DEATH OF THE CONSUMERS

Honestly, before we had our lecture about this topic, I was puzzled of what it really means. Are the consumers dying? Is there an economic crisis? These questions are very nonsense but, what can I do? I have really no idea, even a single idea, about this topic. I mean. I know who the consumers are but talking about their death is another thing. As our discussion goes on, my empty mind was slowly filled with little infos about the said topic. But before we go deeper about the Death of Consumers we will simply first define the basic terms related to it. So, what are these terms?

Who are Consumers? 

There are in fact two types of consumers. First, there are individuals and their households. Goods and services intended for these types of consumers are known as 'final' or 'consumer' goods and services. Goods and services intended for business as an input to the production function are known as 'intermediate' or 'producers' goods. The final consumer is the focus of microeconomic theory. And what do consumer's get from consuming goods & services? They get 'utility'. In common language, this seems to suggests 'usefulness'. However, in economics 'utility' has a much deeper and in some ways darker meaning within the 'felicitous calculus' of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). In simple terms, Bentham believed that all of human existence could be explained by the search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Thus 'pleasure and pain are the sovereign rulers of the State'. He believed that pleasure and pain could be reduced to what would eventually prove to be physically measurable units called 'utiles', hence 'utilitarianism'. Thus utilitarianism is radically materialistic at root. Another name for utilitarianism, as defined by Bentham, is 'ethical hedonism'. The search for pleasure was inhibited in Bentham's scheme by the assumption that human beings carried a God-given ethic of right and wrong - essentially the Protestant work ethic. Once that ethic faded, however, we were left with only 'Me-ism': only my pleasure counts, and anything I do to increase it, no matter the pain and suffering to others, does not matter! The consumer goods market, as we know it today, began to emerged in the 18th century with the arrival of a mass 'middle class' or bourgeoisie. Before that time the lower classes, in the main, produced their own consumer goods at home while the upper classes either directly employed craftspersons and artisans in their 'great houses' or estates or contracted 'freemen' to produce the quality goods required by 'nobles'. Second, there are firms that purchase goods and services as 'inputs' to the production process of final goods and services. Goods and services purchased by firms are known as 'intermediate' or 'producer' goods and services. Taste and style play a significantly less important role. Rather it is price and technical quality that dominate the producers' goods or the 'input' or 'factor of production' marketplace. Firms as consumers are the subject of a separate part of microeconomic analysis known as 'factor market' analysis.he most important price taker in our society is the consumer who faces set offers in practically all his market transactions. He has an income which he can spend on different goods and services in a variety of ways; and the alternative patterns of expenditure open to him are determined by the variety of offers and the structure of prices facing him. Of the alternatives made available to him by his income and his market opportunities, he will choose the one that best conforms to his preferences. The way in which he actually spends his income therefore depends on his personal preferences, on the size of his income, and on his market opportunities. In the following, we shall discuss, first, the way in which the market's offers and the consumer's income determine the latter's market behavior and, second, how changes in income and market offers affect his behavior. The consumer's preferences, however, we shall regard as fixed. The economist's task is to analyze how and to what extent economic activity conforms to consumers' preferences; but these he cannot question and must accept as given. How can we find out what the consumer's preferences are? We can hardly question him on the subject and so establish his scale of preferences. This would be a lengthy and clumsy process even if applied to only one person and is obviously impossible to apply to all members of the community. We can, however, infer the consumer's preferences from his market behavior, on the assumption that this is governed by rational choice and is not merely a matter of habit or accident. When the consumer spends his income in a certain way, we assume that he finds this the best way of spending his income at the existing structure of market prices, because it it were not, he would surely spend his income differently. The theory of consumer's behavior, therefore, is purely descriptive and describes the behavior of the rational consumer. We can neither prescribe how the consumer should behave nor judge his behavior by comparison to an ideal behavior pattern, because we have no such ideal pattern. To establish an ideal behavior pattern would require independent information of the consumer's tastes and preferences; whereas we know these only as they are reflected in his market behavior. This means conformity of the consumer's market behavior to his preferences is the assumption we start out with and not something that can be proved or disproved by our analysis. (http://members.shaw.ca)

Producer

According to the dictionary, producer is the one that produces, especially a person or organization that produces goods or services for sale.

He is the one who supervises and controls the finances, creation, and public presentation of a play, film, program, or similar work. this term is commonly used interchangeably with manufacturer. A manufacturer is an entity that makes a good through a process involving raw materials, components, or assemblies, usually on a large scale with different operations divided among different workers.

