Module #1 in ECC 213

Opportunity Seeking

Prepared by:
MARK GLENN F. VILLAMOR
Course Facilitator
Module Title: Introduction to Opportunity Seeking

Course Title: Opportunity Seeking

Course Number: ECC 213

Course Description:
The course provides the knowledge and tools in identifying business opportunities, challenges, risks or threats
as part of enterprise planning. The course is an application of various creative and innovation thinking tools,
models and techniques in a series of opportunity and ideation processes to equip the students to come up with
creative solutions to problems. The course will also introduce students to intellectual property.

Total Learning Time: 54 hours

Pre-requisites: ECC 111, CBMEC 103

Overview
The modern society is obsessed with problem-solving. We just love troubleshooting. It makes us feel
productive and it is a relatively simple thing to do because of the pre-set objective. Problem-solving,
however, is not the best way to lead your organization to success. In the end, you don’t want to run
continuous laps to extinguish fires.
As mentioned earlier sometimes we tend to forget the obvious. We are so focused on our daily worries that
we miss out on all the lovely opportunities that are everywhere around us. We spend way too little time
opportunity seeking.
Creative people are always on the quest for inspiration and new starting points. They know that
opportunities can be found everywhere. They can appear in a surprising fact, or they can be hidden in
something that you experience. You can find opportunities in every possible field. Take a simple product
like a suitcase for example:
Until a few decades ago, everyone was carrying their suitcases at the airport. It was Bernard D. Sadow who
saw a trolley stacked with suitcases driving by when he got the idea of putting the wheels on the suitcase.
The result is known. There are barely any suitcases left without wheels.
Rob Law saw an opportunity observing travelling children and suitcases. He combined the two and
created Trunki, a ride-on hand luggage suitcase for kids. This fresh new approach became a huge success. It
sold over 1.3 million suitcases in 62 countries.
The latest invention in the field of suitcases is even more logical retrospectively. A suitcase with a built-in
scale. This way you will never be faced with an unpleasant surprise when your suitcase is being weighed at
the airport.
The world is filled with surprising opportunities. It can be something small that catches your attention; a
conversation you have with your grandma, seeing a young child play under a table or losing your keys at the
beach. Absolutely anything can kick-start a great idea.
Once you develop the habit of opportunity seeking, keeping your eyes and ears open, you will find that there
are clues everywhere that can lead you to an innovative idea. Sometimes it’s best to just go for a walk and
force yourself to look for opportunities. You might find yourself a breakthrough innovation.

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Do you at all times keep an eye out for business opportunities? Did you ever come up with something
outstanding because of something that caught your attention? Then this course is perfect for you as we will
have the whole semester trying to seek opportunities then try to screen each one of them before ultimately
seizing the ideal opportunity for you.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the semester, the students must be able to:
1. Identify business opportunities, challenges, or disruptions to conventions as part of the ideation
processes;
2. Come up with creative solutions to problems identified;
3. Apply various tools, models and techniques in idea evaluation; and
4. Recognize the basics of IP and IP rights/laws; and
5. Develop an opportunity analysis plan.

Indicative Content
I. Definition of Opportunity Seeking
II. Three S’s of Opportunity
III. Importance of Opportunity Seeking
IV. Actions We Can Take to Seek Opportunity

Discussion
What is Opportunity Seeking?
First let us define what is opportunity. The best thing to do that is to look at at its etymology.
The root word to opportunity is the word opportune:
"Opportune c.1400, from L. opportunus "favorable," from the phrase ob portum veniens "coming toward a
port," in reference to the wind, from ob "to, toward" + portus "harbor."
Wait what? Yeah, you read that right. The word opportunity was once a mariner term that sailors used quite
often. It signified that the wind changed its direction and started to blow towards the port or harbor. The
most favorable time to steer into port.
Merriam-Webster defines opportunity as “a favorable juncture of circumstances”; or “a good chance for
advancement or progress” while bsinessdictionary.com defines it as an “exploitable set of circumstances
with uncertain outcome, requiring commitment of resources and involving exposure to risk.”

Simply, in a business sense, it is an idea with a commercial potential. An opportunity is something you can
make money, develop a business around it, or create value with it.

On the one hand, seeking is a gerund or the past participle for of seek, which has eight definitions at
www.dictonary.com. They are the following:
1. To go in search or quest of;
2. To try to find or discover by searching or questioning;
3. To try to obtain;
4. To try or attempt (usually followed by an initiative);
5. To go to;
6. To ask for; request;

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 7. To search or explore; and
8. To make inquiry
Hence, opportunity seeking is defined as “the ongoing process of considering, evaluating, and pursuing
market-based activities that are believed to be advantageous for the firm.
So, an opportunity seeker is someone who can see a chance and jump into it. This kind of people always
look for the opportunity to make money, leverage one more thing. They always want to figure out the next
trick, the next thing that works online, etc. This pandemic has resulted to thousands of people losing their
jobs which is their main source of income. However, the pandemic has also taught people to be creative in
earning money. Several people I know, for example, has resulted to selling several kinds of merchandise
online with delivery services.

Three S’s of Opportunity

The entrepreneurial process is not complete is we just stop from opportunity seeking which we defined
earlier. To finally come up with the ultimate product or service suited for a specific opportunity,
entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs need to do screening and seizing as well.
Entrepreneurs are innovative opportunity seekers. They have an insatiable curiosity to discover new or
different ideas that will work in the marketplace. After screening several opportunities according to well-
defined criteria, the next step for the entrepreneur is to seize the chosen business opportunity.

