I&E 352: STRATEGIES FOR INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The world is currently in a difficult and outrageous scenario. The pandemic with its consequential side effects summed with protests and conflicts around the world is putting us all in a unique new scenario that curiously is teaching us even more about an old but precious value: the importance of people above any material things. We see on the news or from friends how numerous families wish they could exchange everything they had to help someone fight the virus, or overcome prejudice, or live a happier life. Seeing people beyond how much money they have and trying to make the best out of our relationships has been even more urgent and important.

This kind of principle is exactly what I envision being the foundation of my life. Since I was a kid to now, I have been determined to prepare myself to be an influence in the world and help people solve their problems. But before taking this class, I was really lost in how I could do it. I am so thankful that after taking I&E 352, I am now able to clearly see paths that I can follow and have more encouragement to do so!

One of the first crucial principles that I have learned in this class – and that ended up being one of the most remarkable ones to me –, was the idea of “jobs to be done”. Before taking this class, I always wondered how people can get their ideas that are on paper and translate to someone’s life. I had this wrong conception that those that were successful in doing so were those that had more money to convince someone to buy a product, or the consequences of personal influence and status, or simply what was easier to get on a shelf.

Nevertheless, after learning about this principle, I realized that it did not matter whether you had all the money to create thousands of advertisements or convinced influential people to sell a product or even put your product in the front door of a supermarket if your product would not help someone have an easier life. The product needed to do the job someone needed it to do. Even deeper, it had to appeal to the emotions of the customer. The entrepreneur had to think of the people, not just of the invention itself, or the prospect of being a famous millionaire. It is about the people. Learning this principle tied perfectly to what kind of mindset and life I want to have: of improving people’s lives. That is why I loved this idea.

One of the great examples that spoke the most to me in class was of LitMotors. I personally loved this case because it was one of the cases that most explored the technical details of a product. As an engineer, I love understanding all the details behind the research and development of a product. I personally have spent hours dreaming and researching about top-edge technology. I have thought about so many fancy gadgets that would be fascinating just to think about marketing it to people. Nevertheless, as the people of LitMotors realized, it did not matter if the technology is excitingly beautiful to the inventor, if it does not do a job that needs to be done for the customer, it is not going to have success. It can maybe be acquired by a few people, but it will not scale as initially desired. That was a great lesson that I had to learn in order to be creative, visionary and down-to-earth at the same time to help people in the world.

In my future ventures, I am looking forward to research innovative technology and understand as much as I can about what people feel and think, and pivot as necessary. In doing so, I will act more bravely and lean, as some researchers suggest. Before taking this class, I would usually prefer to take some time, sit down and trace a good and calculated plan to make sure that failure and wasting was reduced as much as possible. Nonetheless, from my own mentor and from other cases, I have loved to learn about lean startups, and how the best method to truly understand if an innovation meets customer needs is to go, create MVPs and test it. It is to love the process of trial, error and pivoting. It is great to feel the freedom to fail.

From all cases that we read, another important and incredible constant was the importance of working in a team. It is impressive how much people are reasonably rushing and sometimes desperately seeking to find a good team. No one, in all of the cases that we read, was able to create a groundbreaking product alone. That is touching. In this class, I had an opportunity to work with team with outstanding students and learned very precious lessons.

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One of the most remarkable lessons that I learned was to understand how to deal with differences and optimize a team formed by people with considerable differences. In of the teams that I worked with in this semester, I was with other very talented and impressive students. They truly pursued excellence and worked for it. Nevertheless, it was one of the very few teams that I worked with in my whole life that I felt that each individual’s ego was being prioritized in decisions, planning and communication; and that ended up being very challenging at times. There were conflicts and everyone wearing down. It got to a point that we all had to speak up about things and defend what we thought was the best for the project and try to reach a consensus. In that moment, I learned more deeply how to deal with conflicts and how a team can become better than I could have imagined. Each one of us talked openly. Initially it was a little bit contentious, but after a little bit of time, more caring words were being said and we all tried to be on each other’s feet and try to make this situation easier for all of us. In the end of all, our group was able to have a much better environment and finish the projects with much more enthusiasm. It was precious lesson that I needed to learn. It is indeed through love, diligence, integrity, honesty and thinking about the people that teams can be as successful as desired.

Not only these characteristics are important for the team, but also for a culture inside a company and any other place. As one of my mentors say, almost 90% of the questions can be answered by understanding the culture of a community or company. I am impressed by how the development of a good culture impacts everything. One example that did not do this and was not successful was Florida Air. I remember how impactful it was their lack of culture. Because they did not develop this culture, they had a very disorganized management team, which became one of the reasons for their failure. It is crucial to build a culture of all of the attributes mentioned earlier with a special emphasis on the people. During our classes, I have also disliked even more the spirit of excessive competitiveness. I saw how during discussions or teamwork, seeking too much to just be better did not make someone necessarily great. I prefer for people to seek to work all as a team and seek excellence based on personal goals and effort and not by just trying to be better than someone.

From all of these lessons and much more, I have been impressed and very delighted by this class! It was one of the classes that I could immerge not only in a topic, but also to know specifically how to apply it in my career and personal life. Everything, from accounting to investment to working as a team, have made me a better innovator and entrepreneur. I am looking forward to continue pursuing my studies in this field, and make as much as impact as I can, even if sometimes I have to walk step by step as Derek did when he was injured in a race; doing all for a specific reason: for the people