The Rise of the Prosumers

Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise. This word is becoming fairly common but can be confusing, as it has two meanings. It was coined in 1980 by the futurist Alvin Toffler — in his book The Third Wave — as a blend of producer and consumer. He used it to describe a possible future type of consumer who would become involved in the design and manufacture of products, so they could be made to individual specification. He argued that we would then no longer be a passive market upon which industry dumped consumer goods but a part of the creative process. Derrick de Kerckhove has called this mass customisation, in which everybody is in effect a member of a niche market, something Internet e-commerce is encouraging through cutting out the middleman between maker and buyer. This sense of prosumer has been taken up by some marketing people, but remains limited in its application.The second usage describes a purchaser of technical equipment who wants to obtain goods of a better quality than consumer items, but can’t afford professional items (older terms for goods of this intermediate quality are semi-professional and industrial quality). Here, the word is a blend of professional and consumer. Prosumers of this sort are famed for their enthusiasm for new products and their tolerance of flaws and, from the marketing point of view, have much in common with early adopters. This usage is common among those selling video equipment, digital cameras, and similar goods (and the examples below illustrate this sense). Some manufacturers treat the SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) market as being much the same thing.(www.worlwidewords.com) The concept of a prosumer is a late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer. The term is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. The difference between the garden variety consumer and the prosumer is that the latter typically possesses such a strong working knowledge with the product that he or she can successfully determine and perhaps even design a better product offering. Prosumers are now common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. One of the areas where the prosumer has gained a high degree of visibility is in the home improvement industry. A number of household tasks, such as the installation of ductwork, plumbing, wallpaper hanging, and installing major appliances, are now done by many homeowners. In times past, these were all functions that were considered to be the work of professionals, with only the occasional amateur attempting this sort of high profile work. Cooking is another area where amateurs have become more proficient. As a result, prosumers now bridge the gap between people who prepare simple meals for the household and persons who are trained as professional chefs. One of the avenues that allow amateurs to expand the level of culinary education is cable television. Since the medium became widely available in the late 1970’s, many people have become exposed to the preparation of cuisine that was usually available only in upscale restaurants. The result has been the creation of a large audience of prosumer enthusiasts that delight in expanding their culinary skills, without necessarily planning on making a living in the industry. The combination of affordable computer technology and the Internet have also made it possible for the prosumer to assume a place in the world of publishing. Thanks to software programs and high quality printing materials and equipment, the prosumer can now produce hard copy and electronic magazines on a favorite hobby or interest. Desktop publishing also allows these highly skilled amateurs to produce high quality greeting cards, promotional brochures, and a wide range of published material. Even fledgling writers can be classified as prosumers, simply by using current technology to product an electronic book for distribution. The prosumer can also be associated with a number of other fields as well. Photography, interior decorating, and even the beverage industry have a number of people who qualify as prosumers. As technology continues to evolve, there is no doubt that the prosumer phenomenon will continue to grow.(www.wisegeek.com) Here are some definitons given about what prosumer is. First is, Professional consumer. With customization focused on leisure pursuits, Toffler's initial combination has been largely supplanted by a second pair of blurring roles: that of the professional and consumer. In particular, hobbyists have become ever-more demanding in the pursuits of their hobbies, often rising above the level of dilettante (an amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest) to the point of commanding skills equal to that of professionals. Key examples of such hobbies are:home improvement as illustrated by the rise of hardware stores such as Home Depot, cooking as illustrated by creation of entirely new cable television channels entirely dedicated to the culinary arts such as The Food Channel or Food Network, photography as illustrated by still cameras and camcorders that, often, are on a par with equipment used by professionals. This professional slant of the prosumer term is most common in photography which is a field that highlights prosumer trends. Access to professional-level equipment and skills is made possible by combination of factors such as:high disposable incomes by some sectors of the population, increased leisure time, again, for some sectors of the population, continuously falling prices of ever moreadvanced products (especially electronics), media geared towards amateurs and hobbyists: beginning in the 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing, a growing profusion of magazines to satisfy specialized interests, beginning in the mid-1990s with the advent of the Internet, an even wider range of websites with online forums to pool experience, Pertaining to electronics; are considered to be "on the fence" as a product of lower quality than a professional product, and higher quality,(sometimes in the form of bells and whistles) than a consumer product. Some examples include:Digital camcorders, Still cameras and HDTVs. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosumer)

The Prosumer Opportunity

The Connected Life market, which comprises both telecom services and consumer electronics, continues to grow and prosper. Quantifying the size of the prosumer market is difficult—largely because there are several different definitions of the term “prosumer.” Compared to the broader population, prosumers are classic early adopters of technologies, and their mobile phone use is the highest in the business sector. Prosumers’ salaries are 15 percent higher than those of their counterparts in other segments, and with an average age of 40, they are in the prime money-making years of their careers. Because prosumers tend to be in their middle years, they also have bigger families (57 percent larger than those of counterparts in older or younger demographic groups), and are the ones most likely to make spending decisions in the home. As early adopters, prosumers make use of solutions that keep them in touch with their families and friends, including Connected Life services such as social networking (personally and professionally). For example, instant messaging, which originated as a business tool, has become the prosumer’s preferred way to stay in touch with work colleagues and friends and family. The prosumer opportunity for industries lies in creating solutions that tightly integrate work and home life to attract these individuals. Such solutions are hard to replicate, because changing providers also involves transporting and re-creating both personal and work data and services. Securing the prosumer segment allows vendors to create a full portfolio of Connected Life services that will draw more customers as this segment grows. In some verticals—service providers, consumer electronics, and travel, among others—establishing a strong prosumer clientele is a must. (Prosumers: A New Growth Opportunity by William Gerhardt, Principal, Service Provider Practice, IBSG)

The Prosumer Challenge

Serving prosumers is complex; their needs cannot be defined by location, application, time of day, or device alone. In fact, that is what makes them prosumers. They seek to be connected and serviced no matter where they are, what they are trying to do, or when they are trying to do it.

