Today we had our first session at EDHEC Business School. The reception was very kind, and our professor Charles Lumbers seemed like a real professional and I was immediately convinced that we were in good hands.
On the first session we went through how to create new market space, how to make a good business plan and strategic pricing. I think the lesson was very inspiring and I got much about it reflecting on our business plan.
The most useful tool presented on the lesson was the Buyer Utility Map, which clearly shows on a simple map what the buyers are assuming to get from you.
The main idea of making successful business is to make yourself sustainable competitive advantage.
DAY 2 (27.04), BUSINESS MODELS
Today we had the morning session with Charles Lumbers and the session was about business models and how to use them effectively. A company’s business model is the story of the company. It can been said that the business model is the core business which you make money with.
Other key words of the day:
- Single / multiple streams (one / many products or services you receive your revenue from)
- Loss leader (you attract people to your store with cheap products to get people to buy your other, more expensive products)
In the afternoon we had a guest lecturer from University of Cambridge, Charles Hamp-den-Turner. The professor told us about dilemmas, paradoxes and strategy. I think the strategy part of the presentation was very good, because Michael Porters theories pre-sented with help of examples is always interesting.
Ps. Growth must be financed!
DAY 3 (28.04), DIVERSITY & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
In the morning we had the same lecturer as yesterday, Charles H-T. He told us three really interesting examples of successful entrepreneurs: Richard Branson, Anita Roddick and Gordon Edge.
Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Company. Richard has got incredible skills to run companies successfully. Charles came up four points that account for Branson’s success:
- Always keep your sense of humor
- Position yourself as an underdog
- Success lies in the primary group “small is beautiful” as is the human FAMILY
- Employees come first, customers come second, owners come last, not in importance but in TIME.
In the afternoon we had another guest lecturer, Michael Rogosin who told us about dis-ruptive innovation. Disruptive innovation means a low-end product that is so innovative that it changes the way to behave on the market. Other key words of the session were: revolutionary innovation, sustaining innovation, mass customization, mass collaboration, open innovation and customer experience.
DAY 4 (29.04), THE LAST DAY OF MY STAY, PATENTS
On the morning session Charles Lumbers did tell us about some more business models and about different attributes of entrepreneurs. We went through business models like: open business model (make money by collaborating with people) and free as a business model (the product itself is free, but you earn money with for example marketing, example Metro).
Main attributes for an entrepreneur:
1) Be specific
2) Keep It Simple
3) Copy Somebody (you can copy a business model which is stated profitable)
In the afternoon we had some lectures about patents and trademarks, which I think was really interesting, although the examples were not that suitable for Finnish entrepreneurs. After the break we had a round table discussion about patents, and there came up interesting questions about technical solutions and how to protect them.
The most interesting question was about trademarks regarding to Internet pages. If a company has trademark registered to its Internet page (for example ABC) but it doesn’t operate or offer customer service in your country you’re free to register the same trademark in your own country.
SUMMARY
As I think of the whole 4/5 day camp we spent in Nice, I’m very happy to tell you that the camp was a real success. Personally I’ve learned a lot of theories associating with entrepreneurship, but the best part of the camp was the mentoring part. It encouraged a lot towards entrepreneurship and while thinking of my own business plan I think this was a necessary course for me to attend. I’m very happy about I attended this course and that I was so lucky to get selected to it.
Thank you for arranging this wonderful camp and hopefully it will be arranged in the future too!
By Heikki Hämäläinen
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