I&E 352: Strategies for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Course Description:
The Strategies for Innovation and Entrepreneurship course covered the component elements of developing the skills needed to launch a venture, including both commercially-orientated startups as well as social entrepreneurship ventures. Starting at the point of need identification (the “problem”), the course covered lean methodology; innovation and entrepreneurship strategy; creating the needed financing and resource structures; effectively marketing/communicating the innovation and its associated benefits; leading, managing, and working effectively within teams; creating a positive and ethical work culture; and evaluating success. By the end of the course, we will have learned the fundamentals that will enable us to create a business/project plan within the experiential aspects and/or the capstone course of the undergraduate certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
The Strategies for Innovation and Entrepreneurship course covered the component elements of developing the skills needed to launch a venture, including both commercially-orientated startups as well as social entrepreneurship ventures. Starting at the point of need identification (the “problem”), the course covered lean methodology; innovation and entrepreneurship strategy; creating the needed financing and resource structures; effectively marketing/communicating the innovation and its associated benefits; leading, managing, and working effectively within teams; creating a positive and ethical work culture; and evaluating success. By the end of the course, we will have learned the fundamentals that will enable us to create a business/project plan within the experiential aspects and/or the capstone course of the undergraduate certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Reflection:
Validating that an Innovation Solves a Customer Problem:
Scott Berkun once said, “Simply dedicate yourself to solving problems. It’s solving problems that matters.” The main takeaway from Berkun’s words of wisdom is that entrepreneurs often focus too much on the solution rather than thinking about the people being faced with the problem. The entrepreneur needs to first understand the problem from the consumers' point of view to create an effective innovation. For example, in class we learned about an invention called the NeoNuture Incubator – made from used car parts – which was supposed to help reduce the infant mortality rate in developing countries. Even though this product was deemed as one of “The 50 Best Inventions of 2010” by Time Magazine, the invention was soon regarded as a failure. The main reason for the product failure was because the entrepreneur, Timothy Prestero, never took the time to listen to the consumers’ needs or concerns before the creation process. If the entrepreneur would have involved consumers in the creation process, he would have known that many people may not want to accept the product because they are skeptical about U.S. technology, parents would not want to put their newborn babies in used car parts, and hospitals would not know how to repair the product if it were to break. Once Timothy Prestero realized the reason for his failure, he stated that “If I want to change the world, I have to actually pay attention to how people are going to use a device. Really, there’s no excuse for failure. I have to accept that there are no dumb users, that there are only dumb products… I’ve since learned that if you really want to make a difference in the world, you have to design outcomes.” A methodology that excels at designing outcomes based on a customer’s perspective is called the lean start-up.
The lean start-up methodology “favors experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional ‘big design up front’ development.”[1] This methodology is a great way to validate that an innovation solves a customer problem before jumping into the production process. The lean start-up allows entrepreneurs to test hypotheses – about product features, pricing, affordable acquisition strategies, etc. – by showing potential customers minimum viable products to elicit their feedback.[2] Entrepreneurs can then use the customer feedback to review their assumptions, make iterations or even pivot if the idea is not going as expected. Iterating and pivoting can help entrepreneurs reduce their failure in not meeting customers’ needs.
An example of a company that utilizes the lean start-up model is Rent the Runway – a subscription-based fashion service that allows women to rent designer styles at a low cost.[3] The RTR used three different market trials in efforts to gauge the customer demand for a dress rental. Through these market trials, RTR was able to identify key components of its customer value proposition and validate the potential usage of a fashion rental service. Without using methods to understand the target customers, an innovation cannot be truly successful.
Effective Teams → Successful Innovation & Entrepreneurship:
In addition, an innovation cannot be successful without an effective team supporting its development and implementation. An effective team should be comprised of a diverse set of individuals who have complementary skill sets. This “heterogeneous team can offer a wider range of capabilities and expertise and more diverse networks, enabling the team members to draw on a broader array of internal perspectives and contacts to help found and grow the venture.”[4] In my own experience, I found that some of my most successful teams were ones that were randomly chosen because we all brought different skills and perspectives to completing a task. One of these teams was my I&E case team. Since we were all selected at random, we noticed that we all had similar yet different perspectives and skills that we could leverage to do well on our assignments. For instance, when my team had to work on a valuation and analysis assignment (Pizzas and Pastas), I was the only one in the group who had experience with the various functions of excel, so I was able to take the lead on that assignment. On the other hand, when we worked on the team case studies, one of my team members was good at making presentation designs, so she was able to take the lead on that aspect of the assignment. Since we had differing skillsets, I was able to learn a new skill from her and she was able to learn a new skill from me. However, if you have a team that all share the same perspectives and skills, it will be challenging to determine team roles, learn a new skill, and even to avoid becoming overconfident in your ideas.