Although prosumers are heavy technology users, they want solutions to be simple. In particular, application user interfaces must be easily accessible for both work and their personal life, raising some issues relating to overlap between the two. For example, loading Connected Life applications onto company-owned phones is a concern to employers because of security and liability, and to employees because of privacy and ethical concerns. When work and personal lives overlap and blend so seamlessly, billing for things like mobile phones and application software also becomes blurred.So, serving the prosumer—to the satisfaction of the prosumer and his or her employer—is far from easy. Early prosumer offerings have fallen short of what these individuals really need. Mobile mail is an example of this. When it is provided by the employer, it works well for business purposes. But personal mobile mail requires yet another application from a provider such as Google or Yahoo! The only way to handle this situation is to maintain one phone for personal mail and another phone for business mail—an equally awkward solution. Effectively serving this segment requires delivering value that works for both the prosumer and the enterprise.(Prosumers: A New Growth Opportunity by William Gerhardt, Principal, Service Provider Practice, IBSG)

Serving the Prosumer

The financial services industry has begun cross-selling products such as insurance and banking services, especially to small- and medium-sized business owners (prime prosumer targets), recognizing that when someone starts a business, that person is more inclined to select a financial services institution with which he or she is already doing personal business. Higher-education institutions position their services to alumni as they enter the workforce, because alumni often seek corporate sponsorship for more costly graduate work. Most industries, however, have not yet instituted formal business models to pursue prosumers as a target segment. Capturing the emerging prosumer category requires a deliberate and systematic approach, with full understanding of what makes these complex individuals tick. The service provider industry (telecommunications, IP services) is absolutely essential to the prosumer’s connected lifestyle, yet these companies have done little to court this segment. Providers need to invest in network infrastructure to deliver seamless, ubiquitous, and secure prosumer experiences across personal and work requirements. Because these industries have so much to gain from prosumers, it makes a great deal of sense to start with the design of user interfaces that are blended, yet provide sufficient separation between work and personal content to avoid conflict with corporate policy.

It also behooves the service provider industries to figure out a way to provide services and billing methodologies that keep the prosumer connected, yet allow for separation of work and personal activities. For instance, there should be a simple, nonintrusive method for keeping mobile phone charges separate. And there should be a way for prosumers to integrate their home and work calendars and address books without providing employer visibility into personal information (and vice versa). Enterprises addressing the prosumer market must make an effort to educate prosumers about the value of their offerings. Prosumers can be reached in many ways: through traditional consumer channels (advertising, direct mail, and so forth); nontraditional channels (e-mail, online, or sites such as Google or Second Life); or through business-to-business channels (industry site advertising, trade publications). Before embarking on a communications / promotion program, however, analyze channels carefully; not all will work. Prosumers rarely see television ads, for instance. Instead, they record their favorite shows and watch them when they have time—skipping commercials as they go. Vertical industries must capture critical data about prosumers’ interests, activities, and behaviors to improve their product and service development for this segment. For instance, airlines have precise data about the habits of their business customers, which they then apply to attracting their leisure-time travel business. The data is there, flowing across your network; methods can be developed to identify, isolate, analyze, and apply this data to develop new services to this well-heeled and receptive group.

I know that there will be a lot of new ideas coming as the changing world continue to revolve. 

Trends and Opportunities in convergence

Convergence creates possibilities. Two minds are better than one. Working together always provides faster and better results than individuals working alone. The term technological convergence is often defined in a very generalized and simplified terms as a process by which telecommunications, information technology and the media, sectors that originally operated largely independent of one another, are growing together. Technological convergence has both a technical and a functional side. The technical side refers to the ability of any infrastructure to transport any type of data, while functional side means the consumers may be able to integrate in a seamless way the functions of computation, entertainment, and voice in a unique device able to execute a multiplicity of tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications), and video that now share resources and interact with each other, synergistically creating new efficiencies. Today, we are surrounded by a multi-level convergent media world where all modes of communication and information are continually reforming to adapt to the enduring demands of technologies, "changing the way we create, consume, learn and interact with each other". Convergence in this instance is defined as the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content, and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularisation of the Internet as well as the activities, products and services that have emerged in the digital media space.

