As the case may be, you walk up to any investor and ask whether they prefer idea or team, and as if previously programmed to do so, virtually all will respond “team”.

But clearly it’s ideas that change the shape of enterprise and industry, innovation and movement forward. Sure, one could say this, but unless those ideas are generated within an already functioning business with ample resource to devote to the evolution of this new innovative idea – the team will be the most important part of your new enterprise.

For a moment let’s take a step back from entrepreneurship, and look at your company as a functional unit of a larger organization. You have your project leader, your finance guy, strategist, your engineers (or those individuals that make said innovation come to light), your workflow processes (as hectic as they may be, they’re still there), deadlines, etc…

And while in an entrepreneurial setting these functional roles often if not always overlap, the similarities are more often acute between a new venture team and a business unit.

Why is this important? Because BMW wouldn’t pick just anyone off the street to lead their design, engineering, and marketing of the new 6M coupé’s and for those same reasons neither should you.

The selection of the team to spearhead the launch of your startup should be conducted in a manner which will lead to the formation of a group of individuals with complimentary skill sets in order to compensate for any weak comings of any of the other members of the team.

Or in layman’s terms, if my sales skills are rubbish, there better be someone on the team who can sell a chicken an egg.

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The reason why investors first and foremost look at the team rather than the idea is in actuality fairly simple.

A mediocre idea can have a very good chance of success should it’s business model development, launch strategy, deployment, sales etc… be well thought out and executed, and this unfortunately comes from experience rather than being a visionary. On the other hand, an idea that may change the way we live – isn’t worth very much if you know, or have strong doubts that it won’t even make it to market.

Build good teams, build complimentary teams, and just because someone’s been your friend since you were in kindergarten, doesn’t mean he or he is the right business partner. Enterprise is more often than not logical. Be logical.

BY F3FUNDIT

This video series comes from the leader in innovation consulting & design, IDEO. And if you don’t know who IDEO is, it’s all the more reason for you to watch, not only to see these guys in acion, but learn the process behind innovation design and apply some of the best practices to your own products and services.

However, there is another lesson in these videos which is not only about the design process, it’s the mix of individuals that IDEO hires, you’ll see that they aren’t all “designers” by trade, but come from a wealth of backgrounds.

Why is this? Well, I suppose you’ll just have to watch, total run time is about 21 mins.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3