14A - Halfway Reflection

Tenaciousness is a competency.

A behavior that I have kept up with for the requirements for this class is making sure to include time for this class into my weekly schedule. My weekdays are busy and Thursday night comes around extremely quickly. I usually try to set aside two separate times in my week to do course assignments.

Tenaciousness is also about attitude.

I felt like giving up a few times over these past two months. I am taking this class because I chose to do so instead of it being a requirement of mine. I am also studying abroad and not currently in Gainesville as I take this class. There have been times where I wanted to just give up and go on my next plane without completing the assignment. With this mindset, I sometimes felt that the tedious work was not worth it. I always strive to do well and aim for high grades and that is what keeps me going. I want to earn a good grade in this class and since every single point is important, I make the decision to work as hard as I can and not miss any assignments.

Three tips:

1.     Don’t wait until the last minute to complete assignments. They are quick and easy; they require a lot of thought.

2.     Actually, conduct interviews when told to do so because it can really give your insight on a different opinion that you may not have thought of yet.

3.     Know in the back of your mind that just because this week’s assignment is over, does not mean that the whole class is over. The assignments are demonstrated for you to keep thinking and digging deeper into your entrepreneurship business.

13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc

1.     After reading Grinding it Out: The making of McDonald’s memoir about the startup of McDonald’s I was very intrigued. Unlike the startup of Apple, I had never thought to wonder how McDonald’s became what it is today. What surprised me most was learning that Kroc was 52 years old when he first was introduced to the McDonald’s name. I thought that he was pretty old for partnering with a company which changed the rest of his life. I admired most about Kroc is that he never gave up. He never received a high school diploma, had some obstacles and made some poor decisions along the way, but he never gave up. He struggled to make ends meet for most of his life and had to work 19 hour shifts to support himself. Kroc was told that he was destined to do this in his life, so he never gave up. I least admired that Kroc didn’t feel that an education was important enough. He felt like school would be a waste of time for him. For the great businessman that he became, a high school or college level education could have given him a little more prestige and credibility. In the end, he became one of the most successful businessmen there has been, but an education should have been more important to him. Kroc definitely faced adversity and failure. When he went into selling multimixers and in the end received only 40% of the profits because of a hole in his contract. He was losing out on so much money that he was supposed to be receiving 100% of it. His 19-hour shifts were definitely not easy for him. Additionally, when he opened the second McDonald’s, he struggled quality control. He couldn’t figure out how to exactly prepare the French fries which was a staple to the company. To manage this adversity, he had to contact potato and onion experts to help him.

2.     A competency that Kroc exhibited was being a great salesman, having a good sense of business, and coping with stressful decisions.

3.     A part of the reading that confused me was when Kroc flew out to San Bernardino, California because he heard through the grapevine about this small restaurant. I am wondering why the brothers agreed to meet with a person who they didn’t know, and a guy who was selling mixers for a living. Based on his previous record, he didn’t seem like the best choice to partner up with.

4.     If I were to ask Kroc two questions, I would ask him: If you were to look at McDonald’s today, would you be happy with the company’s results? How do you feel that McDonald’s has contributed to a lot of unhealthy eating? I want to ask him these questions because McDonald’s seems like the father of all fast food chains. Because of McDonald’s and fast food chains, obesity has grown. Did he envision McDonald’s to be an international company with different segments or did he want to stick to the original simple menu in America.

5.     I think that Kroc’s opinion of hard work was the amount of time spent on something, and the output that you produce. Since he wanted to franchise McDonald’s, he probably wanted to produce the most amount that he could with the McDonald’s name. I don’t necessarily agree with this opinion. I believe quality over quantity. McDonald is not known for the best quality of food. They are able to produce a plethora amount of food, but their quality is not great.

