REFLECTION PAPER Yassine Amirar 000462862 GEST-S421 INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP Professor : Judith Behrens Assistant : Belkadi Oumaima YASSINE AMIRAR PAGE 01 The Social Network – 2010 (Story of Mark Zuckerberg’s founder of Facebook) 1) The Idea It is very important to have good ideas and inspiration, but it has no value if you do not execute them. In the movie, Zuckerberg develops the idea of the Winklevoss brothers. Here is an important lesson, the brothers had the idea, but they did not implement and concrete the idea, and in the end, Zuckerberg won everything. If the brothers had been smarter, they would have been the ones running Facebook. Having an idea is worthless until it is put into practice. 2) Money < Relationship It is not a hazard that the man who created the biggest social media in the world (3 billion people) has no friends today. He made the wrong decision to prefer money to friendship (as we see through with the end of his friendship with his best friend). Even if his friend made some wrong decisions, he was standing by Mark’s side when he was not rich. Nobody wants to be the person who is sitting on top of the money pile alone. Relationships cannot be bought and are worth much more than money. 3) Signature and contract are essential After doing the math, Zuckerberg paid $65 million to the Winklevoss brothers. During the whole film, we can see that he will waste a lot of time on lawyers, juries, and lawsuits. If he had written and drafted the contracts better, it would have been easier for him to move on. It highlights the importance of always writing and signing the right documents. 4) Leaving school can be the best choice Some people will be very good at school but bad at work and vice versa. School teaches us some things but not everything, it is the experience that teaches us. School gives you recommendations, however you will not have learned everything by the time you leave. Finally, in the film Zuckerberg will learn some basics, but life is a better learning experience 5) It is better to have regrets than to have remorse Take a risk, try, if it does not work, try again but in a different way. Every day the success train leaves the station, either you decide to get on that train and become a better person, or you stay at the station. Zuckerberg took a huge risk to the point of being "almost" expelled from his school. Risk-takers do not always win but in order to win big, you will have to take big risks. The Founder – 2016 (Story of Raymond Ray Kroc founder of McDonald’s) 1) Innovation is important At the beginning of the film, we can see that drive-ins are booming but that they have a lot of flaws (long waiting time for order, errors on orders, bad service and unpleasant atmospheres for families or good moral behavior, etc.) and that this concept is not sustainable over time. (Time will indeed prove it). It is thus by considering the various defects of this concept that the McDonald's brothers will succeed in innovating by creating a model which works much better. And even if their drive-ins worked well, they were convinced that it was important to improve. 2) The prototype There is a moment during the movie when we see McDonald’s using a tennis court to improve their kitchen. They design it for a long time and then they use their prototype to see if there was any improvement that could have been made. The idea here is that your first version would never be perfect, improvement is continuous, and it will always help you. YASSINE AMIRAR PAGE 02 3) Persistence is the key At the beginning of the film, Mr. Kroc is listening to a very inspirational sentence: "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” It is super important to persist and never give up. We must always give it our all and believe in ourselves, if you do not believe in yourself who will believe in you? 4) Failure is a learning experience Throughout the film, a lot of doors will close in front of Mr. Kroc, whether it was when he was a blender salesman, a folding table salesman, or at the bank, or when he had to talk with the McDonald's brothers. He never despaired and kept going despite the failures. He made these failures a learning experience and a strength, a strength to move forward and succeed. 5) Pay attention to details At the beginning of the film, the McDonald's brothers sign an operating contract with Mr. Kroc, but the contract was more advantageous to the brothers because they had a say in everything, to the point that Mr. Kroc almost goes bankrupt and in big trouble. Then towards the end, the ball changes sides and it is Mr. Kroc who will use a vice to make a deal for 1% royalties that will never be returned because the brothers could not prove it was true since it was a handshake, and it was not written on the contracts. As in the film The Social Network, it seems important to be careful about what you sign up for and to always pay attention to the small print. A signed paper is tangible proof, a word is worth nothing. Jobs – 2013 (Story of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple) 1) Product comes first Steve Jobs wanted to make the product special, not the people that use it. When you buy Louis Vuitton stuff, you are “special”. When you buy the last iPhone, the iPhone is special, not the user, only the product. Steve Jobs was always looking for the perfect product, as he said: “the product is an extension of the user”. 2) Nobody can do better than you If you are the founder, the designer, and the creator, nobody will manage your company/business better than you. It seems obvious but, in the movie, Apple was in a bad financial statement and it became worse when he left the company. Then he came back to the company and made Apple. 3) Learn to sell The co-founder of Apple is the geek that created the personal computer. However he was not able to sell it and when he was speaking, he was lazy, this is why Steve Jobs is the key, he managed to be the transition between the engineer and the customers. It is important to be a good convincing person because by having skills in this field, you will be able to sell everything. 4) Negotiating = Winning Steve Jobs was a very good negotiator and he managed to sell the first personal computer without a screen, he convinces the CEO of Pepsi to join Apple by telling him “do you want to be famous because you sell “sugar water” or sell the future.” Negotiation is very important at all levels of life and in all situations. When you negotiate with someone, rather than showing them what you gain, you should show them what they will gain by accepting the proposal or your point of view. 5) It is better to have regrets than to have remorse Steve Jobs really wanted to revolutionize the world and bring Apple into people's lives. He was passionate and driven to succeed. When you are motivated and passionate, all doors are open, and motivation will help you overcome mountains. Passion, on the other hand, allows you to work for hours without stopping just because you are doing what you love. Work becomes fun when you love what you do. YASSINE AMIRAR PAGE 03 Links with the course All 3 films were very interesting and inspiring. I preferred the film the founder, which is more explanatory and better shot, but the other 2 films were just as good. First of all, we notice that each time the films focus on a particular character, Ray Kroc for McDonald's, Jobs for Apple, and Zuckerberg for Facebook. These geniuses are always surrounded by good and bad people. Having a good team is very important, sometimes you must make choices, but being surrounded by people is important, "alone we do not advance, together we are stronger. " Moreover, in connection with "effectuation in action", each character had a well-defined objective with a well-defined team, which allowed them to advance. Secondly, it is important to be task-orientated and people-oriented when you are the manager. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were very task-oriented with good organization and control. However, Kroc was more peopleoriented with strong two-way communication and respect. In addition, in the film about Steve Jobs' life, we see that he has an incredible charisma, that his presence makes his colleagues smile, this goes into the Bass' Four I's as he was the idealized influence and inspirational motivation. Similarly, Ray Kroc in McDonald’s also had many "fans" or people who saw him as a genius. The same goes for Zuckerberg. Moreover, the importance of prototyping is paramount, with each of the founders creating a prototype before finalizing their product and this is what keeps them going. To make a link with the course, we also had to make a prototype for the group work, and we realized that we had to modify some things from time to time in order to get a better result. All this cannot be achieved without a good step of reflection and an iterative process. Context has always been very important to founders, Facebook was created when people needed it, Apple was created when people wanted a personal computer, and McDonald's was created when fast food was needed. Finally, what we have seen in the films is that failure is part of learning. In order to learn, it is essential to question oneself or to try again. None of the three founders found the perfect idea, it is a constant questioning to find the right idea and it is the failure that allows making the links. It is important to realize these failures, Ray Kroc will realize that mixers do not sell, Steve Jobs will realize that the LISA system does not work, etc... They all learnt from their mistakes and that is what is important.
