Enterprise Skills session 2
• What’s your T shirt ?
Action Plan presentations – self study
from last session
• I asked you to produce a short action plan
identifying actual steps you could take to put your
plan into action. Your plan should identify how
you would overcome the major barriers, what
you would actually do, who you would speak
with, what further information you might need,
the timescale for this for this.
• Now some of you will present a brief summary of
your action plan and we will then see if the action
plan is realistic. We will act as critical friends
Review Skills Audits – discuss, did people come
up with different ones to the NGCE criteria?
• How do we really know how good we are at
those things? Work in 3s on your skills audit to
clarify, question and expand. One person at a
time.
• The other two people take on different roles; one
acts as a positive constructive friend, the other
one plays a role of devil’s advocate or slightly
negative critic e.g. Asks the questions “how do
you know?”, “what evidence do you have?”, “give
me an example off that”.
Opportunity Identification
• Every one of us is a
creative person!
• We can have ideas and do
things with them!
Some of the things enterprising people do
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Generate ideas
Solve problems
Innovate
Start ventures
Create, recognise, develop & exploit
OPPORTUNITIES.
• Convert ideas into opportunities
A question
• What is the difference between an idea and an
opportunity?
• A ‘probertunity’ – combination between a
problem which the idea solves and an
opportunity?
• What percentage of ideas actually make it into
the market as a product? Nobody really knows,
we can only guess.
Difference between an idea and an
opportunity?
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Who is it for – the customer?
What will it do for them? How will they benefit?
What will it do for you?
Can you do it?
Is it feasible?
Is it new? What makes it special?
Has it got potential/actual customers or market?
What you/we will do today
• Experience approaches to creating
opportunities
• Distinguish between ideas & opportunities
• Reflect on opportunity exploration as a
creative learning process
Hmmm ?
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Problem and need?
Who is it for?
Innovations and solution
How do you make it happen?
All products & services are
combinations of needs
• As an example of this we will demonstrate it
by carrying out a brainstorm on the possible
needs you think a settee/sofa could meet in
the minds of potential customer.
Tool and Technique
BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorming
• Brainstorming was coined in the 1940s by Alex
Osborne a US advertising executive. Later famous for
co-developing Osborne-Parnes problem solving
process.
• It works by temporarily removing the social blocks
which we all have which prevent us from being
creative. Blocks such as:
– Feeling our ideas will be ridiculed
– Feeling we don’t know enough to voice an opinion
– Focusing on simple solutions rather than taking a risk
Brainstorming
• Brainstorming is essentially a method for
being creative in groups, particularly useful for
creative problem solving.
• Note however that Yakl’s research (1998)
found that brainstorming did not necessarily
generate more or better ideas that individuals
working on their own did.
The rules of brainstorming
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No judgement or criticism of an idea
Quantity of ideas is more important than quality
Freewheeling - rapid a spontaneous ideas
Mutating and combining ideas – one person’s idea
stimulates ideas from another person
• No answer or idea belongs to a person, they belong
to the group
• Answers and ideas must be produced rapidly
Brainstorming how to do it
• 1 question or problem is posed
• 2 people in a group take turns to answer
• 3 each suggestion is written down by a note
taker
• 4 repeat the process until the group run out of
ideas
• 5 Select, filter and choose the most
appropriate ideas.
Caution
• When Osborne developed brainstorming he
envisaged it as a 2 day process, not the short
process we typically follow.
• Variations – go through alphabet A-Z and try
and come up with 5 ideas for each letter
Do brainstorm !
• The question for your brainstorm is:
• What are the possible needs a settee/sofa can
meet?
Possible needs a sofa can meet
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Filling space
Somewhere to sit
Looks nice
Comfortable
Has storage space underneath
Compatible with the room
Gets through the door okay
Warm
Tactile
Orthoaepedic
Can be converted to a bed
Possible needs a sofa can meet
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Cheap
Durable
We can sleep on it
Watch TV on it
Eat on it
Resists dirt
Easy to sit on and get up from
Looks quality and expensive
Massage chair
Colour-coded
Good to sit on whilst playing card games
Possible needs a sofa can meet
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Washable fabric or leather
Study for the kids
Doesn’t show dirt
Easily moved
On wheels
Soft or firm seat
Non flammable
Stain resistant
Will last few years
Resists pet hairs and paw prints
What’s the significance of this ?
• Different sofas meet different combinations of
needs and are aimed at different sets or types
of customers.
• For example young married couple might have
different needs to a retired couple with
arthritis, who might have different needs to a
large family with young children.
• A settee is not just for sitting on!
So....
• What new possible combinations of needs for
a sofa can you identify?
• How might these meet the needs or
requirements of new types or sets of
customers?
• SCAMPER acronym
SCAMPER
• SCAMPER is an acronym for useful list of words that
can be applied as stimuli to make you think differently
about something when being creative.
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Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Modify (magnify, minify)
Put to other uses
Eliminate
rearrange
SCAMPER creative tool
• Substitute
• What can you substitute? What can be used instead? Who
else instead? What other ingredients? Other material? Other
process? Other power? Other place? Other approach? Other
sounds? Other forces?
• Instead of ... I can ...
• Combine
• What can you combine or bring together somehow? How
about a blend, an alloy, an assortment, an ensemble?
Combine units? Combine purposes? Combine appeals?
Combine ideas?
• I can bring together ... and ... to ...
SCAMPER creative tool
• Adapt
• What can you adapt for use as a solution? What else is like this? What
other idea does this suggest? Does past offer a parallel? What could I
copy? Who could I emulate?
• I can adapt ... in this way ... to ...
• Modify
• Can you change the item in some way? Change meaning, colour,
motion, sound, smell, form, shape? Other changes?
