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The Laws Of Hammerabi Essay Research Paper free essay sample

The Laws Of Hammerabi Essay, Research Paper The Laws of Hammurabi The best technique for occurring out about a specific human advancement is to take a gander at their Torahs and other court records. The Laws of Hammurabi are the best safeguarded lawful papers mirroring the cultural development of Babylon during Hammurabi? s guideline. They address the privileges of the hapless to look for remuneration from wrongs submitted by the rich or by the nobility. The Torahs other than talked about the privileges of grown-up females, for example, the option to have assets in their ain names and to disassociate their hubby. Through these Torahs, the Mesopotamian individuals, or their swayers at any rate, appear to have been an extremely thorough civilisation. This is obvious in Torahs 22 and 23, refering robbery furthermore, burglary. Any grown-up male discovered executing burglary will be put to perish. In light of today? s society and Torahs, that appears to be truly harsh, however it shows that the Mesopotamian individuals were extremely somber with the criminals. We will compose a custom exposition test on The Laws Of Hammerabi Essay Research Paper or then again any comparative theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page The accompanying law says that if a theft has honey bee n submitted yet the burglar has non be gotten, ? the city and the representative # 8230 ; will do great to him his bound property. ? This fair and only statute would neer go on in today? s society. The specialists does non repay individuals for taken focuses, with the rejection of protection cash. The Laws of Hammurabi other than show that the Mesopotamian individuals were truly family unit arranged. Law 195 areas that any kid who strikes his male parent will lose his manus. Despite the fact that this is a truly unpleasant statute, it shows that the general public had respect for their seniors. On the off chance that that respect was non at that place, they were severely rebuffed. Laws 209-212 other than talk about family unit issues, especially young ladies and their foetuss. Any individual who murdered an embryo was required to pay a specific aggregate, and, if the pregnant grown-up female bites the dust, his young lady would be murdered other than. The punishment was diminished for a typical man? s young lady and child, however it was as yet thorough. These Torahs show that the individuals were truly worried about their children and family.

Totango

Totango INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in Palo Alto with Totango. Guy, who are you and what do you do?Guy: I am Guy Nirpaz the Co Founder and CEO of Totango. We started the company a few years ago in Israel, Tel Aviv and then I moved over here when we opened the US office here. Totango is Data driven, customer success platform.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Guy: So I’ve been in Startups for many years, not as a founder but I work as a VP of engineering and products at the big data company called GigaSpaces, we mainly distributed computing. I’ve worked at Mercury for a few years, I’ve worked at IBM and some other start-ups in Israel before.Martin: And how did you come up with the idea of Totango and what made you change from being a VP, like an employee to becoming your own entrepreneur?Guy: So my career is a little bit different. I mean in Israel you have to go to the army and I spent 6 years in the army. I was an officer, so Ive kind of volunteered to le ad and to have relatively a lot of responsibility over people and then I wanted to, for a few years just be very professional about what I do. So before even taking on a VP role I had a lot of individual contributor positions where I kind of learned the ins and out of this business. I’ve always been technological but I was technological in sales and engineering and products and then a VP but I always had this kind of I usually describe it as, I was really motivated by mountains that people put in front of me, saying, ‘Okay, nobody can get to the top of this mountain, do you think you can do it?’ I’ll say ‘Okay, fine, I am coming with you, I am going do it’. And then I realized that these are not my mountains, so I decided to define my own mountain and go in and climb it.Martin: Great.BUSINESS MODEL OF TOTANGOMartin: Let’s talk about the business model. How is Totango working right now and have there been any major changes in the business model?Guy: So Totango is a SaaS business, it’s a subscription business. We provide customer success solutions, it basically enables other subscription businesses to drive retention and growth within their customer base. It’s a data heavy solution, it looks at how people are actually using the product and other dimensions of the customer base and creates actionable insights, health scores, so companies can get ahead of the curve, identify which customer needs attention and provide them the required attention.So we provide subscription business to SaaS business model, we sell both inbound and outbound, so we outreach to our potential market and we also get a lot of inbound enquires and we show them the product. In many cases we showcase it which means that there is early PO (purchase order) that the companies can actually drive for other home customer base and then we support them and grow them further more.Martin: When you started, how did you acquire the first customers and was it that easy?Guy: In retrospect it was relative easy but nothing is very easy in startups. We started the company, me and Omer Gotlieb, but then Oren Raboy joined us as the founding team of Totango. And I think the first customers were local customers, so a company that Clarizen that were operating out of Israel and wasâ€"I would say the most dominant SaaS company is where we went and talked to their management team to learn about their requirements. Later on, Omer really pushed hard on LinkedIn and was able to get some meetings with executives at Zendesk and Keynote Systems and other very early customers of ours. I found that people receive very well new ideas if they make sense and they are willing to experiment and these are classical early adopters and we operate in early adopter market, so that’s how we acquired the first few customers. We’ve worked with them to develop the product. So we kind of thought of ourselves as a lean startup in a way that we developed an MVP, and released it and tried it with t he customers and get some feedback and iterated ever since and so that’s all we keep on doing. I mean we try to identify a problem a customer has, we try to come up with an innovative solution for it, we build an MVP, we release it, we get the feedback and we do the other adaptations to meet the customers’ requires.Martin: Okay, when you say that you are trying to help your customers in terms of customer success, what are the major criteria for identifying a potential customer that needs more attention and are you also providing some kind of specific actions that your customers should do?Guy: Yeah, That’s a very good question. I think it all starts with, really being able to know more about your customers, right? What are they trying to accomplish and are they actually accomplishing it? There are multiple metrics, one of them which is critical is the level of adoption and usage of a product, because everyone is busy and if they are not using your product probably they have oth er priorities meaning that your product is not really delivering to their satisfaction. So the first challenge is, to get the right sensors into your customer and it’s what they do with your product and how often, what is the breath of usage and also other dimensions of customer information for example support tickets, CRM information, billing information, marketing information, and so forth. So aggregating all this data and turning that into real asset that can be managed, right? So it needs to mean actionable, it needs to meaningful, it needs to be relevant, it needs to be accurate.We call this part the early warning system part which help you identify which customer needs your attention at the right point in time that you can actually make an impact. And then of course it’s taking the action and making the required changes. If there is a customer that is struggling to onboard, help them out and remove friction, help them to kind of get into a happy place. If it is a customer that experienced a positive scenario where they are exceeding the expectation, talk to them about the next step, get them to the next level of adoption, and so forth. So it’s a combination of the early warning system that let’s you know which customer needs your attention and why, and then a set of operational capabilities to actually take the next step and take the action.Martin: And the data, is it very unique for each and every customer, do you have to set up all your database and analytics etc. for each specific client or is the client making the connection between his database and you’re kind of algorithm, or how does it work?Guy: So we think about this as a network of sensors right? So the first sensor considers how people use your product, and we use technologies that are common like java scripts or SDKs within the mobile tool kit’s. They are integrated with how people are actually using your product and sending this information to Totango. We also have a very wide se t of connectors to other customer systems that captures more information we’ve just kind of introduced last week, a universal integration hub, which makes it very easy to integrate more data sources into Totango.The question that you asked is how unique is the data. So I would say the classes of data are not unique. I mean usage data, support data, CRM data, marketing data. These are the classes. The specifics are different and every business is different, and that’s kind of one of the key elements of Totango is that we help customers take those classes of data and turn it into information that makes sense for their own business. So in one product, it’s about how many projects you’ve created. And in another product it’s about how much time you spend on the system and who do you integrate with or who do you interact with, so that’s how it works.Martin: Great.