Sunday 1st September: What I learned this week

The last week of school was filled with many challenges that tested us as a group. As I reflect on what I learned, I am reminded of the fact that entrepreneurship is a journey of continuous learning, failing and improvement. Here are my top 3 lessons of the week:

1. Quantity vs. Quality: Some times we get trapped into thinking that being busy=being productive but that is not always true. This week has shown me that quality is so much more important than quantity. As a group, we planned multiple “rehearsal sessions” for our pcu orals. However, the quality and effectiveness of those sessions in terms of actually preparing us for our presentation, leaves much to be desired. The question is: aside from the group rehearsals, did each of use dedicate enough time to prepare by ourselves to ensure that our individual performances would be up to par?

2. After-action reviews: As a group, I believe it is important to do a quick and objective/ non-judgmental after action review after every major project. Regardless of whether the performance was good or bad, the review is helpful because it brings the group together and serves as a learning tool for the future. I noticed that after our orals, the general consensus in the group was to avoid talking about our performance. I don’t think this was a good idea because we failed to take advantage of an opportunity to boost the team’s morale and encourage one another, despite our poor performance. As a group, I believe we need to learn how to be positive and not shy away from addressing the hard issues.

3. The way forward:  Now that we are on vacation, we each have a lot to think about in terms of the way forward for the business. The time is soon approaching for members to decide whether or not they want to carry on with Azura beyond the semester.  There are some members of the group who have already made up their minds while others are still on the fence.  Obviously this is not a decision that should be taken lightly and it’s a good thing that we all agreed to use the vacation to think about it in more detail. Despite our differences, we all feel that azura as a business has amazing potential and it would be interesting to see how far the product can go, if given a chance.  

I’ll end here for now and pass the blogging baton to Dave. Till next time….

Read More

Saturday August 31st: Vacation Time

The weekend is finally here and it's officially the first day of our vacation. After all that hard work, its important to have some relaxing "me-time".  I spent the day attending an awesome conference for women leaders in management, complete with massages and catered food. Other than that, there's not much to blog about today so i'll end here. Later

Read More

Friday August 30th: OMG Last day of School

OMG im going to be super happy when this day is over. Yesterday, was insane! I spent the entire day and night at the commerce labs working on a class project with my POM group. We got absolutely no sleep and literally typed the night away, editing and adding finishing touches to our paper. Even though I missed my bed last night, I was comforted by the fact that this would all be over in a few hours...vacation time yaaay! 

The day began with a two hour creativity in writing class. We were asked to share one of our writings with the class for feed back. When ever you have to share a personal piece with some one else, there is always a voice in your head that wonders whether your writing is good enough or what others will think. This voice is called the Editor/critic. The voice that encourages you to write from that place of creativity without fear or doubt is inhibition is called the Muse. Creative writing is all about learning how to silence the voice of the critic and channel your inner muse to discover "the Artist's way." Even though sometimes its feels like i'm just stringing random words together like amino-acids on a polypeptide chain,  I really like this class.

i am happy to report that my group and I survived the week and we are all ready to take a much need break. Of course we will use our time off from school to focus on selling more azuras at markets and festivals....but for now, we're just happy that school is out. Yaay!!

Read More

Thursday August 29th: PCU Orals Part Two

The day we had all been waiting for was finally here. We all agreed to wear black pants and smart white tops for our presentation today. Since we were reporting on a toy company, we also decided to be creative and wear playful accessories like polka dot ties, multicolored scarves, bright bow ties and a mickey mouse head piece. As the first group presenting, we were told to arrive early to set up our power point slides. However upon arrival at the venue, we realized that the doors were locked . After waiting for a few minutes, the examiners finally arrived and we entered the room.

The presentation started off with a general introduction and over view, followed by our findings, conclusions and recommendations for each section. Some of us were a bit more nervous than others and as a result, the presentation wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Though the group eventually regained  its composure and finished strong, we went over our time limit by over two minutes. 

