14A – Halfway Reflection

1)    With all of the other courses one takes concurrently with Entrepreneurship, it can sometimes become challenging to keep up with the timing of the assignments compared to others for different classes. This structure forces me to take accountability of further defining my time rather than generally “setting aside” slots of my day to do assignments. I would associate the self-awareness of my time management and additional discipline to the competency of tenacity. 

2)    At times, when I have failed to manage my time well for that week and I have left Entrepreneurship up until the closest I can to the deadline, I am tempted to skip those assignments because the points associated sound so minimal compared with what we are accustomed to with other UF/Heavener classes. However, every point you see is exactly equivalent to percentage grade points. Reminding myself of this fact keeps my focus and attitude towards each point in check as I look to complete all my work for this course and beyond. 

3)    If I could give future students taking this class 3 tips: 

a.     Become very self-aware. Understand where your strengths and weaknesses lie and walk/plan accordingly to them. 

b.     If you have never taken Warrington Welcome/taken their StrengthsQuest, I highly recommend a personality test to demonstrate the grey areas you may have.  

c.     In accordance to your strengths and weaknesses, become in tune with what motivates you. There is a different type of tenacity for those who fear failure versus those who are looking for the perfect score. Both may lead to the same result, but the path to achieving it may be different.

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

1) You read about an entrepreneur: Steve Jobs

·       What surprised you the most?

o   Everyone says that two things contribute to the way in which we grow into who we are—based on our environment and our genetics. What I found so interesting throughout Jobs’ biography is that while everyone sees his natural-born genius, the environment was a crucial factor that many nowadays tend to overlook. For instance, his biological mother insisting that he find his way to college, even while not completely finishing, brought him exposure to the calligraphy class that changed his life. Further back than even that, growing up in an area where technology was booming post-WWII – both technologically and militarily – gave Jobs the necessary background and interests to make him a pioneer later within one of those fields.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

o   From the moment I read that he was inspired by his calligraphy class in regard to the multitude of Apple creations, I was amazed of his foresight into consumer demand. The fact that he understood that the market would crave the aesthetics behind an efficient machine demonstrated intuition that goes beyond skill. Deriving what the consumer wants and needs before we are even aware of it ourselves is the epitome of innovation in my eyes.  

·       What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

o   A quality I find fairly consistent throughout his life is Jobs’ ability to not only become furiously angry but also turn it into a grudge. Whether this was the case with Apple’s board after having been voted out of the company, over Lisa’s paternity early on, or even his later 2000’s clashes with Google. Although it is human to have these emotions, they impact people on a larger level due to his positions in life. Jobs’ lack of self-awareness of his less admirable qualities creates flaws in what we all look up to as a hero-like figure. 

·       Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

o   Going back to my mention of genetics and environment, I would point to one of Jobs’ greatest adversities being his own adoption. While the specific nature and cause can be argued on various levels, it was a topic that forced him from a young age to grapple with personally. As Jobs got older, we see those same patterns of abandonment occur with Lisa. While Jobs was able to bring Lisa more fully into his life, there can still be a case made that he did not fully overcome that adversity since it shaped him and his responses to specific situations so drastically. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

            Overarchingly, one of his more pervasive competencies to me was Jobs’ attention to detail in all of his projects. There was never a project that was not fought over with a colleague in some aspect due to a difference in opinion over detailing or aesthetics. Furthermore, one pairing to go with his attention to detail was the conceptual and forward thinking involved in the reasoning behind all his decisions, even when the rest of the world did not. 

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

            The entire process of NeXT, from the obscene amount of money and energy spent to the full promotion of the product, was very convoluted. I just was never sure if Steve inadvertently meant to wind up back at Apple due to the new company or it was planned that way accordingly.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

            If I could sit down with him today, I would love to ask Jobs about the transformation of AI since his passing and get his perspective on the area of impact and scope of this technology in the daily lives of consumers. 

            Additionally, with all the new issues with social media and big tech’s imposition on free speech, I am curious to see his reaction and perspective on where we are moving as a society. 

Both of these questions are due to my interest in his perception of the need of the consumer since technology since the launch of the iPhone now moves at a more exponential rate than ever before. 

