Week 15 Reading Reflection

This week's reading is Vikram's Akula "Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid". I really enjoyed this article. I see Vikram as a hero for what she's doing: offering loans to poor Indian people, the money of which poor people would use to start their own entrepreneurial ventures in order to be able to pay back. Since these poor people live on $2 per day, all borrowers start small businesses like agricultural laborers, mom-and-pop entrepreneurs, street vendors, home-based artisans, and small-scale producers. I was surprised by her strategy to make sure her customers payed her back the loans. "If one woman couldn’t pay her small weekly installment, the rest of the women chipped in; if she refused to pay, the others pressured her into meeting her obligation." So she basically used peer pressure to her advantage to make her customers work hard and pay their duties. Another thing that caught me off guard was the reason why she chose women as her target customer. She says, "Studies have shown that women are more likely than men to reinvest profits in the household and to support others in their borrowing group." I can't imagine why men wouldn't reinvest profits in the household in comparison to women. And that is something I would ask her. 
  
Finally, the writer seems like she has her customers as her first priority, which is what is supposed to be happening. To start with, in order to help the villagers organize their finances she hires about 500 new loan officers every month. They participate in theory classes on Saturdays and practice what they’ve learned in the field during the week. She, thus, enforces money education in the poor Indian villages so that they can manage their incomes more efficiently.  Instead of asking villagers, who are often illiterate, to describe the seasonal pattern of their cash-flow needs, she and her crew had them diagram it with sticks, seeds, and coins, indirectly telling them where the poorest people lived, what kind of financial products they needed, which areas were lorded over by which loan sharks, and so on. Her crew and herself essentially have personal time with the customers which is how they figure out the actual problems and are therefore able to find the most effective solutions to them. As she mentions later on in the article, "In everything we do, we ask, “Does this work for the borrower?”—even if it means operating against our own short-term interests." If it works for the borrower, then it will bring more profit in the company eventually, as well as increase customer loyalty.

Microfinancing is still a thing that most business owners don't prefer, due to reasons like lack of access to commercial funds, the high cost of handling millions of microtransactions, and an inability to create scalable operating systems. Despite these problems, Vikram has achieved so many things with microfinancing for the shake of her customers' good financial standing. 

Elevator Pitch No.4

 This time I didn't get a lot of feedback. I made some changes, however. I tried to be coherent and enthusiastic at the same time. I noticed that when I was too enthusiastic I got easily distracted and when I wanted to say everything at once I looked stiff. I tried my best to show flow. Enjoy! :)

Venture Concept No.2

My opportunity is unsatisfied UF students, including myself, with the UF dining services and the limited healthy food options on-campus. Students that live, or just eat, on-campus between classes have this unmet need. Most restaurants on-campus provide fast-food services, which means low-quality and mostly fried food. These are also often limited to cuisines that are most popular in the US, like classic American, Asian and Tex-Mex food. Broward dining center, which is the major dining center, is also overpriced for the quality of food it serves. There are many international students that can’t find authentic cuisines on-campus because most fast food is Americanized. In addition to that, there are students that would like to add into their meal plan restaurants that are not currently on-campus. Moreover, students don’t have the time and motivation to prepare their own meals if they live off-campus, because of their heavy workload. The forces in the environment creating this opportunity is basically the cheap and fast food for busy students that live on-campus. How customers currently satisfy this need is by cooking at home, eating mostly salads and fruits or getting Krishna lunch, which is vegetarian food. These customers are pretty loyal to what they are using, since it is less costly to eat at home, but it’s time consuming for students that have classes all day long. Krishna lunch is very popular as well, but its hours are limited to lunch time. This opportunity is big because with my idea I can create a healthy student community that will appreciate different international cuisines. I will also have the opportunity to satisfy a big number of students that leave on-campus.

The service I’m offering students is a new restaurant on-campus that will be hosting cooks around Gainesville and will be promoting their restaurant menus. The cooks will be cooking food from different cuisines that will cover multiple diet preferences, like vegans, vegetarians and meat lovers. I will provide fresh and healthy food to students from famous restaurants, or even new ones. There will be 1 different cook per day cooking for us lunch and dinner. More specifically, there will be 10 different cooks every 10 days. The food will be ready an hour before the restaurant opens and will be kept refrigerated so that it is fresh and safe when served. To approach more customers and make more money I will provide the menu of the day through a free app. This app will also give the chance to students to order one extra plate for half-price to go. There will also be discount coupons from supermarkets, like Lucky’s, Publix, Trader Joe’s etc. distributed to everyone that gets a meal, so that students are encouraged to buy their own groceries for cheaper. The deals will also be posted on the app as the “Save of the Day”. Students that are in a hurry can order food to go. The next new thing I’ve come up with is a fresh produce corner in which I will be selling fresh veggies, herbs and fruits produced on the backyard of the restaurant. Students can volunteer to help grow them. Therefore creating a strong-bonded community that cares about the food it produces. If students don’t want to buy any of the fresh produce they will be given fresh produce in a snack-size box before they leave, as a gift for joining us in our effort of sharing healthy food. All of these services will provide students fresh, healthy, diverse and reasonably prized food right on-campus. They will never get bored of it and they will get to enjoy food that they may have never tried before. They will also get accustomed to what there is out on the market to use in preparing their own meals. Essentially, what I’m selling is the opportunity to start eating healthy and to explore new cuisines for just $5-7 per meal.

My innovation will solve the opportunity by encouraging students to engage with fresh and healthy food, besides going only for the cheap fast-food options. By “awarding” them with fresh produce and giving out discount coupons I give them the motivation to go and take advantage of this opportunity of changing habits and start caring more of what they consume. I want to think I can provide them with the resources that are not yet available on-campus; the ones that provide students with healthier food options. And because I know students are pretty hungry I offer them the option to get one more full plate for just half price (just $2.5-3.5 extra). This opportunity will also promote the cooks’ skills and the restaurants they are working for. So it is a win-win for everyone. I don’t believe it will be very hard to get students try out my restaurant since I will be providing them with food they are accustomed to, but also the chance to try something new. I will also have a lot of “gifts” for them to develop their own loyalty to my restaurant. I believe students would actually switch to my new restaurant because of the diverse cuisines and the guaranteed vegetarian and vegan options. I know vegan and vegetarian option are limited on-campus. My competitors would have to be the fast-food restaurants on-campus that provide students quick, low-quality and cheap food. Their weaknesses are basically that they have standard menus and students get eventually bored of their food options. As I already mentioned I will be hosting 10 different cooks that will be coming every 10 days, so that if someone misses them one day, they will have the chance to come to the restaurant and enjoy the cook’s food the next week. The next month there will be 10 other different cooks coming in. The rest of the fresh food production that will be happening on the back of the restaurant will be student-managed. The cook, depending on their available time, can stay interact with the students or can leave once they’re done. In any case, there will always be culinary and other students helping them out with cleaning pantries, keeping track of the orders and keeping the food safe.

