Final Reflection

After reading through my past blog posts, my most formative experience was the “Need Awareness and Information Search” assignment. It was the assignment where I was finally able to conduct interviews properly without sounding awkward. I know that sounds kind of weird, but the previous interview-based assignments were ones that I didn’t look forward to, but they were definitely a learning experience. So with this one, I was able to successfully find people to interview and conduct meaningful discussion in order to improve my venture. Completing the assignment was something I was proud of accomplishing. The most joyous experience of the course would probably have to be the “Venture Concept No. 1” assignment because I finally got to put the elements of the venture together. One of the experiences I will remember years later would be the “Celebrating Failure” assignment because I don’t think any other class required me to self-reflect on my college experience thus far.

At the end, I don’t know if I would call myself an entrepreneur only because I haven’t actually established a real business venture. However, I have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset thanks to the way this course was structured. I learned to be structured in completing the assignments but also flexible when my schedule demanded it. Since taking this course, I have become more aware in identifying problems in different settings. I have also learned how to deal with failure when it occurs and make it an opportunity to learn something rather than wallow in sadness. Those are probably the most important aspects of an entrepreneurial mindset – flexibility, problem identification, and accepting some failures as an opportunity to learn.

One recommendation I would make to those who are thinking about taking this class is to figure out why they want to take it. The course does not involve any exams, so it’s understandable that some would notice this. However, in order to get the most out of the class, one actually has to do as many assignments as they can. If one takes the class with the intention of learning what the entrepreneurial mindset is and what it’s like to do some of the things an entrepreneur has to do in order to start his or her venture, then the assignments will make sense and be a different learning experience. Ask your TA questions about the course since they are your first resource for guidance. As for completing the assignments on time, the course is based on points obtained through assignments, so working ahead of schedule if possible is one way to perform best in this course. That does not mean rush the assignment, though. Also, utilizing the entrepreneurial mindset also helps one to perform their best. That means finding opportunity in a creative way and learning from failures. In order to foster that mindset, maybe try to do something new every weekday. It obviously doesn’t have to be something dramatic, just new. For example, some light reading on a topic you are not that familiar with. Doing something new each day, no matter how small, allows you to view things from a new perspective.

Venture Concept No. 2

The potential customers of my venture are college students living in apartments without yard space for a garden and would like to cook their own food using fresh organic ingredients. The nature of the need is characterized by university students’ interest in organic foods, but there is also the aspect of higher prices compared to processed alternatives. College students are on a budget, so lower prices of substitutes offer a greater incentive to buy processed foods over organic. This venture aims to provide a service through a mobile app that allows students who live off-campus to get the benefits of garden-grown produce without the need to dedicate their own time and energy towards gardening. It also provides students the ability to customize their orders and have them delivered to wherever they are residing off-campus via a mobile phone app.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, consumer demand for organically produced goods continues to display double-digit growth, providing market incentives for U.S. farmers across a broad range of products. Fresh fruits and vegetables have been the top selling category of organically grown food since the organic food industry introduced their products in the retail market over three decades ago. Also, from what I have observed on a micro level, it seems that quite a few university students are interested in organic food products.

The market is defined geographically by the Gainesville region near the University of Florida campus and demographically by college students in that area. As for growth, the market would be defined geographically by university campuses with suitable agricultural climate.

Customers as defined by the demographic described in the above paragraph are currently satisfying this need by going to organic markets occasionally. From customer interviews, university students usually buy their ingredients and snacks at the same type of grocery stores that they went to before college. Examples in Florida would be Publix and Winn-Dixie. They are quite loyal to what they use now, but customers also seem interested in shopping for organic food more often if given a platform that allows them to save both money and time.

As of now, the opportunity is relatively small compared to ventures that introduce some completely new product. Since my venture is more of a “recombination” innovation, as discussed in a past lecture, and is limited to a specific region, the ‘size’ of the opportunity is not that great. However, if the venture successfully capitalizes on the organic food trend among college students, then there could be potential for growth in opportunities at other campuses. The “window of opportunity” will probably be open for as long as college students continue to be interested in consuming organic food products.

