#saras sarasvathy

[amijobaer]

এটা আমার কাছে মনে হল যেন এক স্বপ্ন দেখছি, বিশ্ব স্বীকৃতপ্রাপ্ত উদ্যোক্তা গবেষক আমার পাশে দাঁড়িয়ে আছে।

যাদেরকে বইয়ে পড়তাম, google করেও সার্চ দিতাম, তারা এখন জীবন্ত আমার সামনে। অনুভূতিটা জাস্ট লুকিং লাইক আ ওয়াও....

আমি গত ২২ অক্টোবর এশিয়া স্কুল অফ বিজনেস ইউনিভার্সিটি তে কনফারেন্সের দাওয়াত পাই সেখানে গিয়েছিলাম Codefeek Digital Communications এর Executive Producer হিসেবে।

অবশ্য ইউনিভার্সিটিটা মাস্টার্সে বিজনেস বিষয়ে পড়ুয়া স্টুডেন্টদের জন্য, এই কনফারেন্সে যারা ছিল প্রায় ৯২% লোক ই MBA বা কোন প্রতিষ্ঠানের মালিক, আর বাকি ৮% এর মত ছিল স্টার্টআপ বা আন্ডারগ্রাজুয়েট।

তবে আমি অবাক হয়েছিলাম এই একটি কনফারেন্সের টিকেট মূল্য দেখে যা ছিল প্রায় ১৩ হাজার টাকা। তবে আমার টিকেট মূল্যর ১০০% ই দিয়ে ছিলো এশিয়া স্কুল অফ বিজনেস ইউনিভার্সিটি।

আমাদের কনফারেন্স টি শুরু হয়েছিল সকাল আটটা বাজে এবং শেষ হয়েছিল সন্ধ্যা ছয়টায়।

অবশ্য দুপুরের জন্য সুস্বাদু খাবারের আয়োজন করা হয়েছিল। আর কফি তো আছেই!

এর মধ্যে কিছু কোম্পানির প্রতিষ্ঠাতার সাথে পরিচিত হলাম, তারা তাদের শুরুর দিকের গল্প বলছিল। তাদের থেকে রিস্ক ম্যানেজমেন্ট সম্পর্কে অনেক কিছু জানতে পারলাম।

��ভাবেই আলোচনা, গল্প, আর পরিচিতির মাঝখান দিয়ে কখন যে সময় চলে গেল তা টেরই পেলাম না।

আর এই ছবিগুলো কনফারেন্স শেষ হওয়ার পরই তুলেছিলাম...

প্রথম ছবিতে,

Professor Michael Frese তিনি 2024: Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research পুরস্কার প্রাপ্ত একজন জার্মান উদ্যোক্তা গব��ষক।

দ্বিতীয় ছবিতে,

Prof. Dr. Saras Sarasvathy তিনি 2022: Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research পুরস্কার প্রাপ্ত একজন আমেরিকান - ভারতীয় বংশোদ্ভূত উদ্যোক্তা গবেষক। অবশ্য তাকে আমেরিকা থেকে মালয়েশিয়া ইনভাইট করে নিয়ে আসছে এই দেশের উদ্যোক্তাদের গবেষণা প্রশিক্ষণ দেওয়ানোর জন্য।

--

It felt like a dream to me, with a world-renowned entrepreneurship researcher standing next to me.

Those whom I used to read in books, search on google, they are alive in front of me now. The feeling is just looking like a wow….

I was invited to the conference at Asia School of Business University on October 22. I went there as the Executive Producer of Codefeek Digital Communications.

However, this university's for Masters in Business students. Here about 92% of the people at the conference were MBAs or business owners, and the remaining 8% were medium startups or undergraduates.

But I was surprised to see the ticket price for this one conference which was around 13 thousand bangladeshi taka. However, Asia School of Business University paid 100% of my ticket price.

Our conference started at eight in the morning and ended at six in the evening.

Of course, delicious food was arranged for lunch. And there is coffee!

I met the founders of some of these companies, they were telling their early stories. I learned a lot about risk management from them.

In this way, I did not notice the time that passed between discussions, stories, and introductions.

And these pictures were taken after the conference was over...

In the first picture,

Professor Michael Frese is a German entrepreneurship researcher who received the 2024: Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research.

In the second picture,

Prof. Dr. Saras Sarasvathy is an American-Indian entrepreneurship researcher who received the 2022: Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. However, Malaysia has invited him from America to provide research training to the entrepreneurs of this country.

-JOBAER H. KHAN

28 OCT 2024

[digitaldetoxworld]

How Important Is Education to Entrepreneurial Development?

Business students can be taught how to negotiate with lawyers, pitch to investors and create a business plan, but can you teach someone to think like an entrepreneur?

INSEAD will be launching a new summer programme for high school students in August this year providing teenagers with basic knowledge and experience to increase their awareness of the business world. Alongside courses on strategy, decision-making and organisational behaviour, students will attend classes on entrepreneurship designed to nurture a new generation of entrepreneurial thinkers.

For decades there has been debate on whether academics are the right people to teach entrepreneurship and if, in fact, it is something which can be learned. Some argue the only way these skills can be taught is by entrepreneurs themselves dissecting their successes and failures and sharing real-world, practical experience. Others say entrepreneurship cannot be taught; that successful entrepreneurs have distinct traits which are innate, and that certain people are hard-wired to see opportunities and pursue them through new and innovative means.

Of course when thinking about entrepreneurship education there is the practical side, providing tools such as market research, business planning and negotiation techniques. However, when offering a comprehensive entrepreneurship programme you have to go beyond this and consider how to teach entrepreneurial reasoning and behaviour.

Thinking like an entrepreneur

It’s no secret that entrepreneurs “think differently”; they ask provocative questions and approach business in a much more creative way. In her attempts to understand the cognitive processes of entrepreneurs, Saras Sarasvathy found that successful entrepreneurs actually used a different reasoning approach when making decisions about their business. In her research What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial? Sarasvathy notes that “Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurial as differentiated from managerial or strategic, because they think effectually: they believe in a yet-to-be-made future that can substantially be shaped by human action.”

Effectual rationality, according to Sarasvathy, is the inverse of causal. Traditional education systems around the world are very good at teaching students to think causally, to set a pre-determined goal and then acquire the means and resources to find the most efficient way of achieving it. People who use effectual reasoning, on the other hand, start with a given set of means and allow goals to emerge and change over time. Google, for instance, didn’t begin as a brilliant vision or ingenious idea, but as a project to improve library searches. It sparked a series of small discoveries that eventually unlocked a revolutionary business model. 