My most important resource in my business would be my passion for the wellness of the student community and the eagerness to raise awareness on how to eat healthy. All of the employers will be willing to help out and care about their customers. I am personally a very positive person and I encourage people to become better and be strong. My venture will promote exactly this. It will also bring people together through food and through sharing common worries and struggles. This caring spirit of my business would be hard for competitors to copy.

In five years, I would love to be an entrepreneur that would create projects to raise awareness of how to eat healthy. I believe my first venture will be a first step that will make a BIG difference and hopefully have a huge impact on people’s eating habits. My goal is to start here and continue spreading awareness outside of Gainesville. My projects could also be a result of my research on food products; hence my major in chemistry. I always had a passion about food and would love to do research on it to improve its quality and keep the food safe and clean for others.

There wasn't any feedback that recommended any changes in my initial venture concept. A lot of people liked my idea as it is. 

Google Gold

What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

One of the activities I did to pursue SEO is share my blog with my friends and family. This way more people would be able to give me feedback if my blog was shared to others. Another thing I did is to share my blog link to the people that participated in my assignments so that they can see how they helped out.

What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

I didn't really put a lot of effort in my keywords, but my key words were closely related to my venture idea. I often used words like food, on-campus, healthier, cheaper and affordable. Those are basically my key points for my venture: to provide students with healthier and cheaper food options.

How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What were your surprises or your general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

That's how I shared my blog to my friends, through social media. I didn't use social media extensively but I used facebook to share my blogs with all my friends outside of the country and with my classmates. I used Facebook to ask for some help for my assignments from my residence hall friends. Social media helped me in a small extent, but I surely can use it better. I believe a method I could use to pursue SEO would be to post my new blogs on my profile everytime I share them, so that my family and friends see the many interesting assignments I did.

What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think? 

The posts that obtained the most traffic are Idea Napkin No.2 and My Secret Sauce. I believe those two assignments were the two most critical in the class because this is the part you differentiate your venture with any other venture. I incorporated a lot of information in this posts, too. My Secret Sauce was one of my favorite assignments.

Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

I didn't get into the first pages because my keywords are pretty general. When I put in MultiCook on campus restaurant healthier and cheaper options, my blog appeared 4th. That's because MultiCook was included. I believe if I make Multicook famous as a restaurant then it will appear more on the google results.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

In this reading it was really interesting reading about the "roll up" technique. The book's definition about rollups is a technique used by investors to acquire and merge multiple small companies in the same market. I don't fully understand how this is possible. When the author mentions "merge in the same market" does he mean that the small companies create products/services that apply to the same customer range? Does it mean all companies address the same customer need differently? Do different small companies cooperate to create a product or nothing of the above? If companies cooperate to create a product then rollups are cost effective; companies save up money by sharing expenses and profit. On the one hand, combining companies can be a good thing because if the right match is done then more attention is given to the potential product and more consideration is taken for the customers' need. Therefore, the result is worth investing in and all companies get profit from it. On the other hand, competition is sometimes a major issue. Companies compare each other and instead of wanting to cooperate they want to get better than their competitors. Thus, they get distracted of to whom and when is the best time to sell their products As the author says they get distracted as to "who is buying whom?". Does the investor emerge with the smaller company or the reverse? Lastly, a lot of experienced entrepreneurs exit their venture and sell their companies through rollups. As a result, the employees may not be satisfied with the fact that they have to work with a company they don't really want to. The lesson from all this is, ALWAYS know what your strategy is, especially when rollups appear in your industry. Decide between a growth strategy, an exit strategy or an investment strategy. What type of relationship will you have with your combined company? That's the best way to understand the potential outcome that is best for you and your company.

Celebrating Failure

One of my failures this semester was me failing in Organic Chemistry 1. I expected Organic Chemistry would be easy if I had to just memorize the material. The reality was that I didn't manage my time efficiently, so I didn't invest enough time into studying for Organic Chemistry. In my first midterm, I finished the whole material for it just the night before. Me not having practiced enough and not being aware of what to expect on the exam, I didn't do well on my first exam. On my second exam, I did I little better, but again didn't manage my time efficiently.

I learned that next time I would have to manage my time better and get to know my limits. I should start with writing down a list of the goals I have each day, so that I am always productive and don't get disappointed of my capabilities. The way I dealt with this is not to give up. I will retake this class and give the attention needed for it to get an A. I will then know I deserve the grade I take, as long as I know I worked hard for it. I will definitely study the material in advance and try to do my best. 

Failure is hard, indeed. However, it is good in the sense that it makes you change your behavior. It helps you discover more about yourself and more about your limits. So, definitely, failure is necessary for success. This class has changed my perspective towards failure, because I know that I have to take a risk to create change. If you take a risk and then you fail, then that's also good because hadn't you taken a risk you would have never known what the outcome would be.  Something else I learnt is that if you were to take a risk you have to actually look forward to it. You have to like trying something new or like developing your own self in many different ways , even if that means you have to get outside of your comfort zone. 

So, yes, celebrate every time you fail! There's always a next time!

My exit strategy

My exit strategy for my venture would be to reach a point where my venture would be in a stable financial state and then sell my venture to a person/colleague that I trust has same values and skills as I do. I could sell it after 5-10 years so that I find out what I want to do after this venture.

I've selected this particular strategy because I believe this venture's value is going to stay stable. Even if students are satisfied with all the other restaurants on-campus, mine would be different in the same that it hosts and promotes restaurants that people don't know about. I, thus, don't want to stop operating my restaurant, but instead I could constantly improve it and eventually to transform it into something else.

My exit strategy has influenced me on how I have identified opportunities, since I am planning on seizing any opportunities that come in the future. My goal for now is to raise awareness on how to eat healthy by providing the appropriate resources to students. In the future, however, I would like to contribute into the food industry and maybe use some of the profits from my business to research that I'm planning on conducting.

What's Next

EXISTING market

What's NEXT? On my Amazon Whisperer post, I tried to expand my business with adding a fresh food stand in my restaurant that will demonstrate all the veggies, fruits and herbs used in the menu of the day. As an extension of that customers can either purchase as much as produce they want from the stand. Alternative they will be given a snack box of the fresh produce once they are done with their meal as a gift. These strategies can help increase customers' trust in my business and make my business/innovation more approachable. Another idea of what's next that I already mentioned could be to create a new type of student community that will work on growing fruits and vegetables on the back of the restaurant. This could become a big thing in Gainesville, if it doesn't exist already and it will be completely voluntary. I believe this will bring students closer and will create a community that cares about its food.

