The Making of an Idea Journal (2016 edition)

On this site you can view links to many of the different iterations of the Idea Journal assignment we regularly assign to students in the ZSEM Entrepreneurship course.  This year I think it is especially important to emphasize technique so we have reduced the number of entries which through the years have been in the range between 8 and 10 to this year's which is only 5 plus an introduction.

While I believe blogger is very easy to use as I have maintained this blog since 2010, I have to remain open to students choosing different online mediums to present their work.  One student in particular asked if he could do his blog using Tumblr and I not only agreed to but took it as a challenge to create one using that medium as well.  The point of the excericse as described to students is two-fold:

Students will have several exercises to demonstrate the process of coming up with ideas based on self-knowledge, market knowledge, problem/solution identification plus application of creative techniques,

The ideas generated through the individual student idea journals then become part of a database of ideas that teams of students can further pursue to research and develop into business plans for the remainder of the semester.

 The Steps to achieving their own idea journals this year include:

Setting up their own blog on blogger, tumblr or another free and publicly available medium

http://ideaplaymaker.tumblr.com/
(my user name is ideaplaymaker and then the blog site is tumblr.com)

and then adding original content they create to address the 5 idea generation challenges including:

#1 Entrepreneur Profile and Sustainable Development Goals which draws on work completed for the course by the student and by their peers to narrow down ideas that are inspired by the worlds most pressing issues according to the UN.

Example:  http://ideaplaymaker.tumblr.com/post/151042841519/entrepreneur-profile-and-sustainable-development

(image plus 3 paragraphs and 3 business ideas, see links for full entry)

 

#2 Mindmap Passions, Purpose and Gifts to generate ideas about your self

Example: http://ideaplaymaker.tumblr.com/post/151112741719/post2-mindmapping-passion-purpose-and-gifts-the

(image of your hand drawn mind map, plus written reflections on how this information could be channelled into different entrepreneurship endeavors)

 #3 Storyboard Business Ideas with Character 

Example: http://ideaplaymaker.tumblr.com/post/151179876739/post3-business-with-character-using-storyboard?is_related_post=1

(Selecting a character, six scenes they are in and what business ideas those scenes could represent. This one is straight forward as I did everything on a powerpoint slide and then converted it to an image and posted it with the type written list of 6 business ideas)

#4 I wish this was - ideas based on a location

Example: http://ideaplaymaker.tumblr.com/post/151182351849/post4-i-wish-this-was-this-post-is-inspired-by?is_related_post=1

(images of the space you have in mind, descriptions of its location and surroundings possibly link to its region on a map plus 3 business ideas of what it could be to you. Alternatively, students can post 3 images of 3 different locations and provide one business idea for each location. So 3x1 or 1x3 - either way generates 3 business ideas)

#5 Forced Relationships for Deconstruction/Reinvention

Example:  http://ideaplaymaker.tumblr.com/post/151183317144/post5-deconstructingreimaging-using-forced

 (try this exercise with multiple word sets to come up with a minimum 9 new business ideas as illustrated in the image example)

From this example, over 26 ideas were generated.  Students will select some of their best and worst ideas to submit into an idea bank for the semester and then we will work on developing some of those ideas into full business plans.

Here are some links to student idea journals created this semester and based on this model:
(alphabetical order by last name)

Elisa Auge, France . http://elisaaugejournal.blogspot.hr/
Yazid Dennoui, France - http://yazidbusinessideas.blogspot.hr/
Renato Jammoul, Italy - http://renatojammoul95.blogspot.hr/
Laura Juric, Croatia - http://lauraideablog.tumblr.com/  
Jorge Andres Martinez Valdez - http://cvcjorge.tumblr.com/
Tristan Mouysset, France - http://tristanmouysset.blogspot.hr/ 
Sara Maria Miranda Peixoto, Portugal http://funnyideass.blogspot.hr/
Fulya Ulutas, Canada -  http://fulyasideajournal.blogspot.hr/
Alex Zhu, Singapore/Germany - http://jiangalexzhu.blogspot.hr/

and more to be added... 

