Technopreneurship 1st Sharing

The facilitator in Technopreneurship 1 said that our meetings in this subject will only run for five days, and the rest will be checking and submission of projects. Now we are done on the first part of the lecture. The things that I remember on the first lecture are about usual and alternative mindset, the macro strategy and the ecosystem of Technopreneurship. But not only that, the second meeting was also highlighted by the performance of the virgins, absents on the first meeting, and the late comers. Just like the first meeting, I also did come late but of course I have a valid reason (which is still a stupid reason for Mr. RSG). Actually the reason why most of us are late, that is because we are busy on the assignment which was given to us on the first meeting. That assignment was about going to fastfood restaurants, hotels and having a little strolling around Davao City.
We have to think of innovative ideas that will help that certain establishment or solve some of the problems that our city is experiencing. After we passed it on Sir RSG’s forum and printed out the assignment, we rushed as fast as we could into our room but we were still late, some of the virgins are performing already, so we have to do the consequence. I and my fellow late comer classmates (Jean, Mel Joy, and Bernard) had a plan for our little performance. Just like what the virgins did, we liked to perform together. What we are we going to do is the three of them will do the beatboxing, and I am the one who will rap. So we waited for a few minutes and after all the virgins in front are done performing, I and my crew went to that mini stage but Sir RSG did not allow us to do it. I was the one who got first in the mini stage so I will perform first. I felt a bit nervous when Sir RSG found out I was also late last meeting. Next time, I will really try my best to come early on this class no matter what it takes. So I started to think of a song, it so annoying that when you are thinking of your favorite song, you suddenly forget all the songs you know in the world. I bet that problem is also experienced by all because I noticed they cannot start immediately when they are on the stage. So I concentrated on thinking of old songs, and guess what song that came first in my mind, it was “Shalala”. I have no choice but I have to perform immediate or else I will be sent out of the room. Almost everyone was laughing when I was singing that song. But it is no big deal; most of them know me because we have been classmates in other subjects. After singing that song, Sir RSG asked for another one. That is because I am late twice so I have thought of another song to sing. After performing the second song I went to a vacant chair and enjoy watching those who will perform after me. So after all the performances on the little stage, Sir RSG now talks about the subject. I do not exactly remember what the first thing he told us but I remember that we were told to get a black ball pen and a whole sheet of yellow paper, without sharing. This activity is very clever for me because it is very expected that not all of us are bringing yellow paper with them. So to be able to have a yellow paper, we have to buy one to our classmates for a cost of 50 pesos. I immediately find a friend in which I am going to negotiate with so that I could easily get my 50 pesos back. I really liked the concept of this activity because it somehow represents what happens in real life. When something is in demand, someone will grab the chance to take advantage of a situation and someone will purchase whatever the cost is. A good example of that situation is during the holiday season, the cost products that the people usually purchase rises. To make it shorter, the lesson of the overprized yellow paper is the Law of Supply and Demand. Now because of that activity, I remembered that Technopreneurship is not only about innovating a technological product, we have to make a business out of it so we have to know some background in economics to be a successful technopreneur. Supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers. The quantity demanded is the amount of a product people are willing to buy at a certain price; the relationship between price and quantity demanded is known as the demand relationship. Supply represents how much the market can offer. The quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good producers are willing to supply when receiving a certain price. The correlation between price and how much of a good or service is supplied to the market is known as the supply relationship. Price, therefore, is a reflection of supply and demand. The relationship between demand and supply underlie the forces behind the allocation of resources. In market economy theories, demand and supply theory will allocate resources in the most efficient way possible. How? Let us take a closer look at the law of demand and the law of supply. The law of demand states that, if all other factors remain equal, the higher the price of a good, the less people will demand that good. In other words, the higher the price, the lower the quantity demanded. The amount of a good that buyers purchase at a higher price is less because as the price of a good goes up, so does the opportunity cost of buying that good. As a result, people will naturally avoid buying a product that will force them to forgo the consumption of something else they value more. Like the law of demand, the law of supply demonstrates the quantities that will be sold at a certain price. But unlike the law of demand, the supply relationship shows an upward slope. This means that the higher the price, the higher the quantity supplied. Producers supply more at a higher price because selling a higher quantity at higher price increases revenue. All of us now have a yellow paper so Sir RSG starts to discuss what we are going to do. First, he briefly talked about following instructions. Follow instructions. This sounds easy enough. It isn't. For some people, it's the key to most of their academic problems. They read or hear one set of instructions, but their teacher has given different instructions. Some students deliberately ignore instructions. They "wing it." They think they can scrape by, doing any old thing they choose. They're wrong. But they refuse to change. It doesn't matter how good a job you do if you do the wrong job. You're going to get a bad grade. Doing a job well begins with understanding exactly what the job is.

