Assignment 23A: Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1)     Food Allergy Experience: I have had a negative food allergy experience, so I know what is like to be frustrated when trying to diagnose the issue.

a.      V: I think it is valuable because this connection is what drives me to exploit the opportunity and try to find a solution

b.      R: It is not very rare, because millions of people have had food allergies/sensitivities at some point in their lives

c.      I: This resource is hard to copy, since no two people share the same experience

d.      N: Someone else could have had this idea before me or used their experience

2)     Marketing Experience in Health Field: I had a marketing internship at Florida Hospital East Orlando, so I have had exposure to marketing to doctors.

a.      V: Marketing to people in the medical field can be difficult, but it is good to have a basic understanding of how to do it

b.      R: Many people have the opportunity to have ride along internships with physician relation employees, etc.

c.      I: Again, this resource is one of those one two people can share the exact same experience. What I learned from this can be completely different from someone else

d.      N: Also, similar to the first resource where it could have been any intern in that position

3)     Gastroenterologist Contact: I have seen a few GIs during the year and they know me pretty well. My sisters are also very close with their GIs so I would have access to their knowledge.

a.      V: Food allergies/sensitivities are their field; they are incredibly important to helping develop this product

b.      R: Knowing a few GIs is not something that is very common among people, but it is not completely rare (just more out of the ordinary)

c.      I: It is not hard to copy at all, but it may take a while to develop a connection unless you are in the medical field or repeat patient

d.      N: Gastroenterologists are probably the most knowledge about the digestive system, you could ask a regular doctor, however their knowledge may be limited.

4)     Grassroots Marketing Experience: At my marketing internship, I learned how to market and advertise different things using little to no money, which helps if you do not have a big budget

a.      V: This is very valuable since not everyone is going to have large to unlimited funds for a project

b.      R: Many people have used this tactic, but sometimes it can be forgotten because of how simple it is

c.      I: Other methods of marketing can be used; methods that require money

d.      N: Money can substitute the need for these basic marketing tactics

5)     Target Market Exposure: A lot of my friends and family members have had food allergies ranging from small sensitivities to severe, severe allergies

a.      V: It is important to have an understanding of who your target market is. I can run a number of ideas by them and take their feedback into account

b.      R: This is not very rare because many people would be willing to share their stories, however, the stories and experiences of my friends and family are rare

c.      I: Other people in the market can copy this idea and they do need to know their target market in order to still be in business

d.      N: Other people can be used and also a more established company/product would be able to have actual customer feedback regarding the product

6)     Knowledge from Failed Entrepreneurial Venture: My mom briefly started her own business but had to shut it down due to errors in planning, etc. She always jokes with me that if I ever need advice on starting a business/product she will tell me what not to do.

a.      V: It is always good to learn from past mistakes

b.      R: Many people have had failed business ventures, ideas, etc.

c.      I: The fact that the person giving me advice is my mom cannot be imitated

d.      N: This could have been substituted with any entrepreneur who has made a mistake through the course of their business, idea, product design, etc.

7)     Persistence: This is one of my human capital resources. If I really love what I am doing or trying to accomplish, I will do whatever it takes to make it succeed

a.      V: Sometimes circumstances will keep your spirits low or try to convince you to quit, but you have to stick with it if you believe in it

b.      R: Many people are persistent

c.      I: No one will ever have my level of persistence; it is unique to me

d.      N: Persistence is hard to do without, it keeps you from giving up

8)     Increased Food Allergy/Sensitivity Rates: Food allergies and sensitivities are becoming more and more common. People are going to need information and tests to help deal with them

a.      V: This is what will be driving the market for my product

b.      R: Food allergies/sensitivities themselves are not rare, but unfortunately this works to my product’s advantage

c.      I: Any company with a food panel test can profit off of these increasing rates

d.      N: Other food panel tests can be used instead of mine

9)     Financial Donation for Research: My two sisters have had their fair share of dealing with food allergies and other health related issues. They are the kinds of people who would donate to a research project that would help other people live happier and healthier lives

a.      V: It is nice to have some money available especially when creating a product that will have lots of R&D put into it

b.      R: Many people are funded differently

c.      I: Anyone could donate to my cause, but it makes it that much more special that it would come from my family

d.      N: Other people could donate to my product’s research or development or I could fund it myself

10)  Adaptability: This would be reflected as my human capital and part of my business. I can respond to changes better than most people I know, and I would want my product to reflect that as well.

a.      V: It is crucial to be able to respond to changes that affect your market and your own personal life

b.      R: Many people are able to adapt, but some may be more suited to deal with these challenges than others. It is rare thought to adapt to a situation perfectly as there is always room for error

c.      I: I create my own level of adaptability and would create my own level for my business as well

d.      N: It is hard to be able to handle change without being flexible and adaptable. You could ask someone for outside help, but that may come at a cost.