Telecommunications Convergence

Telecommunications convergence is the converging of previously distinct media such as voice telephony and internet into common interfaces on single devices. It is a concept dating to AT&T in 1928, but has evolved in the 21st century to dominate the market positioning of telecoms operators. It is reflected in the product portfolio operators offer (vertical integration), and in the channels through which their products are sold and serviced (horizontal integration). Telecommunication convergence is a disruptive technology. Communication media including electronic media, telecommunications media and broadcast media originally developed as business operations providing distinct services. Broadcasting, voice telephony and on-line computer services evolved on different platforms: TV and radio sets, telephones and computer and were managed by different Business Support Systems. Different broadcasting media were each regulated differently by different regulators.

*Voice over Internet Protocol (Voice over IP, VoIP)

Internet telephony refers to communications services — voice, fax, SMS, and/or voice-messaging applications — that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The steps involved in originating a VoIP telephone call are signaling and media channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signal, optionally compression, packetization, and transmission as Internet Protocol (IP) packets over a packet-switched network. On the receiving side similar steps reproduce the original voice stream

*DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld)

DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2004. The DVB-H specification (EN 302 304) can be downloaded from the official DVB-H website. DVB-H technology is a superset of the successful DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial) system for digital terrestrial television, with additional features to meet the specific requirements of handheld, battery-powered receivers. In 2002 four main requirements of the DVB-H system were agreed: broadcast services for portable and mobile usage with 'acceptable quality'; a typical user environment, and so geographical coverage, as mobile radio; access to service while moving in a vehicle at high speed (as well as imperceptible handover when moving from one cell to another); and as much compatibility with existing digital terrestrial television (DVB-T), to allow sharing of network and transmission equipment.

Digital Convergence

Digital convergence refers to the convergence of four industries into one conglomerate, ITTCE (Information Technologies, Telecommunication, Consumer Electronics, and Entertainment. Examples of this shifting trend are: Microsoft's Xbox (From IT to Entertainment), Apple's iPhone (From IT to Telecomm), and Sony's Vaio (From Consumer Electronics to IT). This provides new, innovative solutions to consumers and business users. Based on digital technologies and digitized content it encompasses converged devices (such as smartphones, laptops, internet enabled entertainment devices and set top boxes), converged applications (e.g. music download on PC and handheld) and converged networks (IP networks). According to Harry Strasser, former CTO of Siemens "[digital convergence will substantially impact people's lifestyle and work style]". The next hot trend in digital convergence is converged content, mixing personal (user generated) content with professional (copyright protected) content. An example are personal music videos that combine user generated photos with chart music. The German startup Trivid GmbH has developed an award winning solution, Clipgenerator, that enables users to create personal music videos with popular chart music and to share them in social communities such as facebook, myspace and beo.

*Internet

The Internet is a globalized network and was officially launched in 1969. Over the past 40 years, its role has changed rapidly from being used mainly for communication, and easier, faster access to information for Universities and various other educational institutions. In today's world, it is an important tool used to reach various audiences around the world. Its users have been constantly trying to create more ways in which the Internet can be useful in more ways than one. The Television, Radio and Newspapers are the world's main mediums in accessing news and entertainment. Now, all 3 mediums have converged into one and people all over the world now can read news on the Internet. They can also watch videos, Television Shows, listen to music, download and upload pictures, music and videos. One doesn't have to wait until the next day to hear the latest in news, fashion and music. The Internet is so easy to access that should anything happen, it would be displayed to the whole world within minutes. Convergence of media occurs when multiple products come together to form one product with the advantages of all of them, also known as the black box. This idea of one technology, concocted by Jenkins, has become known more as a fallacy because of the inability to actually put all technical pieces into one. For example, while people can have e-mail and Internet on their phone, they still want full computers with Internet and e-mail in addition. Media convergence is not just a technological shift or a technological process, it also includes shifts within the industrial, cultural, and social paradigms that encourage the consumer to seek out new information. Convergence, simply put, is how individual consumers interact with others on a social level and use various media platforms to create new experiences, new forms of media and content that connect us socially, and not just to other consumers, but to the corporate producers of media in ways that have not been as readily accessible in the past. For example, the Wii is not only a games console, but also a web browser and social networking tool. Mobile phones are another good example, in that they increasingly incorporate digital cameras, mp3 players, camcorders, voice recorders, and other devices.
This type of convergence is very popular. For the consumer it means more features in less space, while for the media conglomerates it means remaining competitive in the struggle for market dominance. With the advance in technology comes the ability for technological convergence which Rheingold believes alters the "social-side effects" in that "the virtual, social and physical world are colliding, merging and coordinating". Media convergence requires companies operating within the scope of the media to rethink existing assumptions about media from the consumer's point of view, as these assumptions affect both marketing and programming decisions. Media producers have to respond to these newly empowered consumers in today's society to reinvent existing concepts to keep them up to date with emerging trends. Consumers these days do not just want to be on a one way transmission model where they simply receive information. They want to interact with it. They want to create it. They want to participate within it. Media convergence has allowed that to happen and as the proliferation of new communication technologies continues to occur, this trend is here to stay.