Speaking of this, I had a good experience regarding to this topic. Back when I was an elementary, our teacher gave us an activity that will test if we could follow instructions. So the teacher told us to get a clean sheet of paper. The teacher read a set of instructions for us to follow. The teacher told us to listen first to all instructions carefully before doing anything. Then put our name in the upper right-hand corner of this paper. Next is to loudly call out our first name. And so we did, after that, encircle the word “name” in sentence two. Then if we have followed directions carefully to this point, call out "I have.” Then the next thing to do is draw five small squares in the upper left-hand corner. After drawing, we have to put an "X" in each square. The next instructions are getting weirder, the next thing we do is count from ten to one backwards. And then we put a circle around each square. Next is signing our name under the title of this paper. Then after the title, we have to write "Yes, yes, yes.” After writing that we have to put a circle completely around the sentence number seven. Then if when we reach this point, loudly call out, “I am the leader in following directions." Next is to put an "X" in the lower left-hand corner of our paper and then draw a triangle around the "X" you just put down. Then on the back of this paper, multiply 703 by 66. I had a hard time in doing this; I am not really good in math. After multiplying, we have to loudly call out, "I am nearly finished. I have followed directions.” The next thing the teacher said is draw a rectangle around the word “corner” in sentence six. Then on the reverse side of this paper, add 8950 and 9805. After that, we have to put a circle around your answer, and put a square around the circle. Then punch three small holes in the top of this paper with your pencil point. After that, underline all even numbers on the left side of this paper. And lastly, we are surprised to what our teacher has said, “Now that you have finished reading everything carefully, do only sentences one and two!” I found those instructions online actually. The link is http://blogs.scholastic.com/files/followdirection.pdf

                Actually no one got the right answer in our class. I can’t remember why I got wrong, maybe the first instruction was not read properly for a purpose (LOL). Well so much for that let us go back to Techno class. When Sir RSG told us to write our name in the leftmost corner of our yellow paper, I thought that he would do the same activity that I had when I was in elementary. But we did something different, we have to solve the 9 dots puzzle which is coincidentally, I also solved it before on elementary. The goal of that puzzle is to connect all those 9 dots using only for strokes. The details and the learning about this topic is on the other activity of the forum.

                The other part of the sharing that I liked most is the topic about mindsets. First let us talk about the usual mindset. This kind of mindset is still being practiced up to these days. It actually became our way of life. First is we have to earn money, and then go to school, then get a job to earn money. This cycle never ends. Some people even discriminate others that have not gone or finished school. When you haven’t finished college, it is more likely you will not get a good job even if you got the abilities compared of those who finished college. Companies don’t if give you a chance not unless you have done something very remarkable. We are stuck in that kind of mindset and yet it is still not efficient. We have lots of graduates every year but only few of them get the job which is related to what they have actually studied. For example, some of Education graduates became cashiers first before becoming a teacher. Some IT graduates became salesman or data encoders before they have gone to programming or other IT related jobs. We have a lot of programs to improve our education system but we lack on programs to give the graduates get the jobs related to what they have studied (which is still a hard thing to implement). This problem will be lessened by having an alternative mindset. If you cannot get into a company, create your own company. This does not mean that you build it on your own. Have some friends that has skills or abilities that will complement on what you have then you can start your own business. For example, I have a friend who is and Electrical and Computer Engineering student and a Bachelor of Computer Technology student. Together we are sharing ideas and having a plan of collaborating to each other to create a company. it is good that we had this idea and not depending on applying onto big companies. And that is a good example of an alternative mindset. To make this work, we have to slowly change the usual mindset into an alternative mindset. We all have the ability to change our mind-set - to change our core inner beliefs upon which we base our view of ourselves and of the world. But changing our beliefs is not an easy thing to do. Most people find changing one small belief extremely difficult, let alone a whole range of self-supporting beliefs based on negative pre-conditioning. What is needed is a tool - a tool for change that enables us to rapidly install new thought patterns and positive mind-sets, based on proven success models. And not only that, we have to posses a mindset of a Technopreneur. It is critical for a Technopreneur or anyone seeking success to continuously work on your mindset. All human beings are born with gifts and talents that are unique to them. All of us have something that we can share with the world that would give us all of the success we desire. What minimizes our greatness is not having the appropriate mindset to accomplish what we want to do. It is the mindset that determines your thinking and your thinking determines the actions that you take. The actions you take unlock your true greatness. As a Technopreneur, you must not only have a mindset of creating a company but also have a mindset on how to make it successful. To achieve that, I think we must have to remember some of these things: Clearly define what it is that you want to do. Very successful people care about their lives more than the average person. They take the time to analyze their lives, to look closely at their vision and their purpose in life. They put their lives on paper. They take the time to construct mental images that guide them on their journey.  