Inspiration - UN Sustainable Development Goals for Social Entrepreneurs in Training

I recently participated in the European Forum Alpbach along with colleagues from the Impact Hub network.  We were challenged several days with ways we could individually and collectively address the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  During the forum we actively engaged in workshops to exercise some of our ideas.  My take away was certainly to activate my own network upon return.  Therefore, this semester in the ZSEM Entrepreneurship course, we will take up the challenge where students will create, innovate and build their own business around at least one UN SDG.

One example from the EF Alpbach, coming out of Impact Hub Zurich was Mosan - Mobile Sanitation founded by Mona Mijthab, an industrial designer based in Switzerland.  She sets out with her organization to address UNSDG#6 - Clean Water and Sanitation.

Example of the Entrepreneur Profile Assignment the Students will undertake.

While the UN Sustainable Development Goals are not without critics (see below), they do broadly identify key societal issues that can trigger students to evaluate their own values, beliefs and priorities.  As entrerpeneurs in training, students will investigate different entrepreneurs around the globe who are addressing market failures and filling needs not only wants.  Last year, the students in the course focused on areas that had economic potential for the development of Croatia and this year they will be challenged to develop business opportunities with Triple Bottom Line (TBL) impact: People, Planet, Profit.  Future posts on this blog will highlight some student work toward these ends.

Additional Readings for Students on UN Sustainable Development Goals (Pros-Cons)

Acharya, N. (2015). How The UN Plans To Use Innovation And Entrepreneurship For Sustainable Development. Forbes.com. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nishacharya/2015/03/07/how-the-un-plans-to-use-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-for-sustainable-development/#925c6503a3c7 [Accessed 2 Sep. 2016].

 

Easterly, W. (2015). The SDGs Should Stand for Senseless, Dreamy, Garbled. [online] Foreign Policy. Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/28/the-sdgs-are-utopian-and-worthless-mdgs-development-rise-of-the-rest/ [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016].

Jack, A. (2015). Experts divided over value of UN sustainable development goals - FT.com. [online] Financial Times. Available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1ac2384c-57bf-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html#axzz4JxLTET1Z [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016].

Renwick, D. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. [online] Council on Foreign Relations. Available at: http://www.cfr.org/global-governance/sustainable-development-goals/p37051 [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016].

United Nations Sustainable Development. (2015). Sustainable development goals - United Nations. [online] Available at: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016]. 

Links for Students on TBL focused Entrepreneurs - Social Entrepreneurs

https://www.ashoka.org/ - Ashoka Fellows  - Everyone a changemaker

http://www.inspiringstories.org.nz/about/ - New Zealand Foundation seeking to help young people in their pursuit of world changing ideas.

http://www.schwabfound.org/content/what-social-entrepreneur - Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs

http://www.takepart.com/big-issues - Take Part digital lifestyle magazine

http://www.ted.com/ - TED - Technology. Entertainment. Design. Videos from conference series devoted to Ideas worth spreading.

Customers at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Usually when I start my CRM course, we first think of consumers as those that the students making up the class can most identify with.  One assignment that has been ongoing for the last 5 years is attending and observing consumers at the annual Coffee and Chocofest.  This was not overlooked this year, however, as timing would have it my former student, Hira Wajahat Malik, was returning to Zagreb and came into the class (11 Feb 2016) to talk about her customer.  This customer was in stark contrast to coffee addicts and chocoholics the new group of students would soon engage with but represented the Bottom of the Pyramid.

I posed to the students a question: "Do you think you will ever have to understand a new customer in a new market?" Well, ofcourse I expected them to quickly answer yes but this opened them to unfamiliar territory that Hira would expose them to over the next hour and into a week long homework assignment.  The classroom went from just a few people familiar with the "BoP" term to 30 plus students diving deep into related issues --- what organizations and enterprises address customers at the Bottom of the Pyramid and how?.

Hira had spent a semester back in 2010 at ZSEM as part of an exchange program between her school in Pakistan and ours here in Croatia (www.zsem.hr). She took my Entrepreneurship course and worked on a business plan on developing a solar energy company.  To every teacher's dream, she is working on a related business today and was in Europe to participate on a training and partnership exploration.  She captured students by the way she matter of factly talked about how over 60% of the 220 million people living in Pakistan is off grid.  But her view of the Bottom of the Pyramid showed people living with mobile phones without access to electricity and sanitation but with desire for quality products and less means to demand them.  Her solution was to illustrate the isolated areas that would need more alternative energy solutions like solar energy and bringing different payment options to make it more affordable.

