The Opportunity Analysis Canvas

by James V. Green

For aspiring entrepreneurs, new approaches and tools are necessary to develop the ideas that can lead to successful companies and organizations of all types. The emergence of business “model” (not plan) courses, tools, and competitions are a step in the right direction. The focus of these new activities is engaging aspiring entrepreneurs in customer discovery and developing and testing a business model canvas.

While this is a viable approach and valuable lesson in entrepreneurship education, business models only begin to take shape when a new venture idea is formulated. Customer discovery requires having a product or service concept in the mind of the entrepreneur. Without the idea for the product or service itself, no business model nor customer discovery can begin.

It is this first step, the idea generation step, that the Opportunity Analysis Canvas fulfills. The Opportunity Analysis Canvas is an innovative tool for identifying and analyzing entrepreneurial ideas.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Nonfiction, Economics, Management

80 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for the coursera Developing ideas for new companies course.

[Jose Papo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very small book with a few good ideas. Nothing new, but is a good companion to the online course "Developing Innovative Ideas": https://class.coursera.org/innovative...

[د.أمجد الجنباز · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب مبسط يشرح كيفية البدأ بالتفكير في مشروع جديد أو فكرة جديدة
ومكان هذا الكتاب هو قبل عمل البزنس مودل
وبذلك نيصح المؤلف القيام بالتحليل الموجود في كتابه
ثم عم بزنس موديل
ومن ثم كتابة خطة العمل والتوكل على الله لبدأ المشروع

[Rehanna Falisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read that might help you start thinking and generating ideas. Good starting point for pursuing this path.

[Petar Ivanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the book during the "Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship" course in Coursera.
As having experience in Entrepreneurship, the book remained me about several things to think about and also gave me a lot of questions to answer regarding my venture.
Overall, I recommend the book if you're a beginner in Entrepreneurship or want to start a new venture. There're many questions and topics to take into consideration which will develop your mindset and chance for a successful startup. Don't take it too seriously, just go through to book in a week, mark useful paragraphs and start working on the questions later.

[Juan Castro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good summary for non-business administrators (and most of business administrators) about business modeling path. Is a guide-type book, so you're expected to take action on your ideas. Nice. It goes with the class by the same guy at coursers.org named "Developing innovative ideas for new companies" at University of Maryland.

[Miguel Barrera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concise and useful.

[Behnam · Rating 3 out of 5]

well I preferred his lecture in coursera.com.. the book itself is not quite informative

[Rose Φ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ebook: http://bookre.org/reader?file=2231348...

[Sandeep Gautam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book for entrepreneurs. I became aware of this book as this was the recommended text for one of the MOOCs by James Greer. The MOOC itself was excellent, but the book takes the learning to a whole new level.

The opportunity analysis canvas, the tool introduced by James is a good tool to analyze opportunities and prepare the groundwork, before you latch onto an idea and start the startup. I used concepts from this book/ MOOC to think about the HappyWorks app that I am developing and found it very useful.

The chapters are terse and peppered with cases and examples that are recent and relevant. Overall something that will lead to a lot of reflection and some practical impact.

[Zakariye Abdirahman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very informative and helpful, the book is divided into three parts thinking entrepreneurially, see entrepreneurially and acting entrepreneurially . highly recommend if you want start startup

My Favourite quotes

" Individualism is a key element of the entrepreneurial mindset. ....
..... they need less support or approval from others"

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"

[Andrés Priego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good basic if you are a novice, would not recommend for medium or advance practitioners

The book gives you a really good and wide vision on how to generate and evaluate business or venture ideas. However, I have to say if you already have the idea or the business in mind you will not finde clear examples or guidance on how to scale from the OAC to the next steps. Overall very good content and quality examples.

[Ciprian Bujor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foarte interesanta, o completare a cursului excelent pe care-l tine autorul la University of Maryland.

[Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I prefer Green's videos more. This book is purely theoretical, but it is obligatory for Coursera's course.

[Juan Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good book to enter to the world of entrepreneurship.

[Colin Barnaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straight to the point. Highly objective.
An excellent precursor to entrepreneurship. No filler, very logical and research-based.

[Amir Zabihi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, helped me progress my ideas, revise them and be more prepared for launching my own business. Although I'm having the coursera course along with it. Good combination in my opinion.