Sarasvathy explains this well when she says “Causal reasoning is based on the logic, ‘To the extent that we can predict the future, we can control it.’ This is why both academics and practitioners in business today spend enormous amounts of brainpower and resources on developing predictive models. Effectual reasoning, however, is based on the logic, ‘To the extent that we can control the future, we do not need to predict it.’”

In short, she likens causal thinkers to great generals seeking to conquer fertile lands, while effectual thinkers are explorers setting out on voyages into uncharted waters.Using one type of thinking is not preclusive of the other. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs begin with effectual thinking when developing an idea and move towards causal reasoning towards the latter part of a project’s development. For the majority of adults however, it is very difficult to adopt this more creative, effectual approach. In fact, there are strong forces pulling us in the opposite direction, towards more linear thinking.

Teaching entrepreneurship

In 1968, George Land conducted research  to study the creative development and capacity for divergent thinking in children, using a similar test to the one devised to identify innovative engineers and scientists for NASA. He tested 1,600 children intermittently at ages five, ten and fifteen years and was shocked to find that, in fact, divergent thinking in children did not develop, and actually regressed. While the five-year-olds scored an average of 98 percent, the 10-year-olds scored 30 percent and 15-year-olds, 12 percent. When the same test was given to 280,000 adults the result was just two percent.

A large part of this pull towards to causal thinking comes down to our schooling  Many traditional education systems have been designed to train us to follow instructions. There is a reliance on standards, a prescribed curriculum. Schools - and this is just as true for many organisations - tend to reward people for being able to perform consistently and reliably, for being able to “colour within the lines”.

Creativity skills are learned, not from sitting in a classroom, but by experiencing and applying creative thinking processes. According to English philosopher Ken Robinson we learn to be innovative and entrepreneurial by exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination and synthesising information. Robinson asserts that traditional education’s emphasis on conformity, compliance and a linear path stifles this.

It’s not surprising then that a significant number of successful and innovative entrepreneurs, including Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, videogame pioneer Will Wright, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, began their education in the Montessori school system where they learned to follow their curiosity and think differently. In their book, The Innovator’s DNA, Hal Gregersen, Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Centre, and Jeff Dyer, Professor of Strategy at BYU noted that “The most innovative entrepreneurs were very lucky to have been raised in an atmosphere where inquisitiveness was encouraged. We were struck by the stories they told about being sustained by people who cared about experimentation and exploration.”

A different mindset

Part of the motivation for teaching entrepreneurial-thinking to high school students is to help them understand entrepreneurial reasoning and behaviour and expose them, even at a small level, to the idea that there’s actually a different way to think, a different way to behave, than what is typically reinforced in their school system. We want them to appreciate this difference and in some cases adopt divergent thought patterns into their own behaviour.

Do we expect all 45 students attending the Summer@INSEAD programme to be entrepreneurs? No. Do we expect that maybe one out of the 35 will? Yes - and we hope the programme will increase this number. Finally, do we expect 17 of the remaining 34 will end up being managers of companies working with entrepreneurs? Absolutely. In these cases it’s equally important they appreciate the different ways in which ideas can be developed and the effectual process of the entrepreneur’s mind.

Validating divergent thinking

This brings us back to the question can you really teach entrepreneurship? There seem to be promising initiatives under way to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours, but how they are best taught is still under debate.  If someone has tendencies in this direction, by exposing them early on to the idea that there is more than one way to think, we can validate their reasoning processes and give them permission to pursue their drive, increasing the likelihood they will move ahead and take up the challenges of entrepreneurship.

[immortalcapitalltd]

Saras Sarasvathy On The Entrepreneurial Method

Saras Sarasvathy On The Entrepreneurial Method

The scientific method has served us well to date. The entrepreneurial method, informed by the principles of Austrian economics, can take society much further. Dr. Saras Sarasvathy joins the Economics For Business podcast to distill the essence of the value generating and wealth producing method. Download our knowledge graphic for the Entrepreneurial Method: Mises.org/E4B_131_PDF There is an…

[briefdelusiondestiny-bct]

CTEC502 Week 7 Reflection

Week 7 reflection ctec 502

Effectuation logic is term coined by Dr. Saras Sarasvathy who is an  Indian born business school professor who specialises in researching entrepreneurship and business ethics. She suggested the theory of effectuation in the 2000s and it is now regarded as one of the most effective process theories entrepreneurs can adopt. When  an entrepreneur is using effectuation logic they are trying to determine what the future looks like through their innovations negating the issue of trying to predict the future, timing the market perfectly or waiting for the ideal opening. Sitting opposed to effectuation logic is casual reasoning.

So what is casual reasoning exactly? If one is using causal reasoning, they would start the project with a precise goal  they would like to achieve within a specific set of established resources. Causation uses search and select tactics and believe if they can forecast the future they can control it. This kind of reasoning is best suited in a simple easy to anticipate operating environment, where the need to navigate continuous change in not necessary.

In contrast Effectuation logic is a way of  making rational choices when the future is unknown. Its about  recognising what is next best thing to do in relation to your goals, while always comparing these goals to available resources and actions that need to be taken. Someone utilising effectual thinking would think If they can control the future, there is no need for them to predict it.

There are four main principles to effectuation reasoning. They are as follows:

Bird-in-hand: You have to create solutions. Don’t wait for inspiration. Take action based on who you are and what you know.

 Lemonade principle: Embrace uncertainty and surprises. Always remain flexible.

 Crazy Quilt: Form good strong relationships with people who are open to making a commitment with you.  

 Affordable loss: Only invest what you can afford to lose.

 Pilot in the plane principle: Understanding not everything is within your control effectuation logic encourages you to focus your time and energy on aspects which are to a certain degree in your control.

 The effectuation life cycle

 Effectuation reasoning isn’t a practise that should be implemented one time throughout the process. Its best utilsed in the ignition stage of the creative process where the need to create new means, fresh perspectives and new goals are most needed. As a result, instead of having one singular goal and finding one path to reach it, entrepreneurs can use these new and exciting ideas and perspectives to gain more partners on the project, more customers and can use them to help push forward the conception of the project in directions that were not forecasted, leveraging ideas as they come forward.

 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/erj-2017-0065/html

 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JSBED-02-2017-0030/full/html#ref062%20ref063

 https://www.effectuation.org/?page_id=207

 Creative reasoning needs 

Reasoning is the course of exploiting existing knowledge to pull inferences and build explanations. Three different kinds of reasoning are abductive, deductive and inductive   

Abductive reasoning

Abductive reasoning usually starts from an incomplete set of observations and continues onto the most probable outcome. Abductive reasoning is best understood with the example of a doctor and his or hers patient. The patient will convey symptoms to the doctor which are most likely incomplete as the patient has probably forgotten about some of their symptoms. The doctor then comes up with a hypothesis based on the patient symptoms and from there, goes down the list of possible illnesses and tried to assign the most appropriate one to the patient. 

Deductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning is pulling conclusions from principles that are thought to be true. For instance, all mammals have kidneys, you then could use deductive reasoning to arrive at the conclusion that all dolphins have kidneys. This type of reasoning is driven by theory. 

Inductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning is oriented around making observations gathering data and facts and making inferences based on what you now know. You are not always correct but it is very likely if it’s based off correct information. I think so far, especially in studio I have been utilising inductive thinking the most. During the research phase of the creative process I have been finding myself conducting research in attempt to try and find wicked problems that need solving. I will then try and use this information to come up with an solution that is based off the information I found.   

http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/thinking/reasoning.html

https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/greekpast/4886.html

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/deductive-reasoning 

Failure

When you are in the process of creating there is definitely going to be times that you are going to encounter failure. Failure is all part of the process and its important that you don’t let your failures discourage you. Its about shifting your perspective to look at your failures in a different light. Instead of looking at failure as a representation of something you cant do or that you are not good enough look at it in a way that you are now one step closer to finding the perfect solution as you can confirm one path that doesn’t work. An example of someone who has failed over and over and over again is British inventor James Dyson who created the dual cyclone vacuum cleaner. James Dyson is a perfect example of reversing the effects of failure and making failure work for him. The British inventor worked through  5,126 failed prototypes before finally arriving at the perfect design that went on to change household cleaning. I feel like I can take many lessons from James Dyson and apply them to my own creative practice. After all an expert/ master has failed more times than a beginner has even tried. I feel like this quote sums failure perfectly and if you fail enough in the correct way eventually its going to lead somewhere worthwhile.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34775411

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/why-creative-work-relies-on-failure

[bellabct]

Effectuation Logic

A logic/theory that intrigued me was Saras D. Sarasvathy’s ‘Effectuation Logic’, an entrepreneurial based logic based off of imagining possibilities using what is available.

This logic can be broken down into 5 principles:

· ‘Bird in Hand Principle’

· ‘Affordable Loss Principle’

· ‘Lemonade Principle’

· ‘Crazy Quilt Principle’

· ‘Pilot in the Plane Principle’

I applied the ‘Bird in Hand Principle’ during the early stages of the project development process, in summary, ‘Bird in Hand Principle’ is to take action rather than wait for inspiration or opportunities. Originally, I was a part of a different group, however, our original project idea was cut short after we discovered that our idea had already been created. After realising we could no longer continue with our original idea, we found it difficult to come up with an idea we could all agree on. During this time, another group who was working on a proximity card named ‘AvoCardo’ were surveying Creative Tech students. Their idea to combine the user’s debit, ID, AT Hop and Swipe Cards into one proximity card which would work via payWave. This opportunity to work on something I was really interested in was something I did not want to miss out on, so I took advantage of this opportunity.

Using the ‘Crazy-Quilt Principle’, I formed a partnership with the group members by joining their project idea and creating lasting connections with the individuals in my group. By doing so, I managed to maximise the possibilities available by staying attentive to my classmates and their ideas in order to work on projects that I am truly interested and passionate about.

Despite following two of the five principles I found that the philosophy of the theory comes from a place of privilege because it focuses on imagining possibilities based off of what is available in front of an individual. For those who come from a poorer background will be placed at a disadvantage as they have less ‘available’ in comparison to someone coming from wealth. This same debate has been bought up with someone like Elon Musk, a famous entrepreneurial figure who often described as a genius, however, many have questioned whether he is considered a genius innovator because of his disposable wealth which he grew up.

[imagineitbetter]

CTEC502 - Week 7 Reflection - Ways of Reasoning

Intro to Creative Technologies

This week we dive into the different reasoning or logic methods important to learn and apply in our careers and life.

Causal reasoning and Effectual reasoning or logic

The Effectuation Theory developed by Saras Sarasvathy based on an intense study on entrepreneurs across the US, proposed, unlike what is commonly taught in business subjects, as the best thinking and decision making method, the causal or predictive reasoning, most successful entrepreneurs use a different method which she calls effectuation reasoning.  (Sarasvathy, n.d) (An Entrepreneurial Journey, 2016).

Causal reasoning is based on setting an ultimate goal, specific means or specific alternatives and steps to reach it, seeking the most optimal, fastest, cheapest, efficient way of accomplishment. Which it is a useful method to apply however further in the project, where it is becoming bigger, and you might have a clearer vision.  (Sarasvathy, n.d) (An Entrepreneurial Journey, 2016).

Effectual reasoning in the other hand is a more exploratory way of seeking success, it is not based on a set goal, instead it takes in account what is on hand, the skills and knowledge owned and not known and allows goals to come over time from different ways, interactions, interests and trails. Saras recognises this method is most useful when starting up a new idea or business as it gives way to greater possibilities and unpredictable outcomes. Many entrepreneurs’ final successful products were never what they first thought the outcome would be. (Sarasvathy, n.d) (An Entrepreneurial Journey, 2016).

Saras highlights 5 entrepreneurial principles:

BIRD IN HAND PRINCIPLE - start with the means you have available –

AFFORDABLE LOSS PRINCIPLE - focus on the downside to reduce risk, risk that can be afforded to lose -

CRAZY QUILT PRINCIPLE - form partnerships with people interested, it can contribute to the development of the idea with funds or direction –

LEMONADE PRINCIPLE - leverage contingencies, downsides are inevitable, but can be seen as new opportunities –

PILOT IN THE PLANE PRINCIPLE - control versus prediction, take small steps, learn, and grow, keep creating the future in a conscious way-

EFFECTUATION.NL. (2021), Innovation English. (n.d).

Deductive Reasoning

Starts with a general statement, investigates the facts to prove the statement is true or false, then offers logical conclusions and recommendations (Based on Theories). Stratechi. (2021).

Inductive Reasoning

Starts with the opposite, takes the facts, makes different observations and hypotheses from them (Based on observations). Stratechi. (2021).

Abductive Reasoning

A third alternative that tries to overcome the weak points from the inductive and deductive logic, a process of selecting the best hypothesis in order to solve a problem which a specific solution cannot be found. Bradford. A. (2017).

All three reasonings are important thinking methods, if we wish to find out the root of a problem deductive reasoning is our best shot, however inductive reasoning is useful in creating great point, alternatives or solutions to a problem and abductive reasoning is best applied on finding the most likely solution or cause to a wide or wicked problem.  Bradford. A. (2017).