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Let’s talk about corporate strategies, Guy. Your value proposition is clearly understoo d, so you’re helping your customers understand their customers better, so that they can manage them better or the customer life cycle. But what is your differentiator over competitors who do similar things?Guy: The core of Totango it all started under the assumption that every user and every customer goes through a very individual journey. And the objective today of companies is to make sure that the journey of every user and every customer is successful; everyone starts and then at some point needs to get very quickly to a point of value, and then there needs to be competitive value, and then over time the value needs to grow. And that’s kind of unique to every user and it’s unique for every business. This is the approach we’re taking and the product actually models exactly that which helps you, know exactly which user and which account needs your attention, and specifically where they are and what needs to be done in order to drive them further. Of course, there are commo nalities, there are rules that you can apply to segments of customers and so forth. But looking at that from an individual experience is what’s unique about Totango.So we’ve spend the first few years of the product as really being able to build a very accurate mapping of every user and every customer journey, so now it’s much easier to take the next action. And we feel it’s like in other parts of life, if you really know what’s going on, then the actions that you are taking are more obvious. If you don’t know, then you’re guessing and your kind of shooting at a very wide range and you may hit or you may miss. And that’s the kind of very unique approach that we’ve taken from day one. And I think also these days everyone talks about big data, analytics, and so forth. But basically what it means is that if you take the right set of data set at the right sampling rate, I mean the sensor needs to be relevant, if it samples every day or every hour or every minute, and yo u turn this into something that any human being can understand. So it was very important for us from the get go to make sure that Totango is going to be used by the front office team; by the customer success managers, by the VPs, by the executive teams, by the product team and not just by the analysts. And I think that is very unique. So taking kind of very fine grade level of data and transforming that into information that end users that are business users can consume, that’s our strategy.Martin: So that means that in comparison to your competitors you are using individual data sets and understand the individual life cycle and the others don’t.Guy: I think there are multiple different approaches that we are seeing in the market, one approach is saying something like, ‘This could be overwhelming, it’s too complex, we should work with aggregated data only, because we cannot transform that into information that is relevant for people’. And some people find this approach ver y appealing, the problem with that is on the surface it looks good, right? But what happens if your customers are being colored as green and they cancel 2 weeks later or what happens if you don’t have the fidelity of the changes within the customer base in a way that you can actually make an impact, there is a big difference if a customer got into a problematic situation and you are responding within 4 weeks or 6 weeks or 8 weeks, it becomes almost irrelevant. If the customer had a negative situation, let’s say a very bad experience, you had a glitch in your product and someone was trying to use your product for two consecutive days and had some very negative experience. If you identified that and you practically reached out, and you tried to kind of apologize, and tried to kind of fix the bad experience you are going to get a much higher reward than responding that 8 weeks later and the customer believe that you are only calling them because they’re one month’s pre-renewal or something like that.Martin: And you matching your kind of actionable insights with your CRM system so that automatically some messages are going out?Guy: Yep.Martin: â€"based on some kind of results or so?Guy: Yeah so I think the early warning system needs to be thought asâ€"the first is identifying which customer needs your attention and now they engagement model #1: engagement model is we tap people on their shoulders. There’s alerts and then they take actions, individual actions, our human driven actions and some of that can be triggered and funneled all the way through to automated work flow, creating automated support ticket, or send an email, or in application communication. And it pretty much depends on how much do you want to codify your engagement with customers and how much of that you still want the person to be a part of the experience.Martin: Okay. How did you come up with the name Totango?Guy: So the source of the name, ‘It takes two to tango’ which kind of go es to show that even from the get go we were really thinking about this kind of relationship between the customer and the vendor. And that this relationship requires a little bit more delicate understanding and synchronization between how customers are and businesses are working. The days in which you could throw products off the fence or get the commission on the sales and now go to celebrate in the club, these days are gone. And customers have much higher expectations, they have a choice. That’s a good thing, it’s good for everyone, it’s also good for the vendors, it keeps everyone on their toes to make sure that we focus on creating value to customers every day. And that means that the products that we develop, the services that we create are actually being consumed and are actually meaning and helpful for other companies or other people, so I think this is all good.Martin: Great.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Let’s talk about the market development, so how do you perceive the market development maybe in SaaS or in customer success in general?Guy: So I think the first market for customer success, and that’s only the first one is SaaS companies and the reason is that these companies usually sells subscription businesses, relatively a very low switching cost and also early adopters. So these are the companies that from the get go wire themselves into, ‘we need to acquire customers but at the same time we need to retain and grow the customer base, so that’s the first market for customer success and we’re actually seeing this happening today. But I think this is just the early wins of the market, it’s going to grow way beyond just the sales market for various reasons;One is: subscription general is being adopted as a more subscription repeat buy. Focus on the maximas of customers’ lifetime value seems to be the trend that a lot of other businesses are going with.Secondly, software is taking the world. Internet of things, whatever trend you want c all it, we know more about our customers, everything is either fully virtualized like music or is virtually enabled. So there are some sensors that are connected to how people are actually consuming products.So without it, it means two things: one is that businesses have to focus on retaining customers and maximizing lifetime value. The second thing, there are huge opportunities to know so much more about your customers and my underlying believe is that businesses that will know more about their customers and will care about their customers will actually deliver a higher value and results for their customers. So that is just from the trend that we are seeing coming up in