Importance of Opportunity Seeking

If you will go into business, opportunity seeking is very important. It can help you in many ways. Here are
some examples.

1. If you actively seek opportunities, you will find customers or markets where other people find none.
Imagine yourself in some remote barangay in the country. Notice that people wait for once a week
tiyangges in order to buy their basic necessities and other supplies. What opportunity do you see
there? Some might tell you there’s no opportunity for big grocery stores and convenience shops
there because residents are buying from tiyangges. Would you agree? Or would you, on the
contrary say that: Precisely because there are no such stores here, I will set up one. I asked the
housewives – they were all excited to have a big store – one that is open every day and carries most
of their household needs.” Do you see how you can find an opportunity where other see none at all?

2. If you actively seek opportunities, you will find new uses for old products, including waste
products. Some people just thing of kusot or saw dust as a waste material to be thrown away. But
entrepreneurial people have found many uses for it. For example, kusot can be used as an in
ingredient in fertilizer product, a medium for mushroom growing, a raw material for particle board,
decoration for ornamental articles. Can you think of more? While you’re at it, can you think of new
uses for fabric scraps, for old newspapers, for fruit feelings?

3. If you actively seek opportunities, you will new ways of doing things. And if the new way is
cheaper, faster and less complicated, this is an opportunity for you to make more profit because you
will realize some savings. House painting used to be done exclusively with conventional paint
brushes. Later, it was found that spray painting or roller-brush painting can make speed up the work
and may even result in better quality.

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 4. If you actively seek opportunities, you will find new products for old markets or customers. The
successful entrepreneurs seek to find new ways to please old customers. Each new need or new want
exhibited by your market is an opportunity which you can take advantage of. For example,
customers who used to be satisfied with buying plain roasted peanuts may tire of it. Innovative and
opportunity-seeking entrepreneurs have come up with new peanut variants like spiced peanuts,
candied peanuts, wasabi-flavored peanuts, garlicked peanuts, and other variations. Opportunity
seeking is also demonstrated by banks as they began to offer new and useful services to customers,
including credit card, 24-hour ATM tellering and point-of-sales payment with the use of ATM cards,
online monitoring of one’s bank account, online payment of bills, putting up bayad centers for one-
stop payment of utility, credit card and other bills.

Actions We Can Take to Seek Opportunity

American businessman Grant Cardone, founder and CEO of Cardone Enterprises, has identified some tips
published in the Entrepreneur magazine as well as in the magazine’s website. These tips were very helpful
when he was building his empire.

Also, Cardone is an internationally-renowned speaker on sales, leadership, real estate investing,

entrepreneurship and finance whose five privately held companies have annual revenues exceeding $300
million.

1. Look for opportunity.

Before you can see an opportunity, you have to be looking for opportunity. This seems basic but many
people have given up on looking for opportunity. This is why there is that saying, “You wouldn’t see an
opportunity if it hit you in the face,” comes from. Opportunity can literally be right where you are but you
are blind to it.
2. Be willing to read and research.
They say knowledge is power, and it’s true. You won’t find opportunity without knowledge
Everything you ever want, you are just a piece of knowledge away from obtaining. The only thing between
you and massive wealth is the right knowledge. I’ve experienced all the delays and pitfalls that keep people
in the middle class, but I was able to push beyond them to become wealthy, and I can teach you to do the
same because of the knowledge I've obtained.
3. You have to go for it.
You have to leave where you are comfortable. Staying with mommy and daddy past the age of 25 is not
going to work, sorry. Opportunity might mean moving out of state or even across the country. Maybe, just
maybe, you need a new passport for your opportunity. The point is, the opportunity may not be where you
are because you might be a big fish in a small pond.
4. Make contacts.
Everything you want, somebody else has it. Contacts equal contracts. How big is your power base? How big
is your pipeline? The more people you know, the more opportunities will come your way. There is a reason
why successful network marketers make a lot of money -- they prospect.
Your next opportunity might just be with someone you do not even know yet. You need to go out and meet
them.

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Also, an entrepreneur needs to be considering the following question: What industries will exist in the future
that may be unknown today? For example, renewable energy is presenting new opportunities to invest in
ways of producing energy and consuming it using solar panels, unique building designs, and alternative
ways to distribute energy. Additionally, water technologies are creating emerging opportunities around the
world.

Additional Reading
Kindly read the story “What One Can Invent” by Hans Christian Andersen (Hans Christian Andersen
Center, 2012b). The main character is an aspiring poet who wants to create impressive poems. In the context
of our course, his business is the production of poems. Because he is struggling in achieving his goal, he
seeks advice from a wise woman of the village.

References
Go, J. and Escareal-Go, C. (2018). Entrepreneurship: Starting An Enterprise, Having an Innovative Mindset.
Quezon City: Josiah and Carolina Go Foundation, Inc.

Ilano, A. (2017). Product Development for Small Enterprises. Quezon City: SERDEF, Inc.

Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (2013). Windows to Entrepreneurship A
Teaching Guide. Quezon City: SERDEF, Inc.
Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (2007). Introduction to Entrepreneurship.
Quezon City: SERDEF, Inc.
www.teachingentrepreneurship.org
www.askinglot.com
www.entrepreneur.com