The venture would make use of local garden spaces near UF. The local farm is maintained by a professional gardener. Consumers pay at the onset of the growing season for a “share” of the anticipated harvest. Once harvesting begins, they periodically receive shares of produce. They can then choose which kinds of organic, locally grown produce they want delivered to their doorstep based on quick, yet tasty curated recipes they like on an app. If something like a bad harvest were to occur, the venture would probably have to source produce from other places. The mobile app allows users to track their produce delivery, choose which shares of produce they want based on the curated recipes they like, and share ideas with other users in a 'social network type' of design. The venture integrates mobile technology with the model of community supported agriculture. It also provides customers the ability to visit the garden / farm and actually see where their food is coming from.

It makes money as users pay a fee to subscribe to the local community supported agriculture initiative. Another revenue driver is the limited advertising space that other businesses could make use of on the mobile app.

The competitors are retail grocery stores and farmers markets. Their possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities would be the lack of a food delivery platform and regional consumer focus of something like a university campus.

The distribution and business location play important roles in defining the business concept. Product distribution would use of smaller fuel-efficient vehicles. An efficient, small scale supply chain could save costs, which would be valuable to the venture. Location is important because it would be located near UF campus.

The roles in the venture would be mostly agricultural-based. It would have 4 divisions – farm, administrative, technology, and management. I am not sure about the specific number of employees, but maybe 20.

The top resource is the venture’s supply chain. It makes use of sustainable practices in the form of fuel efficient, smaller transportation vehicles, a niche market, and the benefits of being near a university in order to benefit students.

If this venture were to be a real thing, in five years I would like to incorporate the business in other university campuses. As an entrepreneur, I want to work for a large company that allows for employees to approach work with an entrepreneurial mindset, sometimes referred to as an “intrapreneur”. This first venture helps me achieve this goal by allowing me to learn about and experience the entrepreneurship process. While I am not interested in agricultural economics as a career, it was cool to research aspects of the subject and explore new topics.

Summary of Feedback

I received four comments on my blog post, and all of them noted how they liked the amount of detail I included in the venture concept. I was told that one way to improve it was to explain how the share of the crop system works and how one would benefit from the venture other than just ‘low costs of organic food’. I was also asked how the venture would respond to situations like a bad harvest or severe weather. Feedback was also provided on consumer demographics, noting that most students who live on campus have meal plans so the venture should be marketed towards students who live off-campus. Lastly, feedback was provided about the structure of the venture concept. In the first venture concept post, the breaks in the paragraphs in the middle disrupted the flow of ideas.

Some Changes Made Based on Feedback

I kept most of the details from the Venture Concept No. 1 post, but I also modified it in various areas based on what I learned from the comments. I added a part that explained another qualitative benefit of the venture – that customers who are interested in visiting where their food is grown. I also added detail on how the app can help others who share the same interests in organic products build some kind of ‘community’ by sharing ideas. For organization, I deleted some paragraphs that did not seem to ‘go with the flow’ of things. I added a part on sourcing from other back-up places in case of something like a bad harvest. I revised the primary consumer demographic to be mostly off-campus students.

Reading Reflection No. 3

Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker explains and analyzes the topics of innovation and entrepreneurship as a systematic discipline that can be learned, rather than something that happens by chance or magic. After reading the book, it seems like entrepreneurship can be integrated into the subject of management science. Drucker’s thesis was, “Systematic innovation consists in the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation.” What I found interesting was that this book was originally published in 1985, but quite a few of its principles are still applicable to the economy of today. As for other aspects of the book’s theme, it is divided into three parts. Part one defines innovation as a way in which entrepreneurs exploit change in order to create a new product or service. By their nature, entrepreneurial enterprises create some type of market niche and satisfy customer need. This part requires opportunity analysis, starting things small, looking to the simple aspects, and achieving leadership. Part 2 discusses managerial strategies for an organization. It basically stated that all organizations must acquire some level of entrepreneurial competence in order to be relevant along with the changes in the economy and society. Part 3 discusses practices that entrepreneurs should follow. For example, some of these include aiming for leadership of a new market or existing market, finding a specialized niche, and changing the economic characteristics of a market, product, or industry.