other markets as well.Martin: And from my understanding, e-commerce might be the next logical step. For example, if I know I delivered a package 2 days later, I could automatically send some kind of discount voucher or whatever or try to contact the people and mitigate this kind of problem.Guy: So yes, I agree with you. I am not sure if e-commerce necessarily is the immediate next one. But obviously, we’re seeing for example Amazon implementing some sort of services like do that already. And one of the experiences that I am really kind of a fan of is that if you are an Amazon prime subscriber and you’ve been trying to watchâ€"I was amazed by that, I was watching an HD movie on Amazon prime and the next day I got an email from Amazon saying ‘You’re refunded for the movie because you didn’t experience 100% HD’. So think about it right, they know what was the experience that I was expecting, I was even unaware of the fact that there was like 2 minutes on the movie that wasn’t full HD but they have identified this though their operating system and this is the sensor, they sensed that and then they’ve created an automated action that turned the experience into a very positive experience because now I know this company cares about my experience, so I am probably going to watch anothe r movie with Amazon while I have so many other options in front of me.I think this is just the beginning of revolution and we’re seeing pockets of it across the industry but it’s going to go way beyond that. And when we think about it, I don’t know if you are aware of that, but if you look at some kind of metrics in the market, if you look at the LinkedIn groups of customer success, we’re seeing 100 people joining customer success groups every week for the past 2 years, over 100 people. It’s unbelievably amazing the number of people. So yes, I know some of them are people that are transitioning from more traditional customer service functions like support folks or professional services. But a lot of the others are coming to them from a completely different angle, ‘How can I create more value to my customers, I have an option to do this in a very scalable way as being the head of products or being a part of the product team but I can also do this as part of the customer s uccess team’ which is the same concept.Martin: Great.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM GUY NIRPAZ In Palo Alto, we meet co-founder and CEO of Totango, Guy Nirpaz. He shares his story how he co-founded this startup and how the current business model works, as well as what the current plans for near future, and some advice for young entrepreneurs.The transcript of the interview is provided below.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in Palo Alto with Totango. Guy, who are you and what do you do?Guy: I am Guy Nirpaz the Co Founder and CEO of Totango. We started the company a few years ago in Israel, Tel Aviv and then I moved over here when we opened the US office here. Totango is Data driven, customer success platform.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Guy: So I’ve been in Startups for many years, not as a founder but I work as a VP of engineering and products at the big data company called GigaSpaces, we mainly distributed computing. I’ve worked at Mercury for a few years, I’ve worked at IBM and some other start-ups in Israel before.Martin: And how did you come up with the idea of Totango and what made you change from being a VP, like an employee to becoming your own entrepreneur?Guy: So my career is a little bit different. I mean in Israel you have to go to the army and I spent 6 years in the army. I was an officer, so Ive kind of volunteered to lead and to have relatively a lot of responsibility over people and then I wanted to, for a few years just be very professional about what I do. So before even taking on a VP role I had a lot of individual contributor positions where I kind of learned the ins and out of this business. I’ve always been technological but I was technological in sales and engineering and products and then a VP but I always had this kind of I usually describe it as, I was really motivated by mountains that people put in front of me, saying, ‘Okay, nobody can get to the top of this mountain, do you think you can do it?’ I’ll say ‘Okay, fine, I am coming with you, I am going do it’. And then I realized that these are not my mountains, so I decided to define my own mountain and go in and climb it.Martin: Great.BUSINESS MODEL OF TOTANGOMartin: Let’s talk about the business model. How is Totango working right now and have there been any major changes in the business model?Guy: So Totango is a SaaS business, it’s a subscription business. We provide customer success solutions, it basically enables other subscription businesses to drive retention and growth within their customer base. It’s a data heavy solution, it looks at how people are actually using the product and other dimensions of the customer base and creates actionable insights, health scores, so companies can get ahead of the curve, identify which customer needs attention and provide them the required attention.So we provide subscription business to SaaS business model, we sell both inbound and outbound, so we outreach to our potential market and we also get a lot of inbound enquires and we show them the product. In man y cases we showcase it which means that there is early PO (purchase order) that the companies can actually drive for other home customer base and then we support them and grow them further more.Martin: When you started, how did you acquire the first customers and was it that easy?Guy: In retrospect it was relative easy but nothing is very easy in startups. We started the company, me and Omer Gotlieb, but then Oren Raboy joined us as the founding team of Totango. And I think the first customers were local customers, so a company that Clarizen that were operating out of Israel and wasâ€"I would say the most dominant SaaS company is where we went and talked to their management team to learn about their requirements. Later on, Omer really pushed hard on LinkedIn and was able to get some meetings with executives at Zendesk and Keynote Systems and other very early customers of ours. I found that people receive very well new ideas if they make sense and they are willing to experiment and t hese are classical early adopters and we operate in early adopter market, so that’s how we acquired the first few customers. We’ve worked with them to develop the product. So we kind of thought of ourselves as a lean startup in a way that we developed an MVP, and released it and tried it with the customers and get some feedback and iterated ever since and so that’s all we keep on doing. I mean we try to identify a problem a customer has, we try to come up with an innovative solution for it, we build an MVP, we release it, we get the feedback and we do the other adaptations to meet the customers’ requires.Martin: Okay, when you say that you are trying to help your customers in terms of customer success, what are the major criteria for identifying a potential customer that needs more attention and are you also providing some kind of specific actions that your customers should do?Guy: Yeah, That’s a very good question. I think it all starts with, really being able to know mor e about your customers, right? What are they trying to accomplish and are they actually accomplishing it? There are multiple metrics, one of them which is critical is the level of adoption and usage of a product, because everyone is busy and if they are not using your product probably they have other priorities meaning that your product is not really delivering to their satisfaction. So the first challenge is, to get the right sensors into your customer and it’s what they do with your product and how often, what is the breath of usage and also other dimensions of customer information for example support tickets, CRM information, billing information, marketing information, and so forth. So aggregating all this data and turning that into real asset that can be managed, right? So it needs to mean actionable, it needs to meaningful, it needs to be relevant, it needs to be accurate.We call this part the early warning system part which help you identify which customer needs your attenti on at the right point in time that you can actually make an impact. And then of course it’s taking the action and making the required changes. If there is a customer that is struggling to onboard, help them out and remove friction, help them to kind of get into a happy place. If it is a customer that experienced a positive scenario where they are exceeding the expectation, talk to them about the next step, get them to the next level of adoption, and so forth. So it’s a combination of the early warning system that let’s you know which customer needs your attention and why, and then a set of operational capabilities to actually take the next step and take the action.Martin: And the data, is it very unique for each and