It was very hard for me to come up with a resource list for this assignment. I think I was starting to over analyze things and I kept searching for the perfect VRIN resource, which may be difficult to find. However, I do believe that my most important resource would be the contact with the Gastroenterologists. Food allergies and sensitivities are part of their world and they know it best. Having GIs on board and being able to communicate with them would help create a product that would work and give the results that doctors, and patients would both want.

Assignment 22A: Elevator Pitch No. 3

REFLECTION FROM LAST PITCH

            My last pitch received favorable reviews from my peers. I am very happy to day that I
accomplished my goal of using less and less forceful hand motions. It is still
something that I have to think about toning down, but the more excited I get
the more I like to use my hands. This less use of my hands also caused another
piece of feedback to come to light. One of my reviewees thought that my excitement
started to dwindle toward the middle and end of my pitch. The combination of my
more direct and sincere message, my fewer hand motions, and constant thinking
regarding those hand motions may have resulted in this lack of energy. I will
need to improve in this area.

WHAT DID I CHANGE

           For the third and final pitch (yay!) I decided to share my story; the story that started it

all. I wanted it to be a true story, but not something that was too serious. I
often laugh at myself every time I tell the story because it would be something
that I was too lazy to do something about. I tried to still keep those hand
motions at a minimum, but I still might be struggling to find the right
balance. I was happy to say though this pitch took the least amount of time
than the other two and I did not have to write a script down. I still caught
myself pausing to think of what to say, but I think it flowed well. I still am
not entirely comfortable in front of the camera, only because I do not want to
hear myself afterwards. But that is something I will just have to get over. 

Assignment 21A: Reading Reflection No. 2

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

What was the general theme or argument of the book:

            The general theme of the book was the tips and tricks of how to use social media. Social media is being used more and more in today’s world and there are many ways we can use it to our advantage. The book contains seven different chapters and 123 different tips on assorted topics such as gaining more followers on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and responding to comments.

How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT3003:

            The Art of Social Media connects with the course. The most obvious way one can see this is in chapter four when the book talks about blogging and our class format is a blog. The book also touches on how to respond to feedback, mainly negative feedback. This is useful because some students in this course are sharing their own ideas and businesses and sometimes, depending on who is asked, people do not find utility for a product/service and they may come off cruel in their comments. The book teaches describes a way to respond to the comment while not venturing into an argument. The book also provides tips about how to make one’s social media accounts more interesting and appealing. This is great to learn because it is very important to market oneself as well as the business or product.

If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

            My exercise would involve responding to comments. Someone would post an article or maybe mock business mission statement on their blog. Commenters would leave two comments, one positive and one negative. It would be the job of the poster to respond to these comments, using tips from the book as guidance. The take away from this exercise would be to try to respond to nay-sayers in a professional way.

            After writing the comments, the poster would take a few days and reflect on their responses. Maybe it took longer than expected to answer or maybe it was easier to get ones point across.

           

What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

            My biggest ‘aha’ moment was the fact that this book was so easy to read. I will be completely honest, I do not like to read and I certainly do not like to use social media as much as others do. I chose to read this book because I hear about the growth of social media and how more and more businesses are trying to use it to attract customers. I thought that this would be important for me to gain some insight into as a marketing major.

            The book was organized nicely and was a quick read which I loved. The different sections were informative yet short and to the point and had many pictures and (if reading using an online book) hyperlinks to examples. I feel as though I now have a better understanding of how to utilize social media for myself and my next job.

Assignment 20A: Growing Your Social Capital

DOMAIN EXPERT

·       Who are they/Background:

o   Dr. Marlon Ilagan is a gastroenterologist at the Center for Digestive Health in Orlando, Florida.

·       Which Slot:

o   Dr. Ilagan, like I mentioned above, is a GI so he knows a lot about digestive issues including food allergies and sensitivities. He knows about the different food panel tests that are offered in doctors’ offices and in stores.

·       How I Found Him:

o   When I was a freshman in college, I had to start seeing a gastroenterologist and I went to the Center for Digestive Health. He was one of the doctors I had to see for a check-up appointment recently, so I thought that I would be a good time to ask him.

·       Nature of the Exchange:

o   As you can imagine he was very busy, but he was able to humor me and answer my questions. He said that a basic food test might help, but he also brought up that some people have severe allergies to foods that would not be included in my food test panel. He said maybe that this might be better suited for home use, so the consumer might not be overwhelmed and leave the more extensive ones with the GIs.

·       Exploiting the Opportunity:

o   Having a GI in my network will help me figure out what products work where and how I can help make their lives easier. I did not even think of having my food panel test idea available for purchase at stores because I was focusing on a partnership with doctors. A GI would give me more insight to how they deal with food allergies and sensitivities.

