Entrepreneurship For Everyone

2023-03-20

DO Your Venture: Entrepreneurship For Everyone

Marketing Management

  • Consumer Behavior

    • People do not buy products or services, they buy benefits

      • the utility of the product, and how one feels when she/he owns a certain product or brand

      • understand buying behavior

      • know who playes what role

        • to identify the need, target the initiator
        • to decide one brand or other, target the influencer
        • promote his or her product and service to the decision maker
        • buyer, user

    • Consumer decision making process

      • need recognition - the gap between the actual state and the desired state
      • pre-purchase information search
      • evaluation of alternatives
        • comparing and contrasting
      • purchase decision
      • post-purchase behavior

      1. B2B marketing and marketing strategy

      2. TODO

    • Marketing Strategy: Product, Service and Pricing Decision

  • Differentiation, Competition and Positioning

    • Differentiation - different offers for different groups

      • Set of differentiation parameters

    • Competition

    • Positioning - try to create a difference in the consumer's mind about their producct, or brand

      • do this on the basis of certain attributes which is important to consumers, which is desirable, which is differentiable

        • positioning is dynamic because marketing is dynamic

      • say that we are different from competition

        • designing a company's offering and image to occupy a positive image in the mind of target group
          • Value proposition
        • identifying the competitors and analyzing the competitors
        • identiry the similarities and dissimilarities between your brand and competitors
        • summarize the positioning and essence of the brand

      • how do you communicate this ideas in the mind of the consumer?

  • Segmentation and Targeting

    • Segmentation divide customers into smaller groups with similar demand patterns

    • targeting strategy focuses on some identified segments

  • Marketing - buyer vs seller

    • satisfy its customers' wants and needs while meeting the organization's goals

      • Understand the customers before designing and producing a product for them
      • B2C, B2B, Institutional market
      • marketing evolves through the social system

    • marketing management

      • choosing target markets and growing customers through delivering customer value

    • Business Models - how this business works

      • modeling the firm as a value creating activities for competitive advantage

    • marketing starts with the consumers where as selling starts with the manufacturer or supplier

  • TODO

People Management

  • Managing Self - think, reflect, and introspect about yourself

    • Build on your Strength and fix your weaknesses

    • Understanding the purpose of the role

      • one's contribution, one's contribution into larger organizational purpose, one's contribution into larger professional aspiration

      • Be clear on what is your contribution to the organization

        • in terms of professional development, career growth, contribution to the organization
        • what is the purpose of your role?
        • why are the set of activities assigned to you?
        • where will you be headed in the coming years?

    • demonstrate values as a manager

      • Getting Things Done Through People

        • how much I trust others will determine how much I delegrate
          • how much I delegate will determine whether i'm getting things done throught people, or i'm doing it myself
        • give up on your strengths
        • ask others to lead on your strengths
        • pick on more responsibilities from your weak areas

      • Enjoying Success of your Direct reports

        • your direct reports are an integral aspect of your performance
        • your long-term success depends on the kind of direct reports who you invest and grow

      • Demonstrating visible integrity

        • you follow the process and policy first before you implement it to your direct reports
        • If the policy is ambiguous then ask whether you used a fair judgment in arrive at a decision
        • If still unclear on some aspects:
          • talk to credible senior leaders for counsel and advice
          • perform the mirror test

    • Spaces for development

      • startup or pilot projects
        • non-threatening, to bring value to the organization

      • unstructured assignment

        • tolerance to live with an ambiguous problem with uncertainty
        • ability to put together a structure on a relatively unstructured problem
        • judge which alternative to choose as a final decision

      • turnaround opportunity

        • ability to move from a crisis to a stable environment

      • Increasing the scope of work

      • Being part of cross-functional teams and task forces

        • understand a problem from different perspectives

  • Essentials of Communication

    • Process of Communication

      • Reflect on whether the effectiveness of communication is impacted by the receiver or other facotrs
      • Do not underestimate the role of medium, message and noise in distoring

    • Barriers to Communication

      • Selective Perception
      • Information Overload
        • use data and facts from multiple sources to arrive at a judgement
      • Language
      • Lack of Self Awareness

    • Consequences of Ineffective Communication

      • misunderstanding -> confusion -> defensiveness -> mistrust -> conflict

    • Conflict and its Management

      • Conflicts provide space for

        • thinking out of the box
        • thinking constructively
        • adding value to the organization

      • Manage self to manage conflict effectively

        • stay calm and understand different perspectives
        • listen to understand not to argue or defend
        • look for positive spaces to build conversations
        • present your viewpoint tactfully and appropriately
        • focus on the future
        • do not make personal attacks
        • do not lose self respect by shouting and abuse
        • ask questions and pick your battles that you want to fight
        • be creative in finding solutions
        • celebrate agreements

      • Overcome Barriers

        • active listening

          • listen to understand, not listening to reply
          • active listening is listening to what is unsaid, not what is said
          • ask the right question, paraphrase, summarise, help to arrive at a clarity