every customer, do you have to set up all your database and analytics etc. for each specific client or is the client making the connection between his database and you’re kind of algorithm, or how does it work?Guy: So we think about this as a network of sensors r ight? So the first sensor considers how people use your product, and we use technologies that are common like java scripts or SDKs within the mobile tool kit’s. They are integrated with how people are actually using your product and sending this information to Totango. We also have a very wide set of connectors to other customer systems that captures more information we’ve just kind of introduced last week, a universal integration hub, which makes it very easy to integrate more data sources into Totango.The question that you asked is how unique is the data. So I would say the classes of data are not unique. I mean usage data, support data, CRM data, marketing data. These are the classes. The specifics are different and every business is different, and that’s kind of one of the key elements of Totango is that we help customers take those classes of data and turn it into information that makes sense for their own business. So in one product, it’s about how many projects you’ ve created. And in another product it’s about how much time you spend on the system and who do you integrate with or who do you interact with, so that’s how it works.Martin: Great.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Let’s talk about corporate strategies, Guy. Your value proposition is clearly understood, so you’re helping your customers understand their customers better, so that they can manage them better or the customer life cycle. But what is your differentiator over competitors who do similar things?Guy: The core of Totango it all started under the assumption that every user and every customer goes through a very individual journey. And the objective today of companies is to make sure that the journey of every user and every customer is successful; everyone starts and then at some point needs to get very quickly to a point of value, and then there needs to be competitive value, and then over time the value needs to grow. And that’s kind of unique to every user and it’s unique for every business. This is the approach we’re taking and the product actually models exactly that which helps you, know exactly which user and which account needs your attention, and specifically where they are and what needs to be done in order to drive them further. Of course, there are commonalities, there are rules that you can apply to segments of customers and so forth. But looking at that from an individual experience is what’s unique about Totango.So we’ve spend the first few years of the product as really being able to build a very accurate mapping of every user and every customer journey, so now it’s much easier to take the next action. And we feel it’s like in other parts of life, if you really know what’s going on, then the actions that you are taking are more obvious. If you don’t know, then you’re guessing and your kind of shooting at a very wide range and you may hit or you may miss. And that’s the kind of very unique approach that we’ve taken fr om day one. And I think also these days everyone talks about big data, analytics, and so forth. But basically what it means is that if you take the right set of data set at the right sampling rate, I mean the sensor needs to be relevant, if it samples every day or every hour or every minute, and you turn this into something that any human being can understand. So it was very important for us from the get go to make sure that Totango is going to be used by the front office team; by the customer success managers, by the VPs, by the executive teams, by the product team and not just by the analysts. And I think that is very unique. So taking kind of very fine grade level of data and transforming that into information that end users that are business users can consume, that’s our strategy.Martin: So that means that in comparison to your competitors you are using individual data sets and understand the individual life cycle and the others don’t.Guy: I think there are multiple differen t approaches that we are seeing in the market, one approach is saying something like, ‘This could be overwhelming, it’s too complex, we should work with aggregated data only, because we cannot transform that into information that is relevant for people’. And some people find this approach very appealing, the problem with that is on the surface it looks good, right? But what happens if your customers are being colored as green and they cancel 2 weeks later or what happens if you don’t have the fidelity of the changes within the customer base in a way that you can actually make an impact, there is a big difference if a customer got into a problematic situation and you are responding within 4 weeks or 6 weeks or 8 weeks, it becomes almost irrelevant. If the customer had a negative situation, let’s say a very bad experience, you had a glitch in your product and someone was trying to use your product for two consecutive days and had some very negative experience. If you identif ied that and you practically reached out, and you tried to kind of apologize, and tried to kind of fix the bad experience you are going to get a much higher reward than responding that 8 weeks later and the customer believe that you are only calling them because they’re one month’s pre-renewal or something like that.Martin: And you matching your kind of actionable insights with your CRM system so that automatically some messages are going out?Guy: Yep.Martin: â€"based on some kind of results or so?Guy: Yeah so I think the early warning system needs to be thought asâ€"the first is identifying which customer needs your attention and now they engagement model #1: engagement model is we tap people on their shoulders. There’s alerts and then they take actions, individual actions, our human driven actions and some of that can be triggered and funneled all the way through to automated work flow, creating automated support ticket, or send an email, or in application communication. And it pretty much depends on how much do you want to codify your engagement with customers and how much of that you still want the person to be a part of the experience.Martin: Okay. How did you come up with the name Totango?Guy: So the source of the name, ‘It takes two to tango’ which kind of goes to show that even from the get go we were really thinking about this kind of relationship between the customer and the vendor. And that this relationship requires a little bit more delicate understanding and synchronization between how customers are and businesses are working. The days in which you could throw products off the fence or get the commission on the sales and now go to celebrate in the club, these days are gone. And customers have much higher expectations, they have a choice. That’s a good thing, it’s good for everyone, it’s also good for the vendors, it keeps everyone on their toes to make sure that we focus on creating value to customers every day. And that means tha t the products that we develop, the services that we create are actually being consumed and are actually meaning and helpful for other companies or other people, so I think this is all good.Martin: Great.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Let’s talk about the market development, so how do you perceive the market development maybe in SaaS or in customer success in general?Guy: So I think the first market for customer success, and that’s only the first one is SaaS companies and the reason is that these companies usually sells subscription businesses, relatively a very low switching cost and also early adopters. So these are the companies that from the get go wire themselves into, ‘we need to acquire customers but at the same time we need to retain and grow the customer base, so that’s the first market for customer success and we’re actually seeing this happening today. But I think this is just the early wins of the market, it’s going to grow way beyond just the sales market for var ious reasons;One is: subscription general is being adopted as a more subscription repeat buy. Focus on the maximas of customers’ lifetime value seems to be the trend that a lot of other businesses are going with.Secondly, software is taking the world. Internet of things, whatever trend you want call it, we know more about our customers, everything is either fully virtualized like music or is virtually enabled. So there are some sensors that are connected to how people are actually consuming products.So without it, it means two things: one is that businesses have to focus on retaining customers and maximizing lifetime value. The second thing, there are huge opportunities to know so much more about your customers and my underlying believe is that businesses that will know more about their customers and will care about their customers will actually deliver a higher value