Ethical Culture for I&E:
It is also important to note that in innovation and entrepreneurship, it is crucial to create a positive and ethical culture in which to pursue ideas. An important aspect of developing an ethical culture for I&E is to create a strong and collaborative relationship with business partners. When business partners cannot build a strong relationship, it will hurt the business itself. For example, in the Florida Air case study, while Dan has a good relationship with Scott, he had a poor relationship with his other partner, Henry. This poor relationship was mostly due to the lack of transparency/communication, accountability, inclusion, and empathy in the partnership. These aspects are crucial to any relationship because they encourage one to discuss disagreements when they arise, assign responsibilities, respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and understand other perspectives.
I do understand that being an entrepreneur can become stressful at times with all the uncertainty and possible failures, but it is best to avoid creating an environment filled with anxiety or apathy for team members. Instead one should foster values focused on psychological safety – where every member of the venture feels comfortable sharing their ideas and perspectives in an open discussion. A few ways to incorporate psychological safety into I&E are to encourage entrepreneurs to frame the work as a learning problem, value equality in conversational turn-taking, and respect ostentatious listening. Another way to foster a welcoming environment is to begin every discussion or meeting with an icebreaker question. This will allow team members to feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts with others.
Course Impact:
After taking this course, I feel that the knowledge that I have gained will help me in any career path that I choose. I value that the skills that I have learned do not only apply to innovation and entrepreneurship but also relate to many other fields I am interested in such as healthcare and public policy. Moving forward, these entrepreneurial skills will help me focus on the consumers’ needs when I get more involved in creating health policies in the future. It is all too often that legislators make policies without listening to the concerns or ideas of the community that they are aiming to help. I hope to change this narrative when I embark on my future career.
Sources:
[1] Blank, S., 2013. Why The Lean Start-Up Changes Everything. Harvard Business Review, pp.1-9.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Eisenmann, T. and Winig, L., 2012. Rent The Runway. Harvard Business School, pp.4-5.
[4] Applegate, L. and Carlson, C., 2014. Attracting Talent and Building Ecosystems, Harvard Business Review, pp. 4-
Validating that an Innovation Solves a Customer Problem:
Scott Berkun once said, “Simply dedicate yourself to solving problems. It’s solving problems that matters.” The main takeaway from Berkun’s words of wisdom is that entrepreneurs often focus too much on the solution rather than thinking about the people being faced with the problem. The entrepreneur needs to first understand the problem from the consumers' point of view to create an effective innovation. For example, in class we learned about an invention called the NeoNuture Incubator – made from used car parts – which was supposed to help reduce the infant mortality rate in developing countries. Even though this product was deemed as one of “The 50 Best Inventions of 2010” by Time Magazine, the invention was soon regarded as a failure. The main reason for the product failure was because the entrepreneur, Timothy Prestero, never took the time to listen to the consumers’ needs or concerns before the creation process. If the entrepreneur would have involved consumers in the creation process, he would have known that many people may not want to accept the product because they are skeptical about U.S. technology, parents would not want to put their newborn babies in used car parts, and hospitals would not know how to repair the product if it were to break. Once Timothy Prestero realized the reason for his failure, he stated that “If I want to change the world, I have to actually pay attention to how people are going to use a device. Really, there’s no excuse for failure. I have to accept that there are no dumb users, that there are only dumb products… I’ve since learned that if you really want to make a difference in the world, you have to design outcomes.” A methodology that excels at designing outcomes based on a customer’s perspective is called the lean start-up.
The lean start-up methodology “favors experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional ‘big design up front’ development.”[1] This methodology is a great way to validate that an innovation solves a customer problem before jumping into the production process. The lean start-up allows entrepreneurs to test hypotheses – about product features, pricing, affordable acquisition strategies, etc. – by showing potential customers minimum viable products to elicit their feedback.[2] Entrepreneurs can then use the customer feedback to review their assumptions, make iterations or even pivot if the idea is not going as expected. Iterating and pivoting can help entrepreneurs reduce their failure in not meeting customers’ needs.