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

            Due to the meticulous nature of Jobs and his outbursts over such details (i.e. The NeXT cube), I would say that his opinion of hard work is closely linked to getting everything right, the first time, and on time. Every detail must pay off to achieve the larger picture and goal. To some extent, I do agree because that is the purpose to having these ideas come to life. On the other hand, I recognize the reality of an ever-shifting industry and the impossibilities that could arise with that opinion.

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: I chose to focus in on faculty and staff within business schools, specifically for these interviews, Heavener. 

1.     The first person I talked with was one of the program supervisors since some will connect their students to recruiters. What I came to find out is that the recognition of a need arises in the meetings. This is due to the collaboration needed by multiple perspectives in order to understand where the situation is coming from within the org’s structure. 

a.     When looking for information on how to solve whatever scenario they have, generally solutions are found in certain conferences that faculty goes to for professional development. Once they return, they compare notes on the different teachings and resources. 

2.     When looking into how career team goes about recognizing problems as they arise, the team traditionally does this in the form of meetings. Because they too are a service, each experience is unique and has to be able to bring that forward in a form of debriefing. 

a.     As an issue is looking to be addressed, the information search always includes utilizing the network in order to discover the most recent trends and strategies recruiters use in order to help their students succeeds. Sometimes, this may also be in the form of conferences. 

3.     While I did not get a chance to speak with the Dean directly, I was able to work with those who manage his schedule in order to understand a bit better how issues and ideas flow throughout Heavener. Ultimately, they are brought up via meetings with fellow faculty as one department may be able to assist & vice versa.

a.     With the vast amount of recourses that can be at Heavener’s disposal, looking for trends, either with other business colleges or even other colleges within UF, is far more common. 

Overall, because my service is to better other organization’s service, collaboration is a key feature in the communication and discovery of solvency. This generally comes out in the forms of meetings, especially in the business school where this seems like a common occurrence. 

Collaboration and the sharing of issues are two key features in this segment when discovering their need awareness and information searches. The networking aspect allows us as a business to work within specific conferences and other mediums in order to target the innovative users. 

11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

1.     I am a second-year business student who has found her passion through relationship development, working in a number of capacities throughout Heavener to better first year students’ experiences and understanding of the college. I would associate part of my drive for this specific type of service and work comes from my Gallup’s StrengthQuest strength of individualization. While I have a keen interest in moving into management consulting post-graduation, I could see this business concept as becoming my side project that continues to fill my “why” as I look to bridge the gap between students, the universities, and recruiters. 

2.     The intended service is a internet-based platform that would allow students who were unable to attend in-person company speakers/recruiting events on campus to view the information sessions on the platform. We would be able to work with the data that the schools collect on popular speakers to upload prominent and popular companies, rather than bombarding students with all possible information, which can be convoluted. At the same time, the viewership and a comment/ Q&A portion per college’s site would be linked to recruiters, who would also be able to work with those students and utilize this data to better improve their recruiting tactics/ expand their own reach. 

3.     While designed for the purpose of helping students, the service would be offered to business colleges, since they would have to assist in the live recording of these companies and approve the compatibility of their website to ours. With business schools already acting as the gatekeeper between recruiters and students, we have to target the liaisons rather than who we truly wish to benefit. 

4.     With technology becoming more and more prominent in every aspect of a company, this allows for an additional point of contact and data point both for schools and companies. Teaching students that not everything will be face-to-face and learning to be comfortable with that fact allows for greater adaptation later on in the workplace.

5.     Our service is set apart by its core purpose. Just as Southwest and Apple have aspects of their company with allow them to remain at the top of their competitive fields, ours is about promoting positive connections that will lead towards successful, long-lasting jobs rather than a check-in-the-box for both recruiter and student. This service is looking to better connect a generation of workers to transformative jobs rather than to make one institution prominent or to provide a competitive edge. 

6.     Because it is an internet-based service, we are up against hundreds of thousands of websites vying for user attraction and retention. There has to be specific needs and purpose marketed to customers in order to demonstrate relevance and need rather than just the service itself. Like apps, there are many throughout the market that have great ideas but little traction. The focus must be on marketing the “why” rather than the “what.”