and results for their customers. So that is just from the trend that we are seeing coming up in other markets as w ell.Martin: And from my understanding, e-commerce might be the next logical step. For example, if I know I delivered a package 2 days later, I could automatically send some kind of discount voucher or whatever or try to contact the people and mitigate this kind of problem.Guy: So yes, I agree with you. I am not sure if e-commerce necessarily is the immediate next one. But obviously, we’re seeing for example Amazon implementing some sort of services like do that already. And one of the experiences that I am really kind of a fan of is that if you are an Amazon prime subscriber and you’ve been trying to watchâ€"I was amazed by that, I was watching an HD movie on Amazon prime and the next day I got an email from Amazon saying ‘You’re refunded for the movie because you didn’t experience 100% HD’. So think about it right, they know what was the experience that I was expecting, I was even unaware of the fact that there was like 2 minutes on the movie that wasn’t full HD but t hey have identified this though their operating system and this is the sensor, they sensed that and then they’ve created an automated action that turned the experience into a very positive experience because now I know this company cares about my experience, so I am probably going to watch another movie with Amazon while I have so many other options in front of me.I think this is just the beginning of revolution and we’re seeing pockets of it across the industry but it’s going to go way beyond that. And when we think about it, I don’t know if you are aware of that, but if you look at some kind of metrics in the market, if you look at the LinkedIn groups of customer success, we’re seeing 100 people joining customer success groups every week for the past 2 years, over 100 people. It’s unbelievably amazing the number of people. So yes, I know some of them are people that are transitioning from more traditional customer service functions like support folks or professional se rvices. But a lot of the others are coming to them from a completely different angle, ‘How can I create more value to my customers, I have an option to do this in a very scalable way as being the head of products or being a part of the product team but I can also do this as part of the customer success team’ which is the same concept.Martin: Great.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM GUY NIRPAZMartin: Let’s talk about your advice to first time entrepreneurs. I know you have a very entrepreneurial daughter. Can you tell us a little bit about what she did and what advice would you give her when she starts her company?Guy: I have two kids that right now you can actually have adult conversations with. My older son is more of a marketing person and the questions that he asked me are, ‘So what’s your real differentiator, I mean why would customer select you and not your competitor?’ And interestingly enough, my daughter came to me last week and asked me, ‘How did you start Totango, what do I need to do to start a company like that?’ And that’s really kind of a interesting question and I like the fact that they are growing here in Silicon Valley and actually being exposed to entrepreneurs spirit. Israel was the same but here the magnitude is even higher. So my advice is just agree within yourself that this is what you want to do and just do it. And no inhibitions, meaning that, ‘I first need to get my salary or I first‘ If you wanna do it just do it and then figure out everything else. I remember when I and Omer just started we deliberately first quit our jobs and then we sit down to say, ‘Okay what are we gonna do next’, because I wanted to have this experience of ‘Back against the wall’ to come up with something. I don’t know it works for everyone but for me it worked great.Martin: And what have been your major mistakes or something that you said, ‘Okay, this was totally wrong, I would have done this different today’.Guy: I think the big gest mistake that you could have is not willing to face the truth. And not willing to face the truth is to ask for money on the first day that you sell the product or something like that because the only time This is just one example. It’s those things which are concrete that face you with the cruel world of, ‘I want $50,000 for this product’, ‘I am not gonna pay you more than 500’, Okay where is the gap? and if you go and do that you are able to identify the gap of what’s missing in my product, what are the features that are missing, where is the market and so forth and they just comes from sales. Where I feel like I have improved in entrepreneur is really being able to grow thick skin, face the truth and then work on it versus kind of sliding away the facts that you don’t really like and trying to come up with a different explanation that in many cases just kind of delays the evidence. And instead of taking the action immediately you take the action a little bit long er down the road and just a waste of opportunities. So my advice, just face the truth everyday and take action in accordance.Martin: Great, thank you very much Guy for your time! And next time you are dancing with your partner maybe in a tango, thinks of Totango.Guy: Thank you very much.

Improving Performance in the Workplace Free Essay Example, 1750 words

The managers need to effectively plan, monitor and evaluate team performance. The effective evaluation will help to measure the overall effectiveness of an organization. The management of a particular organization implements several team performance management strategies to enhance team performance. The managers generally plan a team performance framework based on the operational goals and objectives (Watkins and Doug, 2009, p. 13). Then they monitor the process after implementing it in the workplace. Effective evaluation of team performance can help the management to develop future strategies based on the effectiveness of the implemented process or framework. Team performance needs to be effectively evaluated and monitored in the workplace. First of all, the management of the organization should achieve appropriate data and information about the performance of all the team members. The long database can complex the measurement and evaluation process. Secondly, the management of the organization should develop effective metrics objectives. It can ease the performance evaluation process of the entire team. Lastly, the managers should consider multiple workplace aspects and compare with the original finding. This strategy can provide effective evaluation result. We will write a custom essay sample on Improving Performance in the Workplace or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page

Why Do We Dream Essays - 631 Words

Why do we Dream? It has been said by researchers that everyone dreams during sleep and it is thought to be a universal psychical feature of our human lives. However, many of us are unable to recall vividly what happens throughout our dreams, if anything at all. Due to this clouded unique nature that is dreaming, most of the knowledge why we dream is largely inconclusive. Nonetheless, after many years of theoretical debate on the subject, three arguments have remained prominent of which I will I will be discussing. Perhaps the most renowned theory of dreaming comes from the famous psychologist, Dr Sigmund Freud. He proposed that our dreams were likened to a ‘royal road (Plotnik 2005) to our unconscious thoughts and desires. In this†¦show more content†¦Many have creditably theorised that dreams are extensions of our waking life. It is believed that this close link between our daily lives and that of our dreams acts as a restorative function deeply analysing our current ‘thoughts, fears, concerns, problems and emotions. Researchers have also discovered that our dreaming can exhibit various other tasks including problem solving and the enlightening of creativity. Such occurrences have been proven with musician Paul McCartney having written the famous dream inspired hit ‘yesterday. He recalls ‘I just woke up one morning and I supposed Id been dreaming or something and Id got this little tune in my head (www0.