Week 8 - Online MBA

     Having an online MBA has definitely helped me. I am a supply chain consultant so I travel a lot. I could be out of town for the whole week. Sometimes a problem happens with my client and I need to travel without much notice. With this kind of travel, attending a traditional in-class MBA would be very difficult for me. Online courses give me more flexibility in completing my course work which is great for my mental health. It is also great for physical health with COVID. I am thankful I did not have to sit in a room with many people who could be sick.

    I am also a very visual person. I noticed that online courses have a lot more visual aids than in-class courses so that is great for how I learn. I understand that not everyone learns this way. Back in my undergraduate days, I had a few online classes. I did struggle during those, but they were required classes that had nothing to do with my major. With all these MBA classes, I really want to learn the material, so the classes being online does not hinder me.

Week 8 - Surfing the Tsunami

    Previously in my blogs, I've discussed how to adapt, adopt, and become and adept in AI. If you are still a little intimidated about learning Artificial Intelligence, then have no worry. Getting in the habit of frequently reading news will help you adopt AI. Trying out different platforms and sites will help you adopt AI. There are plenty of resources online to help you learn to become an adept.

    

There are a plethora of books available online. Rise of Robots and Master Algorithm are great books to start with. MIT has a series called Essential Learning that will introduce you to machine learning. Coursera offers free classes in computer science and coding. You could also opt to pay a premium to earn course certificates. You should also try to find courses or bootcamps in your area.

    

Week 8 - Guerilla Marketing

    I've discussed various methods and techniques on how to have an effective guerilla marketing campaign. But how do you know which method or technique to actually use? Knowing the difference can save you a lot of money in preventing needless mistake. Research is incredibly important in understanding your customer base and what they want. Even if that research costs money from a research company, that research can be leveraged to prevent marketing mistakes and gain even more sales. Think of paid research as an investment.

 

   There are four common methods to conducting research. if you want to know more about your customer, the best person to ask is your customer. That is why having a spreadsheet of customer contact information is so important. Once you have an established customer base, send them a questionnaire to fill out with questions pertinent to your market and product. You can also send out a similar questionnaire to prospective customer by offering them discounts if they complete the survey. The most obvious method is the Internet, with its almost infinite knowledge. Be familiar with how to fully utilize search engines, and you can gain valuable information on your market and its customer base. Just be sure to look at the quality and source of the information.

Week 7 - Ascend Your Start-Up

    After you have been successful for long enough, you will begin to form a large company with global reach. With so many people working for your organization, everyone working together as one is important. Culture establishes what your organization and your employees stand for. It gives everyone a common person and view. It allows your employees to view themselves as a team and collaborate with each other.

    But how can we establish a collaborative culture? It starts with being inclusive of everyone. Your employees need to feel valued and able to speak their thoughts. Culture is not only affected by your employees. Investors also have an impact on your business, and thus your business's culture. Be sure to align yourself with investors who share your cultural vision and have a good track record with their decisions. As the leader of the company, you also lead the culture. Leaders need to clearly state the company's values and views and stand by them. You will need to be willing to trust others to enable growth and encourage innovation.

Week 7 - Surfing the Tsunami

    Last week on my blog, I talked about becoming an adept in AI. There are many avenues you can utilize to learn AI. Let's now learn about some of the people who have advanced AI to what it is today. Thanks to Andrew Ng, learning AI is easier than ever. He started the “MOOC” revolution (Massively Open Online Courses) when he co-founded Coursera. His online courses on machine learning are still popular and influential.

    He is not the only leader in AI. Machine learning and AI has a large community that is still growing. Geoffrey Hinton has more progress in having algorithms learn like a human brain does. Pedro Domingos excels at explaining the concepts and opportunities of machine learning. Fei Fei Li is a leader in computers using visuals applications such as image identification and self-driving cars.

Week 7 - Guerilla Marketing

     Guerilla marketing is more about using creativity and energy, rather than using money. However, marketing still costs money. This can be difficult for small businesses who cannot throw around the cash for large advertisements spots. However, there are ways to save your hard-earned money when it comes to marketing. The most money-efficient way to advertise is by going to an advertising agency. These agencies usually get a 15% discount on any advertising spot. That 15% that is saved will be their commission. Since you'll be paying the same amount of money, you might as well also pay for the expertise of an agency to help you. You can even make your own in-house advertising agency to get this discount.

    The prices for adverting spots are highly negotiable. If advertising time is not sold, then it is wasted. That means radio and television companies need to sell their advertising or risk losing money. This means that are very open to lowering prices. You can also make a per inquiry (PI) or per order (PO) deal. That means you pay nothing for the cost of the advertisement. Instead, the radio or television company will get a certain dollar amount for every query or order that is made from the advertisement. This option is great if you are having difficulties with cash flow.

Week 6 - Ascend Your Start-Up

    In my last few blogs, I talked about setting your start-up for success with a minimum viable product, minimum viable team, and working on any disconnects your business might have. But how can we know we are successful? We must establish processes that are repeatable and measures that are observable. This will help establish accountability and alignment in your organization, which are two characteristics that all top-performing companies have. Processes and measures will help you establish a clear roadmap to sucess and let you know if you are on the right track.

    Growing your business will mean that you will have several different departments and many employees. Managing operations will become increasingly difficult which is why accountability and measures are so important. The best way to create accountability is to set up Objective and Key results (OKRs). These objectives should be essential to your success as a business. For example, customer satisfaction is what sets you apart from your competition, so you decide to maintain high levels of customer satisfacti0on. This will be your OKR. each department must have their own objective to contribute towards customer satisfaction. Customer service be measured on customer retention rate. Quality Assurance will be measured on preventing customer complaints. Human Resources will be measured on employee retention rate. Combine all of these measures and you will be able to gauge if your business is still on the path to success. 

References

Yu, Helen. (2021). Ascend your start-up. Made for Success Publishing.