        • being open minded

          • listening to different perspectives
          • willing to inquire
          • examining issues from receivers point of view
          • actively seeking solutions to resolve problems
          • having fewer judgements
          • open to reviewing decisions

      • Barriers and Gateways to Communication

  • Building Peer Networks

    • Inter-dependencies

      • The expectations we have from each other - the tasks and goals
      • Our deliverables are related
      • The time spent in managing conflicts and ensuring co-ordination

    • ability to influence peers

      • Through Relationship - a reciprocity of give and take
      • Through Expertise - my pear does not have and nees
      • Through Support them in their responsibilities

    • Building effective relationship with Peers

      • Understanding Peer's Needs and Bringing Value

        • understand the peer's context as well as your own context
        • problem centred, idea centred

      • Awareness of your own and peer's strengths and weaknesses and see how complement them

        • focus on the strengths and the positive aspects of the partner

      • Manage conflicts effectively and co-create new ideas with them

        • a need for a periodic review and feedback

        • step back and think of conflicts largely from task, work-related, deliverables-related

          • focus on the sturctural aspects of the conflict
          • do not convert each conflict into a personal conflict

    • TODO

  • Performance Management - Assessment and Evaluation

    • Align employee action with the firms goals

      • planing and goal setting -> set direction for your team members

        • broken down to an individual level

      • coaching and feedback

        • Leadership

          • depend on others to get work done
          • delegate for self growth
            • people whom you can trust, to whom you can delegate, and who will then take over responsibility from you
            • free up more time for you to do what is important both from an organizational perspective as well as your own personal growth and career perspective

        • good coaching = review + feedback

          • reflect on your capability to coach others

            • coaching lies your own personal growth

          • have the following information before your coach

            • clarity about the performance goals and measurements for each team

            • have a good sense of what are the organizational constraints that could be obstructing performance from an employee's point of view

              • employee is overloaded? not have adequate resources?

            • good sense of personal constraints that are allowing an employee not to perform

              • lack of motivation, skills, or knowledge
            • clarity on how to give feedback to that employee

          • you will use objective data to support subjective assessment

      • evaluation and measurement

        • have a thorough knowledge of the performance appraisal format

          • have clarity and understanding of the context
          • observe and monitor performance
          • make judgments on individual performance
          • create a personal development plan

        • help the person become more self-aware

          • help you understand what is your own style
          • how much are we able to capture and understand the clues that people give us
            • "maybe you should have done this differently"
            • "I think there is another way to look at this problem"

  • Getting Work Done Through Others

    • Stakeholders management is one of the key aspects of being an effective manager

      • differing expectations
      • figure out how the interest of customers, suppliers, communities, employees and financier go in the same direction

    • prioritize your tasks

      • list to-do tasks

      • determine what is urgent and what is important

      • understand which tasks have long term value for you, your manager, and your organization

        • access periodically which of the tasks are high impact and value

        • think about the effort required to complete the task

      • be flexible - reprioritize once there is a crisis apparently

    • understand your team members

      • Don't use your own yardsticks to access your team members

        • requirement to understand

          • abilities , motivation, need, aspirations, skills, knowledge, expertise

        • understand whether they are performing or not performing

      • recognize and engage with diversity of thoughts

        • bring out those different perspectives, integrate them and provide some meaningful solution to your tem

    • defining and assigning tasks effectively

      • delegation is about trust

        • it requires you, as a manager, to trust

          • when I assign responsibility I know that individual will deliver to the best of their capability

          • by delegating more you will be able to do things that are important , that add value to yourself and the organization

          • delegation is also about the opportunity that i get for myself to be able to grow in my career and responsibility

        • outline the expectation, get them specific comments

          • I shoud not do this, I am the manager

      • assigning tasks

        • have periodic conversations with your employee

          • good understanding of both the knowledge that the employee has, and also the understanding about the job that the employee has

          • what is it that he or she is doing

          • what are the ways in which it could be done differently
          • do they see ways of improving what it is that they are doing

        • Keep an open mind when you are using that feedback that you get from different people

          • have an independent assessment of the team member for yourself
          • assign some responsibilities, track them carefully, understand why they are performing or not able to perform before you arrive at a judgment

        • provide periodic review, feedback that help the team members to grow

    • TODO

  • People management

    • Understanding and predicting employee behaviour

      • Understanding perception and interpretation - which you interpret this situation

        • the perceptual lens that we use shapes the reality of what we see
        • perception - a belief or opinion
          • the way we see others will impact the way we behave with them
        • how do I manage my perceptual biases?

      • Identifying the intrinsic and extrinsic Motivation is a key aspect of development

        • intrinsic - passion, drive, accomplishment, recognition, challenging task

        • extrinsic - pay, human resource, managerial support, working condition

    • Understanding organizational system and processes

      • Organizational Structure

      • Organizational Culture

    • a broker to align the organizational expectations with the team's expectations.