NEW market

My new market is a more specific market than just students that live on-campus. This market is closely related to the health industry and it's ATHLETES. I know that a lot of athletes, whatever kind, care about their health, or they should at least. They majority of athletes follow a diet plan, but once they live on-campus they don't have a lot of food options to choose from health-wise. My restaurant will provide them with healthy food. Another new market that is also specific are only vegan and vegetarian people, which is a more difficult range of students that you can find. However, I believe vegan and vegetarian dishes are added to the restaurant's menu as a mean to provide more options to students instead of limiting their options.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

In this week's reading we talked about planning within an organization and why formal planning is important for a company's success. Starting companies may chose to start with informal planning because it suits the start-up company's structure better. Formal planning on the other hand can help companies understand better their mission, their advantages/disadvantages, their opportunities/threats, their competitors, and organize their goals accordingly. With this tool the company can grow in a more coherent way.

Formal company has obviously a lot of benefits to offer a company. But why are so many entrepreneurs lacking this type of planning? They say it is time consuming and time is scarce in their every day operating schedules, I believe that it is essential to set a specific time in the day or in the week for all the compartments of a company to meet and discuss their progress and their goals just so that every compartment is aware of what is going on in the other parts of the company. In other words, for all the sections to be on the same page. Appropriate time distribution to every task is essential. If you spend more time in a task that has minimal value for the company then you don't understand the company's goals.

Lack of expertise is also mentioned as a reason why entrepreneurs avoid formal planning. I didn't know that you have to be an expert to do formal planning. Lack of experience it may be, but it is something that you need to practice to know well, which also takes time. The author also says that entrepreneurs are typically generalists which I also don't understand.

Many of these entrepreneurs are also insecure that if they make a plan about their companies that involves the participation/decisions of others in the company besides themselves it will not go well. They only trust their own decisions and they are afraid of having others be in charge. I would guess these kind of entrepreneurs don't even take risks for their own ventures. I believe that in order to have a successful venture, you actually decide to sacrifice piece of your creation to others that know better about things you have little knowledge about.

Lastly, many entrepreneurs think that it is costly to invest into planning. I don't agree that that is a problem. I think in order not to lose business, you can have something that will make your business stronger and that will eventually bring you more money than you expected. Planning is my opinion may be costly but is also profitable and worth the try.

Venture Concept No.1

My opportunity is unsatisfied UF students, including myself, with the UF dining services and the limited healthy food options on-campus. Students that live, or just eat, on-campus between classes have this unmet need. Most restaurants on-campus provide fast-food services, which means low-quality and mostly fried food. These are also often limited to cuisines that are most popular in the US, like classic American, Asian and Tex-Mex food. Broward dining center, which is the major dining center, is also overpriced for the quality of food it serves. There are many international students that can’t find authentic cuisines on-campus because most fast food is Americanized. In addition to that, there are students that would like to add into their meal plan restaurants that are not currently on-campus. Moreover, students don’t have the time and motivation to prepare their own meals if they live off-campus, because of their heavy workload. The forces in the environment creating this opportunity is basically the cheap and fast food for busy students that live on-campus. How customers currently satisfy this need is by cooking at home, eating mostly salads and fruits or getting Krishna lunch, which is vegetarian food. These customers are pretty loyal to what they are using, since it is less costly to eat at home, but it’s time consuming for students that have classes all day long. Krishna lunch is very popular as well, but its hours are limited to lunch time. This opportunity is big because with my idea I can create a healthy student community that will appreciate different international cuisines. I will also have the opportunity to satisfy a big number of students that leave on-campus.

The service I’m offering students is a new restaurant on-campus that will be hosting cooks around Gainesville and will be promoting their restaurant menus. The cooks will be cooking food from different cuisines that will cover multiple diet preferences, like vegans, vegetarians and meat lovers. I will this way provide fresh and healthy food to students from famous restaurants, or even new ones. There will be 1 different cook per day cooking for us lunch and dinner. More specifically, there will be 10 different cooks every 10 days. The food will be ready an hour in advance the restaurant opens and will be kept refrigerated so that it is fresh and safe when served to them. To approach more customers and make more money I will provide the menu of the day through a free app. This app will also give the chance to students to order one extra plate for half-price to go. There will also be discount coupons from supermarkets, like Lucky’s, Publix, Trader Joe’s etc. distributed to everyone that gets a meal, so that students are encouraged to buy their own groceries for cheaper. The deals will also be posted on the app as the “Save of the Day”. Students that are in a hurry can order food to go. The next new thing I’ve come up with is a fresh produce corner in which I will be selling fresh veggies, herbs and fruits produced on the backyard of the restaurant. Students can volunteer to help grow them. Therefore creating a strong-bonded community that cares about the food it produces. If students don’t want to buy any of the fresh produce they will be given fresh produce in a snack-size box before they leave, as a gift for joining us in our effort of sharing healthy food. All of these services will provide students fresh, healthy, diverse and reasonably prized food right on-campus. They will never get bored of it and they will get to enjoy food that they may have never tried before. They will also get accustomed to what there is out on the market to use in preparing their own meals. Essentially, what I’m selling is the opportunity to start eating healthy and to explore new cuisines for just $5-7.

My innovation will solve the opportunity by encouraging students to engage with fresh and healthy food, besides going only for the cheap fast-food options. By “awarding” them with fresh produce and giving out discount coupons I give them the motivation to go and take advantage of this opportunity of changing habits and start caring more of what they consume. I want to think I can provide them with the resources that are not yet available on-campus; the ones that provide students with healthier food options. And because I know students are pretty hungry I offer them the option to get one more full plate for just half price (just $2.5-3.5 extra). This opportunity will also promote the cooks’ skills and the restaurants they are working for. So it is a win-win for everyone. I don’t believe it will be very hard to get students try out my restaurant since I will be providing them with food they are accustomed to, but also the chance to try something new. I will also have a lot of “gifts” for them to develop their own loyalty to my restaurant. I believe students would actually switch to my new restaurant because of the diverse cuisines and the guaranteed vegetarian and vegan options. I know vegan and vegetarian option are limited on-campus. My competitors would have to be the fast-food restaurants on-campus that provide students quick, low-quality and cheap food. Their weaknesses are basically that they have standard menus and students get eventually bored of their food options. As I already mentioned I will be hosting 10 different cooks that will be coming every 10 days, so that if someone misses them one day, they will have the chance to come to the restaurant and enjoy the cook’s food the next week. The next month there will be 10 other different cooks coming in. The rest of the fresh food production that will be happening on the back of the restaurant will be student-managed. The cook, depending on their available time, can stay interact with the students or can leave once they’re done. In any case, there will always be culinary and other students helping them out with cleaning pantries, keeping track of the orders and keeping the food safe.

