9 - 11 November 2000

Thinking caps on

Peter Jelinsky, managing director of Malta’s only think-tank, speaks to Blanche Gatt about transforming ideas into businesses

The stereotypical image of a think-tank conjures up visions of crusty, dusty academics wrinkling their brows and rubbing their chins as they conceive of esoteric and detached enlightenments that rarely relate to anything of practical use.
That however, is an anachronism. Especially where iDeasTank, the innovative new think tank that forms part of the e-mobile business incubator iWORLD Group, is concerned. Headed by Peter Jelinsky, iDeasTank dreams up hundreds of ideas that are not only potentially practical, but that are rapidly transformed, within a few short weeks, into viable business cases for global, multi million dollar ventures.
“The concept of iWORLD Group,” explained Peter Jelinsky, “was to create a business where we would not only come up with the idea, but also develop a business plan, incubate it and produce a running company. The iDeasTank section of iWORLD is how the process begins. We come up with the ideas, we test the business plans and we launch them into GlobalIncubators, the incubator portion of iWORLD.”
Business incubators are fast becoming a booming industry, with over 356 for-profit incubators operating in the world today. However, most of these tend to incubate multiple varieties of business ideas; at iWORLD Group the focus is purely on e-mobile businesses.
“e-mobile, or m-commerce as it is more commonly known,” said Peter, “is set to become an enormous industry, with revenues forecasted to rise to over 23 billion by 2003 in Europe alone. There are already over 500 million mobile phone users in the world today; this figure is also set to increase dramatically.
“And the advantages that e-mobile commerce offers these users will redefine many things that are taken for granted today. For example, “real time” solutions will become realities while location becomes irrelevant. Technology today is moving so fast that with the new sophisticated devices it makes no difference whether I am at home sitting at my PC or in the middle of the Gobi desert on my mobile.”
Traditional business incubators do not usually have their own think-tanks generating business ideas. More commonly they receive business plans from Venture Capitalists, Investment Bankers or entrepreneurs with a good idea but few resources. “In fact,” continued Peter, “there are a few others who have their own think-tank in the United States, but none in Europe that do as we do and take things from conception to running offspring.”
The iDeasTank cycle from inception of idea to business case lasts no longer than four to six weeks; the plan is to produce between ten and twelve successful businesses every year. An ambitious project, certainly, but is it attainable? “Most definitely,” said Peter.
“We have basically defined a process developed by Malcolm Ross, a world authority in the telecommunications sector, through his 28 years of experience in this field, and he and I work in partnership together. The main process involves identifying market segments, that we call qubicles. Every month we take one of those qubicles and go through a process of brainstorming during which we identify seeds of ideas, then examine them to find out where the money for that idea is.
“Where is the revenue going to come from, whether it is the end-user, or a retailer or an advertiser. Once we’ve done that we construct a business model. We now know who is going to be paying us, so we find out what the initial costs and the running costs will be and also work out some estimates of the potential value of this company in the future.
“Then we begin the process of constructing the business case; we begin to validate our assumptions through market research, interviews, focus groups and other activities. Once we’ve assembled all the components that one needs for a fully fledged business case, including what it is, the financial element, the technological requirements, potential partners and launch country, be it Germany, Italy, Holland, the UK or whichever country would be most advantageous, we then finalise the business case and submit it to our internal investment committee.”
Working on these business cases with Peter Jelinsky is a team of passionate and committed project managers and interns from all over the world. These young, but highly specialized professionals bring a vast array of talents and international experience to bear in their efforts to fulfill the formidable task of constructing and validating over a dozen business cases a year.
“Together,” continued Peter, “we have already repeated this process several times, and there are at present three companies in GlobalIncubators that are due to graduate shortly. Every month we present new cases to our investment committee, and, for example, this month we have worked on three business cases. We will actually only present two to the investment committee because we realised that the third needed more on-the-ground market research. However, those that do go to the investment committee and win funds will then leave us and go to the incubator area where a team is assigned to bring it to business.”
Peter Jelinsky is no stranger to the preparation of business cases, bringing nearly two decades of world-wide management experience with Fortune 500 IT Corporations to his position as managing director of iDeasTank. Before joining iWORLD he served for five years as an associate partner at Andersen Consulting in Sulzbach and Munich, Germany.
“Although it was different there,” he commented, “there is also a close parallel between my work at Andersen and my work at iDeasTank. In these days consulting companies have a close involvement with Internet business case development, though of course there are some who say that for a consultant to have work to do, his client must have problems!”
iDeasTank also benefits from a unique network of advisers from the telecommunications and business arenas from around the world. This extensive global network of eminent technologists, luminaries and entrepreneurs hail from top technology, consulting and financial firms such as Arthur D. Little, Cable and Wireless, Cisco, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, KPMG, McCaw Cellular, Nynex and many others, and are all available to iDeasTank members as a source of fresh ideas, opinions and essential advice. Members of this multinational pool of experts were recently in Malta to participate in the e-Mobile 2004 Summit, the first event of its kind ever held.
As part of iWORLD Group, iDeasTank has been based in Malta since its inception some six months ago. “Malta is a very attractive place for businesses because of its friendly climate, friendly people and the fact that English is widely spoken,” Peter said. “Malta will always play a role in iWORLD, though it will probably be an evolving role as we grow in size and business.”
Mobile phones have become essential tools for the hundreds of millions already using them around the world; as their potential is recognised fully the possibilities they present are infinite. “We focus on e-mobile,” concluded Peter, “because that is where the future is. With e-mobile I can access whoever and whatever I want, anytime, anywhere. And that is the true definition and the beauty of mobility.”