While most people are winging it, they put their life mission and business vision and goals on paper. They have imagination. They pull their imagination up in their mind and then they define their vision and then they go to work night and day. The idea of Mr. RSG which is pursuing your idea from Techno 1 up to the Final Thesis is a great idea so that you could concentrate on your project goal. Do what you enjoy. What you get out of your business in the form of personal satisfaction, financial gain, stability and enjoyment will be the sum of what you put into your business. So if you don't enjoy what you're doing, in all likelihood it's safe to assume that will be reflected in the success of your business--or subsequent lack of success. In fact, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, chances are you won't succeed. Protect and manage your time. Successful Technopreneur protect and manage their time. How many people do you know that plan their day before it begins? The most valuable asset you have is your time, plan your days, weeks, months, and years. Take what you do seriously. You cannot expect to be effective and successful in business unless you truly believe in your business and in the goods and services that you sell. Far too many business owners fail to take their own businesses seriously enough, getting easily sidetracked and not staying motivated and keeping their noses to the grindstone. They also fall prey to naysayers who don't take them seriously because they don't work from an office building, office park, storefront, or factory. Little do these skeptics, who rain on the business owner's parade, know is that the number of people working from home, and making very good annual incomes, has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Outcome oriented. Have you known anyone that is absolutely driven to succeed?  No matter what the obstacle they keep going. And in most cases it is because they have extraordinary clarity on the outcome. They took the time to clearly define what it is that they wanted to do. They stopped and thought about their life and what it was that they wanted to accomplish and this gave them the drive to see the task all the way to its outcome. Plan everything. Planning every aspect of your business is not only a must, but also builds habits that every business owner should develop, implement, and maintain. The act of business planning is so important because it requires you to analyze each business situation, research and compile data, and make conclusions based mainly on the facts as revealed through the research. Business planning also serves a second function, which is having your goals and how you will achieve them, on paper. You can use the plan that you create both as map to take you from point A to Z and as a yardstick to measure the success of each individual plan or segment within the plan. Deal with actual facts. Most people make their decisions about their life and careers from emotion and assumptions.  Successful Technopreneur base their decisions from fact-based thinking. Successful Technopreneur strive to make accurate decisions rooted in Actual Facts. Ideas should also have limitations especially in Technopreneurship. Always remember that we are going to implement it so always think a doable one. Your business is not about the products or services that you sell. Your business is not about the prices that you charge for your goods and services. Your business is not about your competition and how to beat them. Your business is all about your customers, or clients, period. After all, your customers are the people that will ultimately decide if your business goes boom or bust. Everything you do in business must be customer focused, including your policies, warranties, payment options, operating hours, presentations, advertising and promotional campaigns and website. In addition, you must know who your customers are inside out and upside down. Live to provide value. Successful Technopreneur know that value must be given. And by providing value they know that value is to be returned. They practice the Law of Reciprocity. They know for sure that what they give out they shall receive. Successful Technopreneur do not expect something for nothing. They are constantly working to make themselves valuable, which of course attracts the personal associations that lead to greater financial success. Perform a mind makeover. You should avoid getting overly caught up in the high-tech world, but you should also know how to take advantage of using it. One of the most amazing aspects of the internet is that a one or two person business operating from a basement can have a superior website to a $50 million company, and nobody knows the difference. Make sure you're keeping up with the high-tech world as it suits your needs. The best technology is that which helps you, not that which impresses your neighbors. Successful people rarely resemble the person that they once were. They are constantly educating