We went into this class not knowing what to expect. It was my first time teaching entrepreneurship and I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity for some hands on learning!! A few weeks back before we started UpliftingTshirts.ca I filmed this #InTheLab episode asking the question, how do you teach entrepreneurship?At that time I had no idea what would happen with our newly founded company disguised as an experiment disguised as a class.
Next to put into perspective what goes on in a given year of search on Google.
Finally when you get depressed about when someone says something bad to you online watch this:
Country Music artists read out angry tweets written about them.
I don’t think you can find a better song about the new online world. And Alanis Morissette just had a way speaking to my soul. Hope you enjoy!
Want to see a brand new website the @Stratlab team just launched? Welcome to Normanview Dental.
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/capital-c-movie-poster-the-crowd-funding-movement.jpg11861800Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2015-11-24 22:15:212016-03-05 14:29:35The Sharing Economy: The Biggest Change Since The Industrial Revolution
I have a beef to make. Why do we insist on bashing our competitors? I mean, you have an obvious bias against them, they run a business that’s very similar to yours in YOUR industry. They probably even copied some of the stuff you do! Still not a reason to insult your competition.
Why shouldn’t you bash your competitors you ask? Well, several reasons. Read more
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/dont-bash-your-competition.jpg20004000Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2015-10-13 23:37:562017-01-08 23:17:48Stop Bashing Your Competitors || Eps 34 #InTheLab
I’ve never been to Mexico until two weeks ago. I noticed something peculiar about the restaurants we ate at. They always gave you something to start with. Be it bread, oil, and vinegar, or nachos and salsa or chips and guacamole. We rarely ate a meal where we we’re “given” something to start with. I’m a foody, a fatty at heart, I LOVE that stuff! Making people happy through food, I love it.
Even breakfast at our hotel they would give you toast to start. It was like every place knew how to treat people and they new how to make your experience just a little bit better. I don’t like great service, I LOVE great service!
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Why-Your-Business-Needs-To-Be-More-Like-A-Mexican-Restaurant.jpg11142000Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2015-02-20 10:06:422015-05-02 11:26:56Why Your Business Needs To Be More Like A Mexican Restaurant – Episode #2 of #InTheLab
We hear this a lot; “Our image is our brand!” “Our logo is our brand!” “That ad is our brand!” “Our name is our brand!”
Wait, so what the hell IS your brand?
I like Bill Leider’s definition in his amazing book Brand Delusions:
Your brand is a widely held set of beliefs and expectations of what you deliver and how you deliver it, validated by customer experiences.
Until communication was put on steroids thanks to the creation of this little thing called the Internet, “your brand” was just a set of beliefs and expectation of what you deliver and how you deliver it. Customers for the most part never talked. There was no Trip Advisor, Urban Spoon or Yelp. Back then your expectations of a product or service could be influenced by commercials, billboards, and other advertisements.
Companies (Brands) could change the way you thought of them based simply on a catchy tune played before a movie or during your favourite sitcom….
“My baloney has a first name…”.
“Everyone loves Marine land!”
“Don’t cha put it in your mouth…”
“Let’s go out to the kitchen…”.
Have you heard an amazingly catchy jingle as of late? Possibly the Charlie Bit My Finger kid or Susan Boyle would be the closest.
Back then it was much easier to get your message out to the masses. You really could create major awareness for your brand or product, and it worked. The problem now is we don’t have one channel we always watch, there’s several hundred. Also, because we’ve been seeing these ads since we entered the world it’s hard to differ the signal from the noise.
Back to the definition of a “brand”.
You no longer are in control of your brand.
Everyone else is. Your brand is what people say about you behind your back. Your brand is what I find when I Google you. Your brand is what your customers say about you once they’ve left your store. Your brand is what people think of you whether you like it or not.
You can’t control it. You can only influence it. Customer service can help it (think Westjet), advertising can grow it (think Tim Horton’s), a smart HR policy will enhance it (think Whole Foods), but it’s the combination of every tiny little thing you do. Every time you come in contact with a customer or potential customer they either like you a little bit more or a little bit less. If you still think people can be indifferent to your brand, they probably can, but that’s a recipe for a competitor to come in and steal those customers away from your mediocre organization.
You’re better off creating remarkable experiences with every touch point you have with customers. From answering the phone and e-mailing, to your business cards and promotional items. Everything communication tactic is a chance to show the world what your brand is made of. Hopefully, after coming across your innovative brand several times over, your potential customer says:
“aww shucks, who is this amazing company that keeps making me smile?”. Now you don’t have to sell to them, they already are sold.