The students then had the challenge to find other organizations addressing Bottom of the Pyramid issues and document this with a video or article link.  The assignment took anywhere from 30 seconds to 60 minutes as the students later revealed.  The issues they found were related to health, hygene, access to water, women's issues, preserving cultural heritage, economic development.  We had a total of 30 out of 32 students engage with this optional task. We also then challenged students to prepare a creative presentation of their short research with little guidance and a lot of freedom.  Again this was optional and we got 6 assignments as a result.  The 20% of the students that were willing, able and interested in pursuing this last task included poems, collages, comparitive presentations on prezi.  In a future blog post update we will cluster the research the students around customer profiles, themes and locations and begin to profile their work here as some will develop them into full business cases for a graded element of the course.

Guest Lecturer, Hira Wajahat Malik, Teaching Assistant, Nina Alvir and students

 working in the class.

CRM - Who is the Customer? #Learner

Customer Relationship Management is celebrating with me as a course I have taught for 10 years at ZSEM!  This semester started off with only half the class showing up on Day 1 but what a blessing to have 19 enthusiastic students and a large capacity room to play in.  Yes, play is part of our learning process.  But learn we did.  This post is a recap of the class for the other half that did not make it and for those who did to reflect on the experience.

We started class with a question...Are you satisfied with the room setup?  The traditional classroom style focuses attention on the professor and the front of the class where all students are in neat rows facing forward.  Tradition should be questioned in my book.  So if we have enough space and movable chairs why not shake things up.  I broke the class up into 3 groups of 6-7 and then they went about coming up with ways to rearrange the furniture and space to maximize learning goals they set.  This is how I say hello, let's move.

The logic is that we should use every opportunity to improve and know how to manage change that is in our control.  For those three hours each week we control the space and should use it to our advantage.  Its not simply about being on automatic pilot.  I do not want zombie students who just take their seats each week sitting in the same place waiting for me to spoon feed information.  I love to construct how we learn and customize what we learn to the industries students find appealling.  Right now, education is a common platform.  Understanding how to create and reimagine the learning environment can be taught by a power point presentation but it can also be experienced by getting up and making it happen.

The results of our experiment were fascinating and I could write a whole research paper on it but instead I will give you a peek into what happened in pictures:

Team 1. Chose to line up the tables face to face in a board room style.  They felt it would give maximum eye contact and balance of power but they had to negotiate around the setup of another team and battle a pole and unruly electrical wires.

The end result for  Team 1. was they added a podium, created signage, laid out folders and took their best shot to capture a setup that would foster debate and discussion.  On the other hand if they removed the podium it would be a great setup for some speed dating.

Team 2. Tried to experiment with engineering a triangle as all teams had the additional challenge of having enough seats so that everyone in the class that day could be seated in the work space. A pole in the classroom also restricted views and would leave some members feeling isolated.

The final result for Team 2. was demonstrated as a teacher or trainer could enter into the middle of the open triangle to move about and interact freely with the participants.  However, the team themselves after sitting in their creation felt that it was too rigid and preferred the space that Team 3 created.

And like Goldie Locks and the three bears....Team 3. seemed to be just right... a multi-level circle where everyone had enough personal space around them but could clearly see everyone and felt comfortable to share freely and openly in this configuration.

There are numerous articles on learning environments and I have written in this blog before on different setups used at conferences to achieve different results.  We will continue this dialog in future class sessions.  If anyone wants to read ahead if you are focused on customers as learners, conference goers, trainees, etc. Here is a quick reading list to get you started...

1. Bob Pearlman - New Learning Environments for 21st Century Skills
2. Lawson Reed Wulsin, Jr. - Classroom Design - Literature Review
3. Jessica Lieber - 5 Ways Classroom Design Can Improve What We Learn and Who Learns It  

Contribute some of your own ideas to the comments below and thanks for visiting.