Notes on Coyle Engineering Presentation

Guest Lecturers: Beth Coyle,CEO, Coyle Engineering (in charge of 75% of the company)

Mike Coyle, Civil Engineer (in charge of 40% of the company)

Coyle Engineering- Civil Engineering Company

Also has:

Coyle Photography

Owns a property company

Tips to starting my own business

• First intern at a company with a similar focus
• Then try to open my own business based on my prior work and reputation

What can you do if you do not have the necessary financial funds to pay your employees?

• Borrow money from banks
• Pay employees from your personal funds
• Lay people off (yet this may affect the company and cause you to lose profits)

How do you know what to do next?

• Try to start a company that you are having to pay the most amount of money to
• For example: if you pay 6 figures to surveying, then you might want to expand your business in the surveying areas (this is known as outsourcing your needs)

A big, important question

• Do you want to employ others in the same field as you?
• For example if you are a vet, do you want to hire more vets?

Note:

Prezi Project- sense an opportunity, build on strengths, and create an opportunity to get paid for it

Global Entrepreneurship: International Business Notes

Guest Lecturer: David Mebane, CEO, Mebane Enterprises

First business- a bike riding tour around France “Fat Tire Bike Tours Paris”

Creator of “Spoons”

Famous Clients:

·         President of Microsoft

·         Steward Scott ESPN Broadcaster

·         Air Force One, George Bush

KISS-Keep It Simple Stupid (a good business motto)

Tips to build a business:

·         Be unique (speak English)

·         Style (can ride a bicycle)

·         Find people from different fields that can help you (the average graduating college student does not know how to completely build their own business)

·         Networking (it is not who you know, it is who knows you)

·         Funding

·         Must have a clear vision, (of the future)

·         Find additional revenue opportunities

·         Find positive alternatives (such as a Segway tour)

·         Find something that looks appealing (or fun)

·         Find people that are better than you

·         Create synergy (it takes four times as much money to get a new customer than a new one)

      As an entrepreneur- you are responsible for EVERYTHING, if one is every sued, it is the entrepreneur

K

Portfolio Entry 5 - Individual Graded Assignment No. I-4

Product Innovations:

The learning objectives of developing Soft Innovations are: (1) to become aware of
the numerous opportunities that exist for developing product, process, service, or business model
innovations; (2) to develop skills and abilities in creative thinking and problem-solving; (3) to be able to
describe any innovation developed in a briefing, using both visual depictions of the innovations and
textual narratives, and following a clear set of guidelines; and (4) to formally document that any
innovations developed are novel and unique, through the development of a Prior Works Collection
(needs, resources, and precedents) for the innovation, and by conducting simple search engine,
trademark, and patent searches.

My soft innovations included:

 

1.Hassle-Free Washing Machine
2.Closet/Outfit Rotator
3.Bed Do-Er
4.The Imperfection Vacuum

To fully view the presentation click on the following link:

Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5VW54czbPqvZmI0ZmUzOGQtMzcwNS00YzMzLWFmNjUtNzRkNWU1ZDcwMDcw&authkey=CIaI7I0K&hl=en

Gender and Creativity Lecture Feedback

Guest Lecturer: Professor Rodney Hill 

Today's lecture was very different from all others. The main focus of the discussion was the evolution of female empowerment in the work field. It first began, with stereotypical videos of man's dictatorship in the 1940's, then escalated into the present time situation.

I must admit I was quite in a state of shock when I realized the advances the female gender has made. From being less to the males to now ruling industries, gender differences have always been a significant part of the corporate world. If the women were able to substantially improve their status and power in 60 years, I cannot even imagine what will happen in the next 50.