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/What-is-a-brand.jpg10342000Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2015-02-10 14:53:392017-12-24 23:38:13What Is a “Brand”? | Episode 1 of #InTheLab
Pandora’s Promise is the story of Nuclear energy. It’s from the perspective of people that came from the Anti-Nuclear fight. Scientists that were very much against anything to do with Nuclear power kept learning more and more about the industry. They learned so much that they finally changed their stance on it.
True wisdom is taking a topic you have had a strong stance on, and upon the discovery of new facts, change your strong opinion.
People with a vested interest in one side of an argument should rarely be trusted. Therein lies the problem, “where do you find people that you can trust their opinion on such a major issue as Nuclear power?”. This doesn’t just go for the Nuclear industry, this goes for every industry. So when someone completely changes their opinion 180 degrees take note, they should be the ones you hear out.
Artifact: the 30 Seconds to Mars story
I had no idea how bad the record industry was until I watched this documentary. It’s eye opening to say the least. Personally I found myself looking up to Jared Leto, the lead singer and mastermind behind the band 30 Seconds to Mars. The struggle he and the band go through. The utter disregard for people and jobs within the recording industry.
This is just one industry that has been displaced. It will happen to more if not every industry. Do you have the courage that Jared Leto had to fight for what was right? What war are you going to fight in your industry? Who is going to be the record execs in your industry that are going to try to wipe you clean off the earth? Ok maybe a little hyperbole, but we haven’t really seen the impact of what the internet will do to every business model. Prepare for war.
Ivory Tower
This one hits a little closer to home. Teaching at Sask Poly Tech and being the president of the University of Regina Alumni Association I can see the Ivory Tower even in the institutions in Saskatchewan. In whatever you do in the connected world, the juice better be worth the squeeze. Whatever takes up your time, whatever you’re spending money on, it better be worth it.
If the cost of post secondary school out paces the value of what you are capable of once you are out, post secondary school will become obsolete. Sorry let me correct myself, post secondary school as we know it will become obsolete. Last year I took my first online course from the University of France on Coursera. The class was truly a great experience. The professor was engaging (even with a strong French accent), he loved the topic (What managers can learn from Philosophers), and any concept I wanted to go back over I just started the video over again (every week you’re sent 5 videos as your weekly lecture, they’re).
In the future you will learn whatever it is you want to learn from whoever teaches it the best in the world. Do you really want to learn consumer behaviour from a professor in Regina or do you want to learn it from the best marketing professor Stanford has? I don’t know about you but I’ll take the Ivey League schools education thank you. And yes the online education world isn’t perfect but if you are an institution and you aren’t experimenting on how to make it work online, I would be worried.
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Three-documentaries-you-have-to-watch.jpg14893000Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2015-02-09 15:43:002015-04-08 12:19:32Three Documentaries You Have To Watch – Pandora’s Promise, Artifact and Ivory Tower
Ever since I was a little kid I was fascinated with Venture Capitalists. Maybe little kid is a stretch, but in University we heard about these folks who lived in the big cites in the U.S. were pitched all sorts of business ideas and they got to pick their favourites and most of those businesses made them tons of money. Money they used to fund more and more businesses and the cycle went on.
I may have got their success rate a little wrong but all in all VC’s were the heros of business school. They were the smartest, they lived a lavish life, and they made thousands of dollars a day, just by being, well, remarkable at business (the good ones anyway). They were entrepreneurs that had already made it, and they empowered other entrepreneurs to achieve their goals too. Venture Capitalists were one of the major funding sources behind many of our darling companies that have been created over the past 15 years. Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Youtube, Genetech, Cisco, Oracle, Electronic Arts, LinkedIn, Amazon, Paypal, Intel, etc.)
The Venture Capitalists they talk to in the movie include;
Arthur Rock (Early investor in Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Apple, and Teledyne)
Tom Perkins (Founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, early investor in Genentech and Tandem)
Don Valentine (Founder of Sequoia Capital; early investor in Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Electronic Arts and LSI Logic)
Dick Kramlich (Founder of New Enterprise Associates, investor in PowerPoint, Juniper Networks, Macromedia and Dallas Semiconductor)
Reid Dennis (Founder of Institutional Venture Partners)
Bill Draper (Founder of Sutter Hill Ventures; Founder of Draper Richards)
Pitch Johnson (Co-founder of Draper and Johnson Investment; Founder of Asset Management Company)
Bill Bowes (Founder of US Venture Partners)
Bill Edwards (Founder of Bryan and Edwards)
Jim Gaither (One of the early developers of the venture financing structure still in use today)
These companies and people are behind some of the most revolutionary companies of our generation. We must learn what they did and ensure that the same progress and technological advancement occurs throughout our tenure.
