my_eric_pelletier

=Selftest: = Section 1: Need for achievement (score 12 = max score) I agree with this score. Indeed, I always trying to complete any task I’m doing with the best possible results. I’m always looking forward with a real optimistic mind. Persistence and determination are two words that people usually used to describe my personality. The only thing I might disagree in this description is that I’m in general not really restless.

Section 2: Need for autonomy/independence (score 4 = Average score) When I’m looking the description giving when a person who scores high in this section, I agree with this average ranking score I got. Indeed, this is absolutely true that I always need to express what I think, that I’m stubborn and determined, and I also have to say that I dislikes taking orders. However, I do not prefer working alone and I do not need to do my “own thing”. Even if I hardly defend my opinions, I always prefer the team works and I will accept to bow to group pressure when almost everybody not agrees with me.

Section 3: Creative tendency (score 10 = between max (12) and average (8)) I indeed enjoy new challenges, I like novelty and change, and usually I’m intuitive and I guess well. I’m always thinking, all day long, for new ideas and have a dream to make it real through my own company. However, to be honest, I should be more creative and innovative in the way I try to make it become a real-life applicable idea.

Section 4: Moderate/calculated risk taking (score 9 = near to the average (8)) I usually prefer to gather all the information, as much as I can, before to take a decision. I’m not saying that I always wait for the perfect official reports but I usually make sure to receive and validate information before to move. I got 9 but, to be honest, I think that I could have 8, as the average.

Section 5: Drive and determination (score 12 = almost the max (12)) There is no doubt for me, in general in my all day life, I have a lot of determination. I’m the kind of person who believes that what you will become is strongly the results of effort. Now, I just need to “kick my …” in order to use that determination to start my own company; my dream for the next years!

=Talent Management:= Additional talents which could help me to become a successful entrepreneur are the following: Team spirit = I like team work. I always prefer to work in team and I like to be the one who make it works, who promote a constructive and cooperative climate. I used to be the captain of several hockey clubs I played in my life and I have a good reputation where I work (Olympus) as a good team leader. Communication skills = Personally, I think that I’m good in vulgarizing the information in order to make it clear and easy to understand for any type of audience. Sales skills = the last year, I work as Industrial System Sales Engineer for Olympus NDT, where I learned the sales techniques and methods. I developed my ability of presenting all the advantages of the products based on the real customer needs. Analyze facts and solve problems = my university studies and my 4 years experience as Physical Engineer provide me a strong capability to analyse facts and solve problems using an applicable solution. This ability could help me to identify threats and opportunities, key issues and key data when it will become the time to start a company.

Talents which may be less supportive to me to become a successful entrepreneur are the following: Accounting skill = even if I got a basic cours class of accounting principles and methods, my knowledge and skill related to this field are limited. I will need a partnership with somebody who knows well generally accepted accounting principles, methods, systems and practices. Finance management skill = as for accounting skill describes above, my finance management knowledge is very limited. Strategic thinking = by lack experience in starting a company and make it grow, I will need somebody who could help me to prepare a short and long term strategy with internal and external perspectives. 

=Website Research:= In my opinion, any upcoming entrepreneur need to first find a good idea based on the existing trends of the market and then he need to build a very good business plan in order to present (sales) this idea to potential investors. Mr. Ritzel already provides a very good website for trends watching which could help anyone to be aware about the must recent trends of the year.

That is why I would like to propose the bplans.com website. On this website, we can find free sample Business Plans for different type of business (Marketing plans are also available). You will also find tutorial texts, videos, and webinars helping you to understand how to start and write a business plan. There is also many links to different resources as a cash flow calculator, a starting cost calculator, a business term glossary, business plan coaching service… Some blogs are proposed, especially the Tim Berry’s blog. Mr. Berry is president and founder of Palo alto Software, founder of bplan.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. He built Palo Alto Software from zero to 40 employees and 70% market share without outside investment. He has a Stanford MBA degree. He is the conceptual author of Business Plan Pro, author of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan , co-author of 3 Weeks to Starup , both published in 2008 by Entrepreneur Press.

=Picture from the web:= I choose this picture because starting a company represent for me a dream, a goal to reach in the following few years. I have a lot of determination and I’m the kind of person who believes that what you will become is strongly the results of effort. This picture represents a guy who looks very happy to reach his goal after having climbed the stairs (his company) step by step. =My Picture:= Alpes mountain in Grenoble. In the same way that the picture found on the web, this mountain represents my goal to reach. To climb this mountain (start my company), I know that it will not be easy and I will have to be well prepared and ready to spend a lot of effort. But I’m convince that it is not impossible and that I can do that.