We were advised to try applying all three reasoning to our thinking process and deduct what is the best method for each problem. This strategy would be of great practice to teach our brains selecting the appropriated reasonings.

Understanding the different logic thinking methods and learning how to implement them is a big deal. I aspire to become an entrepreneur one day, currently I feel I apply inductive logic the most to my daily life, I see now, one method alone isn’t the best practice I restrain myself from taking actions or risks due to my predictions whereas I could take careful steps, be open to new opportunities learn from results and continue improving.

References  

An Entrepreneurial Journey. (2016). The Effectual vs.  Causal Entrepreneur. The  Effectual vs. Causal Entrepreneur – An Entrepreneurial Journey

Bradford. A. (2017). Deductive Reasoning vs. Inductive  Reasoning Deductive  Reasoning vs. Inductive Reasoning | Live Science

EFFECTUATION.NL. (2021). Introducing the effectuation  principles: The 5 Principles. Effectuation  - Effectuation

InnovationEnglish. (n.d). Sarasvathy’s principles for  effectuation. Sarasvathy’s  principles for effectuation – Innovation and entrepreneurship in education  (ku.dk)

Sarasvathy,  S. D. (n.d). What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial? :What  makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial? Microsoft  Word - What makes entrs entl.doc (effectuation.org)

Stratechi. (2021). DEDUCTION & INDUCTION: What is deductive  and inductive logic Inductive vs.  Deductive Logic - Everything you Need by McKinsey Alum (stratechi.com)

[muttonbct]

Effectuation Logic and Abductive Reasoning

Effectuation Logic is basically the method of imagining possibilities using what is available. This thinking is suited towards entrepreneurial projects rather than coming up with an idea which while good, is not possible with your current resources.

Saras D. Sarasvathy gave the analogy of someone trying to come up with what to have for dinner. If they come up with what they have for dinner but realise they don't have the ingredients, then they’ll have to go to the supermarket. However, what if the supermarket doesn’t have the ingredients either, than a lot of effort and time is wasted. However, if they look at what ingredients they have then come up with dinner options that use these ingredients, then less time is wasted.

So what are our ingredients? Well what members are there in your team? What skills do they have? What resources are available to you? Do you know experts in a certain field who you can talk to? What budget are you on? These are all questions that should probably be asked first to find out what “ingredients” you have rather than figuring out straight away what you are having for “dinner”.

Abductive Reasoning is a form of logical inference, using the information that is known to form a conclusion. Abductive thinking is all about desired consequences, taking your best shot with the limited information that you have. 

Formulated by Charles Sanders Pierce, you typically start with a incomplete set of observations. Using this incomplete information, you proceed to the likeliest explanation from the set of information given. It’s kind of like the decisions you make on a daily basis, good enough for the situation but not exactly complete.

This is different when compared to deduction or induction thinking. For example, if you are looking at creative solutions to urban mobility issues, deduction would likely look at the “last mile” problem. This last mile is usually the less efficient in both mobility, delivery, what have you. Induction thinking would likely look a e-scooter injuries. There have been many many articles on accidents occuring due to urban mobility options such as e-scooters and segways. This has led to many countries banning e-scooters on sidewalks. Abduction thinking would likely think of new means of personal transportation. How could we make urban mobility safer but still usable. E-scooters and segways are dangerous for pedestrians but they can’t really go on the road as they could get hit by a car. So what’s the inbetween, what option would be a much safer option.

[ia-alfredopassos]

Professora da Darden School of Business, Saras Sarasvathy criou método reconhecido em todo o mundo por tornar mais simples e acessível o ato de apreender

Professora da Darden School of Business, Saras Sarasvathy criou método reconhecido em todo o mundo por tornar mais simples e acessível o ato de apreender

Uma das mais renomadas e reconhecidas especialistas em empreendedorismo do mundo, Saras Sarasvathy veio a São Paulo para dar uma série de palestras entre os dias 2 e 4 de julho.

Professora da Darden School of Business, na University of Virginia, a pesquisadora ensina como pensar diferentemente e correr menos riscos na hora de tirar uma ideia do papel.

Idealizadora do método “effectuation”, que…

[grupocasais]

Como ser otimista quando tudo parece ser horrível

Estes são tempos difíceis para os otimistas. As mortes provocadas pela Covid-19 continuam tragicamente altas. O crescimento do emprego continua teimosamente baixo. Muitos dos nossos colegas e crianças estão exaustos, stressados, sentem alguma raiva e estão a atingir níveis de cansaço extremos. Não é à toa que um artigo recente da primeira página do Wall Street Journal, que narra as lutas das empresas e universidades impulsionadas pela Covid-19, destacou uma crise num tipo diferente de organização - Optimist International, um clube de 110 anos com experiências em todo o mundo. O quadro associativo é agora de 60.000, contra 190.000, embora os líderes do clube continuem fiéis ao seu espírito orientador. “Quando se atinge o fundo do poço, a única direção que se pode seguir é para cima”, disse o chefe de um capítulo, que declarou que estava “a recuperar o ritmo otimista”.

É importante para todos nós recuperarmos o nosso ritmo otimista. John Gardner, o lendário estudioso da liderança cujos insights influenciaram gerações de executivos, argumentou que a mudança positiva raramente começa com uma fé cega ou ingenuidade, mas também não começa com desespero ou derrotismo. “A primeira e última tarefa de um líder é manter viva a esperança”, escreveu em 1968, num outro período de turbulência e luta. “Precisamos de acreditar em nós mesmos e no nosso futuro, mas não acreditar que a vida é fácil.”

Por outras palavras, os líderes ajudam os seus colegas a serem realistas e otimistas. Mas se gere uma empresa ou uma equipa, como manter os seus colegas otimistas quando o mundo inteiro está mal? Como é que mantém a esperança viva quando as coisas parecem sem esperança? Aqui estão quatro conselhos, extraídos de pensadores famosos, sobre a vida organizacional, inovação e até meditação, que o ajudarão a moldar um futuro mais positivo.

Insista numa execução precisa, mas ofereça espaço para "tolices organizacionais"

Em tempos tão exigentes como estes, é impossível ter sucesso sem abraçar a rotina, a luta diária para atender às necessidades de clientes ansiosos, colaborar com colegas ansiosos, equilibrar trabalho e família.