      • Trust
      • see the big picture
      • Integrity
      • make touch decisions

  • People Management

Entrepreneurial myths - the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled

  • 生意就是 寻找机会，创造出有人需要的资源来换钱

  • pursuit - the actions of an individual entrepreneur - drive, focus, discipline, and balance

    • Only open mind and willingness to learn

    • The best way to prove your credibility is by making real progress with your idea

    • Success comes down to executing on your idea well and finding the right customers where you can solve their needs better

  • opportunity - a better, cheaper, or more efficient offering for the customer

    • You've found a great idea if you can fill a need better than what currently exists
      • Success comes down to execution, don't need to find a perfect idea

  • Beyond rescources controlled - managing the risks of external constraints

    • Prioritize and manage your time well
      • commit until they've reduced the risk of the startup
      • find those 20% of things that are going to yield 80% of the results
Identify a purpose and problem

  • Focusing on the problem not the solutions - No bad problems to solve

    • write down all problems

    • ask "how might this work?"

    • how current customers aren't completely satisfied with their current products or services

      • Listen to customers in the market about their frustrations

      • Is there a better way?

      • Assess your competitors strengths and weaknessess

    • look for potential customers who do not have access or skills for current offerings

      • Assess barriers to being a customer to see if there are certain skills, access, awareness, etc that makes the offering accessible to these customers, but prvent it from being desirable or accessible to others

    • opportunity

      • your frustrations

      • problems in the community

      • global issues

  • Filtering

    • fit - be a founding team that others believe in

      • access each problem based on how excited you would be to work on it, and whether or not it plays to your strengths

    • Potential - give confidence that you would be creating value that you can capture

      • access each problem based on whether there is a real need with customers who are desperate for a solution

    • Ask yourself why you're starting a company in the first place?

      • to be your own boss, to change the world, to improve people's lives

      • important to be passionate about what you are working on, have the ability to execute on it, and feel confident in the potential

  • Teaming

    • design - finding the right complementary co-founders

      • shared vision and values - have a common 'why'

    • launch - setting expectations and norms

      • know what is important (and not important) to everyone
        • motivations and values - what aspects of the project appeal to you?
        • a bigger mission around the team can align
        • working style - your preferences, commitments, personality
        • roles and responsibilities
      • norm - an accepted standard or a way of behaving or doing things that most people agree with

    • process - managing the culture relative to norms and expectations

Understanding Customers

  • learn the needs and preferences of your potential customers

    • determine potential customers

    • write an interview guide with a few open-ended questions

      • to learn about their needs and ideas
      • leave room to make it a conversation

    • conduct the interview

      • Do not sell, this is the time to learn

    • analyze the data - find the key insights from each customer type

      • gender, age, and difference in buying behavior
      • develop a customer persona - the one person within your target market
      • list out everything you know

  • what to do

    • Focus on the need, not the solution

    • Bias - you are there to uncover a need, not there to validate what you think

    • Do it in person, one at a time - this will allow you to pick up on cues from gestures and facial expressions

    • Ask open-ended questions - this makes it a conversation and allows you to get to more depth of the need you may not have thought about before

      • how do u do things now?
      • how do u wish you did things?
      • what u think can bridge the gap?

    • listen much more than you talk

    • understand their priorities

    • get subjects to tell a story

Designing your offering

  • Use surveys to determine the most important dimension to your customers

    • Customer priorities - who is paying for the offering
      • survey - test or learn about your target customers
      • craft unbiased questions to test your hypotheses including multiple choice, rank order, and open-ended questions

  • Competitive positioning

    • commercialize these ideas and consistently creating value for both the customers and your business

    • list the things that your customer cares about

      • select just the top two things your customers cares most about

    • rate the competitors on how well they address the top two customer priorities

    • access where you want your offering

  • Develop your value proposition

    • clearly identify your specific customer

    • use numbers in the benefit, such as '30% less water usage'

    • user promise, over deliver

      • focus on your target customer's highest priority

    • keep it short and simple (just one sentence)

    • startup success is more about execution than the idea itself

      • after you've developed your solution, you shouldn't be concerned about people stealing it.
Testing your offering - prove the value of the service first

  • MVP - minimum viable product - and how to develop it

    • test just the core functionality of your offering to see if customers will change behavior

      • the product or service

        • prototyping your product's core functionality to test the concept as simply as possible

      • the customer behavior

  • Customer acquistion - the channels and methods for selling

  • Elevator pitches

    • why - statement of purpose
    • how with your value proposition
      • strategy to achieve it
    • what - the resulting offering
Growth - operations and financials

  • Operations include internal logistics, how your offering is made, sold, and delivered

    • the builder - the tech part

      • manage all of the research and development to get the product made

    • the brander - the marketing

      • connect your offering to your customer with the marketing and design.

    • the business developer covers finances and sales

  • Financials

    • revenue model for products

      • sell the product directly
      • license it to a bigger company

    • revenue model for services

      • charge users like netflix
      • charge businesses for data or advertising like yelp

    • Pricing

      • start with a higher price and discounting to get to your target amount

    • sales projections

      • Top-down , and down-top

      • gross profit

      • net profit

    • Investment need

  • Becoming an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship For Everyone

Accounting and Finance

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