themselves and gaining experience that will lead them to the goals they desire. They truly understand the importance of acquiring greater skill sets, which in turn gives them a confidence boost and greater self-worth. They live by the words of ‘renewing their minds’. These Technopreneur know this is the key to their transformation and growth. Focus. No one person can build a successful business alone. It's a task that requires a team that is as committed as you to the business and its success. Your business team may include family members, friends, suppliers, business alliances, employees, sub-contractors, industry and business associations, local government and the community. Of course the most important team members will be your customers or clients. Any or all may have a say in how your business will function and a stake in your business future. This characteristic is what I have found to be the most important when it comes to technopreneurial success. Once you have awakened to the possibilities of success, you also realize the many opportunities that abound. And it is easy to allow yourself to become scattered. Successful people develop the ability to focus and concentrate to maximize their resources and forces. Success by association. Have you ever heard when growing up “be careful who you hang around’? Many times you may be ‘guilty by association’. Well, successful Technopreneur understand that you can also be ‘successful by association.’ In fact it is virtually impossible to be successful without having a mentor or a friend or business associate that helps to quicken your advancement. Successful Technopreneur have someone that accelerated their advancement with either some knowledge they possess or some other resource that they did not have. Become known as an expert. When you have a problem that needs to be solved, do you seek just anyone's advice or do you seek an expert in the field to help solve your particular problem? Obviously, you want the most accurate information and assistance that you can get. You naturally seek an expert to help solve your problem. You call a plumber when the hot water tank leaks, a real estate agent when it's time to sell your home or a dentist when you have a toothache. Therefore, it only stands to reason that the more you become known for your expertise in your business, the more people will seek you out to tap into your expertise, creating more selling and referral opportunities. In effect, becoming known as an expert is another style of prospecting for new business, just in reverse. Instead of finding new and qualified people to sell to, these people.  Understand self and others. When you constantly work on yourself, you begin to develop a greater understanding of yourself and a greater belief in yourself, which translates into valuing yourself. This is what allows you to become an expert in your chosen area. If you don’t understand and value yourself you can bet the entire farm that no one else will understand or value you. I have also found that those who understand and value themselves have a greater ability to understand and value others. This skill set is so important when you are seeking higher levels of success. Take personal responsibility this trait is it. I mean this removes all attempts to blame anyone for what takes place in your life. Successful Technopreneur never allude to anything that anyone could have done to them. In fact, all the trials that they have, they looked at them as a blessing to learn from. Never giving up control of their lives. I really love the fact of being in control of your life. Never allowing something outside to control you and the future of your family. Create a competitive advantage. A business must have a clearly defined unique selling proposition. This is nothing more than a fancy way of asking the vital question, "Why will people choose to do business with you or purchase your product or service instead of doing business with a competitor and buying his product or service?" In other words, what one aspect or combination of aspects is going to separate your business from your competition? Will it be better service, a longer warranty, better selection, longer business hours, more flexible payment options, lowest price, personalized service, better customer service, better return and exchange policies or a combination of several of these? A good reputation is unquestionably one of the business owner's most tangible and marketable assets. You can't simply buy a good reputation; it's something that you earn by honoring your promises. If you promise to have the merchandise in the customer's hands by Wednesday, you have no excuse not to have it there. If you offer to repair something, you need to make good on your offer. Consistency in what you offer is the other key factor. If you cannot come through with the same level of service (and products) for clients on a regular basis, they have no reason to trust you . . . and without trust, you won't have a good reputation. Always go out of your way to get involved in the community that supports your business. You can do this in many ways, such as pitching in to help local charities or the food bank, becoming involved in organizing community events, and getting involved in local politics. You can join associations and clubs that concentrate on programs and policies designed to improve the local community. It's a fact that people like to do business with people they know, like and respect, and with people who do things to help them as members of the community.  All of these keys, traits, and skill sets make up the mindset of successful Technopreneur. You probably could think of other variations, but somehow you will end up dealing with these principles.