After reading the book, I noticed that there were a lot of similarities between part one of the book and what I learned in ENT 3003. For example, the parts on opportunity analysis in the book reminded me of some of the assignments that had to do with finding opportunity. Also, the definition of innovation from the book connected with how the entrepreneur is defined in this course.

If I had to design an exercise for this course based on this book, it would be a simple assignment that asks students to discuss how their venture can be organized towards one of the four entrepreneurial strategies. Those four strategies are ‘getting there first’, ‘hitting them where they aren’t’, ‘finding a specialized niche’, and ‘changing the economic characteristics of a product, market, or industry’.

The surprise from this book was the idea that innovation does not have to be a technical “thing” altogether. Innovation is an economic or social rather than a technical term. It can be defined as changing the yield of resources.

My Exit Strategy

The exit strategy I plan to make is to sell my business in the next 5 years from a management / employee buyout. In a management / employee buyout, the company’s existing managers and employees acquire the company. Eventually, I want to move on from Gainesville and do other things, but I would also like for the venture to still exist at UF in order to “pay it forward” to future University of Florida students and to the university itself for providing this kind of opportunity.

I chose this particular exit strategy because it assures that the future of the company will have a dedicated management team. This would provide a substantial downside risk against failure. The due diligence process is likely to be limited since the buyers already have full knowledge of the company.

My exit strategy has influenced some other decisions I made in the venture concept in regards to continuing to provide this kind of service to college students without me having to still be located in Gainesville. It influenced the growth intentions of the company, as I intend for it to be a regional company. However, if it’s successful in the UF area, I might establish the venture in other university campuses that have agricultural resources near them.

Making It Real

As the summer semester comes to an end, I took the time to reflect on some of the things I learned from my experiences in ENT 3003. This assignment asked students to make a resume that included being the founder of their own venture on it.

Here's the link to my resume as a PDF file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7-tVnJrG0GRRTEyYWpic19DOE0/view?usp=sharing

Venture Concept No. 1

The potential customers of my venture are college students living in dorms or apartments without yard space for a garden and would like to cook their own food using fresh organic ingredients. The nature of the need is characterized by university students’ interest in organic foods, but there is also the aspect of higher prices compared to processed alternatives. College students are on a budget, so lower prices of substitutes offer a greater incentive to buy processed foods over organic.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, consumer demand for organically produced goods continues to display double-digit growth, providing market incentives for U.S. farmers across a broad range of products. Fresh fruits and vegetables have been the top selling category of organically grown food since the organic food industry introduced their products in the retail market over three decades ago. Also, from what I have observed on a micro level, it seems that quite a few university students are interested in organic food products.

The market is defined geographically by the Gainesville region near the University of Florida campus and demographically by college students in that area. As for growth, the market would be defined geographically by university campuses with suitable agricultural climate.

Customers as defined by the demographic described in the above paragraph are currently satisfying this need by going to organic markets occasionally. From customer interviews, university students usually buy their ingredients and snacks at the same type of grocery stores that they went to before college. Examples in Florida would be Publix and Winn-Dixie. They are quite loyal to what they use now, but customers also seem interested in shopping for organic food more often if given a platform that allows them to save both money and time.

As of now, the opportunity is relatively small compared to ventures that introduce some completely new product. Since my venture is more of a “recombination” innovation, as discussed in a past lecture, and is limited to a specific region, the ‘size’ of the opportunity is not that great. However, if the venture successfully capitalizes on the organic food trend among college students, then there could be potential for growth in opportunities.

The “window of opportunity” will probably be open for as long as college students continue to be interested in consuming organic food products.

My venture allows for university students to consume fresh organic ingredients at a lower cost in the long term.

The venture would make use of local garden spaces near UF. The local farm is maintained by a professional. Consumers pay at the onset of the growing season for a “share” of the anticipated harvest. Once harvesting begins, they periodically receive shares of produce. They can then choose which kinds of organic, locally grown produce they want delivered to their doorstep based on quick, yet tasty curated recipes they like on the mobile app. The mobile app allows users to track their produce delivery, choose which shares of produce they want based on the curated recipes they like, and share ideas with other users. The venture integrates mobile technology with the model of community supported agriculture.

