Entrepreneur Journal

What has been my interest this week is the “This Simple Little GEM Can Help Your Business Grow and Grow by Stephen W. Gibson” it is a gem of ideas that may prove to be just as valuable to those of us who are into business and those who wants to start their businesses. What does it say? It talks about three simple business functions—Gathering, Enhancing and Marketing (GEM) and every business successes he has enjoyed from that day to this was determined to a great extent by his ability to manage these three elementary, but very vital, processes. As entrepreneurs in business we must gather every resource that is vital to our business, enhance those resources, to add value to the resources gathered and made sure they are marketed. He says we are “to break down the different activities and skills needed to improve each of the three functions”. On my $100 project, it progressing steadily as ideas and areas of business has been identified and business plan put in place will help me accomplish the business.

Defining the Dozen Questions also gave some business tips as to what to do when starting a business, things such as, What is your business idea, How does it meet a need?, What model suits you best? Etc helps us all when we are in the start-up.

 

Lessons Learned

Understanding Capsim for the first time can be tough but with determination and steadfastness it can be a whole lot of fun. It was tough in the beginning but going through the rounds it has opened my eyes to certain decisions, and I feel it’s fun. I made some decisions in performance and size and made sure that the decision I made is closer to high tech. Able falls within the round lines. Any advantage gained is cumulative and will carry over to the following year.

After one or two adjustments on R&D initiative I then proceeded to the Proformas to see how it has impacted on the exercise.  If good decision are made it will get you closer to the ideal position. It prepares the participant to make critical business decisions. The simulation teaches us what can happen to your business when proper decisions are not made. Capsim helps us to interpret key financial information and also deepen our understanding of financial ratios. Though difficult when starting I  will still want to continue. I believe what I have learned during the rounds 1^st and 2^nd will have an effect on the way I make decisions on my small business that I am operating.

 

Innovation and Creativity and my $100 Project

Innovation and creativity in the HMM and The Discipline of Innovation has given me an idea as to how innovation is and how group work can help us achieve it. Part of the HMM reads chaos at the beginning of the creative process is a good thing in order to generate fresh, new ideas that push the boundaries. When a discussion is taken place to shear ideas, the beginning may seems there is chao but to generate fresh ideas. Creativity teams ensure a level of creative output that is greater than what individuals working alone could achieve. The need is to ensure that your group, as a whole, has all the requisite skills and attributes that help a group produce creative ideas.

There has been an ongoing preparation towards my $100 community service project and that will be a small startup business for me to test my capability to see if I have really applied what I have learned. I have been able to identify a community park and schools in my community where the project will start. These are the questions, will the project be viable? Can it be sustained if it is viable? Is there a large market size for this project? Well am going to test it and the result given.

 Reflections upon what I have learned so far

I have met wonderful people as my class mates in B 283 and I am very happy to be in such a class where learning and shearing of ideas becomes possible. The introductory week has been wonderful. I am particularly impressed with the kind of grooming we are going through, the learning materials we are to study; the entrepreneurial blogs and the books purchased from the university store are all indications of preparing us towards realizing our ambitions.

The case study, as I started this program B283 was the most difficult assignment I have ever undertaken. It took me nearly 24 hours. But this is what the case study is all about “Most students and executive program participants are quite familiar with lectures, readings, exercises, and problem sets, but the case method is often new to them.  It is important to understand the basis for the case method and to have some idea of how to approach cases. That is the purpose of this brief note. The case method of management instruction is based upon the belief that management is a skill rather than a collection of techniques or concepts” What a wonderful idea.

I learned a lot from Secrets of the Superbosses by Sydney Finkelstein. It gave me an insight about some of the characteristics of the Superbosses. “All have reputations as innovators who pioneered new business models, products, or services that created billions of dollars in value.” Characteristics are Unconventional Hiring, Focus on intelligence, creativity, and flexibility; find unlikely winners, Adapt the job or organization to fit the talent, Accept churn.

Keeping an entrepreneur journal is what I called a book of records and remembrance. It helps me keep records and helps me remember what I have studied.