Reinvention - The Art Of Entrepreneurial Success

The concept of reinvention is part of the art of entrepreneurial success. Whether you are reinventing an existing business or reinventing an old idea to start a new business, reinvention is a very common theme of activity among all types of entrepreneurs.

Reinvent an old or existing idea

For many entrepreneurs, success comes not from coming up with a totally original idea, but rather from reinventing an old or existing idea into a new form.

A recent example of reinvention is the movie rental business. For many years, the business model consisted of a local video rental store where customers could come to select a movie, rent it, then return it within a few days. It was a successful model that worked well for many years. The popularity shift away from the VHS tape toward the DVD, though, opened the door for a reinvention of the movie rental business model.

This new model - NetFlix mail order movie rental - uses the power of the Internet and postage-paid envelopes to make it easier and more convenient for movie lovers to rent a wide range of movies for a single monthly subscription price. What at first seemed a novelty quickly became hugely popular, spawning competing services and a genuine shift in the business model for movie rentals.

Reinvent an existing business

Another common type of reinvention is when an entrepreneur already has a business and for some reason chooses to reinvent it. This may take the form of restructuring, changing brand identity, adding or dropping products and/or services, or using customer feedback to streamline and otherwise improve the business.

Let's take another look at the movie rental example above. Soon after NetFlix reinvented the old concept of movie rentals, the dominant movie rental company (Blockbuster) was forced to reinvent its existing business in order to stay competitive. They launched their own mail order rental service, adding features and benefits that would also keep customers coming into the physical rental store locations.

Sometimes competition forces an entrepreneur to reinvent their business, but sometimes the cause is internal in nature. Maybe customer satisfaction is down and changes must be made to improve it, or perhaps the business changes ownership and the new owner decides to re-brand the business as part of the transition.

Reinvent the competition

One of the most innovative ways that entrepreneurs reinvent their businesses is to reinvent the competition. One way to do this is to define competition not just as other businesses, but also as themselves. They set up a culture where the business competes against itself to improve performance. This may take the form of trying to increase sales week over week or month over month, or of improving customer service measurements over a specific time frame.

Regardless of the measurements put in place, the basic concept is to focus on improving the business by making internal improvements. Improvements may include one or more of the following:

• Better training
• Better service
• Better work attitudes
• Less down time
• Fewer mistakes
• Fewer injuries or accidents
• Greater efficiency
• More convenient hours

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