No entanto, esta atenção organizacional aos detalhes não pode vir às custas da imaginação e do brainstorming - o que o famoso professor da Stanford Business School James G. March chama de "tolice organizacional". No seu artigo de referência, "Footnotes to Organizational Change", March descreve como os melhores líderes equilibram "processos de mudança explicitamente sensíveis", como planeamento cuidadoso e gestão de projeto sólido, com folga, experiências, pensamento livre sem normas, que podem ser “difíceis de justificar”, mas são “importantes para o sistema mais amplo” de inovação.

Alcançar esse equilíbrio nunca foi tão importante, não apenas para o desempenho saudável da organização, mas para a saúde mental dos seus colegas. É difícil para as pessoas serem positivas se não tiverem a oportunidade de jogar.

Convide todos para serem solucionadores de problemas e dê-lhes espaço para reparar as coisas.

Há mais de uma década, Sara D. Sarasvathy publicou um estudo influente sobre como os inovadores e empreendedores realmente realizam as coisas. A mitologia, argumentou, é que inovadores bem-sucedidos preveem um futuro que os outros não podem ver, desenvolvem um plano bem ajustado para transformar esse futuro em realidade e atraem os recursos financeiros e humanos para apoiar os seus esforços.

Na realidade, a maioria dos agentes de mudança começa com “quem são eles” (os seus “traços, gostos e competências”); usar “o que eles sabem” (“treino, conhecimento e experiência”); e adicionar “quem é que eles conhecem” (“redes sociais e profissionais”). A autora chama essa abordagem de "princípio do pássaro na mão". Guiada por esse princípio, argumenta, que iniciar um novo empreendimento ou tornar as coisas melhores “não é mais do que um ato de heroísmo incrivelmente arriscado. É algo que se pode fazer dentro das restrições e possibilidades da vida normal”.

Ao encorajar os colegas a fazer, nas palavras de Theodore Roosevelt, “o que pode, com o que tem, onde está”, os líderes criam um espírito de agência que leva ao otimismo.

Não se limite a defender novas ideias; fortaleça as relações pessoais.

Em tempos de turbulência sem precedentes, existe uma tentação compreensível para os líderes apostarem o futuro em ideias revolucionárias: rutura digital, reinvenção de produtos, transformação organizacional. Com muita frequência, porém, os líderes que defendem ideias futuristas negligenciam as conexões humanas e emocionais que mantêm os colegas otimistas.

Sharon Salzberg, uma figura central no campo da meditação, trabalha com cuidadores, educadores e ativistas de mudança social - pessoas bem-intencionadas com aspirações de fazer uma grande diferença. Ela exorta esses líderes a cuidar primeiro dos seus “três pés de influência” - os clientes, pacientes, pessoas e equipas mais próximas a eles. “Poucas pessoas são poderosas, persuasivas, persistentes e carismáticas o suficiente para mudar o mundo de uma vez”, ela argumenta. “O mundo que mais podemos tentar afetar é aquele imediatamente à nossa volta.”

Para combater as más notícias, partilhe todas as boas notícias.

Os especialistas em psicologia humana não estão sempre de acordo, mas quase todos concordam que as pessoas respondem mais visceralmente às más notícias do que às boas. Para manter as pessoas otimistas, eles aconselham que os líderes devem enfatizar (até superestimar) histórias de esperança e desenvolvimentos positivos.

O psicólogo investigador Robert F. Baumeister estima que "são necessárias quatro coisas boas para superar uma coisa má". Portanto, abra uma rolha (virtual) sempre que uma equipa atingir um marco importante. Faça uma festa via zoom para todo o departamento ao conseguir um novo cliente. Distribua um boletim informativo que destaca o que está a andar bem, para ajudar as pessoas a compensar o que está mal. E trate-se da mesma maneira: “Em vez de ficar obcecado por um comentário sarcástico nas redes sociais, leia e releia elogios”, recomenda Baumeister.

Estes são tempos desafiadores para se manter com energia e otimista. Esperançosamente, aplicar estes quatro conselhos vai torná-lo a si e aos seus colegas mais otimistas. Se isso não for suficiente, sempre pode entrar na Optimist International. Ouvi dizer que a organização tem vagas abertas para novos membros.

Texto adaptado do artigo da autoria de Bill Taylor, publicado no dia 25 fevereiro de 2021 em https://hbr.org/2021/02/how-to-stay-optimistic-when-everything-is-awful.

[duit-yourdesigner]

Algumas DICAS para o seu negócio

Empreender não é um dom, ninguém nasce empreendedor ou empreendedora

Saras D. Sarasvathy, autora do livro “Effectuation – Elementos da Expertise Empreendedora, 2008” entrevistou 52 empreendedores em 17 estados americanos com faturamento entre 200mi e 6,5 bi, e concluiu que são determinados tipos de ações que fazem uma pessoa empreendedora, e não - como muitos pensam - certos traços de personalidade herdados geneticamente.

Ou seja, qualquer pessoa pode aprender a agir de forma empreendedora. Ter uma atitude empreendedora é, portanto, uma questão de escolha individual, e não uma tendência natural, um dom ou alguma consequência do ambiente em que a pessoa está inserida.

Além disso, a pesquisa “Anatomia de um Empreendedor” realizada pela Fundação Kaufmann descobriu que 52% dos empreendedores de sucesso são os primeiros de sua família a iniciar um negócio. E entre eles estão Bill Gates (Microsoft), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) e Larry Page e Sergei Brin (Google).

Não precisa de muito dinheiro para começar um negócio (e às vezes não precisa de nenhum)

empreendedores experts guiam suas decisões baseados em alguns princípios. Um deles é o “Princípio do pássaro na mão”: ao empreender, é necessário ter foco nos meios ao invés do objetivo. Isso significa que ao invés de definir uma meta e ir atrás dos investimentos necessários para alcançá-la , empreendedores analisam os recursos que já possuem à sua disposição ou que podem conseguir através de sua rede de contatos e, a partir disso, criam uma ou mais ideias de negócio.

Empreendedorismo não está necessariamente ligado à obtenção de lucro

Se procurar a palavra “empreender” no dicionário, vai encontrar uma definição parecida com essa: 1. Resolver-se a praticar (algo laborioso e difícil); tentar, delinear, 2. Pôr em execução, 3. Realizar, fazer (Michaelis).O conceito de empreendedorismo é bastante amplo, e empreender um negócio é apenas uma das diversas formas de se tornar um empreendedor ou empreendedora.

Pode, por exemplo, empreender uma solução para algum problema social para gerar impacto positivo: como muitos Empreendedores Sociais ou Cívicos; pode empreender algum projeto interno ou criar algo novo, ou uma nova forma de realizar uma tarefa já existente como colaborador ou colaboradora de uma empresa: como muitos Intra-Empreendedores ou Empreendedores Corporativos. Pode até mesmo, dentro da sua realidade, seja ela de estudante, de participante de uma comunidade ou associação de bairro, igreja, universidade, família ou cidade, colocar a mão na massa e realizar ações que você tenha vontade de empreender.