                Now I am going to tell about the topics that I have liked least. It was the topic about Macro Strategy and The Ecosystem. To be honest, I liked it the least not because of the content of these topics but because I find these topics boring and made me sleepy during the discussion. I liked it the least but it does not mean that I am not interested in it I do not want to learn it. This is because these topics are very important when it comes to Technopreneurship. Even we like it or not, we have to learn this kind of stuff. The first one is the Macro strategy in Technopreneurship. This requires the synergy of the academe, IT industry, government, and business community. This so-called synergy is sustained with the following components: (1) Technopreneurship programs in the academe; (2) technology-business incubators; (3) venture capitalists and funding institutions; (4) IT business incentives and a supportive legal framework; (5) IT parks and buildings; (6) access to domestic and international IT market; (7) domestic and international locators; (8) IT-enabled business enterprises and government agencies; (9) IT-enabled hotels and tourist destinations; (10) IT-friendly real estate environment. This synergy scenario is still far from reality but a lot of inroads have already been achieved towards this direction. We have an active IT academic community with the presence of PSITE-XI, CDITE-XI and PSITS-XI. Twelve schools as of the moment have committed to implement a Technopreneurship course in their IT education programs. The IT industry is now in good hands with ICT Davao, Inc., the umbrella organization of all IT organizations in Davao. To date, there are 10 IT organizations coming from distinct subsectors under its wing. We have quite a number of supportive City Councilors from the Davao City Council. A number of resolutions and ordinances in support of the IT industry have been passed by these supportive councilors. An IT Committee was created during the previous City Council to respond to the needs of the IT industry. We also have a supportive business community in the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII). Quite a number of initiatives and programs in support of the IT industry have emanated from the Chamber. To date, we have one IT incubation center in the campus of the Brokenshire College. We also have one IT Park at the Damosa property. A number of locators have already set up camp in the city and there are others following soon. Things seem to be falling in the right place but the big challenge is how to sustain the emerging synergy and eventually maintain the ecosystem. The last topic that our facilitator shared is about the Ecosystem of Technopreneurship.

                Technopreneurship is really an interesting subject. It makes me introduce the ideas that I have thought of since I was a kid. The Technopreneurship track is intended for students interested in pursuing a technology based business innovation leading a career of technology based entrepreneurship. High-tech and entrepreneurial skills are driving our economy back to prosperity. Technopreneurship-merging technology prowess and entrepreneurial skills- is the real source of power in today's knowledge-based economy. A technopreneur distinguishes logic from tradition, tradition from prejudice, prejudice from common sense and common sense from nonsense while integrating a variety of ideas from diverse groups and disciplines. Technopreneurship is not a product but a process of synthesis in engineering the future of a person, an organization, a nation and the world. Strategic directions or decision-making processes are becoming more demanding and complex. This requires universities, and in site professional development programs and training to produce strategic thinkers who will have skills to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment. Traditional university programs, however, lack the teaching methods to turn today's students into creative, innovative, visionary global leaders who understand the importance of Technopreneurship. Recent technological advances and global competitiveness have changed and broadened the nature of liberal arts to embrace humans and machines. The answer is not creating new liberal arts or soft-skills courses, but integrating them into the general technical curriculum. These changes take time. Also, what about present and past universities' graduates? The solution is to increase in site training and development at all levels of a corporation.

With the help of modern technology, we could make our crazy ideas happen. Who knows one of us will be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg? All we need to do is to learn, and implement what we have learned. But of course we need good skills to be successful. I liked it when Sir RSG told us his efforts so that we can have a Technopreneurship subject here in our city. Because of this we have now the chance to create a name in Technopreneurship industry.