the parent company?  

The Problem 

In 2008 the storied telegraph company, Western Union, based in Colorado, was at the top of its game. It had built a multi-billion-dollar business ($5.2 billion in revenue in 2010) by providing money-transfer services, largely to consumers and some small and medium-sized businesses in small...

January 03, 2012 Game Plan: Biotechnology

The Successful Business Pivot

Local biotech company T-Ray Science pivots to partner with a cancer agency and tackle world's most common cancer.

When a smart company realizes its product development plan isn’t working, it will “pivot” to apply the same technology to a product more suited to what the market wants. Pivoting is common in the tech world, where a fledgling company can be focused on its technology, at the expense of its market applications. One Vancouver company successfully pivoted in the tough medical technology space, and now it’s ready with a product that will take on the world’s most common...

December 05, 2011 Game Plan: Strategic Management

North Shore Credit Union Nets New Market

Local banking chain successfully uses "blue-ocean" strategy to swim when their traditional market sank.

In a “blue-ocean” innovation strategy, a business grows by generating demand in an uncontested market space, instead of battling it out with other suppliers in an existing market segment. The concept has been around for almost a decade, and has taken root at some large global companies. Although it’s not yet common locally, a few Vancouver companies have used a blue-ocean strategy to great effect. North Shore Credit Union is one.  