Provocative Problem-Solving in a Global Context Notes

Guest Lecturer: Franz Ehrhardt

Chief Operating Officer, CASCA Consulting

• Everybody can be creative
• Creative Applications
• You should focus on creating a creative, sustainable, competitive advantage
• To be creative one must get out of his/her comfort zone
• Example: When southwest began, their main focus was to decrease the turn around time, (when loading the luggage, captains would help) The company became so successful because of their creative innovative ideas. Their management made the difference.
• Zone of Comfort=Circle of Competence ex) only eats the familiar food
• Zone of Caution=Circle of Indifference ex) may eat unfamiliar food
• Zone of Rejection=Circle of Incompetence ex) refuses to eat greens and goes to bed hungry
• Brainstorming stands for creating ideas that can potentially solve a problem (this however only occurs in the zone of comfort
• What do I believe would happen if the turnaround amount of time of an airplane was to decrease? (provocation)
• To move the subject out of his/her comfort zone, one must use a provocation that causes one to believe the set goal is "ridiculous"

Portfolio Entry 4 - Supplementary Graded Assignment S-1

CombinFormation Assignment:

The learning objectives of using the computer-based tool combinFormation
(http://ecologylab.cs.tamu.edu/combinFormation/) are to (1) develop skills in using a new
generation of tools for finding and collecting on-line information about any topic of your personal
interest; (2) to visualize relationships among the various types of data and information found; and (3)
learn to develop prior work collections, as a point of departure for the innovations and inventions that
are developed in the course.

The topic of my presentation is using American Consumerism to Save the World

Here is an image of it, to fully explore the experience of CombinFormation click on the links.

Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5VW54czbPqvOGIwYjViZWEtMjQyNi00YmY3LWE4NTYtN2Y4NjkzYjRhNGE1&hl=en

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5VW54czbPqvNTk3MDYyOGUtNDdjZC00ZDdiLWI1MWMtYTI3NmY4ZTIwYzcz&hl=en

Managing the Creative Design Process Notes (Part 3)

Dr. Jorge Vanegas

Continuing with some practical tools

1.       Learn

·         Activity Analysis:

          How: list or represent in detail all tasks, actions, objects

          Why: it is a useful way to identify and prioritize which stakeholders to interview

·         Affinity Diagrams:

          How: Cluster design elements

          Why: the method is a useful way to identify connections between issues and reveal         innovation opportunities

·         Anthropometric Analysis:

          How: to use human proportion measurement data to check the coverage

·         Character Profiles:

          How: based on observations of real people, develop character profiles to represent archetypes and the details of their behavior of lifestyles

                          Why: useful way to bring a typical customer to life and to communicate the value of different concepts to various target groups

·         Secondary Research:

          How: review published articles, papers, and other pertinent documents to develop an informed point of view on the design issues

          Why: this is a useful way to ground observations and to develop a point of view on the state of the art

·         Long-Range Forecasts

          How: write up prose scenarios that describe how social and/or technological trends might influence people’s behavior

          Why: predicting changes in behavior, industry, or technology

·         Historical Analysis

          How: compare features of an industry, organization, group market segment

          Why: helps to identify trends and cycles of product use and customer behavior and to project those patterns into the future

·         Flow Analysis:

          How: represent the flow of information

          Why: useful for identifying bottlenecks

·         Cross-Cultural Comparisons:

          How: use personal or published accounts to reveal differences in behaviors

          Why: helps teams understand cultural behaviors

·         Competitive Product Survey:

          How: collect, compare

          Why: useful way to establish requirements

·         Cognitive Task Analysis:

          How: list and summarize all of a user’s sensory inputs

          Why: good for understanding user’s perceptual, attention, and informational needs and to identify bottlenecks where errors may occur

2.       Watch

·         Time-Lapse Video:

          How: set up a time-lapse camera to record movements in a space over an extended period of time

          Why: provides a longitudinal view of activity within a context

·         Still-Photo Survey:

          How: follow a planned shooting script

·         Social Network Mapping:

·         Rapid Ethnography- observe people’s actions

·         Personal Inventory-things that are important to you

·         Guided Tours

·         Fly on the Wall- observe and take no action

·         Shadowing

·         Behavioral Mapping

·         Behavioral Archaeology

3.       Ask

·         World-Concept Associations

·         Unfocused Group

·         Foreign Correspondents

·         Narration

·         Five Why’s

·         Extreme User Interviews

·         Draw the Experience

·         Cultural Probes

·         Cognitive Maps

·         Card Sort

4.       Try

·         Scenario Testing

·         Scale Modeling

40 Principles Of Innovations

1.       Segmentation (trucks, modular furniture, blinds)

2.       Taking out (robo-dog barking alarm)