Reflections from Last Semester

We are now in the second semester of our entrepreneurship course and I am thankful that I survived the first act.  As I reflect on how far I have come on this journey, I realize that the greatest lessons I have learned are not found in any text books. In the class room, I was equipped with academic tools to becoming a successful entrepreneur. For example, I learned about Steven Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people and how to use multiple strategies to solve complex business problems. However it was outside the classroom and in the college of the “hard knocks of life” where I became aware that Entrepreneurship is a journey of continuous discovery, renewal and learning. After a series of events that occurred over the winter break, I learned that the ability to be transparent while maintaining good relationships based on honesty and trust is supremely important for any entrepreneur. At the end of the day, Entrepreneurship is a state of mind and a function of the heart.

One topic that stood out for me last semester was Blue ocean strategy.  In class, I learned how companies were able to make competition irrelevant by using the four-action framework of eliminate, raise, reduce and create. Instead of competing in over-crowded ‘red ocean’ industries, a wiser business strategy was to create a Blue Ocean of uncontested market space. The blue ocean strategy was particularly important because my Genesis group and I used it to excel in Cake Sale 2.  In Cake Sale 1, my group made the mistake of selling boerewors rolls. There were at least two other groups selling it and the market was saturated with this food item. As a result, we were operating in a red ocean with multiple competitors and our sales were lower than expected. However in cake sale 2, we decided to change our menu and serve gourmet wood fire oven pizza.  We had no competition because there were no other teams selling pizza. By using a blue ocean strategy, my team succeeded in making competition irrelevant, catering to a niche market and getting high profit margins. Thanks to the blue ocean strategy, we were able to make almost double the amount of money we generated in the previous cake sale. The important lesson I learned as a group is that it is always wiser to work smarter instead of harder.

Last semester, I learned about the competitive advantage of Nations by Porter. This really opened my eyes to what it takes to transform companies into world class global competitors. By identifying key factors that competitive nations have in common, Porter was able to come up with a framework for nations to gain competitive advantage.  One salient point that fascinated me about this topic is the fact that competitive nations usually become great because they have a shortage or challenge in a certain area that drives them to be innovative and look for a solution. On the other hand, nations endowed with an abundance of resources or ideal conditions have a tendency to become lazy. Porter’s framework is very essential and can be applied to our genesis business as well. This is good news for our Azura business because this means that our obstacles and challenges have the potential to position us as leaders and innovators in this year’s Genesis project. As a business that has been plagued with quite a few setbacks in the past (such as lack of resources or shortage of man-power to name a few) we have learned that mistakes WILL happen and things will go wrong. But it’s how you handle the mistakes that make all the difference. By turning our failures into leanings and using them as stepping stones to future success, our business like Porter states, will continue to improve and gain competitive advantages in this new semester Till next time, Anim.