My most important resource in my business would be my passion for the wellness of the student community and the eagerness to raise awareness on how to eat healthy. All of the employers will be willing to help out and care about their customers. I am personally a very positive person and I encourage people to become better and be strong. My venture will promote exactly this. It will also bring people together through food and through sharing common worries and struggles. This caring spirit of my business would be hard for competitors to copy.

In five years, I would love to be an entrepreneur that would create projects to raise awareness of how to eat healthy. I believe my first venture will be a first step that will make a BIG difference and hopefully have a huge impact on people’s eating habits. My goal is to start here and continue spreading awareness outside of Gainesville. My projects could also be a result of my research on food products; hence my major in chemistry. I always had a passion about food and would love to do research on it to improve its quality and keep the food safe and clean for others.

Amazon Whisperer

• Describe the revenue drivers you currently include in your business concept for this class. Revenue drivers are the different ways you make money.

My revenue driver at the moment is my restaurant on-campus, which is basically an opportunity for students to eat healthier and get accustomed to different cuisines.

• Describe what kind of product offering you believe should be next. What's the next thing your customers want?

In one of my comments someone mentioned growing my own fresh veggies in the backyard of the restaurant so that I use what I make in my food. I could do that, but because this may take longer than expected I will bring fresh produce in the restaurant and demonstrate it to the customers. The fresh food stand will include a section with veggies and fruits, one for spices/condiments and herbs and one with whole grains/legumes that are used on the menu. I might be able to expand this idea with desserts too, which will be homemade.

• Describe how this "next" thing will enhance your existing product/service offering. Does it improve the user experience, does it increase customer switching costs, does it foster customer loyalty, etc.?

I believe this new service will foster customer loyalty, because demonstrating the ingredients I use in my food will serve the purpose of this restaurant. Students that are not used to buying or cooking with veggies and fruits can now know what they eat at the restaurant and will also be given free produce when they leave from the restaurant. This will encourage them to consume/cook with veggies more often. I think this is a very unique experience and hopefully it will work. I know that they already have a salad and food station at the Broward dining center, but my type of service is a little bit more different.

• Go to Amazon and try to find a product that is similar to the one you want to offer next. Describe the product. Include a picture of the product.

 This product has 3 stands. The upper one will include herbs and spices. The middle one will include veggies and the lower one fruits. Fruits are not commonly used when cooking. Most of the times their juice and zest is used to add flavor or they are used in salads or desserts. People can choose whatever they like from this stand and purchase it, to use it while they are cooking. Otherwise, we will offer them some of the fresh produce for free once they leave from the restaurant in the form of snacks.

• What are the customer reviews for the product? What, exactly, do customers not like about the product? What do they like about it?

The customers seem to love this product. They can choose where they want to put their produce. It's pretty big so they can store all their produce there that doesn't need to be refrigerated. Hangers come with it so you can also hang bananas on it. It is hammock styled which means you can swing each part to reach the food and it is easily assembled. There is air flow in between the produce so that it doesn't get bad quickly. The only thing the customers don't like is its dimensions, it takes up a lot of space. 

• Describe what design/usability changes you'd make to the product. 

The only changes I would make is make the dimensions a little bit smaller, even though for my restaurant that wouldn't be a big issue. I would also offer like a plastic base to go at each level so that small fruits don't fall off. 

• Describe why you think this product would make a good addition to your current product/service offering.

I think this would make a good addition to my current service since people will be aware of what is added in their food and they can also choose the produce they want to use for their next dish. It will overall encourage the consumption of fresh produce among students.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

The reading of today was "You need an innovation strategy" by Gary Pisano. Gary in this wants to demonstrate the real cause of why so many businesses fail to improve in their attempts to innovate. The author's answer to this is the lack of an innovation strategy. He highlights that companies follow common steps to develop their company's innovation aspect but these companies don't realize that there's no specific strategy that suits all companies. Aping their competitor's strategy is also not an answer. I agree with the author with this that some companies do what everyone else does making them incapable of realizing their actual values and goals. That's why more and more companies are now creating a group in which the company talks about their short-term and long-term goals and analyze their values and expectations from every single one in the business to achieve those goals. Connecting and organizing the many different roles of each section of a company towards the main goal is also crucial for success. This way the company is focused and determined.

What an innovation strategy does is "help you design a system to match your specific competitive needs.". Thus, having an innovation strategy involves understanding what innovation is and what's its value. Will innovation create value for potential customers, how will the company find that value and what types of innovations will the company pursue once the value is found? Everything becomes a plan, everything has a purpose. So, in addition to what the author mentioned, I added that companies should understand what innovation is and should know the different ways innovation can benefit both the venture and the customer.

Later on, the author mentions different types of innovations such as routine, disruptive, radical and architectural innovations. It is said that routine innovations are not good for companies. I don't agree with that, as the author doesn't either. Routine innovations help explore the capabilities of the company. They also offer customers different versions of their product/service. These different versions help the company to always develop and do research, till the next innovation comes up. It kind of trains the "brain" of the company to always be active. Of course, competitors will follow, but if the company keeps developing, the imitators won't be able to reach their competitive advantage, unless a radical innovation comes up. In any case, depending on the goal of each company, the innovation strategy has to focus on improving either technologically or modifying the business model.

My Unfair Advantage

1.Positive attitude/influence- As said from people that know me well, I'm a positive influence to others. I can disseminate my happiness wherever I go, which is a great advantage. I add value in people's life, I show them the positive side of life and give them strength to keep going. I compliment others and tell them what I truly believe of their actions and themselves when I find it appropriate. I boost their confidence and show them they can achieve whatever they want as long as they believe in themselves. Of course, I choose those people that are able to accept my thoughts and accept me for who I am.

2.Trustworthy- A lot of people trust me and often ask for my advice. Even if I don't have a lot of experience, I can empathize with others quickly and try to give them the best solution to their problems. I'm a rational person, so I get to persuade others with what I'm saying. I often show them how to not only think of their side, but also other's people's point of view. I'm a great listener, too.