Messaging convergence

Combinational services include those which integrate SMS with voice, such as voice SMS - providers include Bubble Motion, Jott, Kirusa, and SpinVox. Several operators have launched services that combine SMS with mobile instant messaging (MIM) and presence.
Text-to-landline services also exist, where subscribers can send text messages to any landline phone and are charged at standard rates. This service has been popular in America, where fixed and mobile numbers are similar. Inbound SMS has been also converging to enable reception of different formats (SMS, voice, MMS, etc.). UK companies, including consumer goods companies and media giants, should soon be able to let consumers contact them via voice, SMS, MMS, IVR, or video using one five-digit number or long number. In April 2008, O2 UK launched voice-enabled shortcodes, adding voice functionality to the five-digit codes already used for SMS. This type of convergence is particularly helpful for media companies, broadcasters, enterprises, call centres and help desks who need to develop a consistent contact strategy with the consumer. Because SMS is very popular today with any demographic, it became relevant to include text messaging as a contact possibility for consumers. To avoid having multiple numbers (one for voice calls, another one for SMS), a simple way is to merge the reception of both formats under one number. This means that a consumer can text or call one number and be sure that the message will be received.

Opportunities of Convergence

Technological convergence if appropriately managed can play an important role in national economic and social development of every nation. Governments can capitalize on the opportunity to stimulate market development and meet previous unmet society communication needs.

*Increased Market Competition
Convergence has lowered barriers of entry to the market for new operators and service providers. The emergence of new market players intensifies competition, giving consumers an extensive pool of providers and services to choose from and lower communication costs. Additionally in a technological convergent environment industry boundaries become blurred, allowing service providers to offer services in multiple markets. For example, besides access to television, cable operators can also offer voice telephony and internet services.

*Emergence of New Services and Applications

Established companies will find in convergence an opportunity to operate more efficiently, increase returns on technology investments and realize other business benefits through development of new services and rapid market expansion. Convergence opens up new sales markets for companies, a case observed in mobile operators. As the market saturates, they look to non-voice services, such as video streaming, portals,
messaging, information services, and gaming, to drive future revenue growth.

*Convenience and Simplicity

At device level, consumers find in convergence an opportunity to enjoy the convenience of having many devices all in one, saving on both size and ownership costs. For example, a single mobile phone device can receive television programmes and play videos, thus enabling simplicity and convenience in device ownership as one device can be used to access multiple services.

Technological convergence results in greater benefits from increased diversity in products and services in the telecommunication industry. Using IP technology that connects all telecommunication services with a single network, companies can add services to their previous ones, without new investments in infrastructure. it just proves that TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE. No matter how alone you feel or how alone you try to be, you need others, you touch others and you affect others by your actions and your words and even by the breath you take. It's just the same with the convergence of technologies. One can be better but more than one is the best!

Guy Kawasaki: MAKE Meaning!

Guy Kawasaki? Who’s that guy?

He is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. He studied at Lolani School and graduated in the year 1972. That school was not as well known as its rival, Punahou, but he got fantastic and formative education there. After graduating in high school, he spent his college years at the Stanford University and graduated in the year 1976. He was a psychology major which he thought the easiest major he could find. Guy Kawasaki made a name for himself at Apple in the 1980s as the evangelist who helped launch the Macintosh computer. As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, he has tested and proven his ideas with dozens of startup companies. He is the author of over half a dozen business books, including Rules for Revolutionaries, Selling the Dream and How to Drive Your Competition Crazy. Kawasaki is the definition of an entrepreneur and he shares that knowledge and experience in his books. One of the books he wrote was, The Art of the Start.  His goal in this book is for an entrepreneur with a great idea to take this advice and get started. If the title of the book wasn’t evidence enough, Kawasaki advocates starting as the first and most critical step. Too much time is wasted planning, and not doing, so this book is the catalyst that will cause entrepreneurs who are stuck on the starting line to finally enter the race. Kawasaki provides eleven chapters, each of which begins with the phrase “The Art of” and followed by the concept covered in that chapter. Each concept covered is a corner-stone for any entrepreneur in the early stages of development. Topics covered range from positioning yourself in the market to crafting and pitching a business plan to raising capital or funding the operation internally to finding a partner and creating cash flows. It’s all topped off with Kawasaki’s lesson in ethics and the karmic scoreboard. Kawasaki exploits the fact that not all entrepreneurs are starting up small businesses in their garage. Some are current employees for large corporations, and need instructions on internal start-ups, the not-so-well-known second side of entrepreneurship. The information provided is truly priceless for any potential entrepreneur on the cusp of something great. Kawasaki writes in a down to earth tone, with an attitude of “let’s forget the foolishness and talk about what really works.” Kawasaki describes his own writing style as cutting through the theories, and getting down to real world tactics. The information is portrayed as though it is coming from a friend who wishes to see you conquer the world. Contrast that to a multitude of “how-to” guides written with business jargon from a know-it-all who’s talking down to you. Mr. Kawasaki wrote in that book the top 10 things that the managers should know. Here are those:

1.  Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. The number one attribute is persistence. So as cliché as it may sound – don’t ever give up. If you truly believe in something, spend your life trying to make it happen.

