Week 15 Reading Reflection

1)      What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I think the biggest surprise to me was the premise and theme of the whole article. I was not aware that microfinance companies existed. I would think that a business with profit margins that are that low would not attract investors or would not stay in business for that long.

2)     Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I was a little confused about the structure of the microfinance firm. I am not sure how the loan officers work and whether they worked independently at home or if they worked at the local branch. It is not necessarily important I guess but it does intrigue me because of the firm’s expansion rate.  

3)      If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask them what he thinks the biggest roadblock is for these impoverished families who want to better their lives. I would also ask the author what he thinks is the most important about the microfinance business.

4)      Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I don’t think this article necessarily held any strong positions or opinions. It was mostly a narrative of the impact and experiences of the microfinance firm. So I don’t disagree with anything.

Final Reflection

The whole semester was a very interesting experience. It was sometimes very difficult for me because I was studying abroad in Madrid, but the experience as a whole was a positive one. Many of the assignments required you to either think critically or demonstrate good communication skills.

I think the most formative and memorable experience was conducting all the interviews and being able to gather so much information from people. Not only did it help me feel a lot more comfortable interviewing people, but it also helped me learn how to properly interview someone. It also required the most motivation and courage because you had to go out of your way to talk to someone.

I am probably the most proud of the venture concept assignments because it forced me to form and develop a complete idea. I had to sit down and solve any issues in my path while I organized an idea that was conceivable and effective.

Now I feel a lot more like an entrepreneur because of all the skills that I had to develop over the semester. But I think I still have a lot to do to develop the entrepreneurial mindset.

I recommend that future students take the assignments seriously and put in enough effort into their venture idea. If you develop your ideas seriously it will make the assignments easier and you will get a lot more out of the course. I think that the work you put into the course really shows at the end of the semester.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. Describe what stood out to you as important, what feedback surprised you the most, what feedback you think was outright wrong or silly. 

All the comments from my previous elevator pitch just mentioned that I did a good job improving my pitch. As much as I enjoyed the positive feedback it did not give me much to work with as far as improving or changing this new pitch.

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

I only changed the introduction to something I thought was stronger and I elaborated on the struggle that students face. I had nothing to change according to the feedback I received.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity
As a student on the verge of graduating college and about to start my career, I realized that there was a major problem with our education system. Our schools educate and prepare us for the academic rigor of higher education. Our institutions of higher education prepare us for the challenges we are to face in our careers. However, there is no organization or program, private or government funded, that connects the two key stepping stones in our professional careers and guides us towards the right careers for us. Whether they know it or not, every student K-12 has a need for career guidance, especially in their middle school and high school years. Currently, the only source of career guidance the average high school student receives is from their parents or their guidance counselors. This however is not enough if we want to give our future generations the best chance to pursue the best career for them. This is a huge opportunity to improve our education system and make in more efficient and effective. This opportunity however will only last until someone else steps up to address this need. If the solution can be applied nationwide, it could help millions of students save time, money, and could help them fulfill their potential.

Innovation & Venture Concept

What students need is an innovative program that guides them along the right career path as they transition into high school and eventually college. The innovative program would have to implement several key features:

• Career shadowing program
• Professional mentorship
• Career counseling
• In depth academic analysis

The career shadowing aspect of the program would expose the students to different professions and careers in various industries. This shadowing program would help students explore their career interests and perhaps introduce them to something they had not considered before. This exposure to different careers would help eliminate, create and modify career options as the student understands that that career in greater depth.

The program would also assign mentors who can connect with the students and help guide them along, answering any questions or concerns that the students may have. These mentors would change as the students’ interests and career direction changes.

The program would also provide counsel and career advice as the student progresses through his education. By periodically meeting with a trained career counselor the student can continue to narrow his career choices as he approaches graduation.

By working together with the student’s schools, the program can analyze the student’s academic strengths and weaknesses. Having a clear picture of where the student excels academically, the program can help guide the student toward a career he can be successful in.

Although this program is initially intended to be part of a nonprofit organization, it could be
privatized and its services could be sold to private schools. The price of these services have not been established yet since I have no idea would be an appropriate price. That being said I think there will be many parents, students, and schools interested in this idea because it is a major issue as the students begin college. And seeing as there is currently no competitors, I think it would be easy to capture the interests of many students nationwide. The most important thing is to have this service available to as many people as possible, and to give them the best experience they could have. And being a non-profit, we can rely on other organizations or on government support to help finance our services.