10A - Elevator Pitch

https://youtu.be/hr40rDXHNws

9A - Testing the Hypothesis, Pt II

1.     1^st Interviewee

a.     The first person who I interviewed was a fellow business student who took classes with me and who I also knew participated in HCW. For himself, any class or organization that meet during a company he was particular in going to listen took a backseat, regardless of the repercussions. In his view, he could justifiably be excused from most events that took place during that time period. 

b.     What I discovered is that because my opportunity comes in the form of a service, the boundary that exists is the need for a job and the subjective decision of the opportunity cost of attending in person versus missing other obligations. 

c.     He is different than my potential target market because he will give anything to attend events for that specific week out of the semester. 

2.     2^nd Interviewee

a.     The second person I interviewed was a friend of mine who was a year older that myself, so I wanted her opinion. Turns out, she already has her internship lined up based on what she did the previous summer and did not have to go through all those hoops again. 

b.     There was nothing to really distinguish since there was no comparable alternative need/option.

c.     She had no need compared to those I was looking toward to cater this opportunity towards.

3.     3^rd Interviewee 

a.     Another one of my friends who is heavily involved allows herself to skip HCW because many of the organizations she is in will host company speakers, allowing her specialized time to speak with many target companies while not missing obligations. 

b.     The need for an internship remains the same, but the method and priorities in which the need is achieved become different due to the subjective decisions per person.

c.     Her underlying cause falls in the same motivations as many others who would be open to my opportunity, but she makes the conscious decision to multitask with these obligations. 

4.     4^th Interviewee

a.     One of my mentors for a CLP organization already has a full-time offer lined up post-graduation in the spring based upon his performance this past summer at his internship. 

b.     His need differentiates from my opportunity because he is about to transition into the next phase of his life, which will hold different expectations/needs. 

c.     The underlying cause that separates his motivations from others is that he has already solved this need and is looking to fulfill the next set of needs within his life post-graduation. 

5.     5^th Interviewee

a.     While many students use the resources of the BCS, especially through HCW. One of my classmates, being a double major, will use the resources of the CCC in order to leverage himself to a different set of employers. 

b.     The divergence occurs within the type of job one is expecting post-graduation. 

c.     Due to his interests and course work as a double major outside of the business school, it would make sense that he would seek out opportunities that would be offered beyond HCW. 

Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
Majority of HSB Students	Small minority of HSB Students
No full-time position/ internship offers	Some have found alternative means of meeting employers
It is necessary for graduation to obtain both	It is not necessary for them to be meeting companies

8A - Solving the Problem

1.     My opportunity was at the Heavener School of Business, as companies come in for Heavener Career Week, they are simply provided slotted times, and some students miss out on chances to hear from or speak with those recruiters if they do not show up in time for that particular session on that particular day.

2.     I see a way this opportunity could be fulfilled through a school-sanctioned service that allows companies’ sessions to be live recorded similarly to the lectures recorded and put on the Warrington mediasite for students to go back to later. This way, there would be a way for students to access company information while also able to balance all their other demanding commitments because classes and other organizations do not stop for this week each semester. In order to also allow recruiters to have access to students viewing their session online, they could also have access to this platform, working towards having a temporarily open communication after HCW with those who viewed it online and still have questions. 

7A - Testing the Hypothesis, Pt I

2.   I would like to pursue the opportunity that at the Heavener School of Business, as companies come in for Heavener Career Week, they are simply provided slotted times, and some students miss out on chances to hear from or speak with those recruiters if they do not show up in time for that particular session on that particular day.

3.     Testing the 3 Elements 

a.     While the ‘who’ revolves around the students within the HSB, Heavener would actually be the one who would receive the service for the opportunity since they are the facilitator of this event. 

b.     Would there be particular funding/room within the HCW schedule for this opportunity to be accommodated? 

c.     This would allow for more transparency of information and access to it for students who would otherwise be unable to attend. 