3.Connections- I love meeting new people and creating new unique relationships with others. I didn't use to be open with others when I was younger, and I'm still not as open as I want to be. I believe this is good, though, in the sense that I know how to choose the people I should trust the most. I still got a lot to work on this area, because I want to be able to promote myself more. But I believe I got a lot of friends and because of these connections I can easily get help from others.

4.Dual citizenship- I grew up in a family that had as major languages Greek and English. I would often go to the US when I was little and would always be exposed to families with different backgrounds and cultures. My father is a Social anthropologist and he studies a lot of different cultures. I remember when he would cook Chinese and Indian food at home. Through him I got really comfortable with other cultures and I learned how and why to RESPECT others. In my elementary school I also got exposed to other cultures, such as Albanians, Turks and Polish people. I knew at that age a lot of them were bullied and I could see how wrong this was.

5.Social media- I've used several social media platforms throughout my life and I have a good idea of how they work. I haven't used a large amount of them , but whichever I've used, I've been using them for an extended period of time. I've noticed the trends and know how to get my idea out there. Even if I'm confident with that, we will have to see if that's the case in the assignment "Going for the Google Gold".

6.Good at negotiating money, deals etc.

7.Living around the world- I have family around the world. My aunt and grandparents live in the US ( NY and FL). My brother and mother live in Greece and my father lives in Saudi Arabia. That can help me expand my company later one in my business venture

8.Money management- I know how to save money. I don't go for shopping very often and I always if what I'm buying is worth it's price. I've been living alone the past year so I've learned how to manage my expenses. I think I will be able to be better at money management if I get my own job.

9. Living right next to one of the busiest roads on campus, West University. Everything is accessible within that road and the nearby roads. There are a lot of restaurants on this road which makes it easier for me to create new contacts with restaurants. I can start hosting cooks from these restaurants and potentially get sponsored by them, too These are restaurants/ dessert places that UF students, including myself, visit a lot  (Chipotle, Bagels and Noodles, Jimmy Johns etc.) so it's an opportunity I can seize to market and promote my own restaurant on this road/location.

10. Cooking experience- I'm a member of the CASU club at UF this year and I have participated in many cooking classes. I've learned a lot so far and I can't wait to learn a lot more. One of the UF undergraduate students did his graduate thesis on offering cooking classes to UF students. He conducted research on how students eat so far and he wanted to see whether through the cooking classes they would change their eating habits. This helped me understand more of what eating healthy means and I also learned more ways to show that to people.

I believe positive attitude/influence is the most important resource I have since that's how I approach people that are essentially my potential customers. Others having a first good impression of me is very important, since this will attract more and more customers into my business. I want to add my magic touch into people's lives by giving them a chance to understand what's good for them. I'm definitely not an expert or anything like that, but I know that eating healthy is essential for both people's physical and mental health.Taking care of oneself is definitely the base for taking care of others. Finally, this resource is valuable because it will attract people to my restaurant. It will also add value into people's lives, bringing them together while eating and providing them with healthier options. It is rare, because in a business not many people are able to pass that type of attitude to the people around them. So making them happier will definitely add into their experience in my restaurant. It is inimitable because one needs to have the "positive"genes to truly be a positive influence and it's nonsubstitutable in the sense that it is just a personality trait that can be similar to others, but has a different effect on people.

Growing My Social Capital

For this exercise, I gave out my business idea to three professionals of the food industry.

The first one is Chef Bryan. He is the cook of CLO (Cooperative Living Organization), a residence hall behind Chipotle. That's where I live, too. He's been a cook there for a year now and he's been cooking food from scratch. Every resident adores him. He's worked as a cook at an Indian restaurant before. He has, however, other small jobs at the same time, to add to his income as a part-time cook. In my business he would be my supplier expert, the one that would bring in the food into the restaurant and would serve my customers by cooking for them. Having this person in my network will help me attract more cooks around Gainesville and lead me to new networks. Chef Bryan always cooks food for vegans and vegetarians, separately from meat lovers and makes sure there are vegetables in every single meal. All of these elements I think add up to the cook I'm expecting to hire in my own restaurant. He gave me a lot of useful tips when I showed him my business idea. I asked him several questions about the financing part of the business and he told me I should negotiate first the distribution of benefits with each cook I'll be hosting, so that I know what they require from me in return. He also was willing on working at my business If I managed to pull it together. I was really glad to create that type of connection.

The second person I met was the owner of Bagels and Noodles. This was my industry expert, since this person created his own restaurant. I imagined he would share all kinds of experiences to me so that I get an idea on how I could start my own business. I chose the owner of Bagels and Noodles, because he knows both American and Chinese market. I thought talking to him would be helpful since I will incorporate a lot of cuisines in my own business, as well. I focused however on the part of the industry and not on that of the market.

Week 10 Reading reflection

Oh gosh, financing is so complex. I never had imagined I would learn all these stuff. So for our Week 11 reading we had to read... Financial preparation is crucial for a business's life. If you don't finance your expenses and don't know how to manage money within your budget then you'll lose lots of mind and the venture will die. Because of this, planning is an important asset an entrepreneur can have.

To keep track of your expenses you have the balance sheet. Assets are the financial resources of the firm and liabilities are the claims that creditors have against the company.The residual interest of the firm's owners is called the owner's equity. All of these are included in the balance sheet.

One of the points made in a text in the book is the problem of uncollected or very delayed receivables. This means when you offer credit to your customers but they choose not to pay off that credit in a timely manner. This shows disrespect to the company's economic standing, because these type customers take advantage of their credit, but they don't know what kind of damage they do to the company's economy. The company is serving you to pay him, not to purchase things "for free" when they are not supposed to be.

That's why starting entrepreneurs should find a funding resource in case they fall into the trap of mismanaging their finances. In addition to that they should reflect on their customers activities and if they have been responsible towards the firm so that they can decide on whether they are worth on investing any more or not. You don't want to get a loan that will keep increasing when you don't have legitimate resource to invest in or have taxes payable. I would highly encourage as the writer states to offer discounts for early payment. This way you encourage people to pay you more often and sooner. This solves pretty much the problem and the customer is satisfies, too.

Finally, there is one thing I don't understand but I know it helps a lot for the entrepreneur's debt. This is the accumulated depreciation. Accumulated depreciation for either a building or equipment is the amount that is written off the book due to wear and tear. Is this feature used when you want to disregard the assets that cannot be used anymore? In the text, it is stated that this accumulated depreciation helps lower the tax liability. I don't quite understand the process till that effect.