Three Minor Elements
I think my most important resource will be my clear vision for this venture and my motivation to make this idea a reality and a success.


The next service the program could provide could be connecting students to different internships or volunteering opportunities that could help them on their professional journey. Another possible step for the program is to partner with companies like Monster.com that can help connect students to jobs and or internships.


In five years I want this venture to gather enough support to be implemented at least locally. As I evolve as an entrepreneur, I will try to make this venture a reality and get it to the point where it can grow steadily and continue to help students as I move to the next venture. In the following decade I want to have gained enough experience with this venture so I can start to work in the business side of the design industry.

Summary of Feedback
Most of the feedback I got was other students relating to the issue and opportunity at hand. A lot of them reinforced the fact that they never got the proper help as far as career counseling and that they believe it is a good idea. One suggestion that I got was to create partnerships with companies like Monster.com so they can connect students with job opportunities. 

Changes
I thought the suggestion to partner with job search companies like Monster.com was a great idea so I included that in the future plans of the program.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1)      What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I was surprised to read that some companies promote innovation by letting employees use company time for their own projects. I feel like big corporations would find that to be a waste of time and company resources.

2)      Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I found it a little odd that companies would take such rigid, structured, multi-step plans to try and foster innovation. I think it’s counterproductive to try and come up with new ideas using creativity by using such an uncreative model.

3)      If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask the author what the most important aspect of innovation is and why. I would also ask the author what he thinks is the most important aspect of social responsibility is for a corporation to consider.

4)      Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I don’t think it was the author’s opinion but I do think that having such a structured mechanism for innovation is not the best way to arrive at innovation. I think if you eliminate structure while still holding employees accountable for being productive you could probably come up with much more innovative ideas.

Google Gold

1)      To be quite honest, I didn’t not know that we were actively trying to achieve SEO for our blogs using keywords and other social media. I did however try to be consisted with the wording of my concept and the general idea of it. I also tried to tie all the posts and assignments together to keep it cohesive.

2)      Since my venture idea revolved around a career guidance program that features a career shadowing option some of the words I consistently used were education, career shadowing, career guidance, and the name of the venture Careerquest.

3)      The only social media that I used to promote my blog was blogger itself by posting the link to my blog. I was surprised however that my posts received a lot more views and comments that were required by the assignments.

4)      My most “viral” posts was napkin idea #1 and elevator pitch #2. Both of these had the same about of views and are way ahead of all the other posts. I think they received the most traffic because they were both engaging and discussed an issue that is very relevant among college students.

5)      Unfortunately I could not find my post through several pages of Google results. I think it was because it did not generate enough traffic since I didn’t know we were supposed to promote it through other social media.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

My impression of the first interview is that is seems like I do not know a lot about entrepreneurship. The questions I asked could have been more in depth in order to receive a more meaningful answer. For the second interview I wanted to use my questions to demonstrate my knowledge and development in entrepreneurship. It was pretty difficult to get a hold of the entrepreneur since im studying abroad in Madrid and he has a busy schedule but I was able to interview him through email.

-As an entrepreneur, how do you identify an opportunity in a market?

Savni: “If I see there is a certain need from customers, I try to evaluate whether I can satisfy that need. As far as the hotel business goes, if there is a location where there is a lot of demand from tourists, visitors and locals that need lodging, I evaluate whether it makes sense to build something new or improve an existing business.”

-What is the most important lesson you have learned as an entrepreneur?

Savni: “I learned the hard way that not all of your businesses are going to work out. I had several hotels that I had to walk away from because there was not enough demand or the market was not right.”

-What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs?

Savni: “When I was a very young entrepreneur I explored different jobs and careers. Working in different environments helped me discover different opportunities and helped me focus on the ones that I wanted to work on.”

I felt a lot more comfortable with this interview because I felt like I knew more about entrepreneurship and I could ask him better questions and understand his responses better. It was hard to get a sense of what the entrepreneur thought because it was through email but he did mention that the tougher questions made him think hard, which I think is a good sign.