ENTREPRENEURIAL: Idea Generation the Philosophical Way

Most entrepreneurs and businesses, outside of a very tiny minority, are in fact connected through their activities to the goal of Eudaimonia/human flourishing. They might be selling sandwiches or airline tickets, but at the end of the day, they are aiming to satisfy and please those they serve.

Of course, businesses don't frame their concerns philosophically. They don't use weird Greek words; they say that their success depends on 'understanding their customers.' And in order to understand them, they typically make use of an armoury of market research techniques (interviews, data analysis).

But they are often not thinking deeply and broadly enough about human needs and are therefore flawed in their eventual understanding of their customers. The parameters of their investigations are too cut off from broader cultural, psychological and social scientific insights; their questions are sometimes wrongly framed. So they will ask, 'How on earth do we fight off the competition from other hotels?' rather than asking 'Where is the need for hotel rooted in our deeper selves?' They'll wonder how much to discount a holiday package rather than try to work out what people actually need from a trip.

This lack of a philosophical perspective on customer needs and idea generation routinely deny corporations key advantages. It prevents them from perceiving new market areas and ideas; it leaves them to fiddle around with price points and margins. (Alain de Bottom)