Elevator Pitch No.3

So this is my 3rd elevator pitch. I was really amazed of the number of tries I did, because last time the tries were definitely a lot better. I got only a few comments for feedback. Everyone seemed to love my idea. The only thing I changed that my roommate noticed is move my body less, speak with a stable tone and look straight at the camera more. Enjoy! :)

My Secret Sauce

Well, I suppose there are a few things that differentiate me from others - besides my height of course. I would say I'm a determined girl that always tries hard to achieve a goal. I always studied hard and was an A student. In addition to that, my experience of my weight loss problem and my hormone problems made me understand that the balance between exercising and eating is very important for someone's well-being. Finally, I'm always positive towards life. I know attitude is a major element that can substantially influence your career path and your life decisions. Being positive, kind and supportive makes people around you feel safe and happy. I hope to create a bonded community eager to always improve - in my business this would be achieved through healthy food and exercise.

My roommate Manuela told me what makes me different is my positive attitude and the fact that I always look for positive things into a negative situation. My friend Kathan said I am very hardworking and determined. I'm respectful, honest and caring for other people, too. Gavin says I always take time to listen to other people, I'm very kind and bring out the best in others.

My mother told me what makes me different from others is that I like to always improve myself and try to make things better for myself and others. I'm diverse, love people and helpful towards others. My friend Franz told me my work ethic and my persistence to achieve my goals makes me different from others.

I believe that overall what I think of myself is very similar to what my friends and family around me think, too.  I was really impressed of what others had to say about me, because I always expect to hear something I've never thought about before, which could be both negative and positive. The truth is I always try to make others feel better about themselves and I don't always know if that works. However, I'm really happy that I got to realize that I have a good influence to most of the people that surround me.

Idea Napkin No. 2

I'm Artemis Magliveras and was born in Greece. As a student majoring in Chemistry I was always interested in learning about food chemistry. I got more aware of how important having a healthy lifestyle is when I went through a period in my life where I wasn't as healthy as I wanted to be. I would exercise more than usual and, thus, lost a lot of weight. I didn't understand how important it was to keep a balanced diet with a balanced exercise. That deteriorated my health in some way. From that day on I was more aware of my limits and the food I was eating. This means I started to eat more, even if I didn't feel like eating, because I knew my body needed more energy than I thought it did. My father would also cook Asian and Indian food, which made me more interested in other cuisines. My aspiration is to raise awareness on how to eat more healthy and how important exercise is for one's health. So far, I have good communication skills and have gotten more involved with food, through cooking and winning an award for a recipe database I came up with some friends.

Since last year, I've been concerned about the food that is served on-campus and believe that students' choices are very limited. I think that my business idea of creating a new restaurant on-campus would make a lot of people happier. It will improve their college experience by offering them a more diverse menu, including meat, vegetarian and vegan options. Each day there will be one different cook from a different restaurant in Gainesville, cooking for UF students. The menu will be accessible on-line, as well as the option of ordering one extra plate for half price to-go. Students that get their meal will also get coupons with discounts from different supermarkets in Gainesville. This will encourage them to buy groceries and cook for themselves, too. In all, my service will provide students with healthier options at lower cost. This is the reason why students will pay for my service.

The restaurant will serve people of diverse backgrounds and diets, especially vegans and vegetarians.  As an international student, I always missed my homemade food so I really like the idea of multicultural food. This will give an opportunity for students to get accustomed to other cuisines as well and to never get bored of the same type of food options every day. Vegans and vegetarians I believe would also be able to have a guaranteed restaurant to serve their diets. In addition, all students need food that will boost their energy instead of depriving them of it. And healthy food does exactly that. It provides genuine energy to study and exercise. A lot of students at UF are hard workers and are into exercising, so they will definitely, and hopefully, appreciate this business idea. Lastly, I noticed in my customer interviews, a lot of students loved the idea of getting one extra plate for half, in combination to the supermarket coupons. I guess this financial strategy works well in attracting customers.

Although the service that I provide can be copied by anybody, the combination of my service and the environment is what makes my product unique. Young people in Gainesville have created a healthy lifestyle spirit by exercising a lot and cooking at home. This means that the community is very much aware of what means to be healthy. The campus, however, does not provide them with the appropriate supply to meet the demand of the students. Hopefully, my idea will change that and make students happier.

My goal is to get service from cooks in Gainesville, while at the same time sponsor their own businesses and, thus, create a collaborative relationship between us. This way both UF and other food services in Gainesville will benefit. My business idea would work upon UF's approval and funding. The only issues that might come is the food prices.I would try to make it as studentfriendly as possible ($5-7). Moreover, I would have to plan a year in advance the restaurant schedule, so that the cooks get the date booked for us. I will have to persuade all this different cooks to work for me, while they work for their own businesses. In addition to that, I will need to figure out how the money gained would be distributed to the different cooks, my restaurant and UF. Last but not least, I've been asked about how the food is going to be served in a timely manner. Just because it is going to be restaurant-like food, it is going to either be food that can be prepared and cooked within 15 minutes or be precooked meals that are going to be served heated and served. Finally, to ensure the quality of the food, the veggies will be grown behind the restaurant so that it is fresh and organic. 

I collected all this info and incorporated it into my Idea Napkin through my feedback on my last post and my 3rd customer interview. Below is the video of my 3rd customer interviews that I didn't have time to upload on time.

MULTI-COOK

Multi-cook, a newly UF funded dining service on campus, provides UF students with the option to eat healthier at lower cost. Everyday a cook from a local restaurant cooks lunch and dinner for the students, and thus ensures a wide variety of food for vegans, vegetarians, meat lovers, and so forth. With a different cook each day, the food options are diverse, healthy, and cost-friendly. The students have access to the menu via an app, and the chance to save money by ordering the second plate online at half price. The app also informs the students about the “Save of the Day”, the supermarket discount coupons offered with every meal. 

Week 8 reading reflection

Considering how little I know about financing, this reading helped a lot in my understanding. I learned that good finance management is important for a new venture. The two means of finance management are debt financing and equity financing. The first involves a payback of the funds, plus a fee for the use of the money, while the second one involves the sale of some of the ownership in the venture. In my point of view, the second method of financing is better, even if it means you relinquish some of the ownership to another company. If your venture is successful, everyone wins. If your venture fails, at least you don't have to worry about finding the money to pay back the people who loaned you the money. Of course, with equity financing you need to be careful not to give more than half of your business' rights to the other company, in order to keep control of my company. 

If someone, however, chooses to get loans from a bank, it is important to understand that one has to plan ahead. One has to consider why, how long, how much and when he will need to borrow the money. More importantly, one should know how he will you pay back the money. What if something unexpected happens? You have to have a plan B. Is there maybe another income that can make up for the money lost? You can't borrow money when you know you can't pay it back, which is true for any loan. That's why banks often require collateral.  