[Vicente · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking to research a new idea or is getting ready to launch a new venture.

[Peter O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The canvas began nearly eight years ago with my doctoral dissertation titled 'Educating entrepreneurship students about opportunity discovery: A psychosocial development model for enhanced decision-making.' While this dissertation title may sound complicated, the basic idea is that before drafting business models and writing business plans, aspiring entrepreneurs need to see and think about problems and solutions differently than others" - page 3.

In short, if you are an aspiring entrepreneur with a potential business idea, The Opportunity Analysis Canvas may just determine whether you have a potentially successful business idea and could save you a great deal of research and development time!

While the book can be a bit tedious at times, it is none-the-less loaded with actionable advice backed up by some very thorough and up-to-date research. Crucially, and this is one of the book's greatest assests, Dr Green gets you thinking about the larger industry, cultural and psychological factors that will play a role in your business and demonstrates why a thorough consideration of these larger factors is essential to deal with in the initial stages of your business idea development. Ultimately, overlooking these key considerations is what ensures the majority of new startups fail and this is why the canvas laid out in this book is essential practice for anyone wishing to start a business!

Furthermore, the book has all the inspirational incentives for aspiring entrepreneurs and it is very specific in regards to how to put these aspirations into action. The book also acts as a companion to an online course Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship also created by Dr Green and which I have undertaken. Together the book and the course act as a very strong incubator for generating successful business ideas and getting those ideas of the ground.

The Opportunity Analysis Canvas is a very wise investment that could just save you a great deal of time and put you on the path to launching and running a successful business!

[Rin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was reading this book for a MOOC I am taking. It's only 88 pages long so no need to pace yourself. The book is absolutely horrible and useless. There's nothing new, inspiring or motivational in it, which is typical for titles like these. It's a ton of other people's quotes, a horrible chart and a small original paragraph at the beginning of each chapter. You're better off not purchasing this book if you take the course. However, if you absolutely are curious, it's only $5. It's only 88 pages, and doesn't take more than a half an hour to read.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has a lot of good ideas. I especially liked the first three chapters about entrepreneurial mindset. It was fascinating to learn about all the traits and practices of people who become entrepreneurs. I also liked reading about the lean startup, value curves, and market research. I think the book could have been more thoroughly written. I feel like a lot of the ideas are only partially explained. I also dislike the marketing feel of the book. There is a lot of self-promotion. Overall, I learned a lot, and it was worth the read.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for those looking to start their own companies. It gives the reader tips about how to think and act entrepreneurially. I felt it got better later in the book - in the last few chapters, Green provided great examples of how actual companies have incorporated the tips he writes about. I especially enjoyed the sections that discussed questions to ask yourself when conducting market research.

[Don Childrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book as the text for an online class I took through Coursera. It presents the main points covered in the class, but perhaps more valuable are the links out to a number of self-analysis tools that can help you better understand your tendencies and goals. I still need to follow up with the rest of those, but I have read this book to the end.

[Mohammed Al fandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summary which must be applied here in Syria, although it not possible at all in these circumstances for non-business administrators (and most of business administrators) about business modeling path. Is a guide-type book, so you're expected to take action on your ideas. Nice. It goes with the class named "Developing innovative ideas for new companies" at University of Maryland.

[Jm Rollins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good information, but largely iterative and what you'd find in any Business 101 book. I had high hopes for the book based on the courses class that I did not feel like were met. If this your first book on entrepreneurship, it's not a bad read. I got more out of School for Startups, which included longer case studies than did the Opportunity Analysis Canvas

[Gergely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for an online course on Coursera, it's good to open one's eyes about certain things in connection with entrepreneurship, though it is pretty thin on the details, most of it can be distilled by a little thinking through.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, that helps you (as a future entrepreneur) clarify lots of questions before you start writing your business plan. Quite short, but sufficient to make your mind start working and it offers lots of ideas.

[P.Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good content, not superfluous

This book provided a good base of things to think about and account for when starting a business. The content in this book is not only useful for entrepreneurs but anyone starting a project or initiative.

[Sarang Shaikh]

Opportunity Analysis Canvas presents us with an Octagon sort of strategy where the journey of an individual to becoming an entrepreneur is linked with some previously created set and skill and move further to achieve more within the octagon.

[Dareall · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a good book for bussiness