=My Blog:= Use the following link to read my blog presenting my new product idea: My_Eric_Pelletier_Blog You can also download my presentation using the following link:

=Selected Trends= After reading the trendwatching.com website, the two trends related to my own business idea are the “Mass Mingling” and “Tracking & Alerting”. Indeed, many people already use Facebook as their main online social-network tool which help them to build and maintain a large network globally. However, more and more, people are not using only one online social tool but they have a multitude of online social-network for different matters. For example, Facebook will be used as tool to communicate with friends and LinkedIn will be used to promote his professional experience and competencies. Many other online networks are available and when you start to create an account for all of those medias, you need to spend a lot of time per day in order to follow and update each of them. In my opinion, having the capability to efficiently manage all your online social-network will become a very important market trend for the next years. My business idea will make possible the capability to management all your online network efficiently without having to spend too much time on each one. For more detail about my business idea, go to my blog. =Next Practice not Best Practice= Best practices can be considered as knowledge or ways of doing things in an organization that provide the desired result and which are then presented as an example that will improve collective work. Next Practice can be described as the new ways of doing things, as the process of constantly looking for that next source of competitive advantage.

I think that my idea could be considered as a next practice mainly because it is apply to a huge current trend, the use of multitude of many online social-networks by a same person. As explained above, in my opinion, having the capability to efficiently manage all your online social-network will become a very important market trend for the next years. My business idea will make possible the capability to management all your online network efficiently without having to spend too much time on each one.

However, it will be almost impossible to be unique on the market, even if we are the first, because it a very simple idea which could be easily copy by many others. So, we need to offer this software free of charge and to make it exclusive by offering the must user-friendly software interface never seen! Partnership with already well-known companies like Facebook and Twitter could be a must to launch this new application.

In addition, having all your logins (passwords) consolidated through only one password could bring serious doubts concerning confidentiality security. It will be important to build a strong marketing campaign based on this confidentiality security point. A partnership could be done with a very serious safety symbol, like a Swiss bank for instance and this partnership could be used to make ourselves exclusive. =Naked Pizza= They use well-known product (pizza) and bring it to a different dimension. Pizza is usually perceived as a unhealthy fast-food. They use the fact that people are trying to eat healthier and they transform the pizza as a healthy food by using only natural and low-fat ingredients. They also present their pizza as a part of the solution saying that they are trying to help the community to keep a healthy shape. They claim that they rebranded fast-food (Next Practice)! =HR tool to build the dream team= See below five competencies which I think my team must cover to be successful for my entrepreneurial idea: See below three additional competencies from Prasena’s dictionaries:  =Blue Ocean Strategy= Netjets They get you an aircraft exactly when and where you need it. Only NetJets offers greater flexibility than commercial airlines, is safer and more reliable than charter services, and is much better value than owning your own jet. With NetJets, you get all the benefits of owning your own plane, but none of the headaches. (reference )
 * Web designer knowledge
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Communication skills (networking)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sales skills
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Persistent and determined
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Team spirit
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resources management skills
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Global-minded
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">International English skills

Body Shop The Body Shop creates a blue ocean by creating functional cosmetics that defied the industry which sold emotionally appealing cosmetics. Their values are different of what you can find in the industry: against animal testing, support community trade, active self esteem, defend human right and protect our planet. (reference 1, reference 2 )

Starbucks Starbucks offer coffee as low-cost luxury for high-end consumers. They are creating a congenial environment within which to socialize, go online, or read while consuming coffee. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(reference )

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">eBay eBay launched a completely new industry with the first online auctions tool where everybody can sale or buy online for free. (reference )

Nintendo Wii By creating the Wii, Nintendo didn't compete in the <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Red Ocean : they created a <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Blue Ocean that rendered the competition irrelevant. Indeed, they offer a new product featuring the complete opposite of what the competition is trying to continuously push on the market (<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Red Ocean ). The following points summarize their strategy: eliminated movie playing, reduced graphics & physics, raised fun, created the Wiimote (Nintendo's Magic Wand). (reference )

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ikea Unlike its competitors who focus on expanding their customer base through improving customer services, product improvement, etc, Ikea's approach to the matter is totally out of the tradition. With little to do with the previous, Ikea directed part of its energy into setting and parking the restaurant business under their wing, as the news article has shown, Ikea has not only boosted their revenue (approx. 4.5% or $850m from restaurant business alone), but at the same time used the concept of food and restaurant as a crowd magnet. (reference )

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fedex Fedex claims that they are offering an easy, reliable and fast shipping service globally. But the most important point is that they were the first to offer a real-time tracking of customers' shipping on internet. FedEx is now both a company name and a verb! (reference 1, reference 2 )

CNN CNN was the first to present twenty-four-hour, seven-day, real-time news without star broadcaster. (reference )