So who’s going to be the next Arthur Rock? Who’s going to look at a business like Don Valentine in the future?
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/something-ventured-documentary.png545998Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2014-10-13 21:40:422014-10-13 21:40:42“Something Ventured” the Story of Venture Capital
1. Be prepared for Non-Linear learning. Students don’t just learn the grade 6 curriculum and enter grade 7 with a predictable knowledge base anymore. Kids can learn about what ever they want thanks to services like The Khan Academy, iTunes U and other Massive Open Online Courses (mooc’s). The teacher may not be the smartest person in the room anymore (arguably never was) on certain topics. We need to be prepared for this.
2. We need to change curriculums faster. We need to help students learn as fast as the world is changing. Reviewing your curriculum is going to have to happen more often than once every five years (which is the default many institutions get stuck in). Our world changes at an incredible rate. If you think what you’re teaching to students isn’t that relevant anymore I bet they think it’s even worse. Determine the learning outcomes that you’re trying to achieve but leave it up to the professor to build the plan to achieve those outcomes. Stop micromanaging the classroom.
I love this video by Cameron Herold. He’s brilliant and he talks about some of the learning outcomes he’s focusing on as a parent, skills that are applicable in the real world (selling, dealing with failure, negotiations, teamwork, leading, serving).
3. Teach less and they will learn more. Why do we try to cover everything under sun in our curriculums? Do you think students remember everything that’s listen in the curriculum? Do you think they’re retaining the knowledge they are getting in each class? We forget 90% of what we learn in the classroom immediately after the class anyway. So why don’t we flip this around. What if every class had to find the 10% most important stuff on the topic at hand and developed a class around helping students retain that entire 10%?
Inspire them to learn more on a topic instead of trying to bore them to death on a subject that doesn’t interest them.
4. Stop using the text book. It’s to make money. We get it, that’s not going to fly in the future. No one learns from texts books once out of school, so why are we focusing on learning from textbooks while in school? I believe that all teachers should sign a hypocratic outh so this can’t happen any more. In the presentation I compare the textbook I’m supposed to use for my class and I compare three marketing books I want to use. The marketing books have many positive reviews while the textbook has a lone one. I think we need to take a serious look at this.
5. We don’t need teachers, we need leaders. I like to talk about my friend Jordan McFarlen who teaches Entrepreneurship at Campbell here in Regina. In the class the students have to start a company, create a product or service and go to market, all in the matter of months. With the tradition structure of a business, the students learn how to (and sometimes more so how not to) run a business. You don’t learn major lesson in life without trying and failing. I believe this is what school can and should help with.
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/We-dont-need-teachers.jpg8002000Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2014-05-24 21:03:242017-01-03 22:39:16How Education Will Change [Presentation]
An entire generation was taught not to put things in our mouths because of this commercial. What a catchy tune! Do you think we all still know this song because is has such a great hook? Or because it was completely overplayed from 1993-1998? You be the judge.
Around Regina, you can still look someone in the eye and say “some people think I eat too many chocolate bars” and you’ll get the response, “or that I don’t wash my face.” This commercial inspired a generation of kids to care about their appearance, especially their face. Also, when one eats a lot of chocolate bars we’re reminded of this cultural tipping point for facial cleanliness.
I shared this on Twitter and @KiltedBroker chimed in saying he thought this was a video on how to pick up chicks! Atta boy Jackson.
And finally a public service announcement from our favourite drug spokesman, Pee-wee Herman…
Don’t do crack!
Have a favourite commercial from when you were a kid? Share in the comments below, I’ll add any sweet videos to this list!
https://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mountain-Dew-Commercial.jpg435640Jephhttps://strategylab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/strat-icon-2021-white.pngJeph2014-03-27 11:21:322018-01-02 20:07:06Don’t cha put it in your mouth…Your Favourite Commercials of The 1990’s
Pandora’s Promise is the story of Nuclear energy. It’s from the perspective of people that came from the Anti-Nuclear fight. Scientists that were very much against anything to do with Nuclear power kept learning more and more about the industry. They learned so much that they finally changed their stance on it.
This one hits a little closer to home. Teaching at Sask Poly Tech and being the president of the University of Regina Alumni Association I can see the Ivory Tower even in the institutions in Saskatchewan. In whatever you do in the connected world, the juice better be worth the squeeze. Whatever takes up your time, whatever you’re spending money on, it better be worth it.