4.     Interviewing 5 People

a.     While talking with one of my friends who works at the front desk and understands the scheduling that is involved with these kinds of events, he questions the ratio of students who attend or even attend multiple company events versus those who will not show up at all and the age breakdown of these students. Is this a good indicator of committed attendance within the Heavener demographic. 

b.     Working with my marketing director within one of my organizations to gain some more insight, he was open to the idea, while also questioning the platform to which this opportunity would be placed on and the continued maintenance and updating of that platform.

c.     I worked with my roommate, who transferred into Heavener recently. To her, there is a more personable connection that comes from listening and working with recruiters in person. Even if she was to miss the session, that lack of information acts as a motivator to reach out and make those face-to-face connections that can be somewhat lacking in the workplace as the world revolves more and more around technology. 

d.     I interviewed one of the freshman students I mentor about the possible adjustment to HCW. To her, the need for internships and working to network with companies is secondary to getting involved within the college. In her eyes, she is not even sure what companies would align with her interests and goals in life, indicating the need for more research before going to listen to these companies, let alone listen to them. 

e.     Another person that I asked was a heavily involved colleague who’s looking for an internship this past Career Week. She saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of, especially as she has certain classes that are mandatory attendance, so she was unable to attend key events that she was hoping to learn more about with the specific companies.

6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic Trends & Why:

1.     The unemployment rate in the US is expected to below the idea range, possibly 2-3 percent. 

a.     I found this trend in The Balance, US Economic Outlook for 2020 and Beyond. 

b.     This demonstrates that eventually, employers may be looking for more jobs to fill than workers available in the United States. 

c.     This would serve as an opportunity to work with employers to solve since they will be coming up short in their workforce. 

d.     This opportunity will come in the form of a service and process rather than a product that could potentially be easily promoted, making this a possible challenge. 

               i.     What I saw in this opportunity goes back to AP Government, where my teacher once mentioned a healthy unemployment range for the US was between 3-4% because that represented those able-bodied to work and still actively looking for work. This makes me beg the question, how can we maintain our current projected rate while supplementing the future needs of employers? 

2.     The average tuition price across all types of colleges and universities has risen in the past year. 

a.     I found this opportunity within a College Board “Trends in Higher Education Series” research online. 

b.     With the rates of colleges rising at varying degrees according to the type of institution, there may be a way to institute a new type of service of education that offers flat rates that merely rise to match inflation. 

c.     The prototypical consumer of this time of opportunity is college-aged students and those who assist in the funding of their education. 

d.     It may be a difficult to exploit due to the rise of other institutions that rise to supplement university educations. 

               i.     As a college student who has seen the price of tuition firsthand, this seems like an issue that ought to be dealt with to ensure the success of future generations. 

Regulatory Changes & Why:

1.     Cybersecurity must become more prevalent in the coming year as the cyberattacks brought on customer information, electric grids, and the oil & gas network. 

a.     I found this regulatory prediction in the outline of Deloitte’s 2020 Energy Regulatory Outlook. 

b.     With the growing amount and severity of cyberattacks globally, there comes more of a need to protect against and fortify the information that is stored in various platforms.

c.     The customer for this type of opportunity would be companies looking to enforce the new standards that are coming down the pipeline while also the private information gathered by them. 

d.     This opportunity may be difficult to navigate as enforcement must be learned after finding the new, weakest points of entry with cybersecurity. 

             i.     This is personally interesting to me as last year, I put forth a presentation based upon the Equifax hack. 

2.     In the scheme of all things globalization, technology must be updated with the times within banking. 

a.     I found this regulatory prediction in the outline of Deloitte’s 2020 Banking Regulatory Outlook. 

b.     Many of bank’s technology has not kept up with the innovations and progress made in recent years, thus hindering the service that can be given to their customers. 

c.     The customers would be major banking systems that service hundreds of thousands of clientele.

d.     I think it would be a challenge to convince major banking institutions to begin to renew and update technology simply because the process for which they have been doing it for so long has been ingrained. 

             i.     I saw this opportunity because my father has worked both in banking and moved over to the technology vender sector. Now, I am more in tune to it based on the talks that occur around the dinner table at home.