2.  If your product takes off in an unintended market, put more eggs into that basket rather than resisting this opportunity because it’s not how you wanted your product to be used.

3.   Although a business plan should be written for multiple reasons, it is not the single tool that will land the big investors. You, and your art of pitching, are what sell the product. Practice portraying your meaningful message personally instead of pouring over a word document scratching out a boring business plan.

4.  At the same time you want to master the art of collecting capital, realize how difficult that will be. At some early stage in the game you are going to be forced to buckle down, raise money, and fund the operation yourself.

5.  Find a partner – not executive partners or people that you employ to help you, but another business that can execute some of your work load (preferably better than you can do yourself).

6.  After success is achieved, giving back is the most beautiful thing one can do. A selfless donation from excess profits will pay dividends on the karmic scoreboard.

7.  Don’t try it alone. An entrepreneurial endeavor is not run by a one man wrecking crew. Find those with the same passions as you, and tackle this together.

8.  You are in control – you started this business and its fate is in your hands. The market and other outside factors may put you off course, but you control what steps the business will take to react to it.

9.   If you are going to do anything in the world, do it for the right reasons. Don’t do it for the money or the fame, do it to make the world a better place, and do it because you love it.

10.  It’s all about the art of starting (go figure). Getting up and doing, and not wasting too much time planning what you’re going to do it the essence of entrepreneurship. If you follow the steps in this book, the plan begins to form itself as you execute each step of action.

In that book, Mr. Kawasaki revealed his top 5 list for starting a business. And the first one was “MAKE A MEANING”. This is what we have discussed in our Technopreneurship2 class. Our Facilitator had provided a audio visual presentation for us showing Mr. Guy Kawasaki as he was talking about this topic. It was just a short talk. After watching, our facilitator instructed us to write a short review of what we learned after watching the video. Then after that activity we had a small discussion about the subject matter. Entrepreneurship is not all about making money.  According to him “if you make a meaning, you make money but if you make money, you don’t make the meaning”. In making a meaning as he noted, the following should be put into consideration as well:

1. Increase the quality of life.

Make people more productive of their lives. Change the lives of your customers. The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life is an important concept in the field of international development, since it allows development to be analyzed on a measure broader than standard of living. Within development theory, however, there are varying ideas concerning what constitutes desirable change for a particular society, and the different ways that quality of life is defined by institutions therefore shapes how these organizations work for its improvement. Here are some tips to improve your quality of life :

1. Think daily. Meditate. Call it what you will but spend time each day alone with your thoughts. This surely isn’t the first time you’ve heard that advice, there’s a reason for that! There’s also a reason that this is the first step in the list. Doing the other things in the remaining nine suggestions without taking some time to reflect almost negates any benefit gained elsewhere.

2. Get in the zone. Not only will these be your most productive moments in life (the 20% of the time where you accomplish 80% of the results) but it will be a boost to your confidence that will alter the decisions you make elsewhere in life.

3. Make it a point to do something bold every day. Step out of your comfort zone, leave the routine even if for only a second. This might mean talking to someone that you generally wouldn’t talk to or starting a project that you feel intimidated by. There is no need to plan it in advance–though that might help at times, usually though you’ll find a point during the day when ‘two paths diverge in the woods’ and you have the change to take the one less travelled by. Take it.

4. Learn something new. Pick a topic, preferably something you know nothing about and learn something about it. A good source of inspiration for this can be the newspaper or Wikipedia. It helps to retain it if you have time to make a note of what you learned or explain it to someone else, but even if you don’t get the chance to do that, your brain will thank you for the new patterns you introduce as you learn something new every day.

5. Debate something. If you think you know about something, nothing will prove it like arguing it with someone who’s smarter or more informed than you. Find a friend you can debate with who has ideas that are different from your and who won’t be offended by debating them–this is easier said than done, but it can provide you with some of the best mental stimulation possible.

6. Spend time with a child. If you have one, consider yourself lucky, if you don’t, I bet you have friends who would be happy to let you borrow theirs for a few minutes (or hours). It doesn’t matter what age they are, children see the world entirely different. Look at it from their eyes. Be their hero. Appreciate what they appreciate. Enjoy the simple things again. You’ll love it and they’ll love you for it.

7. Go outside. If you don’t naturally spend time outside, make it a point to do it more. There’s something about the expanse of the sky that will bring out your inner philosopher.

8. Recognize what makes you happy. Reflect on the parts of your day that bring you real satisfaction. Everyone is working towards something, but what makes you happy now? Rate your overall satisfaction with your quality of life for each day on a scale of 1 to 10, focus on the things that happened that pushed the number higher rather than what made it lower. Try to incorporate more of what made you happy yesterday into today.