MARKET EXPERT

·       Who are they/Background:

o   Jeff Randazzo is a family friend. He family has had many negative experiences with food allergies/sensitivities.

·       Which Slot:

o   Jeff fills the slot as market expert because he fits into one of my target markets. He is a father of 3 young children, all of which have had serious food allergies develop when they were about 7-8 years old.

·       How I Found Him:

o   I was talking about this assignment to my sister and she said that Jeff would be a great person to contact. He had gone through a struggle that most parents go through when discovering that their children have food allergies.

·       Nature of the Exchange:

o   My sister gave me his number and we were able to talk on the phone for a few minutes because he lives in New York. He said it was a good idea because it wasn’t until his third child displayed food allergy symptoms that he knew what to do. He said that having doctors bring it up at pediatrician appointments would be very valuable.

·       Exploiting the Opportunity:

o   I think that it can really help when you talk to people who have experienced a similar issue. You can see what their struggles were, as compared to yours, and take that into consideration when developing a product. No two people go through the same experience; however, it is beneficial to hear from someone else and I can take Jeff’s experiences into consideration and tweak my product accordingly.

INDUSTRY EXPERT

·       Who are they/Background:

o   Dr. Brooke Britton is a pediatrician that works in Orlando, Florida.

·       Which Slot:

o   Dr. Britton would fit into the industry expert slot because I would want pediatricians to bring up my food panel tests at their appointments and start preparing young adults or the parents of young children about food allergies. He would be the one “selling” the idea of taking a food allergy/sensitivity test.

·       How I Found Him:

o   My brother recommended him to me because that was my brother’s pediatrician. He said he might have some time to answer a quick question. 

·       Nature of the Exchange:

o   The conversation was very brief, but he was able to provide me with some comments. He said that it might be very challenging to get many doctors on board because there are so many diseases, issues, vaccinations, etc. that doctors have to touch on and they do not want to overwhelm the patients.

·       Exploiting the Opportunity:

o   It is hard to know all different diseases, vaccinations, and health issues that can affect people. Without speaking with Dr. Britton, I probably would not have known that doctors and patients might become a little overwhelmed with all of this information. However, working with him and other pediatricians would allow me to find a common ground that would be beneficial to me, the doctors, and the patients.

Reflection: This targeted networking assignment was more difficult than the other interviews. It took me a bit of time to talk with the experts, especially the doctors. Because these experts can be very busy, it is helpful to come with a prepared list of questions (you do not know how long they can be free for). But I did appreciate hearing feedback from the other side, not just getting all my feedback from potential consumers. My experience for this assignment was different from other networking experiences because of the time factor. I was only able to achieve a surface level connection because the interviewees knew me because of someone else. It is important, time permitting, that a deeper connection is made by doing little things like shaking someone’s hand or asking how their day went. 

Assignment 19A: Idea Napkin No. 2

IDEA NAPKIN

Me: My name is Lauren Beato. After about taking this course for over half of the semester and reflecting on my assignment feedback, I realize that I am an organized (more organized than I thought I was) and detailed oriented person. Many people have commented this on my posts and I am glad that my business concept is able to be understood and perceived well. I think this business would help a lot of people in the long run and decrease the worry that comes from dealing with food allergies and sensitivities. This business idea would also, as I mentioned in the last idea napkin, would allow me to help people in general, which is something I really like to do.

Offering to Customers: What I am offering to customers is remaining the same: a product and service that allows customers to react to food allergies and sensitivities in a more efficient manner. The product side is a basic food allergy test itself which would test for the most common food allergens. The service aspect would be that doctors would be the ones to recommend and set up the food panel appointments. Past feedback from pervious assignments led me to change the food allergy test from a more complex version to a simpler one. This would allow the customer to develop an understanding of what food allergies/sensitivities are without overwhelming them with 95+ results.

Offering to: From the previous Napkin Idea assignment, I think that doctors should start bringing up this test to parents with very young children, just to get the idea implanted in their minds. As one commenter said, you do not want to be unaware of your food allergies/sensitivities, especially for most of your life. So, the target age group for the test would be younger children (age 6 and up) and young adults (up to age 28 or so). However, doctors could start bringing up the idea of the food allergy test when their patients are as young as 3 or 4, just to have the parent aware that food allergies and sensitivities could occur in the child’s life.

Why do they care: Parents, children, and young adults care because food allergies and sensitivities can really impact one’s life. Parents will want to make sure their children are living their healthiest life. An unknown food allergy that suddenly springs up can cause a parent to panic because they do not want anything to happen to their children. Children and young adults care because they are at the stage of life where they are learning things and having fun. Dealing with a food allergy/sensitivity’s symptoms can put a damper and cause one to become very sick. They need a way to efficiently learn about and react to food allergies and sensitivities.

