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Presentation as a JOB

I was driving from school back home and an idea popped up in my head. Can improving presentation be a job for me? Since I really enjoy creating presentation and thinking about how to improve presentation, how should they present it better. So I wonder can I do a business or make money from that. I started thinking about who should be my customers? How can I gain enough revenue to feed myself? and Is there a possibility to expand into a larger business?

Who should be my customer?
University professors can be my customer. Since part of their job is to give lectures to their students. I have seen so many bad and boring presentation in the class. The slides and presentations are boring and hard to follow and understand. They may use too much words and try to add everything in their slides. So there is a channel for me to sneak in and improve those presentation to be more visual base, easy to understand and lead toward what audiences want. However, there are two or three things that I need to concern if I'm going to work with college professor. First, some professors may use a presentation that they got from the textbook publisher. They use it without making any change. Possibly, they don't want to waste time adjusting it or think that it's the best in the world. So how can I deal with this, should I go to talk to publishers instead and help them improve their presentation instead. Secondly, EGO, how can I approach those professor and maybe tell them that their presentation is suck or extremely boring. They have their own pride on being a PhD. so if I haven't have enough credibility. It will be very hard to convince them to follow me. Lastly, each subject requires specific knowledge especially in science. I need to make sure that I have strong basic knowledge enough to make any changes. So this job will require a lot of extensive research on the subject what I'm going to deal with.

Revenue?
For sure, I can charge project by project but how much should I set up the price and how to evaluate my success. Can I use student understanding in the content as an index to measure my work? Or I even think about set up a free agent part in the university who will rotate to each college and help professor in that college improve their presentation. If it works this way, I will gain steady revenue from university. However, if it's worth to work in the university, instead of the being a independent company.
Let do an easy math!
- One project can take me about 7 days to complete!
- There are let say 45 working weeks. So I can finish 45 project per year
- Average income for MBA student is about 60,000 dollar per year
- Each project will be charge about 1,500 dollar
is this price too high or too low? Will college professor pay me at the price?

How can I expand this business?
It start with my passion in creating presentation. I don't know if I recruit others to do my job, will the quality and idea still be the same. I may need to separate tedious take out such as finding images, compile data, research on specific topic and control some key important factors such as flow of the presentation, format, and overall. So it can be expand in the larger project, if I have enough customers willing to pay me.

Organizational Politics - A Survival Guide

From: clintedmonson, 2 days ago

Organizational Politics - A Survival Guide

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: leadership interpersonal)

You're smart. You deliver. What else could your company want from you? Why don’t they come to you for the big decisions? Why won’t they listen to your proposals? It seems like everyone has an agenda and they’re doing everything they can to kill your great ideas. To be effective leader we must bring more than our academic pedigrees to a organization. This session attempts to explain the complex nature of organizational politics and how to survive in a dynamic and often chaotic environment.


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Need some rules to guide our project

We are now working on the Energy Efficiency Program for Progress Energy. We are having hard time figuring out what should we do to create new business model for the Progress Energy that will encourage their customers to use less energy without affecting Progress Energy's revenue. Since the only product that Progress Energy has is electricity, if we do anything that lead to people to use energy wisely or less, Progress Energy will end up having low return for their company. An analogy is like GM or Toyota encourage people to carpool and not buying a car because it will produce pollution to the world. This idea is very contradict to each other. We need to serve two stake holders who have completely opposite incentive, one is to make more money from selling energy, another is to sell less energy as possible.
With the question that we were asked, there is plenty of solutions for the case such as new price structure, adding smart grid technology, incentive program, etc. However, these seem to be hard to justify whether or not it is a good solution to the company or not. Since we haven't had any criteria or rules to measure them. So it come back to where we were in the classroom last week. When there is a creativity work, in this case to create a new business model, it will be a tough job if we don't have any limitation or measurement system that works. Working on the project like this will make you feel lost in space or in the case it can be your own thought because whatever you think seems to work but we don't know exactly that it work or not.
In order to success in this project, we as a team may have to set up some criteria that will work with the project such as revenue target, decrease in energy use per year, investment capital, technology. I believe that after we set up more concrete constraints, they will enable up to be creative without having to worry about validation of the idea

Using Diagram and Drawing to boost Creativity

I'm a visual person and the best thing to try to analyst and understand thing is to draw in down on the paper in form of drawing and diagram. The picture above is what I used from the our project in the class. The diagram is used for explaining the conflict of the interest between power generator companies and new rule that government force them to reduce the energy usage.