9. Stop broken thoughts. Broken thoughts are those subtle patterns that aren’t quite big enough to fall into the bad habits category. This means that despite their harmful effect they often escape under the radar. Broken thoughts often take the form of justifications. Examples? I’m just going to leave my dish here by the sink, I’ll wash it later (when you know your spouse will end up washing it). I’m bookmarking this article to read later (how often do you ever go back and read old bookmarked articles?). I’ll hang my shirt up later (when you know it will be there for a week before you touch it).

10. Don’t stress about it.

 

You, as the manager, should think of the people that will benefit from your business. They must be your first priority. Increasing the quality of life means changing the way people are doing. Think of some ways which will make the life of the people, your customers, easier.  You have to develop the motivation of changing the world, contributing something good in the world.

2. Right a Wrong.

Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. Always see the positive side of everything. We can’t avoid making wrong but there is always a way to make that wrong right. It’s about finding solutions to the problems our world is facing right now.

3. Prevent the end of something good.

Preventing the end of something good means protecting what the world has provided for us to have a good life. The earth has provided us so many good resources but sadly some of us are abusing it. We must prevent the end of these good resources. Let’s help those advocates who promote the preservation of our resources. It’s about time to make a big move to increase the quality of life. It is not nice to see something being ruined or changed, especially if you really see that something as beautiful.

The starting point of a business usually defines where your business is heading to. You can start at worst and find your business went into bankruptcy. But you have the choice of starting good and find yourself maintaining it and later achieve your success. You should try your best to make sure that your goal of achieving money in starting a business is only secondary. You should take into consideration certain things that you can use to achieve a long-term growth. We must stay dedicated to whatever you are starting and it must mean something that will provide for the betterment of the world. Your dedication should not come from money, or squashing the competition, it should come from making the world a better place and if you strive to do that you will have a meaning to keep you focused.

Life is meaningless only if we allow it to be. Each of us has the power to give life meaning, to make our time and our bodies and our words into instruments of love and hope.

- Tom Head

Serendipity Walk

Technopreneur?

A technopreneur is specialized into high-tech and innovative business e.g. web technologies, gadgets, medicines and automation solutions. Technopreneurship is the act on engaging into technopreneur. A technopreneur is a person who is into innovative technology venture by enhancing or by developing new tech products and/or services. It starts from a good idea, develop this idea into an opportunity, and then commercialize it with a good business model.

Idea?

An idea is just whatever is before the mind when one thinks. An idea arises in a reflex, spontaneous manner, even without thinking or serious reflection, for example, when we talk about the idea of a person or a place. Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; i.e. images of some object. In other contexts, ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear as images. Many philosophers consider ideas to be a fundamental ontological category. The capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings.

Serendipity Walk?

Sustained walking sessions for a minimum period of thirty to sixty minutes a day, five days a week, with the correct walking posture, reduces health risks and has various overall health benefits, such as reducing the chances of cancer, type 2 diabetes, disease, anxiety and depression. Life is also increased even for individuals suffering from obesity or high blood pressure. Walking also increases bone health, especially strengthening the hip bone, and lowering the more harmful bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and raises the more useful good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Studies have found that walking can also prevent dementia and Alzheimer's.

Serendipity is a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated. M. E. Graebner describes serendipitous value in the context of the acquisition of a business as "windfalls that were not anticipated by the buyer prior to the deal": i.e., unexpected advantages or benefits incurred due to positive synergy effects of the merger. Serendipitous quality of innovation is highly recognized by managers and links the success of Japanese enterprises to their ability to create knowledge not by processing information but rather by "tapping the tacit and often highly subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches of individual employees and making those insights available for testing and use by the company as a whole". Serendipity is a key concept in Competitive Intelligence because it is one of the tools for avoiding Blind Spots.

My Experience….