As entrepreneurs, its in moments like these that we learn to appreciate geniuses like Steve Jobs, who mastered the art of public speaking and captivating an audience. Today I learned a very important lesson about communicating: WHAT you say is important but HOW you say it is what separates the good speakers from the great speakers. Entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs knew that in order to get people to buy into his vision, he had to first of all grab their attention by connecting with their minds and hearts. As entrepreneurs, we still have a lot to learn about communicating with passion and conviction. Slowly but surely, we will get there....

Read More

Wednesday August 28th: PCU Orals Part One

I can't believe our professional communication oral exam is in 24 hours! Basically, the group has to present the findings, conclusions and recommendations from our sustainability report to a panel of examiners. The company we chose is called Jeffrey Stein Sales, a toy company located in Observatory. We were asked to serve as consultants for this company and prepare an investigative report on their environmental, social and financial responsibilities.

Each member of our group will speak for approximately 3 minutes, for a total presentation time of about twenty minutes and some change. Since my group is notorious for writing extra long reports, the challenge for us tomorrow is finding a way to condense our report and not go over time. This exam makes up a significant portion of our final grade for the course. So as you can imagine, we are all a little bit anxious about doing well. We had our group rehearsals last week which was very helpful as we got lots of valuable feedback. Some of the comments we received were: to shorten our power point slides, to not read from note cards and to make our sections more integrated. 

Is there such a thing as over-practicing? Well not when it comes to public speaking events and rehearsing for an oral exam. We have practiced a few times but for some reason I still feel a tad bit nervous about all of us presenting tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that everything will go well. The exam is at 3 pm tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates.

Read More

Tuesday August 27th: Fashion Blogs Galore

Last semester we were aspiring entrepreneurs. This semester we became the real deal: actual entrepreneurs. Even though our azuras have only been on the market for a few weeks, our product is already starting to create a buzz from excited users. People love our product and they can’t wait to get their hands on this must have summer item.

We are entering the next phase of our business which will focus heavily on Promotion and Sales. Simply put, we need to sell sell sell and promote as if our lives depended on it. Today I contacted 8 local fashion bloggers to see if they would write a review of our product on their blog. The idea is really to spread the word about azura and introduce the product to the market. As an azura representative, I believe it is my duty to let women around the world know about this fabulous multi-functional item that can be worn as a dress, blouse, skirt, scarf, purse, hoodie and much more.

The fact that our product contributes to environmental and social sustainability by supporting local seamstresses is manufactured using fabric made in Cape Town and with 100% coconut shell buttons makes it truly special!  With summer just around the corner, we are certain that the Azura will be sure to turn heads and make in impact on the fashion scene. 

Read More

Monday August 26th: Flu season and Multicom

Hello everyone, it’s me Anim and I’m on blog duty this week. It’s that time of the year again when people are coughing, noses are dripping and flu is in the air. I woke up this morning feeling like I’d been run over by a Jammie. This is going to be a very busy week for my genesis group and the last thing I need is to be sick. So despite my apathy for taking medication, I'm going to suck it up and go see a doctor…..

The group had two projects due today: the Multicom case study for management theory in practice and our blog submission. The multicom assignment involved analyzing a case study from the perspective of a consultant using power, culture and flux as metaphors for understanding the dynamics of the case study. Like most projects this year, we found ourselves scrambling to finish the assignment and hand it in on time. Somehow it always feels like there are a million and one things that need to get done and not enough time to do them all.

This week is also the last week of school before we go on vacation. Hence there are a ton projects, tests and assignments due this week. Here is a tiny snippet of the madness that will follow in the next couple of days:

genesis multi-com project due on Monday

board of directors meeting some time this week

Professional communications orals on Thursday

Integrated Marketing exam 

Project management hand in on Friday

As well as sorting out some kinks with our cmt

This should be a fun week !

                                                                                           ~Anim

Read More