Social lending is another alternative solution that many start-up companies consider. Social lending uses Internet-based sites to pool money from investors willing to lend capital at agreed-upon rates. These loans can reach a maximum of $25,000, which gives the entrepreneur the opportunity to start their ventures at a low-risk cost. Social lending is also a great solution for entrepreneurs seeking quick capital without the administrative overhead of traditional lenders. Again, as with most things, entrepreneurs need to do their research to choose their lenders with caution, and to not take high risks. The disadvantages that need to be taken into account are that the entrepreneur's business plan is released to the public domain and that most loans are not completed because of the 10% funding success rate, which is considerably low. Finally, these are some things someone has to consider before lending money for the first time. 

I got a lot out of this reading. The one thing I would ask the writer would be, what would he have as a plan B in case he didn't have enough money to support his company. The terms unfortunately are very new for me so I had difficulty understanding some of the concepts.

Half-way Reflection

Two months have passed by since the beginning of the class and we're still here learning on what it means to be an entrepreneur. I have learned many things so far, such as how to identify and solve problems that me or other people may have as well as how to identify my target costumers and how to approach them by engaging them in my idea.

So far, I have been working hard to keep up with the requirements of the class. The behaviors that I have used to remain tenacious, is being positive and self-confident. While completing the assignments of talking to other customers and experienced entrepreneurs I didn't feel intimidated because I would tell myself that it's like talking to a friend. Talking to a camera is something new for me as well, but it is also exciting because I always wanted to do that. I have never really challenged myself a lot and now that I experience these challenges, I want to show others that I can accept anything from a failure to bad/good feedback. In my opinion, the most difficult challenge for me would be to talk to an entrepreneur and in a way "sell" myself so that I can get a position in their company.

The only time I felt like giving up is because of the overwhelming number of assignments I have to complete. Sometimes it becomes a lot of work for one week, since I have other difficult courses to worry about, too. Nevertheless, the assignments are not really difficult, rather time consuming (especially the reading reflection we have to do once a week). However, I understand that one of the purposes of this course is to find a way to deal with this challenge. Because most of the assignments have to do with experiences, they are more or less fun to do. So, even if they are time consuming I look forward to doing them.

3 tips that foster the skills that support tenacity or develop the 'tenacious mindset' are:

1) Keep positive. If someone can complete a task that you are afraid of completing, you can also do it and maybe do it even better than others.

2) Work on your assignments in advance so that you get the most out of them.

3) Even if you feel rejected when completing your exercises, it doesn't mean you can reject yourself/ give up.

Having the RIGHT attitude and WORKING hard to become better is the key to develop the 'tenacious mindset'.

Elevator Pitch No.2

Since I wasn't able to upload my first elevator pitch, this is my first official elevator pitch! Enjoy! Can't wait for your feedback :)

As I mentioned in my pitch MultiCook is your answer if you are a student or someone working at UF that is tired of eating the same and the same or just wants healthier and more diverse options on campus. My business idea is a new on-campus dining hall. Cooks from different restaurants around Gainesville get to cook on campus for students- one different cook each day and different menu every day. The menu is going to include all available options, such as vegan, vegetarian and meat. In addition to that, if students want to save one more plate they can order one from the MultiCook app for half price and take it “to go”. If that is not enough, with every meal you will get discount cards on different local supermarkets so that you can buy groceries for cheaper. Now you get different food options made by your favorite restaurant cooks, in a reasonable price and many other benefits that you’ll never get bored of.

A few things I noticed from my attempt to do the pitch is 1) I couldn't memorize a text of my idea so I just described my idea in my own words and 2) I had to put the different features of the idea in a logical order so that the viewer doesn't get confused or lost in what I was saying. In addition to what I noticed, I also tried to improve my pitch by watching others' pitches. What I didn't want to do that others did is: exceed the time limit, use a webcam and read my speech or say it by heart without emotions. Hope I achieved that!

Week 6 Reading Reflection

This week we read the article of Michael Porter: The Five Forces that Shape Competitive Strategy.
 It was really interesting. The reader's major focus was how the five forces - profits, costumers, suppliers, potential entrants, substitute products - define an industry's structure and its competitive relationships with other industries. An industry determines its own strategic positioning based on the industry's structure. The more the industry understands its structure the more effective its strategy is. Industry structure grows out of a set of economic and technical characteristics. These characteristics determine which of the above competitive forces is a major contributor to the industry's strategy. The first thing that the author talked about more in depth was the threat of entry. This is the threat other industries "feel" when a new industry or an already existing one introduces something new into the market, just like Apple did when it entered the music distribution business with iTunes. When the threat is high, other industries are forced to keep their prices low or boost investment to deter the new competitors. The threat, in this case, becomes a barrier in the potential profitability of an industry, especially when the competitors have pretty much a stable position in the market place. I wasn't very sure about what the "threat measurement" stands for because I'm not very accustomed to business terms, but this is what I got out of the whole concept.

Another issue discussed in the article is the sources of barriers of a new entry into the industry. One of the sources is the "demand-side benefits of scale"(also known as network effects). These are benefits that arise in industries where a buyer’s willingness to pay for a company’s product increases with the number of other buyers who also patronize the company. These benefits discourage entry by limiting the willingness of costumers to buy from a newcomer and by reducing the price the newcomer can command until it builds up a large base of customers. In my opinion, this isn't always true. People may have chosen to be devoted customers for a specific company that satisfies their needs. When another company, however, creates a whole new experience for them and takes what they already knew to another level then the competition will be really high. In this case, the new company is taking a risk of introducing something new that they do not know how the people will react to. Of course, the prices have to be low at first to attract costumers, but if the quality of the new type of service is much better than the previous one, the profit of the new company will rise more quickly than that of the older company.

Idea Napkin No. 1

I'm Artemis Magliveras and was born in Greece. As a student majoring in Chemistry I was always interested in learning about food chemistry. I got more aware of how important having a healthy lifestyle is when I went through a period in my life where I wasn't as healthy as I wanted to be. I would exercise more than usual and, thus, lost a lot of weight. I didn't understand how important it was to keep a balanced diet with a balanced exercise. That deteriorated my health in some way. From that day on I was more aware of my limits and the food I was eating. This means I started to eat more, even if I didn't feel like eating, because I knew my body needed more energy than I thought it did. My father would also cook Asian and Indian food, which made me more interested in other cuisines. My aspiration is to raise awareness on how to eat more healthy and how important exercise is for one's health. So far, I have good communication skills and have gotten more involved with food, through cooking and winning an award for a recipe database I came up with some friends.