It makes money as users pay a fee to subscribe to the local community supported agriculture initiative. Another revenue driver is the limited advertising space that other businesses could make use of on the mobile app.

The competitors are retail grocery stores and farmers markets. Their possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities would be the lack of a food delivery app and regional focus.

The distribution and business location play important roles in defining the business concept. Product distribution would use of smaller fuel-efficient vehicles. An efficient, small scale supply chain could save costs, which would be valuable to the venture. Location is important because it would be located near UF campus.

The roles in the venture would be mostly agricultural-based. It would have 4 divisions – farm, administrative, technology, and management. I am not sure about the specific number of employees, but maybe 20.

The top resource is the venture’s supply chain. It makes use of sustainable practices in the form of fuel efficient, smaller transportation vehicles, a niche market, and the benefits of being near a university in order to benefit students.

The next product would be simple food prep storage containers. This product would make for a good complement to Fresh Campus because it would hopefully increase customer satisfaction with organic foods by making them easy to store. Also, it helps busy college students plan their recipes over the course of a week so that recipe preparation is convenient and quick in order to work with a student’s schedule. Leftovers will not be characterized as messy and gross as they used to be.

If this venture were to be a real thing, in five years I would like to incorporate the business in other university campuses. As an entrepreneur, I want to work for a large company that allows for employees to approach work with an entrepreneurial mindset. The word for that is “intrapreneur”. This first venture helps me achieve this goal by allowing me to learn about and experience the entrepreneurship process. It was interesting to work on this venture, as it relates to agricultural economics. While I am not interested in agricultural economics as a career, it was cool to research aspects of the subject and explore new topics that I was previously unfamiliar with.

Celebrating Failure

As the first day of freshman year was approaching, I made a few goals for myself. One of them was to making connections with business school faculty, top employers, and top business school students. I was told that it’s not what you know, but rather who you know. That made sense, as it was a way to ‘stand out’ from the crowd. I must have forgotten reality when I made that goal because I am what most people would call an ‘introvert’. At various social events and career events, I was still the same awkward kid I was back in high school. I tried establishing connections with colleagues and faculty, but my social awkwardness got in the way. I didn't know much about small talk with acquaintances.

My first semester was pretty bad. I found myself trying to get involved in so many organizations that my involvement became rather shallow. Also because of that, my grades were not too great. Every Astronomy exam was a nightmare and I was losing focus on school. The combination of social awkwardness and feeling inadequate due to mediocre academic performance really affected my goal of establishing meaningful professional connections. In the end, I failed in even starting that goal. I spent most of my spring semester focusing only on school. It paid off, since my grades made improvements. However, since I spent a lot of time on academics, I still failed in regards to networking.

I learned that I can’t just change who I am in a short amount of time. As a result of that failure, I definitely learned what my capabilities are and are not. Also, I realized that planning every little single detail of your future just sets you up for disappointment. It’s good to have broad goals, but being too specific about them made me forget how life can sometimes be unpredictable. I was also trying to become something I wasn’t, and as a result, I lost what it meant to be me. It sounds kind of cliché, but the failures that I experienced in my first couple of semester taught me what I need to work on. From the failures of my first couple of semesters, I learned that forcing myself to be involved in things just so that my resume could look “good” was a waste of my time and energy. Instead, I want to work on getting involved in things that I am truly motivated towards for reasons other than “it’ll make me look good.” I found that if I am genuinely interested in doing something, then the whole “awkward introvert” characteristic is not a hindrance.

Failure is difficult. It’s embarrassing. Obviously, no one likes to deal with it. We all want to seem perfect. However, it’s how we learn. One can either view failure as an end, or one can view failure as part of a process. I guess in order to relate failure to the mindset of entrepreneurship, one should view it as part of the opportunity-seeking process. This class has changed my perspective on failure by forcing me to put myself out there and start conversation with total strangers on campus. It also taught me not to sweat the small failures all the time, but rather be proud of my accomplishments.