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

The Segment: Out of state University of Florida students who travel by airplane to school

Interview #1- Emily from New York

Need awareness: This need occurs for Emily when she first sits down on an airplane. She realizes that the plane she gets on has TVs, but she only has Bluetooth enabled headphones. This occurs only once, the initial time she sits down at her seat on the plane.

Information search: To solve this problem, she asks the flight attendant for their headphones so that she is able to watch something. She talks to her friends and family about this because they usually experience the same problem as her because they also use AirPods like her.

Interview #2- Jillian from New Jersey

Need awareness: This need occurs for Jillian for frequently because she feels that she is constantly traveling on airplanes. On every airline this problem seems to be occurring. She said that she has beats with a wired connection as well, so after realizing she can’t connect her AirPods, she takes out her wired beats and can enjoy her entertainment.

Information search: She has never googled this because she has a quick alternative to solving her problem. She has discussed this with her family, her sisters agree that it is frustrating, whereas both her parents don’t find this to be a problem for them.

Interview #3- Lindsey from New Jersey

Need awareness: The need occurs for Lindsey when she is sitting on an airplane. She gets to her seat and usually already has her AirPods in so it would be really convenient to connect them right to the TV if she wanted to.

Information search: To solve her problem in the future, she may email the airline with the idea, but in the moment just continues listening to her phone. She has never typed this into google or talked about it with her friends or family. Thinking about it now, she would love if this feature would be implemented on airplanes.

Findings: I have found that everyone does see that they have this issue. Only Jillian has a quick alternative at her fingertips whereas both Emily and Lindsey do not. They all wish that it would be compatible because they travel often on planes and this would make their lives a lot easier.

Draw Conclusions: In terms of segment and need awareness, they are all aware of this unmet need. In terms of information search, they don’t proactively search for information on how to solve the problem. They are waiting for someone to invent it so that they can stop struggling with this issue.

11A Idea Napkin No. 1

You: I am a junior at the University of Florida studying finance. I am from Long Island, New York. I enjoy traveling, skiing and trying new foods. Some of my skills include being proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I consider myself to be very good with computers and able to pick up technology very easily. I am very interested in the entertainment industry and this past summer I interned at AMC Networks in the finance department for AMC and Sundance. There, I was able to use my analytical, Excel, and organizational skills to further develop my passion for the entertainment industry. If I were to start this business, I think that it would start out as a part time side job which would eventually turn into a full-time job. I can also see the business concept taking a turn, in which I would develop the software for the Bluetooth and then eventually sell it off to a different company. I think that my idea is there, but I don’t see myself making this my full-time job since I don’t yet have a true passion for this.

What are you offering to customers? I am offering an easy way to connect Bluetooth devices to airplanes. My invention will make it so that travelers will never have to worry again about owning and bringing a wired pair of headphones while traveling.

Who are you offering it to? At first, I was going to invent a device for consumers to purchase in the store such as best buy, target, etc. making it B2C. Now, I think I want to develop the program software and sell it to different airline companies for them to install it on all of their airplanes, B2B.

Why do they care? They care because it would increase their customer satisfaction and eventually revenue. They could slightly increase their prices by providing this service to their customers. They know that it is a known problem, and by people not using the personal entertainment, they are wasting money on contracts with entertainment companies that provide their content to the airlines.

What are your core competencies? My passion for both entertainment and traveling are to my benefit. I am able to understand how consumers want to travel while keeping a budget in mind. My detail-oriented mind will be of benefit when deciding key decisions for the business.

When evaluating all of these questions, I do think that they tie into each other in one way or another. Great computer skills will allow me to develop a software. Excel and business skills will allow me to keep track, organize, and analyze important business decisions. Selling to the consumer could be possible, I am just not sure how it would do in the market because if there is a family of five, I am not sure how many times the parent would want to buy this one product. Owning five of these devices could end up very costly. I think that the software development could be a successful business approach.