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/indepth/yesterday.shtml). Dreaming can also be viewed in a more biological sense known as the activation-synthesis theory, in which areas of our brain that are usually inactive while awake, are activated when asleep. The areas stimulated have been found, due to Hobsons brain scans or the 1970s, to be that of visual (visual cortex) and emotional (limbic system) areas of our brain. Such theory explains the random, hallucinatory images induced by dreamers and the disorder of events remembered due to the inaction of thought processing areas (prefrontal cortex). In all, dreaming is a phenomenon that can generally be argued as serviceable to our being and is certainly fascinating, however its clear purposes remain uncertain.Show MoreRelatedWhy Do We Dream?1356 Words   |  5 PagesWhy do we dream the things we dream? What dictates the content of the movies for one that we watch when we fall asleep? This is a question that nearly everyone has pondered at some point in their lives and humans have been studying in an attempt to answer for thousands of years. Humans spend approximately one third of their lives asleep, and the idea that such a great portion of our time is spent in a state that we do not fully understand is bothersome to many. As humans, it is a natural desire toRead MoreWhy Do We Dream?2205 Words   |  9 PagesWhy Do We Dream? By William Allan | Submitted On February 06, 2011 Recommend Article Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest Expert Author William Allan The question as it was posed; Your write up is like a journey in itselfRead MoreWhy Do We Dream?2460 Words   |  10 PagesWhy do we dream? What do our dreams mean? Dreams are a sequence of images, ideas, and feelings that involuntarily occur most commonly during the REM stage of sleep. They come in a wide variety of types, from the peculiar to the downright terrifying; the dreamer has no control over what they experience in their dreams. Though neurologists have been studying the human brain for decades, we still don’t fully know why we dream or what their significance is. Some psychologists theorize that dreams areRead MoreWhy Do We Dream?2019 Words   |  9 Pagesis known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep; REM sleep at one stage was thought to be the primary dream period. However recent research and empirical evidence has shown that REM sleep does not have a direct relationship with dreaming, it is however purely and simply the stage of sleep which allows better recall of dreams. This is supported by Nielson (2000) who presented empirical evidence that dream recall during REM sleep in adults was as high as 60-90% after waking, whereas when individuals passedRead MoreWhy Do We Have Dreams?790 Words   |  3 PagesThe reason behind dreaming has still not been scientifically proven, but there are many theories and religious beliefs as to why people dream at night. Theorists, such as Sigmund Frued, devoted their time to peoples dreams and observing them while they dream and sleep. These scientists have discovered that people are most likely to dream during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep than any other stage because the mind is more aware then. There are theories that say that dreaming can predictRead MoreEssay on Sleeps and Dreams: Why Do We Sleep and Dream?741 Words   |  3 Pagesabout the Sleeps and dreams topic. It will be segmented into different parts, but I will first describe the basics of the sleeping and dreaming, why it happens and how. After that I will d escribe the different types of sleep which are REM (Rapid eye movement) and NON-REM. Other topics that will be discussed are the biological clock, consciousness and alerted, how much sleep does the body need, treatments and problems such as insomnia, sleep apnea and narcolepsy. Firstly, why do we need sleep? Our body’sRead MoreDreams: Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud Essay1174 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Dreams are a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.† This is the true definition of what dreams are according to Free Dictionary.com. Although many people are unaware of how dreams actually work there are two psychologists that have been able to pinpoint the true meaning of dreams. These two men are Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. There are many different perceptions on how people dream, what dreams mean, and why peopleRead MoreDreaming from Various Sources1456 Words   |  6 Pagesthe usefulness of dreams. This paper will also take time to explain what a dream is, when dreams happen, and what their potential purposes may be. To start this paper, we first must understand what a dream is. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a dream is a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep. Dreams take the things we see during our waking hours and translate them into unique, sometimes horrifying, and possibly meaningful ways. Dreams could also be representationsRead MoreDreaming Is Something We ve All Experienced While Sleeping1565 Words   |  7 Pagessleeping. Our dreams are produced by an altered state of consciousness, in which images and fantasies become mixed with reality. We all experience dreams that range from the pleasant and the not so pleasant or nightmares. Dreaming is still largely a mystery to science, as experiments are conducted to figure out why we dream and how dreams function. We do know one thing for sure, that everyone dreams unless in the rare case they are prevented by meditation or a brain injury. Dreams occur in twoRead MoreThe Purpose of Dreams1235 Words   |  5 Pages Dreams are a very ponderous things. Simply saying, dreams are a stream of images, sounds, and the actions of something; like a movie. But never have dreams been able to be explained. The Greeks and Romans claimed that dreams were signs from their gods and had prophetic magic (www.scientificamerican.com). Even though the purpose of dreams has not been discovered, a huge movement in the study of dreams occurred at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1952, scientists in Chicago discovered

Editorialist Essay Example Free Essays

These calls to action suggest that the liberality of the government is getting so out of hand that if the American people don’t take a stand, conditions in the country will continue following the downward pattern that they currently are. In ‘Freedom Lost,† an article about new legislation restricting the freedom of the American public, Reilly writes, â€Å"We Americans deed to stop this nanny state stuff,† referring to how Americans do not provide any resistance to the new laws. This call to action suggests that it is Americans’ fault that laws hurting their own freedom are being passed, and as such it is up to them to find a solution to this problem. We will write a custom essay sample on Editorialist Essay Example or any similar topic only for you Order Now Reilly calls the audience to action in â€Å"The Big Con† as well. The first sentence of the editorial is simply, â€Å"Please listen up,† immediately drawing the readers in, as well as suggesting the severity of what is to follow. Reality’s calls to action, like those mound in â€Å"Freedom Lost† and â€Å"The Big Con,† unite the audience for his cause, and provide a degree of reader involvement in the editorials as well. Aside from addressing the audience through blame and calls to action, Reilly often appeals to the logic of his readers. These appeals frequently include statistics, such as in â€Å"The Big Con† when he writes, â€Å"The American taxpayer will fork over about $571 billion to pay for educating children†, and â€Å"the Country spends close to $16,000 per student every year On primary wrought college education,† later stating that this is â€Å"the highest per-students spending rate in the world. By including indisputable facts such as these, Reilly establishes the fact that there is logic behind his argument, rather than him just speaking his mind. A similar appeal can be found in â€Å"Just Say Yes† that condemns the liberal American government. He writes, â€Å"Almost 30 million Americans [are] currently categorized as ‘substance abusers’,† this large number demonstrating how poorly the American government is dealing tit illegal drug u sers. A third example of an Reilly establishing the logical credibility of his argument appears in † Freedom Lost†. On the topic of state governments being far too liberal with their passage of new legislation, Reilly writes, â€Å"In California, Gob. Jerry Brown has signed into law an astounding 876 new mandates,† and follows this with examples of what the laws prohibit citizens from doing. Examples such as these prove that there is logical ground on which Reality’s arguments are based on, making it clear hat his points are at least partially valid when supported with logic. Bill Reilly is one of the most widely recognized conservative columnists in America today, voicing his opinion in various forms of media, from television to social media to editorials and more. His implementation of rhetorical devices in his writing leads to a unique tone that some find appealing, and others find offensive. Regardless of whether one favors or opposes Reality’s views, it is undeniable that he is adept at writing editorials that will incite heated political discussion. How to cite Editorialist Essay Example, Essays

Master Blenders Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