Você não precisa encontrar uma oportunidade para empreender, você pode criar uma

Empreendedores experts não acreditam em pesquisas de mercado.  Ao contrário, eles acreditam que o futuro é impulsionado principalmente pela ação humana, que é intrinsicamente imprevisível e não suscetível à medição.

Portanto, eles optam por tentar controlar e modelar o futuro ao invés de predizê-lo com pesquisas e estudos. Em resumo, empreendedores vão criando o negócio �� medida que começam a empreender e redirecionam seus objetivos e o modelo do negócio conforme as respostas do mercado. Por esse motivo, empreendedores de sucesso são, em grande parte, inovadores. Eles criam negócios para atender necessidades que nós sequer sabíamos que teríamos um dia.

[entmagazine]

Everett Harper will be presenting at the @venturefwdio summit in #SanFrancisco this Saturday, Mar. 11 at @hellocovo on the idea of 'Moving to the Edge, and Declaring it Center' – you can secure special tickets with code commVFWD. Click the link in our bio. @everettharper is the co-founder and CEO of Truss, the software development company responsible for second reincarnation of healthcare.gov. The elite team of engineers swooped in after the initial failing release of the site, which ultimately then exceeded the government's enrollment goal. Q: What’s one thing you wish you’d known before starting your business? A: To outsource everything you can that is not core to your business. Especially at the beginning, we wasted so much time trying to design something cool, instead of using a well-established pattern and fonts. We spent tons of time on accounting, HR and other tasks that we could have had 3rd parties do faster. Bottom line, time is a non-renewable resource and paying for someone else's expertise is worth the time and attention you get back. Q: What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received? A: "Laser-focus" – There's great research that defies this bromide. Saras Sarasvathy looked at entrepreneurs who took companies from founding to public. Based on that research, she recognized that their gift was not being laser-focused, but what she calls “effectualism.” They set a big vision, but then being able to quickly define the problem, recognize resources available to them, and deploy those resources to solve that problem. Only when they hit on a repeated vein (product - market fit for example) did they turn on the switch to go all in. That matches our reality at Truss and for many of the entrepreneurs I respect the most. Q: What milestone are you most proud of? A: We are a #SiliconValley engineering-focused company with a diverse set of founders (1 African-American male CEO, 1 white female VP Eng, 1 white male CTO) and 50% female engineering team. 📷: @serpentbox via Instagram http://ift.tt/2n9srQ0

[ronainsbury-blog]

What do we mean by entrepreneurship?

In business and university circles we often hear the phrase “students must become more entrepreneurial.” We read articles arguing that everyone will have to become an entrepreneur in the new economy[1] and one of the key focus areas of the ‘Roadmap to the Next Economy’[2] is startup economies. The EU has a 2020 Entrepreneurship strategy[3] and, in 2014, the World Economic Forum sponsored a workshop entitled ‘Fostering Innovation- driven Entrepreneurship in Europe’, in which they put forward the structure of “stand up, startup, scale up” as a means to supporting the creation of new businesses.[4]

Asked for a definition of an entrepreneur, my graduate students will come up with familiar names; Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg and Musk. They will describe a vision of a lone wolf working in a small workshop or garage, coming up with a brilliant idea that creates a billion-dollar business.

I recently interviewed 90 final year bachelor business students about becoming an entrepreneur and most replied “I don’t have what it takes”. Only five planned to start a new business after they graduated and a further 75 said – “Maybe in a few years’ time, but not just yet.”

No-one responded “Yes” to the question: “Has university prepared you to be able to start your own business?” Most only replied “Somewhat”.

This after three and half years of study at our business school!

Are we doing a good job at HR Business School helping our students become entrepreneurs? Perhaps we are discouraging ambition by projecting the wrong image of an entrepreneur?

That would not be surprising when there are so many ideas of what an entrepreneur is. For example, ‘Business News Daily’s’ Paula Fernandes interviewed 15 company founders and received different 15 versions of what makes an entrepreneur.[5]

In a recent ‘HBR’ article[6], John Hagel III reminds us that high growth new businesses (often referred to as ‘gazelles’ or ‘unicorns’) are few and far between and argues that we shouldn’t unduly focus on them. With new technologies making production and distribution processes more reachable to smaller businesses, perhaps we should focus our students, not so much on the building of multi-million dollar enterprises but, in Hagel’s words; “making a comfortable living for themselves and perhaps a small team of people” by “designing and commercializing products that are targeted to the specific needs of small groups of customers rather than the mass market.”

One can start to see this in the rise in new small businesses challenging global players - such as specialty gin companies, artesian bakeries, boutique breweries, and bean-to-bar chocolatiers.

Most of our graduates join small businesses rather than large ones and therefore don’t see the need to be entrepreneurial, but even existing small businesses need entrepreneurs to remain competitive.

The EC writes that “Europe’s economic growth and jobs depend on its ability to support the growth of enterprises. Entrepreneurship creates new companies, opens up new markets, and nurtures new skills. The most important sources of employment in the EU are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Commission’s objective is to encourage people to become entrepreneurs and also make it easier for them to set up and grow their businesses.” [7]

So, as the HR Business School, what should we be focusing on? I suggest three capabilities:

Creativity and Innovation: How can we involve other parts of the university more with our business school? How do we encourage closer collaboration between our students and those of, say, the Willem de Koning Academy, CMIT and the RDM Campus?

Problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration: The recent Rotterdam International Case Competition, in which teams of students tackled complex business cases under time pressure, is an example of what the few participants would say was a wonderful learning experience. But why just for a select few students in the occasional competition? Could we not use this methodology as a regular feature in more of our courses?

Calculated risk taking and learning from failure: It is often thought that entrepreneurs are risk takers, but a recent study revealed that they take carefully-considered risks and, importantly, they learn from their mistakes.[8] Perhaps we can encourage our own FU nights[9] within the HR Business School – where we invite current students and recent graduates to share their experiences of mistakes made and lessons learned?

[1] “Why everyone will have to become an entrepreneur” Paul B Brown Forbes May 13, 2012

[2] https://mrdh.nl/RNE

[3] https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/promoting-entrepreneurship/action-plan_en

[4] http://www3.weforum.org/docs/AM14/WEF_AM14_FosteringInnovationDrivenEntrepreneurshipEurope_SessionSummary.pdf

[5] “Entrepreneurship Defined” Paula Fernandes Business News Daily, March 2, 2016

[6] “We need to expand our definition of entrepreneurship” John Hagel III, HBR, September 2016

[7] https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/promoting-entrepreneurship_en

[8] “Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise” by Saras D. Sarasvathy  Edward Elgar 2008

[9] https://fuckupnights.com

This blog is written by Ron Ainsbury, associate applied research professor Business Responsibility & Sustainability, Research Centre Business Innovation, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.