9A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: After concluding research and interviews, I found that there are three main categories in which my product will not fall into the target market audience. People who have a fear of flying and don’t travel on planes will not benefit from this product. People who opt to do other activities inflight will not fit the target market audience. Additionally, people who only used wired headphones and do not own a pair of Bluetooth headphones will not be in the market for this product.

What: Bluetooth had become very popular today and prominent in our everyday lives. It is paired with our phones, our cars, amazon Alexa, google home and so much more. The need for Bluetooth on planes is just one sector. It can be extended to other public transportation such as on trains.

Why: Not everyone shares the same need. This product is not applicable to everyone. Some people enjoy reading or sleeping on planes and don’t need the screen in front of them. Sometimes if a plane is small, tv screens are not given on the flight.

Inside the boundary                                                              

-travelers on airplanes often and Bluetooth users

-compatibility with Bluetooth

-this does not exist yet and Bluetooth connectivity

Is taking over                                                 

Outside the Boundary

-people afraid of flying, chose to do other activities while

traveling, and have wired headphones

-having Bluetooth on the plane wouldn’t affect them

-book readers, people who don’t have inflight entertainment

Built into the plane

8A- Solving the problem

How to solve the problem: Bluetooth compatibility on airplanes.

Solving this problem could be either a product to sell to consumers, or a product to sell to airline companies. A product can be designed that you could plug in some sort of device into the headphone jack on the plane. That device allows for Bluetooth connection so your phone would be signaling to the device in the arm rest which solves the Bluetooth problem. Additionally, a software could be designed and sold to airlines so that offers a compatibility that will safely protect airplane signals and passengers.

7A- Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Passengers on airplanes are unable to enjoy and use in-flight entertainment on board with Bluetooth devices due to the fact that planes are not compatible with Bluetooth yet.

The who: Passengers traveling on airplanes

The what: unable to take advantage of in-flight entertainment when passengers don’t use wired headphones

The why: Compatibility with Bluetooth devices and airplanes and public transit have not been done yet, it may affect the airplane signal or other signals when traveling.

Testing the who: People using public transportation could benefit from Bluetooth being more compatible with public spaces like subways, buses, trains

Testing the what: Do all people traveling experience this challenge? Do people feel that they are missing out by not having a wired headphone? Do people miss important information because they are listening to their phone when a loudspeaker is on?

Testing the why: Do they have wired or wireless connection? Would this improve traveling and become more efficient?

Interview 1

When interviewing Emily, she said that she purposely uses her cell phone on aircrafts to avoid dealing with the inflight entertainment screens. If there was some way of opting into the sound system on a train or bus telling you the next stop, that would be beneficial to her because she is anxious that she will miss her stop because she is so involved with her phone.

Interview 2

After interviewing Alex, I found that she also uses solely her phone on airplanes because she doesn’t know what to do when it doesn’t connect to her Airpods. She is very dependent on her Bluetooth connection now, more than she was in past years.

Interview 3

Hallie doesn’t have Airpods, so she never experiences this issue. She normally carries around wired headphones, so this problem doesn’t come up for her.

Interview 4

Nicole just recently purchased Airpods and has not been on a plane since her recent purchase. She always had wired headphones so doesn’t experience this issue. Now that she has Airpods, she will probably use them in the airport but still remember to bring a wired connection because she is so used to having them on her. She is not yet adapted to solely using Bluetooth connection.

Interview 5

Barbara does not own Airpods or a Bluetooth connection device. If she remembers headphones for the flight, she’ll bring them, if she forgets headphones then she’ll buy them on the plane. It does not matter to her much because she usually reads a magazine on the plane anyway. If she decides that she wants to watch something, she will figure it out then and there but does not think about it much for the future.

Summary 

When interviewing people with Airpods vs no Airpods their answers are very different. To people relying on Bluetooth it is frustrating to them, but people who are not reliant on Bluetooth, don’t think much into it. For years they have been surviving with wired headphones and have not switched over yet. I see that not all people have this issue, it is more the younger generation that struggles with this opposed to older people.