Introduction Master Blenders is a newly established enterprise in the specialty eateries industry. The company is located in Seattle. The company specializes in the provision of different specialty products such as beverages. Some of the beverages that the firm will deal with include coffee, juices, and tea. Further, the company’s product portfolio is comprised of different fresh food products such as oatmeal, salads, and pastries.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Master Blenders: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The venture’s success in the specialty eateries industry will be influenced by the entrepreneur’s commitment to ensuring that the firm progresses smoothly through the entrepreneurial lifecycle. Additionally, the enterprise success will depend on the business model. Stokes, Wilson, and Mador (2010) assert that the Entrepreneurial Life Cycle is a critical concept that businesses should consider irrespective of their size. Its significance emanates from the fact that entrepreneurial ventures progress through different phases. Moreover, entrepreneurship entails a continuous problem-solving process. Thus, effective management of the different phases is essential in enhancing the venture’s long-term survival. Master Blenders has recognized the relevance of the entrepreneurial life cycle and business model in its quest to attain a competitive market position in the specialties eateries industry. This paper involves a critical evaluation of Master Blenders’ entrepreneurial life cycle and how its business model is aligned with the business model canvas. Entrepreneurial life cycle Master Blenders’ life entrepreneurial life cycle is based on the stages proposed by the Greiner’s model. The adoption of this model is informed by recognition of the fact that entrepreneurial ventures undergo changes from the ir inception (Chesbrough 2010). The Greiner’s model is based on five main stages that include concept testing, development, growth, maturity, and decline (Stokes, Wilson, Mador 2010). These stages have formed the foundation for Master Blenders’ entrepreneurial life cycle. However, the company has expounded these stages by integrating other aspects. The core stages in the firm’s entrepreneurial life cycle are expounded herein. Business opportunity The entrepreneur’s decision to establish Master Blenders has arisen from identification of a business opportunity in the special eateries industry. Currently, consumers in the US appreciate the consumption of different special eateries product. Specialty coffee ranks as one of the leading beverage products that have undergone considerable growth in the recent past. According to as study conducted by the Specialty Coffee Association of America, specialty coffee accounts for 37% of the total coffee cups consume in the US (E-Imports 2015).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The increase in consumption of specialty coffee has been spurred by different demographic factors such as population change and the increase in consumer income. The annual growth in specialty coffee sales in the US is estimated to be 20% (E-Imports 2015). This aspect indicates that the coffee market segment is characterized by the high potential for profitability. Ideation and testing Before the commencement of the business, Master Blenders undertook an extensive testing of the business idea to determine its feasibility. The ideation and testing stage was undertaken by identifying potential gaps. Through this stage, the entrepreneur was in a position to define the ventures’ product portfolio broadly. The execution of the ideation and testing phase was further achieved by seeking the input of industry experts fr om different disciplines. The rationale for this approach was to identify the different opinions regarding the venture. Thus, the entrepreneur had guidance on the best approach to establishing the business venture. Resource acquisition Brush (2010) states that substantial amount of resources is required to exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities successfully. Master Blenders has taken into account different resource categories such as financial, equipment, and human capital. The enterprise’s operations are financed using funds from different sources such as savings and debt finance. Thus, the inclusion of funds from the entrepreneur’s savings and debt finance has enabled the firm to establish the necessary infrastructure necessary to undertake the business operations. For example, the company has sourced the requisite raw materials in addition to hiring experienced human capital. Subsequently, the firm’s efficiency in offering high-quality specialty products h as been increased substantially. Business model generation Starting a business venture is a complex process especially during the initial stage. During this stage, Master Blenders focused ensuring that its products can be commercialized. Effective business model generation is critical in establishing a business venture. Bosworth (2005) affirms that the business model determines how a business entity intends to create, deliver, and capture value. To achieve profitability, Master Blenders has based its business model on the concept direct sales model. The decision to adopt this model is to improve the firm’s capacity to interact directly with customers. Through the direct sales model, Master Blenders has increased the chance of understanding the customers’ product needs and preferences. Subsequently, the organization’s capacity to increase sales revenue through product innovation will be improved considerably.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Master Blenders: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Based on the direct sales model, the firm will customize its products. This aspect will increase the competitiveness of the firm’s products. One of the notable weaknesses of the direct sales model is that the model will be subject to technological changes such as the emergence of online marketing. Management and execution The company’s management team is focused on ensuring that the new business venture is successful in offering its specialty products and services in the market. To achieve this goal, the firm has adopted a mixture of high growth strategies that include product diversification, market penetration, and product development. Considering the diversity concerning the consumers’ tastes and preferences, the firm has integrated the product diversification strategy. This strategy is aimed at improving the firm†™s capacity in catering the consumers’ special eateries needs. The market penetration strategy is intended to ensure that the firm attains its profit maximization goal by marketing its products to a large number of customers (Katnour 2009). Conversely, the firm will undertake product development to deliver unique customer experience. This move will play a vital role in promoting the level of satisfaction amongst the firm’s customers. Business model canvas Master Blenders intends to deliver value to consumers by offering the specialty products. To achieve this goal, the company has based its operations based on the different elements stipulated under the business model canvas. The table below entails a description of the nine components of the business model canvas at Master Blenders. Element Description Key partners Master Blenders has partnered with well-established and high-quality producers of specialty eateries raw materials such as coffee, horticulture prod ucts, and tea. The partners have mainly been sourced from the local and international markets. The decision to establish local and international partnership is to ensure that the raw materials are sourced more cost efficiently. Moreover, the firm will focus on other activities rather than production. Key activities The key activity within the firm entails food processing. The company has developed competitiveness regarding blending the raw materials. The firm’s capacity to blend is aligned with the firm’s quest to develop a strong customer relationship by satisfying their tastes and preferences. Value propositions Through its food processing capacity, the company can offer customers specialty eateries products characterized by unique taste and nutrition value. Therefore, the firm can offer high-quality specialty products. For example, the firm’s products have factored in the customers’ health concerns. Customer relationships The company is committed to establishing and sustaining a long-term customer relationship. To achieve this goal, the firm has considered customers as a source of critical market intelligence regarding its operation. Subsequently, the company has established an effective interaction with the customers. Customers are provided an opportunity to rate their experience with the firm and its products. The firm uses this rating in adjusting its strategies. Subsequently, the customers feel valued, which promotes their loyalty. Customer segments The company mainly targets customers based on their income and lifestyle. First, the company targets consumers characterized by a high disposable income. The motive for targeting this customer group is aligned with the firm’s premium pricing strategy. Moreover, the firm targets customers that have integrated the consumption of high-quality