• Also: Magnify: What can you add? More time? Greater frequency?
Stronger? Higher? Longer? Thicker? Extra value? Plus ingredient?
Duplicate? Multiply? Exaggerate?
• And: 'Minify': What can you remove? Smaller? Condensed? Miniature?
Lower? Shorter? Lighter? Omit? Streamline? Split up? Understate?
• I can change ... in this way ... to ...
SCAMPER creative tool
• Put to other uses
• How can you put the thing to different or other uses? New ways to
use as is? Other uses if it is modified?
• I can re-use ... in this way ... by ...
• Eliminate
• What can you eliminate? Remove something? Eliminate waste?
Reduce time? Reduce effort? Cut costs?
• I can eliminate ... by ...
• Rearrange
• What can be rearranged in some way? Interchange components?
Other pattern? Other layout? Other sequence? Transpose cause
and effect? Change pace? Change schedule?
• I can rearrange ... like this ... such that ...
For example
(from http://creatingminds.org/tools/scamper.htm)
• I want to invent a new type of pen.
• Substitute - ink with iron, nib with knife
• Combine - writing with cutting, holding with
opening
• Adapt - pen top as container
• Modify - body to be flexible
• Put to other uses - use to write on wood
• Eliminate - clip by using velcro
• Rearrange - nib to fold outwards
You will now look at new sofa/settee
uses combinations
• What new possible combinations of needs for
a sofa can you identify? – Brainstorm using
the SCAMPER acronym
• Once you have identified a number of possible
opportunities from the problem, idea or
challenge we can see if it has DIFA.
An opportunity has DIFA
• Demand - actual or potential customer need,
ability to pay - viability
• Innovation - a product, service or technology
can be provided
• Feasibility - technology & resources exist &
can be sourced
• Attraction - benefit & interest for you/others
Typically a new product or service
enters the market by one of four ways
1.
2.
3.
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Meeting previously unmet needs
Better at meeting existing needs
More needs being met
Different combinations of needs being met
• The iPod is a good example of something which
did all of these.
• Chocolate fondue fountain is an example of 1
• Swiss Army knife or Leatherman multitool is 3, 4
• What examples can you think of?
Exercise
• In groups of four to six people.
• I have identified some problems, challenges,
issues – you have to pick one and then see how
you can make/convert/SCAMPER them into
opportunities to meet needs.
• Choose from: Unemployment, Credit shortage,
Rising energy costs, new graduates’ lack of job
market experience, water shortages,
Environmental problems, pollution.
• Or perhaps identify your own problem, challenge
or issue? DO A BRAINSTORM
Next - DIFA
• Once you have identified a number of possible
opportunities from the problem, idea or
challenge you can see if it has DIFA.
• Demand - actual or potential customer need,
ability to pay - viability
• Innovation - a product, service or technology can
be provided
• Feasibility - technology & resources exist & can
be sourced
• Attraction - benefit & interest for you/others
DIFA – an opportunity has DIFA
• Demand - actual or potential customer need,
ability to pay - viability
• Innovation - a product, service or technology
can be provided
• Feasibility - technology & resources exist &
can be sourced
• Attraction - benefit & interest for you/others
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Now
• Select what you feel is the best opportunity
from your brainstorm – could use flip chart
&/or post it notes for this?
• Review it against DIFA.
• Think about what needs it might meet for
potential customers – see next slide.
From a customer’s perspective
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Who is it for – the customer?
What will it do for them?
How will they benefit?
Can you do it?
Is it feasible?
Is it new? What makes it special?
How many needs does it meet?
How many different needs does your
opportunity meet?
Is the opportunity NAF ?
• New
• Appealing
• Feasible
• Produce a simple action plan for creating your
opportunity
• What might you do, who might you need to
speak with, what is needed?
Opportunity Selling
• 1 Prepare in groups an A3 annotated picture to
sell your opportunity to a potential customer(s)
clearly identifying their needs, even if they
themselves may not be aware of them.
• 2 ‘Define’ your opportunity in no more than 30
words.
• 3 Prepare a sheet which states what the problem,
challenge or issue or needs your opportunity was
trying to solve was.
Now present (sell) your opportunity
• Using your A3 picture sell your opportunity to
the other group.
• You can answer questions about it from the
other group, but you cannot talk about it
other than answering questions.
Review of different group’s
opportunities
• How well did they meet potential customer
needs?
• Would you be interested in it?
• If not why not? – what else would be needed
to make you want to be interested in it?
Personal reflections after today
• How well do your existing enterprising skills
and knowledge meet the needs of employers?
• How well do they meet your own personal
needs?
• Perhaps include this within your learning log?
Self study – to be done prior to session 5
you have <3 weeks
• Before session 5 – so you have 3 weeks to do this Interview of an
enterprising person – someone who has set up their own business
recently for the first time. If you don't know anyone in this situation
then you will have to enterprising yourself and go find someone –
it’s important that you do this exercise.
• The aim of the interview is not to find out about the person's
business but to find out about the person and to find out how they
feel that life has changed in moving from their previous
employment or unemployment to being self-employed. See
handout.
• And you should try and find out from your perspective and, without
asking specific asking questions about this. What are the
enterprising/entrepreneurial values/attitudes/characteristics which
they personally display? And what are the
enterprising/entrepreneurial values/attitudes/characteristics which
their business displays?
Self study
• Also
• A learning log on today’s session
• Revisit and if appropriate add to your Skills
Audit
• Revisit and if appropriate add to your
Knowledge Audit
Website with resources
• My email A.G.Holmes@hull.ac.uk
• The wiki website for the course
• http://enterpriseskillsuniversityofhull.wikispac
es.com/