Creativity and Rules

Today, we have a class discussion about Rule and Creativity. I think that the topic is very interesting since initial perception of everybody about creativity maybe about thinking freely without any constraints. Creativity should be best without any rules. However, it turn out that without rules and constraints, it's harder for us to be creative.
Part of the reasons maybe because without rules, the possibility is limitless and we will be lost and get no guidance. I believe that it's true so we have to create some constraints to limit those freedom. In some case, constraints can be something that is very common and general like budget, tool that you use, your preference, technology, science, customer needs, tradition and norm, etc. We can think about it all day long.

Speaking of constraints and creativity, it reminded me about the article that I read several months ago about the innovation at Apple. Like what we discussed to day, perception about innovation in the organization should come from free thinking and letting people have a change to explore in their fields of interest. It's true and now happening in the company like Google which have create tons of successful project from letting their people work freely. However, Apple tear those concept and do something that completely contradict to the free concept.
Apple is one of the most innovative company in the world as we know. According to the article, the innovations in Apple don't come from freedom but they come from tight and strict rules, leading from visionary leader, and forced time schedule.

So this give us a whole new perspective on looking at the way innovation and creativity work in the business environment. It depends on the organization that we work for some may like to have freedom to think but some may want a hard push from management level to innovation its product or process

New great depression and creativity

Today, I was listening to our dean talked about the job freezing issue during the economy recession. The truth is hard to swallow, Job will become scarcity especially in the MBA's job market. We as a MBA student will need work harder for both school and job search. This raises my curiosity about my future, if I haven't had a job support from my family business, what would I do and how I struggle to find a job.

One key point that the dean make was that companies during the recession will look for more job in the supply chain side of the business because it make much sense to have more people who know how to reduce costs and improve company performance without investment major money. If this is true, what will happen to MBA who want to be a product development manager or brand manager. Since those type of jobs are highly related to the market and when the market is down like this, nobody wants to launch new product or open new market or brand. They are all in the defensive strategy and look for ways to survival in the horrible market.

So this bring to the creativity side of the business, during the upturn of the economy, businesses may focus their attention and use their creativity fully on the marketing side and how to develop new product or service and serve unique needs of their customers and differentiate themselves from other competitors. However, during the tough time, creative is still crucial for the business but it may have to be used on the different side of the organization. We may need to use creative to look at what process can me adapt and change to make to cheaper, or how can be maintain our status without taking more risk in such a bad business situation right now.

The point that I'm trying to make on the post is that either we are in the recession or economic booming, we still need to have creativity in our mind and soul. Since creativity will become handy in any situation and it will be a great tool to help us survive or success in the business.

Creativity slide

Visual and Creative Thinking:What We Learned From Peter Pan and Willy Wonka

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: kelseyruger sketching)

Presentation on Visual and Creative Thinking. The presentation explores how professional in all fields can apply creative and visual thinking skills to their work as well as why people ignore the talents that made them naturally creative as children. He will discuss the myths that people hold about creativity, why they exist and how you can overcome them.


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Recession and my Company

I recently thought a lot about the recession in world's economy and what will happen with my family business. I know that I'm going to go back to work for my company. At that time, it will be during the great recession which is the result for the domino falling in financial world that is happening right now.
I would like to explore more ideas and actions that can be taken in the future or now!

- Focus on your core business
Protect your core asset
- Cut loss some of your non core business

- Look at your business partner

- It can be your opportunity to expand

- Lower your price = move to lower market for your survival

- Lay off and cost reduction
Layoff may not be the best way, you still need to keep your valuable human resources.

- Contingency plan and scenario planning

- Checking your credits with bank and make sure that you will have enough cash

- Beware of customer's credit

- Don't stop R&D

- Stay in touch with your customers; Don't lose them or their loyalty

- Build loyalty with customers and suppliers

- Downturn can be a time for your company to prepare for the bright future; Strengthening your fundamental

- Be consistence with both good time and bad time
some companies has a relentlessly spending behavior during the good time so they have to suffer during the bad time.

Ideas on the project ( Energy Efficiency)

Think about the energy efficiency program

- Charge more dollars to the customer like – 1 dollar per account and use that money to the energy efficiency program

- Separate the cost of saving 50/50 between utility company and customers // Progress Energy is already doing this è are there any other way to split the benefit

- Save A Watt program è think of reducing energy as a type of energy and charge that fake energy to the customer at 90% cost

- We lost money, they lost money

Utility LOST	Utility GAIN
Revenue decrease ( customers use less)	Don’t have to pay for new power plant
	Follow government regulation

- ideas on what are the incentive for customers

- rebate for the proper conditions such as center air condition/ sealed windows/ using florescence light bulb / center heating water/ using energy star appliances

- Rebuilding the house >> for old house // Extreme makeover of the old house

- Educating kids

- Handout

- Marketing the program // make it big!