[riichardwilson]

Forget the Moat and Make Your Startup a Tropical Island

Building a business should be like creating a destination, not erecting a fortress.

Grow Your Business, Not Your Inbox

Stay informed and join our daily newsletter now!

June 12, 2020 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

To be successful, your startup needs a “line of attack,” a strategy for “dominating” the market. The first step? Claim your “beachhead.” When that’s been successfully “conquered,” build “fortifications” to protect it from “invasion.” This foothold also serves as a base from which you can conduct further attacks to gain more “territory.”

Military jargon is commonplace in business. But, this rhetorical shortcut — that a company is a fortress surrounded by a moat — is misleading and counterproductive. Selling is not about “conquering” customers. Similarly, your business is not your kingdom. And your competitors are not your sworn enemies to be fought with to the death.

As any experienced entrepreneur knows, there is no such thing as “your” market. You cannot conquer customers, and you certainly don’t own them. Nor can you protect them from your competitors.

The customer is sovereign. Your role is to serve.

Starting and running a successful business is not about keeping everybody out but, instead, inviting customers in.

Your business isn’t a moat-circled fortress — it’s an island. An island is a refuge from the treacherous ocean, unaffected by depths and waves. When sighted from afar, the island offers direction and the promise of a safe harbor. It welcomes travelers and those in distress.

An island is what businesses should strive to be, something that attracts and comforts.

How does a business become an island? Specialize.

More specifically, by exploiting divisions of labor to create value beyond what other businesses can.

Here are the four ways to build your island.

1. Aim to please.

A beachhead is taken by force. This poor metaphor suggests you establish your business by making that all-important first sale. But entrepreneurs can’t capture or occupy customers, and they shouldn’t battle with competitors. Instead, they should focus on serving their customers. Whoever serves the customer better, on the customer’s terms, will be the more successful entrepreneur. Structure your business to please the customer. The better your offering, the better your business idea.

2. Don’t copy. Move beyond.

Competition is not about replicating what others are doing. Such a “red ocean” strategy is unwise as it is costly and has little chance of success — even if you catch up, you’re unlikely to exceed. Instead, take inspiration from what competitors are doing, and then add your strengths to go above and beyond. This includes how you structure your business internally. There’s no reason to use an organizational chart or apply standard processes. Develop and customize these in ways that fit your business and goals.

3. Build on your strengths.

Every business is unique. Businesses, then, should be uniquely organized and optimized based on their strengths and weaknesses. Sadly, this is rarely how business management is taught. But University of Virginia Professor of Entrepreneurship Saras Sarasvathy has made this core to what she calls the effectuation theory of entrepreneurship. Her take on the bird-in-hand principle is that you must start with who you are, what you know, and whom you know. Where does that put you?

4. Maximize value, not output.

Entrepreneurship is about providing customers with valuable experiences. While it is important to keep costs down, it is even more important to keep value up — value according to your customer, not as determined by you. The price someone is willing to pay for what you offer is based on the value they think they can get out of it. Consequently, the more valuable customers consider your offering, the easier it will be to cover your costs. So make value core to your business!

Businesses should be positioned, structured, and focused on doing their very best — in the eyes of the customer. If you do this and blaze a trail off the tired tracks everybody else has taken, you will discover new specializations and new divisions of labor. It may sound abstract and theoretical but is really about doing different things and doing them differently. And that will set you apart.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/forget-the-moat-and-make-your-startup-a-tropical-island/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/620772350839996416

[briefdelusiondestiny-bct]

Week 6 reflective blog post

How is my creative practice changing?

One area where I have seen a change in my creative practice is how I approach the creative process and work through ideas to arrive at a final solution. Previously when I have had an idea I have often tried to come up with the final product or idea right away. This has drastically changed to now having an idea, working through research, asking questions like who, what, when, why, where and testing prototypes to receive real feedback.  Another area where I have seen change in my creative practice is where I get my inspiration from. I have learnt that I am naturally drawn to the natural world and time and again find myself pulling creative ideas from this realm. Lastly I have found myself becoming more eager to try out new software and apps and incorporate those new skills into projects I’m currently working on. The two main ones I have used the most so far are premier pro and audition.

How am I experiencing the difference between having an idea in my mind vs growing it in the real world?

Trying to grow ideas that are  in your mind into the physical world has highlighted massive gaps in my creative skill set. I always thought I was a relatively creative person or had a creative mind to a certain extent. But when trying to implement real ideas I have discovered I am often limited by my skill level when it comes to operating certain software. In my spare time I need to invest more time in learning new software and technologies so I have more variety to choose from when it comes to expressing ideas.

I’m developing more nuanced views on what?

I have developed more nuanced views on the overall creative process. I now understand in more the depth the journey a product goes on before it goes through the manufacturing process and then released to the market. I have also developed more nuance views towards technology and the roll it plays in our lives, and the potential for it to have glorious effects on society but at the same time the potential for it to impact our lives in a negative way. We need to approach technology consciously and with awareness to ensure we are extracting all the positive benefits from technology while also remaining aware of possible negative flow on effects from new innovations . This will help humans guide technology in a positive direction and avoid innovating new technologies to cure past mistakes also known as technological determinism (I think).

How can resourcefully prototype with what I have at hand?

I have learnt this week that prototyping is a vital component of the creative process  and to be able to do it  resourcefully can help the designer to make improvements and adjustments  to the overall development of the design. Lo-fi prototyping is an extremely useful method of prototyping as it is frequently done with cheap materials such as cardboard, paper etc. With lo-fi prototyping you are able to do quick iterations  which maximises the amount of feed-back you can receive. It also gives you the opportunity to experiment with many different ideas early on in your design process avoiding costly changes the closer you get to production.

These are some things I have learnt over the past week.