Core Competencies: My idea combines the best of both worlds, it is a simple test that would give customers easy results and doctors would be available to help along the way. This is better than trying to go through the process by yourself at home or struggling through different doctors and hospital visits. The feedback I received made me realize that my organization skills and ability to develop deep content can help my business grow. I have many ideas and by elaborating on them, describing the processes in depth, and having a constant feedback loop I can figure out where things can be improved and I can make my product something customers will want to use.

The Elements: I think that all of these elements will fit together. I think that the addition of doctors talking about food allergies and sensitivities to parents of younger children (not necessarily having them take the food test) will be beneficial in getting food allergy awareness to parents. Getting this information to people is the most important part of my idea because as I have stated numerous times, no one likes to suffer because they have no idea what is wrong with them. Hopefully, doctors will feel the same way and will want to use my product, which was my concern from the last Napkin Idea.

FEEDBACK MEMO

From my feedback, I discovered two points. The first is the importance of being organized and thorough in your ideas. This can help your idea grow and can also make it easier for people to understand and provide feedback one. People will be able to see your train of thought and give the appropriate information and not have to worry about misunderstanding the concept. After seeing the feedback, I try to be more thorough in my blog posts so people can understand where I am coming from. The second point, was spreading food allergy/sensitivity information out early. It is nice to be aware of different issues that can possibly impact your life so you know how to properly react. Trying to figure something out for many days, weeks, months, or years can be very taxing mentally and physically. Using this feedback, I thought that it might be nice to get the food allergy information out earlier than I had original planned (having doctors beginning explaining food allergies and tests for them at a younger age). This would allow parents to have more time to process and read up on food allergies.

Assignment 18A: Create a Customer Avatar

My market segment has a wide range of ages who could benefit from my idea, so for this assignment I will use the segment that I used in past assignments: college-aged students.

               She is starting her freshman year at NYU, which is far from her home in South Florida. She is a very healthy individual. Her family is an athletic family: her mom loves to run, her dad played baseball, her brothers are football players, and she is a swimmer. Other than athletics, she loves to hang out with friends, especially if it involves eating out with them. She is incredibly happy at the thought that she will be living in a state with amazing bagels, bakeries, and pizza. However, before she moved into her dorm, she noticed that some foods were not agreeing with her. She pushed them off because it was just a small stomach ache and it really did not put a damper on her days.

            She is two months into her semester, has made many new friends, and is adjusting well to New York. Her major is Engineering, so she is always studying and seeking extra help in order to get that A. She keeps up with her healthy lifestyle, walking to class, joining intramurals, and swimming. But she notices the stomach aches are getting worse, especially when she eats her favorite food: bagels. She is very busy because midterms are coming around and she wants to do well. Her doctor that her family has been going to for years is located in Florida and she does not have the time, energy, or (let’s be honest) money to book a flight. Her parents do not know what is going on (none of them have ever had a food allergy/sensitivity). What is she going to do? She begins to realize, “maybe, I should have tackled this issue back when it first started”. 

What do we have in common: I have a lot in common with my avatar. I was a student athlete in high school so I always thought that I knew what was going on with my body. I thought that if I could eat healthy that nothing would ever hurt me. I am also one of those stubborn people who tends to brush the minor things off, like stomach aches, and deal with it. And like my avatar, when things take a turn for the worse (I become too busy or far away from someone who can help me), I always think back to when my issue first started and realize I probably should have done something about it. Hindsight is 20/20.

Coincidence? I think not. So many people in my family have realized that they have had food allergies/sensitivities this way. We waited until the pain was unbearable, help is too far and we did not know who to turn to. I believe I created my avatar like this because this is the experience that I want to help people avoid. I want my customers to be happy carefree individuals who can study, hang out with their friends, be busy, and not have to be bothered by trying to figure out that a food allergy/sensitivity is making them sick. 

Assignment 17A: Elevator Pitch 2

Reflection

One of the pieces of feedback that I received from my last Elevator pitch was that I should limit my hand motions. I do have to say that this is something that people will tell me to do a lot. It is really funny because I actually have really really think about it. I am just a natural hand talker, it runs in the family. My parents always joke that it's our Italian side coming out. There were also comments about the energy of my pitch, I tired to have a good balance of high, but not too high, and I believe that I accomplished that.



Changes

While filming this elevator pitch, I tired to focus on calming my hand motions down. It was a very difficult task, but I think I did a better job. I, at least, made the motions less severe and intense than the last pitch. I also tried to come from a different place for the introduction of my pitch and start with a serious topic of the symptoms. I also apologize for the awkward transition toward the end of the pitch, I messed up the end and I tired to edit it out and it was not accomplished well. (This will not happen for the 3rd pitch)