-Celebrity endorsement

- How can we bring ad to the power… use power and need to watch ad?

- Balance to peak time

- Communicate peak time of the day

- Price structure table è new calculation which is cheaper to use during the off peak

- any device that is cost less but help managing off peak use

- Creative ad like è black TV for 3 minutes è safe the nation for 100 million

- Screen saver

- OFF PEAK! >> timer? On the device // very cheap but will help you operation your appliance during the off peak time

- Energy check up plan è aim specifically at 20% top power consumption è send teams to work with them to reduce energy consumption

- New pricing step structure è penalty to aggressive user but reward small user

- Free power during off peak

- Subscription model for power user // fix price but limited duration of the day

- Credit card model è more save = more point // collect more point è turn it into other save appliance such as 5 star everystar refrigerator

Smart grid technology == what can we do with it?

- Connect with internet

- Decentralize power generation

- Balance low during the peak time == turn on and off some appliances freely

- Collect all the data real time

Web about how to save energy

http://www.fypower.com

Brainstorming on Medical Marketing Strategy

How can I market the overtube?
- Direct salesperson
- We need to know how US endoscopy operate right now. How many salesperson do they have and which territories do US endoscopy cover? What are they doing right now to promote thier Graudus Overtube?
- Catalogue and handbook about overtube
- Printing cost, how many copies do we need?, What is the content? ==> How to use, Good and bad, Specification, Cost, How to distribute it?
- Publish our result in the medical journal
- We need to hide or sponsor some specialists to do a study for us? How much it will cost? How long?( the study should take time right?), Who are we going to hide? How important is this? ( focus on building trust with doctors)
- Free samples ==> let doctors try our new product
- Giving free samples is a must. How many should we give like one overtube per doctor? total number and cost?
- Medical device trade fair
- Are there any trade fair aims specifically for endoscopy market? What are the name of them? When will they start?
- Advertise in endoscope related magazine
- names? who are the reader? Cost on putting ad?
- Publish articles in endoscope related magazine or ASGE
- How to do it? Cost anything? How long do I have to wait?
- Tie with American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

What are we going to do next?
- Go into further detail about each topics
- Focusing on cost ==> marketing expense
- Possibility on each topic

Responsibility or Responsiveness

Today, I listened to the guys from Capstrat talking about sustainability in business. The more I heard about this corporate environment sustainability is the more I have question about it. If you look at the very basic of the business, it's all about making profit and how to make the company survive. So do sustainability or environmental responsibility are really issues that company should care about. In my opinion, they are not! Company just focus on making more and more profit and those issues are just another trend that company has to catch on in order to make a great profit in current market. Or we can say that if compan doesn't say that it love trees, it will not be able to sell its products. That's it! Everything is very simple !

For example, Toyota is trying to sell hybrid car. Do you think that they produce that car because they love the world? My answer is no. It just about supply and demand. People want to have car that can run with the cheaper and non poluted energy so Toyota noticed about this market and tell its hybrid car. However, its marketing department has more work to do to try to convince consumers to understand another way around from the reality. Marketing is just taking care of creating illusion to customers to make themselve feel good to buy the product.

Responsivenss is the word that one of our classmate use to explain this kind of situation. I think that it is really true. In the world of economy, company just want to response to the right trend to make its customers satisfy with themselve. The current situation is that our world is lack of resources and we are going to run out of so many materials. So people started demanding more environmental friendly products and company see that gap and try to respond to it.

Just like that. Sometime, people think too much and try to be too complicated. Even though, it just nothing.

Creativity and cooking

Before I came to the US, I had never cooked or paid any attention on my cooking skill. Once, I've been here for a year, cooking is the second best skill that I've learned other than MBA classes. I found that cooking is not just about finding something to feed yourself. Cooking is a process that combines art, creativity, science together.

I remembered that I first realized to myself that I need to cook when I felt sick of eating American food and I couldn't afford to eat out everyday. So I began to teach myself how to cook. Interest was a great starting point for me.