Technological determinism refers to a theory about the relationship between human beings and  technology. Technological determinism raises the idea technology is the sole determinant for outcomes of social change. I watched an interesting video on this topic and  the video raised an interesting point of how can say the internet stand for democracy as well as an informational dictatorship at the same time? This lead to the idea that technology isn’t inherently good, bad or neutral. Technology is just technology it doesn’t have any essence, they are simply artifacts that us humans use to make our lives more productive. Technology has many outcomes as a social constructiveness would say and it is up to individual human beings to decide  how they want to utilise these technological tools. Every day we are proactively choosing how we use technology and how we are incorporating it into our daily lives. A good example in the video was a hammer. The hammer can be used for many good things such as building a house, fixing things or hanging up a picture, but at the same time the hammer can be used to conflict pain or even kill someone. Does this mean the hammer is good or bad? Well no the hammer is just a tool like technology. If you were to kill someone with a hammer it isn’t the hammer that is killing the person it’s the fellow human being. So it’s a social choice of how the individual wants to use the hammer and relating It back it’s a social choice how individuals want to incorporate technology into their lives. We shape our tools and vice versa our tools shape us. Humans as a whole have a collective obligation to direct the digital age because technology doesn’t have a pre-determined outcome.

I also learnt about effectuation logic which is a methodology that is centred around the decision making process and the performance of actions in the creative and entrepreneurial processes.  Effectuation logic is a way of  making rational choices when the future is unknown. Its about  recognising what is next best thing to do in relation to your goals, while always comparing these goals to available resources and actions that need to be taken. The difference between effectuation logic and casual logic is there is often a pre-set goal and the way you are going to achieve this goal is by methodically planning out your actions and the choices you are going to make.

There are four principles to effectuation logic. They are:

Bird-in-hand: You have to create solutions. Don’t wait for inspiration. Take action based on who you are and what you know.

Lemonade principle: Embrace uncertainty and surprises. Always remain flexible.

Crazy Quilt: Form good strong relationships with people who are open to making a commitment with you.  

Affordable loss: Only invest what you can afford to lose.

Pilot in the plane principle: Understanding not everything is within your control effectuation logic encourages you to focus your time and energy on aspects which are to a certain degree in your control.

https://innovationenglish.sites.ku.dk/model/sarasvathy-effectuation/#:~:text=Saras%20Sarasvathy's%20theory%20of%20Effectuation,goals%20with%20your%20resources%20and

I can now see the ethical issues behind..

I have recently been interested in nanotechnology and nanoscience research and for this question thought it would be interesting to look at the ethical issues behind this topic. Firstly nanotechnology and nanoscience is the study and application of physical, biophysical and biochemical peculiarities on an extremely small scale ( ~1 to 100 nanometers). Its goal is to deliver an understanding of phenomena and materials at the nanoscale and to create and use structures, devices, and systems that have novel properties and functions because of their extremely small and/or intermediate size (National nanotechnology initiative, n.d.). With something as new as nanotechnology its vital early on to consider and make researchers and society aware of the potential ethical and social aspects of nanomedicine and technology to help reduce possible contrary impacts on the environment and public health. Nanomedicine when first introduced to the market is likely to be expensive and has the potential to make national and international inequalities even worse than what they currently are. As the technology develops and gets more advanced we could possibly be looking at using it for human enhancement or human longevity. Again this may make the disparity between the rich and the economically disadvantaged even greater as the richer members of society are probably the only ones who are going to be able to afford it. If it is going to be used to increase human longevity there are many ethical issues surrounding that as well. Is it ethical to increase someone’s life span when we haven’t addressed or found solutions to current medical problems. Does this mean someone is going to have to live longer with diseases such as dementia making their quality of life even worse.

 https://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/definition

[scpie]

Forget the Moat and Make Your Startup a Tropical Island

Building a business should be like creating a destination, not erecting a fortress.

Grow Your Business, Not Your Inbox

Stay informed and join our daily newsletter now!

June 12, 2020 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

To be successful, your startup needs a “line of attack,” a strategy for “dominating” the market. The first step? Claim your “beachhead.” When that’s been successfully “conquered,” build “fortifications” to protect it from “invasion.” This foothold also serves as a base from which you can conduct further attacks to gain more “territory.”

Military jargon is commonplace in business. But, this rhetorical shortcut — that a company is a fortress surrounded by a moat — is misleading and counterproductive. Selling is not about “conquering” customers. Similarly, your business is not your kingdom. And your competitors are not your sworn enemies to be fought with to the death.

As any experienced entrepreneur knows, there is no such thing as “your” market. You cannot conquer customers, and you certainly don’t own them. Nor can you protect them from your competitors.

The customer is sovereign. Your role is to serve.

Starting and running a successful business is not about keeping everybody out but, instead, inviting customers in.

Your business isn’t a moat-circled fortress — it’s an island. An island is a refuge from the treacherous ocean, unaffected by depths and waves. When sighted from afar, the island offers direction and the promise of a safe harbor. It welcomes travelers and those in distress.

An island is what businesses should strive to be, something that attracts and comforts.

How does a business become an island? Specialize.

More specifically, by exploiting divisions of labor to create value beyond what other businesses can.

Here are the four ways to build your island.

1. Aim to please.

A beachhead is taken by force. This poor metaphor suggests you establish your business by making that all-important first sale. But entrepreneurs can’t capture or occupy customers, and they shouldn’t battle with competitors. Instead, they should focus on serving their customers. Whoever serves the customer better, on the customer’s terms, will be the more successful entrepreneur. Structure your business to please the customer. The better your offering, the better your business idea.

2. Don’t copy. Move beyond.

Competition is not about replicating what others are doing. Such a “red ocean” strategy is unwise as it is costly and has little chance of success — even if you catch up, you’re unlikely to exceed. Instead, take inspiration from what competitors are doing, and then add your strengths to go above and beyond. This includes how you structure your business internally. There’s no reason to use an organizational chart or apply standard processes. Develop and customize these in ways that fit your business and goals.

3. Build on your strengths.

Every business is unique. Businesses, then, should be uniquely organized and optimized based on their strengths and weaknesses. Sadly, this is rarely how business management is taught. But University of Virginia Professor of Entrepreneurship Saras Sarasvathy has made this core to what she calls the effectuation theory of entrepreneurship. Her take on the bird-in-hand principle is that you must start with who you are, what you know, and whom you know. Where does that put you?

4. Maximize value, not output.

Entrepreneurship is about providing customers with valuable experiences. While it is important to keep costs down, it is even more important to keep value up — value according to your customer, not as determined by you. The price someone is willing to pay for what you offer is based on the value they think they can get out of it. Consequently, the more valuable customers consider your offering, the easier it will be to cover your costs. So make value core to your business!

Businesses should be positioned, structured, and focused on doing their very best — in the eyes of the customer. If you do this and blaze a trail off the tired tracks everybody else has taken, you will discover new specializations and new divisions of labor. It may sound abstract and theoretical but is really about doing different things and doing them differently. And that will set you apart.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/forget-the-moat-and-make-your-startup-a-tropical-island/