Since last year, I've been concerned about the food that is served on-campus and believe that students' choices are very limited. I think that my business idea of creating a new restaurant on-campus would make a lot of people happier. It will improve their college experience by offering them a more diverse menu, including meat, vegetarian and vegan options. Each day there will be one different cook from a different restaurant in Gainesville, cooking for UF students. The menu will be accessible on-line, as well as the option of ordering one extra plate for half price to-go. Students that get their meal will also get coupons with discounts from different supermarkets in Gainesville. This will encourage them to buy groceries and cook for themselves, too. In all, my service will provide students with healthier options at lower cost. This is the reason why students will pay for my service.

The cooks will be cooking for students during lunch and dinner, so that if students miss lunch and get there later, they can still get dinner. The restaurant will serve people of diverse backgrounds, especially vegans and vegetarians. All students need food that will boost their energy instead of depriving them of it. And healthy food does exactly that. As an international student, I always missed my homemade food so I really like the idea of multicultural food.

Although the service that I provide can be copied by anybody, the combination of my service and the environment is what makes my product unique. Young people in Gainesville have created a healthy lifestyle spirit by exercising a lot and cooking at home. This means that the community is very much aware of what means to be healthy. The campus, however, does not provide them with the appropriate supply to meet the demand of the students.

My goal is to get service from cooks in Gainesville, while at the same time sponsor their own businesses and, thus, create a collaborative relationship between us. This way both UF and other food services in Gainesville will benefit. My business idea would work upon UF's approval and funding.

Interviewing Costumers No.2

After the first interviews I went over what my costumers had told me about their on-campus dining experiences and tried to identify an opportunity. The majority of them mentioned that on-campus dining lacked quality and diversity, so I brainstormed over those points. I thought that since a lot of them would either cook their own meals or eat off campus. These two things would provide both healthier and more diverse options. So, I came up with the idea of creating a new restaurant on-campus. This restaurant will host cooks from all around Gainesville. A different cook will be cooking for us each day, with a different menu each time. This menu, however, will include all kinds of food for vegetarians. vegans, meat-lovers etc. The restaurant will serve both lunch and dinner. Another feature is that students will be able to see the menu on-line and will have the opportunity to order an extra plate online to-go for half price. This is another way for students to start investing money into food they actually like. Finally, there will be supermarket (discount) coupons distributed to everyone who gets a meal, so that people get the extra motivation needed to go and buy their own groceries. This is my business idea, at the moment.

I realized, however, that in order to get important feedback I would have to interview people that have diverse experiences of on-campus dining. The only thing I changed in my questions was that I made them more focused on asking about the quality of food and asking them how on-campus dining can be improved - to also prepare them for my business idea. Luckily, a lot of people liked my idea and especially the fact that you get an extra plate for half price.

Since I've become an "expert" in interviewing costumers my three tips are the following:

1) Warm the costumers up with questions about themselves. If they are really nervous try to be extra friendly and ask them more about themselves.
2) Pay attention to what they are saying and reflect briefly on their opinions, as if you were having a normal discussion. Don't keep asking questions because this shows you don't care about their answers.
3) Thank them for their time at the end. This way they'll will comfortable and satisfied with the interview overall.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

This week we had to read about "Assessment of Entrepreneurial Opportunities".
This reading was very informative and a little complex, since I have never learned how businesses work after one creates a new product/idea.

The first thing that stood out for me was the few steps the author outlines to protect a patent.
Securing a patent is really important, since competitors "track down" your steps and may steal your ideas/rights. Securing your own creation can solve a lot of problems.To make a patent valid, one has to consider a lot of stuff, such as the cost to develop and market the innovation. In addition, one has to analyze their competitors and their technological similarities to their idea. Another important step is to prepare a realistic budget that would cover unexpected situations, such as the persecution of patent violations. Furthermore, something that has to be considered is this question, "Will the patent be worth defending in three years, or will enforcement cost more than the damages collected?" All these are essential for protecting a patent. The basic tip is to plan ahead and ensure your idea is going to last and will be worth protecting for the upcoming years. 

The reality is that the cost of the patent process in combination to the amount of time and resources needed for that process is so large that many inventors don't think it is worth it. So they invest more into licensing a patent, instead of marketing it. For the marketing process, they hire people that have the necessary knowledge in doing it, so that they save time and money at the same time. In fact, in any business, an inventor has to employ people capable of working in different sectors. This will definitely relieve the inventor by many roles, reducing their responsibilities and stress to an extent, as well as leading them to more successful outcomes. If the inventors were doing the same tasks as marketing agents or finance managers, they wouldn't know better than the actual people that have experience on working in these sectors. As a result, the patent would be marketed poorly. 

Nevertheless, I would still think that patent is worth protecting if it is going to affect a big percentage of the population positively, such as medicine.

Week 4 Reading Reflection

This week we had to read "Innovation: The Creative Pursuit of Ideas" and reflect on it. The author talked about the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurship. Creativity is something that you learn, not something that you are born with, necessarily-just like entrepreneurship. Some people are more creative than other. They are talented and create things every day. However, this is not what it takes to be creative, which is to have a charisma. Creativity is a set of mind. You need to look the world in a way that others don't see it. As the text mentions, in order to develop a creative mind you need to try "perceiving things in a relational mode"; connecting things together and understanding how certain things can be interrelated. In other word, learn how things affect other things. In addition to this, the author mentioned "developing a functional perspective toward things and people" which means to understand how things work, so that you can easily adapt into certain conditions. For example, when you cannot open a can with the proper tool, use an alternative tool/solution than can do the same thing. Therefore, thinking alternatives is another thing that helps improve creativity. I can certainly say that I have become more creative with the above techniques and the exposure to creativity, in general. Last summer I took a course called "Innovation in Context" in which my classmates and I had to think creatively and create a product/idea/service that would be beneficial to the community, something that entrepreneurs also do. I really loved this course because we could synthesize all the available resources we had to create something new or even improve something that already existed.

Some things I do not agree with the writer in a large extent. For example, when the author differentiates adaptors and innovators. I don't believe that adaptors do not contribute into big innovations. Adaptors, in my view, make small changes to a product or service, which is why it takes them a longer time to get to the best solution. Innovators look at these changes, learn from the adaptor's problems and that's how they get to the best solution. So, I believe that in order for innovators to exist, there must be some people that don't think as hard as them, these being the adaptors. Adaptors find a solution to a problem that is most probably temporary till another problem pops up. That happens with innovators as well, though. If innovators develop something big, the creation is still vulnerable to failure. Innovators and adaptors have the same information available. How they'll exploit this information is their main difference.