specialty food products in their lifestyle irrespective of their age, race, gender, or nationality. Key resources To succeed i n the specialty eateries industry, the company has identified raw materials, financial and human capital as the core resources. The firm has sourced well-qualified and experienced personnel in offering the specialty products. This aspect has ensured that the firm’s products meet and exceed the customers’ value expectations. The financial capital has enabled the firm to acquire the key food-processing infrastructure such as baking and blending machines. On the other hand, the raw materials ensure that the company can offer high-quality products. Channels The company distributes its products directly to the target customers. The choice of direct distribution emanates from the need to ensure that the quality and value of the products is sustained. Currently, the firm has established an outlet in Seattle, and it expects to grow through expansion in the future. Cost structure The core cost driver in the firm’s operation relates to sourcing the raw materials. This arises from the fact that the firm sources most of the raw materials from importers of specialty food raw materials. Thus, the cost of obtaining the raw materials is subject to international market fluctuations such as the exchange rates. To minimize the likelihood of cost increment, the company mainly targets specialty food raw material importers from low-cost countries. Revenue stream Due to the high quality and nutrition value of the company’s specialty eateries products, Master Blenders can generate revenue by implementing the premium pricing strategy. The customers willingly pay the premium price in the quest to satisfy their specialty product tastes and preferences. Subsequently, the firm can sustain a stream of revenue. Table 1: The business model canvas building blocks – Master Blenders Business model innovation process Stokes, Wilson, and Mador (2010) affirm that business model innovation is critical to attaining a competitive position in the contemporar y business environment. To succeed in undertaking business model innovation, it is imperative for an organizations management team to focus on the core components of the business model concept. These components include the external environment, the company’s product or service offering and the internal factors. The effectiveness of the firm’s business model in generating revenue will be influenced by external market changes. Thus, it is imperative for the firm’s management to leverage on market intelligence in determining the most appropriate approach to adjust the business model. This aspect will improve the value of the business model.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The second concept of the business model entails the product offering. The firm must ensure that its product offering contributes to a high level of customer satisfaction. Thus, the product offering must be aligned with the customers’ tastes and preferences. Conversely, the firm must focus on the internal factors such as the key competencies and resources. This will improve the firm’s efficiency in delivering its value propositions. According to the Boston Consulting Group (2009, p.4), ‘business model innovation can provide companies a way to break out of intense competition under which product or process innovation are easily imitated, competitors strategies have converged, and sustained competitive advantage is elusive’. In the process of establishing operations in the special eateries industry, Master Blenders might experience a significant reduction in its profitability due to disruptive innovation. The disruption might arise from an increase in the nu mber of firms offering the special eateries products. One of the notable sources of disruption entails the provision of special eateries by discount retailers and departmental stores (Christensen, Raynor, Gregersen 2011). To overcome the challenge presented by disruptive innovations, the firm has integrated continuous research and development as one of the core aspects of its business model. This move will aid in sustaining the value and experience that the firm delivers to its customers. In addition to disruptive innovation, the firm’s operations might be affected by the development of the technologies used in the production of special eateries products. However, the firm will minimize the impact of disruptive technology by assessing the change in industry technologies. Thus, the firm will be in a position to make the necessary technological adjustments to its production technology. The technological adjustments will not only be limited to the production technology. On the contrary, the firm will also implement new technology on how to interact with customers. The firm has outlined a plan to implement customer relationship management (CRM) software. The software will improve the ease with which the firm establishes and sustains customer interaction. By using the CRM software, Master Blenders will succeed in developing and leveraging on the requisite market intelligence. Thus, the firm’s competitive advantage will be improved remarkably. Entrepreneurial skill The firm’s management team has recognized the significance developing the requisite entrepreneurial skills amongst its workforce. This assertion arises from the recognition of the view that the firm’s success depends on the input of all the employees. Amongst the fundamental entrepreneurial skills that the firm has focused on are expounded herein. Customer focus – the firm motivates its employees to ensure that their actions amount to a high level of customer satisfact ion. This will aid the firm in positioning itself as a customer oriented entity. Selling and managing cash – Master Blenders has optimally trained its workforce on how to establish a strong relationship with customers to make sales. Furthermore, the firm’s employees have developed adequate skills on how to manage cash. Thus, the firm’s profits are optimally utilized in promoting the firm’s performance. Creating and managing alliances – considering the changes in the business environment, the firm’s success will be influenced by its ability to establish and maintain effective collaboration with strategic partners such as suppliers. Creativity and innovation – the firm is committed to offering customers high-quality products. This goal will be achieved through research and development. Thus, the firm will encourage creativity and innovation amongst its workforce. This move will improve the firm’s capacity to undertake product dev elopment and diversification. Humility – Master Blenders intends to establish a strong level of customer loyalty. To achieve this goal, the firm encourages its employees to treat all customers with humility by desisting from any form of discrimination. Managing people – the firm’s Chief Executive Officer has developed sufficient skills on people management. One of the critical people management skills that the CEO has integrated entails collaboration. This skill is enacted by involving employees in making major decisions regarding the firm’s operations such as product development. Adaptability – Master Blenders recognizes that change in inevitable. Thus, the firm has considered change an essential component in surviving in the dynamic business environment. The will ensure that the firm can easily adjust its operations and business model to align with the industry changes. Strengths and weaknesses of the business model Conclusion Master Blendersâ⠂¬â„¢ decision to establish its operations based on the entrepreneurial life cycle and the business model indicates the likelihood of the firm attaining sustainable performance. The implementation of direct sales model will enable Master Blenders to establish a strong competitive advantage. This aspect will arise from the development of the optimal understanding of the customers’ tastes and preferences. Thus, the firm will be in a position to undertake effective product innovation and development. Thus, the firm is likely to succeed in the future. Reference List Boston Consulting Group: Business model innovation 2009, https://www.bcg.com/documents/file36456.pdf Bosworth, D 2005, Determinants of enterprise performance, Manchester University Press, Manchester. Brush, C 2010, The life cycle of new ventures; emergence, newness and growth, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Chesbrough, H 2010, ‘Business model innovation; opportunities and barriers’, Long Range Planning, vol. 4 3, no.1, pp. 354-364. Christensen, C, Raynor, M Gregersen, H 2011, Disruptive innovation, Harvard Business Review, Boston. Katnour, T 2009, Transforming organizations; strategies and methods, CRC Press, New York. Stokes, D, Wilson, N Mador, M 2010, Entrepreneurship, Cengage, Hampshire. This essay on Master Blenders: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management was written and submitted by user Emiliano Gould to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.