Educational trip to Berlin!!!!!!!

Recently we went to our educational trip which was sponsored by Kingston University(London) along with Berlin School of the Law and Economics(Berlin) in the month of Oct 2018.

The duration of the tour was 5 days which was a great learning experience for students like us who want to become entrepreneurs. The tour was designed in such a way that one can learn a lot about the things which are related to the journey of various start-ups in different sectors.

The most important reason which made the tour more interesting was the actual visits of the start-ups. We were taken to the offices of various successful as well as developing startups in order to see and experience how does the start-ups operates. Another interesting part of this visit were the interview with the founders and managers of the start-ups which gave us the opportunity to ask questions regarding various things such as their challenges, operations, back story, how did they generate the ideas etc.

Start-ups which were included in the visit were:

Delivery Hero(Food delivery/takeaway service)
Siemens(Innovative Product and Instruments)
Saint Elmos (Innovative Marketing through 3-D technology)
Blacklane (Premium Taxi services).

Apart from learning it also gave us the opportunity to develop a friendly relation with the students of Berlin School of Economics and Law and expand your network accordingly.

Lastly, it was a very good learning experience overall and a fair opportunity to find the people with similar interest and spend time with them in order to understand them more efficiently.

Re(framing)…..

“Innovative business needs innovative idea and for generation of innovative idea your need a highly creative brain which is generally god gifted.”

These are the lines which I used to hear when I talked about a career in innovation and Entrepreneurship to my friends and family.

I also personally felt that you need to be creative always and should think out of the box to develop a innovative idea before I started my Masters in Innovation and Entrepreneurship course at Kingston this September. But I am thankful enough to my Design Thinking for start-ups module where I learned that for a generation of an idea you don’t have to think out of the box specifically, innovative business ideas can also be generated through Re-framing the problems.

Three months after I started learning the module which began in September, 2018 i certainly feel that for developing an innovative business you don’d need to identify the problem instead for creating an idea. And the process of Re-framing the problems which involves evaluation of the problems from different perspectives and understanding the actual cause of the problem eventually gives rise to an super innovative idea.

There are various ways through which one Re-frame the problems and generate a creative idea:

Depend on the words what and why always. Think what is the problem? What things are causing the problems etc. What are the ways through which you can solve the problem differently.
Think about all the positive and negative cause of your proposed solution.
Establish legitimacy.
Have open discussion. Invite outsiders for their valuable comments
Write down the feedback and views of the people.
Always think for the alternatives causes of the problem and develop your solutions accordingly.
Consider various categories of the problem such as attitude problem,physical problem, expectation problem etc.

Hence, it is necessary to Re-frame a problem because it not only helps in developing innovative ideas but also helps in identifying the actual problems of the people in day their day to day lives.

Useful links:

https://hbr.org/2017/01/are-you-solving-the-right-problems
https://www.gordianbusiness.com.au/blog/2017/11/2/3-ways-to-re frame-your-problem-for-a-successful-solution.

Identifying the right customers!!!!

Customers are no doubt one of the top most priority of any business organisation irrespective of their size or region.

Mahatma Gandhi who is popularly known as Father of the Nation(India) stated that:

“A customer is the most important visitor in our work premises. He is not dependent on us but we are dependent on them”.

Ever since I was young around 10-12 years old and started visiting my father’s office, the word which I heard the most was “Customer”. My father always told me that if customers satisfaction is your top priority then you succeed in any sort of business.

I am a business graduate and right now pursuing my masters in entrepreneurship. Ever since through my entire college journey I have always been taught about various things related to customers.

We often think that if our customers are happy with our product/service we are performing well in the business. I certainly agree that it is must of every business but I still believe that Identification of the right customer is more important when it comes to success of any organisation.

There are various valid reasons to support my argument when I say that Identification of customer is the most important thing in business. The most crucial things it contributes to the business is it not only tells you that who are your real customers but also helps you in understanding your customer needs and behavior. It gives you a clear picture of the things which interest the most to your customers and identifies the potential factors which can influence the buying behavior of your customers.

Various ways through which business can identify it’s customers are:

Screening & Evaluation of the existing data.
Mapping your customer process.
Talk with your stakeholders.
Be serious when it comes to feedback from customers.
Analyzing cause and effect relationship.
Think from customers perspective.
Evaluate your rivals/competitors.

Hence, identification of customer is no doubt the most crucial factor contributing to the success of the organisation as it will eventually help you to understand your customer which will eventually lead to more customer satisfaction.

Useful links:

Future Starts here!!!!!!

Future starts here!!!!!! This was the first thing which I saw when I entered the gate of the Victoria and Albert Museum on 9th Oct, 2018. It is obvious that everyone is excited and curious when it comes to anything in relation to future . Well, I cannot assure it on behalf of everyone but I would definitely like to state that my excitement and curiosity jumped to next level as soon as i saw these words on the mirrors of the coffee shop just inside the museum.