I love doing serendipity walks. To me it means letting myself wander without any preplans, lists, agendas – and see what happens and where I end up. This is my whole experience… It was November 27, 2010 when I and my classmates decided to go to Gaisano Mall at Bajada. We didn’t plan it but it’s just that in a single second we decided to go there. We had much fun in our travel because we had a ride at our classmate’s multicab. As we arrived at the parking lot, one thing suddenly enters my mind. I want to make a program to organize the cars in parking lots. A parking lot is a cleared area that is more or less level and is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface. I want to make an automated car parking so that it will be easy for the customers to find a specific place to park their cars and it will be an advantage for the company because man power is lessen due to the automation. The process goes like this: when the customer‘s car enter the premises of the parking lot there will be a machine booth the owner must enter his/her cars’ plate number and then the machine will release a specific priority number for that car. In the specified place, there is an automated “gate” that opens when it detects that the plate number of the car assigned to it is the same as the one which is entering. If the plate number did not match the gate will not open. After we got down from the multi cab, we headed to the entrance of the mall. What I saw first as we enter their premises was a camera store. Photography is really one of my obsessions. Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or electronic image sensors. I really like to capture every single detail of my life here on earth. As what the song says, “a picture paint a thousand words”. I was very amazed watching those photography gadgets in that store and another thing abruptly pop out on my mind. I want to have my own photo shop or studio. I was also inspired by the person who gave a talk at our devcon a day ahead. He was very inspiring because his course was not related in photography but because it’s his passion he pursue to learn it. And now he has been handling big clients and is enjoying the fruit of his efforts. I will try to learn the basics of photography to start my journey in this matter. I am hoping that someday, I could be as successful as he was. The secrets of serendipity can be yours. Allow yourself to let go of constraints for a moment and then see where serendipity takes you. Give your brain a rest and let your intuition and imagination lead you. Feel the ‘tug’ towards a place – wander in and see/feel/hear/taste what’s there – wander on. Still walking in the mall, we arrived at the laptops sections. It was very frustrating to see all of those units and thinking when can I have one. That thing inspires me to think of a better technopreneur idea in relation to that matter. I was thinking of making my own model of laptops combining all the specifications I like from different computers, in the future. It’s a very impossible idea, especially for me, but I am not getting the .1% probability that someday I can make it. If ever I made it, I will sell it to the public in a reasonable price and I will sure the public will patronize it because it’s simply perfectly amazing because of the specifications I programmed in that unit. Hahaha Can I laugh? I remember we had a joke agreement with one of my classmates that we will only buy a laptop when it is the last model released and luckily it was the one I invented.. lol what a big joke! Daydreaming is a great example of serendipitying in your conscious and unconscious – misty wanderings that have all sorts of images and sounds – sometime becoming a crystal idea – sometimes one of those mmmmmmmmm moments. We continue to stroll around the premises of the mall and one store got my sight. It was a craft store. Doing that thing is one of my interests. I am fun of doing some arts. Then I remember what our group had proposed for our business proposal last semester. It really suits my interest. It is a customizing online shop. It customizes bags, shoes, shirts and accessories. In the site, there is an interactive program that enables the customers to make their own designs. It is very customer friendly because the program is built for beginners but runs great. That program enables you to select from different colors, shapes, figures and etc. When the customer click the finish button, his or her design will be forwarded to us and a message will prompt to them saying that there order has been forwarded and is subject to immediate processing. The exact delivery date will also be seen in that message. To ensure that the customer is not just faking us, they must input necessary important information about them and they must pay at least 50% of the total cost of the product they are ordering. After we had our lunch, we headed at the NCCC Mall because a job fair is held their and as a scholar we are required to bring to job applicants as one of the requirements for the renewal of our scholarship. When we arrived their, I was surprised because there is a slight stampede inside and outside the mall. The line was until the outside premises of the mall. It was very crowded specially in the event center because of the people roaming around. They were not organized. The people are shouting and walking everywhere. Surely if you were there you might collapse. It was then, out of the blue I picture out what I would be after graduating. I asked myself, is it the reality?. Then I think that if it is the reality I must think of something that will make the applicants comfortable and make the process organized. I am thinking of an online job fair which is very accessible to all especially now that we are on a highly advance technological kind of society. The applicants will just submit their resume in that site and the companies will just email them if they are subjects for interview. By this idea, it will lessen the effort in both sides of the company and applicant because they will not be meeting only just to check the applicants resume. It is a very convenient way. People can apply wherever they maybe. As I was reading the qualifications of one of the companies who participated in that job fair, I remembered our approved business proposal in technopreneurship 1. We call it Tympanic. It is a digital thermometer which automatically records the results of the test conducted to the patient. It has also an usb connector which helps in the fast transfer of the data in their main units. It is a great help especially for the nurses because by this, they will not be hustled to record in a piece of paper all the results in the test they have conducted. It makes their work easier than the usual thing they are doing. We believe that it is a great help in the field of medicine because now, we must cope up with the changes on our society, now that we are in a highly technological kind of society. It will make their works more reliable and fast balancing to the demands of the society.

As I go home, I have realized that you can bring the serendipity experience to places you think you already know. It’s a kind of walk you will surely remember. Creativity demands serendipitying. I developed a model of creativity years ago after working with artists and other creative people. I termed the phrase ‘foraging’ to describe the serendipity experience of wandering that happens at the beginning ( and thru) a creative process. It’s a kind of walk (sometime physical) thru ideas and images and fragments of sound – everything that could somehow spark a creative idea or theme for an exhibition or sound for a symphony is foraged. A kind of musing on connections and disconnections. Wander your street, your city, your workplace as if you’ve never been there before… wander into conversations with people you know and let go of an agenda or a perception or an expectation. Decide to wander the known with a specific intensity – try and only hear women’s voices or see shades of blue or the scent of certain food. As long as my main objective is to help our country, I will not quit on thinking other ideas that will surely make our community prosper. I will just walk and walk and walk. And I believe that along that path I can find a one of a kind stone that will help rebuild the economy of our community. I am hoping that I am not just the only one dreaming for this, I am hoping that each and every individual of this community is thinking for the better future of our country.

Feel free to explore on new things. Just walk. See where that leads you.