The reasons that I said that cooking is involve with creativity, art and science are because
- You need to use your imagine on what do you want to eat that day and what resources ( ingredients) do you need. I even used a brainstorming technique sometime to complete the list of possible food that I can cook and I also want to eat.
- Art is about end result and appreciation that you get from cooking. I also proud of myself when I cooked something that it reflected what I did imagine in my head in the beginning. Because, I stay in the US for too long, it's hard for me to remember the real taste of Thai food so I need to use some imagination to fulfill that gap to make the taste complete. Joying from eating food which I created myself is such a great feeling ( however, just in the case that it tastes delicious) I also like to invite my friends to join a party. I love to treat them with real authentic Thai taste. It's a good feeling when somebody try your food and the express what do they think about your work. This is similar to art or when artist invite people to come to see his works.
- Science part of the cooking is about recording and redoing the same thing over and over but still getting the same result. Personally, I like to cook as an art which mean I use my own feeling and creativity to add ingredients into the dish that I cook but something, the end result is not what I was expected. It can be too sweet or salty or it's not as good as last time. So in order to reproduce same good work, I need to record things and technique. I use my email as my own database on how to cook each dishes. It make my life easier. For example, when I found a perfect recipe, I'll type it and email it to myself. After that when I want to recreate that dish, I just search on my email and there it is, my perfect recipe!

So far, I enjoy spending two or three hours in the kitchen. Time really fly in there. During the cooking, it also clear my mind and make me ready to do some work with full stomach.

My Creative Autobiography

1. What is the first creative moment you remember?
When I used a pencil to draw a picture on my grandmother's wall house with my cousins.

2. Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it?
As far as I know, my parent didn't like my grafity art but they left that pencil drawn art until my grandmother house was renovate.

3. What is the best idea you have ever had?
When I first started working in my family business. I always went to talk to people in the organization and wrote down all the improvement ideas that I had in that notebook. I'll go back and read that notebook when I have no idea on what project I want to do for my family business.

4. What made it great in your mind?
I like those ideas a lot! That book will become very useful for my work life.

5. What is the dumbest idea?
When I was a kid, I wanted to meet dinosaurs and drive a tractor. This idea came from Jurrasick Park and Ultraman.

6. What made it stupid?
It's impossible and I don't know what I wanted to do those thing.

7. Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?
???

8. What is your creative ambition?
Videogames

9. What are the obstacles to this ambition?
People around me always think that videogames is a stuff for kids. So nobody wants me to play it. I lack of support!

10. What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition?
I try not to care about what other think and continue playing videogame, reading about it. I like to do what I love !

11. How do you begin your day?
Try to get out of my bed. This is the hardest part of the day. I don't like to waste my time on the bed but I also want to sleep more. It's a conflict that I don't know how to resolve.

12. What are your habits? What patters do you repeat?
Spend too much time on the internet trying to read news and watch video.

13. Describe your first successful creative act.
Created new cover catalogue for marketing department at Kongkiat Textile

14. Describe your second successful creative act.
Created new catalogues for marketing department at Kongkiat Textile

15. Compare them.
The first one led to the second one. At first, I thought that the catalogue's cover that my company used was too old and out dated so I proposed the upper manager to make a change. He let me do the change. After finished with the cover, I thought to myself, why don't we re-organized all the catalogue and reformatting them to match with the new look of the company. So I ended up take that job. It was a great fun and creative.

16. What are your attitudes toward: money; power; praise; rivals;
work; play
Money = I have enough. It's impossible to spend all of my money.
Power = I need to have it in order to work in my familybusiness.
Praise = more important that power. I want to prove myself that I'm good enough to run my family business
Rivals = I don't like competitive situation but it's hardly avoided.
Work = I want to work in a real business !!! no more study !!!
Play = It need to be balance with work in my life

17. Which artists do you admire most?
Boyd Kosiyapong, Thai music composer. I love his songs.

18. Why are they your role models?
He revolutionizes music industry in Thailand.

19. What do you and your role models have in common?
Love of music

20. Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you?
Yes, my mom, uncle, grandfather

21. Who is your muse?
???

22. Define muse?

???

23. When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do you
respond?
I'll act as an observer and try to learn from him/her.

24. When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence, laziness,
or indifference in others, how do you respond?
Try to help.

25. When faced with impending success or the threat of failure, how
do you respond?
Try to find another way to success

26. When you work, do you love the process or the result?
I like process that make me feel FLOW.
I like that result that look like that I thought when I first started.

27. At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp?
When I have to deal with detail. I need somebody to help me with that.

28. What is your ideal creative activity?
Abstract art

29. What is your greatest fear?
Being alone

30. What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous
two questions happening?
If I feel lonely, I definitely do something, call my friends, talk to my parents.

31. Which of your answers would you most like to change?
???

32. What is your idea of mastery?
Good that what you do!

33. What is your greatest dream?
Happy life, understand the world