It seems confusing to me as well when I write the above few lines. To clear the confusion I am taking about the my first visit to an exhibition named “Future Starts Here” at Victoria and Albert museum.

I am pretty much sure that this was first and one of my most memorable visit since I joined Kingston in Sep, 2018. There were other reasons as feel when I talk about my excitement regarding this trip. First and primary reason was the exhibition which was regarding the innovation of the future. Secondly, it mas my first visit which was part of my course and lastly i was very excited as our classmates who were certainly my new friends were going outside for the first time since we meet and had decide to explore central London post exhibition.

Certainly, after we all meet at the decided entry spot it was time to enter the exhibition and level of my excitement and curiosity was continuously increasing. I was totally in disguise as soon as I entered the hall of the exhibition. I would specifically describe my first felling which was an entry into a world which was new and unusual as well. It seemed that I was in the world of imaginations and dreams.

As soon as started seeing the various products/services displayed inside the museum the level of surprise also kept on increasing. For the first time in my life i was experiencing and seeing the things which I had not even imagined of using it in my dreams.

There were a lot of things which was interesting but I would specifically like to describe about one particular thing which I liked the most.

It was none other than an service which was named as:

Self organised emergency service

It is an exceptional service which can be operated through a mobile application and offers a help to people who are in emergency situation and want to contact their family, friends and relatives without involving the police. This service can be very useful in today’s world where anyone is often a victim of police brutality and racial discrimination.

Lastly, I would like to conclude by stating that it was a very good and fruitful learning experience and of course I had a great fun in and after the exhibition as i learned about various future trends and concepts and enjoyed with the friends later as well.

“Be the First”.

As I write the first blog of my life I am very much confused in selecting the topic for my blog. I want to write something which is very special , appropriate and typically something which would describe me the “best”.

As soon as the word “best”came in my mind I suddenly remembered the lines of my idol the great “Jack Ma”. The lines were:

“Don’t try to be best. Just be the First”. Be the first to change, first to take up the challenge, and the first one to overcome the challenges.”

These lines have always created a lot of impact at various stages of my life and more importantly has also helped me this time by helping me in selecting a topic for my blog.

These lines are special for me because they have influenced me a lot and has helped me in choosing my career as well.

I come from a small town named Jamnagar which is located in Gujarat(India). The concept of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is not so famous over there or I must say at least not in my friends & family. None of my friends and family member have ever came to abroad for their studies.

To be honest, I was totally clueless when I shared my idea of pursuing my Master’s in Innovation & Entrepreneurship. None of my family and friends seemed to be convinced. They suggested me to do my Masters which was productive with respect to my existing business and could be helpful to me to expand my family business in long run. In short they wanted me to join a course in Marketing & Finance. They had various logic or reasons to support their argument and the most obvious one was that why I was trying to something which I had never done before and why I was not doing a Marketing course despite of being very good at it.

After the discussion ended my I was kind of stuck and had no idea what to do. I was feeling very miserable and was thinking that perhaps my friends were right because I had not done any great sort of things which were innovative and creative. I knew no one who had done this type of course so I could at least talk to them about what the course actually feels like. I kept on thinking for the entire day and was not able to come up to a conclusion. Then, I decided to go to my best friend ever which is perhaps my dad who has always motivated me and supported me in everything irrespective of any situations.

I discussed the topic briefly and also discussed the feedback which I got from my friends and other family members. After hearing me he soon realized that I was confused and just told me,”Don’t think of anything. Just follow your heart. I know you are capable enough of doing anything which you really want pursue and I am pretty much confident in you. These lines from my best friend and one of my idol I must say boosted my level of confidence and I decided to step up and follow my dream of becoming an entrepreneur and create innovative things which could benefit my business and could solve the problems of the people as well.

After talking to my dad I was totally clear about my goals and career but had a lit bit of fear in my subconscious mind because I was choosing a career which was very risky and challenging. I again started thinking whether I was making a right choice or not and luckily I got a video of my idol “Jack Ma” in one of my WattsApp group and as soon as I started seeing the video his famous lines again flashed in mind. I soon realized that this is not just a coincidence and perhaps this could be a wake up call for me to indicate that I was on a right track and should take up this challenge even if I had not done any innovative things in the past.

I was very firm and decided to take this as a challenge and the next thing I just did was the application of my Master’s in Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship at Kingston University.

So this was one of my short stories and I really hope that these lines from Jack Ma could be a source of motivation for you guys as well.

See you soon and Wish me Luck!!!!!!!!!!

The Journey Begins

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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Thanks for joining!!!!!!!

Hey guys,

This is the start of my new journey as I come to Kingston University, London for pursuing my Msc. Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship.

Hope you will enjoy reading my blogs and I would be the most happiest person in the world if my writing adds to your knowledge or is useful to you in any ways.

Wish me luck!!! And definitely see you soon. Stay Blessed!!!!