An example of a company that utilizes the lean start-up model is Rent the Runway – a subscription-based fashion service that allows women to rent designer styles at a low cost.[3] The RTR used three different market trials in efforts to gauge the customer demand for a dress rental. Through these market trials, RTR was able to identify key components of its customer value proposition and validate the potential usage of a fashion rental service. Without using methods to understand the target customers, an innovation cannot be truly successful.
Effective Teams → Successful Innovation & Entrepreneurship:
In addition, an innovation cannot be successful without an effective team supporting its development and implementation. An effective team should be comprised of a diverse set of individuals who have complementary skill sets. This “heterogeneous team can offer a wider range of capabilities and expertise and more diverse networks, enabling the team members to draw on a broader array of internal perspectives and contacts to help found and grow the venture.”[4] In my own experience, I found that some of my most successful teams were ones that were randomly chosen because we all brought different skills and perspectives to completing a task. One of these teams was my I&E case team. Since we were all selected at random, we noticed that we all had similar yet different perspectives and skills that we could leverage to do well on our assignments. For instance, when my team had to work on a valuation and analysis assignment (Pizzas and Pastas), I was the only one in the group who had experience with the various functions of excel, so I was able to take the lead on that assignment. On the other hand, when we worked on the team case studies, one of my team members was good at making presentation designs, so she was able to take the lead on that aspect of the assignment. Since we had differing skillsets, I was able to learn a new skill from her and she was able to learn a new skill from me. However, if you have a team that all share the same perspectives and skills, it will be challenging to determine team roles, learn a new skill, and even to avoid becoming overconfident in your ideas.
Ethical Culture for I&E:
It is also important to note that in innovation and entrepreneurship, it is crucial to create a positive and ethical culture in which to pursue ideas. An important aspect of developing an ethical culture for I&E is to create a strong and collaborative relationship with business partners. When business partners cannot build a strong relationship, it will hurt the business itself. For example, in the Florida Air case study, while Dan has a good relationship with Scott, he had a poor relationship with his other partner, Henry. This poor relationship was mostly due to the lack of transparency/communication, accountability, inclusion, and empathy in the partnership. These aspects are crucial to any relationship because they encourage one to discuss disagreements when they arise, assign responsibilities, respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and understand other perspectives.
I do understand that being an entrepreneur can become stressful at times with all the uncertainty and possible failures, but it is best to avoid creating an environment filled with anxiety or apathy for team members. Instead one should foster values focused on psychological safety – where every member of the venture feels comfortable sharing their ideas and perspectives in an open discussion. A few ways to incorporate psychological safety into I&E are to encourage entrepreneurs to frame the work as a learning problem, value equality in conversational turn-taking, and respect ostentatious listening. Another way to foster a welcoming environment is to begin every discussion or meeting with an icebreaker question. This will allow team members to feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts with others.
Course Impact:
After taking this course, I feel that the knowledge that I have gained will help me in any career path that I choose. I value that the skills that I have learned do not only apply to innovation and entrepreneurship but also relate to many other fields I am interested in such as healthcare and public policy. Moving forward, these entrepreneurial skills will help me focus on the consumers’ needs when I get more involved in creating health policies in the future. It is all too often that legislators make policies without listening to the concerns or ideas of the community that they are aiming to help. I hope to change this narrative when I embark on my future career.
Sources:
[1] Blank, S., 2013. Why The Lean Start-Up Changes Everything. Harvard Business Review, pp.1-9.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Eisenmann, T. and Winig, L., 2012. Rent The Runway. Harvard Business School, pp.4-5.
[4] Applegate, L. and Carlson, C., 2014. Attracting Talent and Building Ecosystems, Harvard Business Review, pp. 4-
Artifact:
Case Analysis Assignment:
Cases are synopses of actual situations/problems that put you in the position of the innovators/entrepreneurs who faced these actual opportunities and challenges. The goal in using cases is not to emphasize a key learning point tied to an overall understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship theory and practice.
Case Analysis Assignment:
Cases are synopses of actual situations/problems that put you in the position of the innovators/entrepreneurs who faced these actual opportunities and challenges. The goal in using cases is not to emphasize a key learning point tied to an overall understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship theory and practice.
Mentor Conversations:
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