my_shimin_wang

Palgrave Test
 * Hello! Welcome to my research page! You can visit my blog by clicking** **here** **:)**

//**Need for achieveme****nt**: I agree with the given results. I am dedicated to completing a task and rather ambitious, always looking at what I can do in the future. However, I tend not to be overly optimistic; always weighing out the possibilities and taking note of the worst that can happen in any given situation. This characteristic of mine may actually hinder me from taking a huge step out of my comfort zone and being bold with my dreams. Also, carrying out a task and getting optimum results are important to me, but most times I put people above my task and results. Relationships and the people around me are my top priority, so what I achieve in the end may not be optimal task-wise but I feel a sense of achievement in another way.


 * Need for autonomy/independence**: This once again reiterates what I mentioned above; being people-oriented. I recognize the joys of working alone and is able to be independent. Nevertheless, working in teams is something I enjoy as well. Being able to learn from others is something I value greatly. Also, the reason why I am not overly stubborn (unless I truly do not believe in the other view) and am susceptible to group pressure goes back to not wanting to offend others.


 * Creative tendency**: Having a score above the average did not come as a surprise to me. I love coming up with new ideas and giving a creative twist to things. Mundane life is not my cup of tea, and I enjoy change (but to a certain extent, this is reflected in my risk-taking score)! Having new challenges (risk level debatable) in life drives me and motivates me to achieve more for myself. Coming all the way from Singapore to a new place with a different culture, food, people and language was a new experience/challenge that I was looking forward to! And daydreaming is definitely a part of my everyday life! :P


 * Moderate/Calculated risk taking:** As indicated above, I'm a person that likes to take note of the pros and cons, the best outcome and the worst possibility. I do not like to carry out a task or take on a challenge knowing that there's a high chance of failure. Taking some risk pushes me to strive harder but too much risk causes me to retreat. I definitely agree with the results shown as it falls in line with what I know/think of myself and what my friends think of me. I am always the first one in the group to tell them of the risks of a new idea. Coming up with an idea is easy, but carrying it out is another thing altogether.


 * Drive and determination:** I believe in the need for determination, perseverance and having a drive in life. However, at the same time, I feel that no matter how driven or determined a person is, many a times, success also depends on the situation, culture, society, economic health and the amount of help friends provide. All these factors that are surrounding the person, at any given time, play a part in the success of the person. And most of them cannot be controlled by anyone. I will give off my best in whatever I do, but whether I succeed or not, may not be dependent on my hard work alone.//

//**Accounting background**: Having a primary degree in Accounting and Finance helps me understand the financial aspect of the business in much greater detail. Together with my love for retail, business management and marketing, it helps me look at business in a more three-dimensional way.
 * Talent Management **
 * Additional talents which I think would help me to become a successful entrepreneur ** :
 * Interpersonal skills and ability to work as a team**: I believe that this is very important in becoming a successful entrepreneur! It has been agreed upon that most entrepreneurs (with ideas that may have been developed individually) usually work with others to build up their business idea. Working in teams allow me to bounce my ideas off people and grow it further. I'm also always open to the ideas that people have and how it can fit in to various ideas that I have.
 * C****ommunication skills**: Being a Teaching Assistant (for 2 years) at my home university for the course on 'Management Communications' allowed me to further hone my communication skills. I'm now more adept at speaking in public and putting my ideas across in a clearer manner. Also, I naturally tend to be very aware of the audience I'm speaking too and will tune my speech accordingly.
 * A****bility to accept failure** (not sure if this is a talent :P): I experienced several huge failures in my life, with regards to the aspects of academic, relationships and finances. And I managed to cope with them in an optimistic way that surprised the people around me. I take things in my stride and choose to learn from them, instead of succumbing to them. What never kills you makes you stronger, right? An entrepreneur probably will not succeed on his very first try and I think it's important to not give up. But at the same time, do keep an open mind, be flexible and think on the ball.//


 * What I think may be less supportive for me to be a successful entrepreneur:**
 * //Lack of technological knowledge//**//: Creating websites, programs, effective tweeters and being able to run complicated computer programs, may be well beyond my current abilities. I believe that it is important to a certain extent especially if you want to capture certain technology-saavy audience. It would be good if I was able to take up some lessons for the some of these essential website/programming lessons.
 * Fl****ip side of an Accounting background**: The first thing I do when I look at the business proposal is at the budget and financial statements, and I need to see that they tally. However, this is definitely not the most important thing! The budgeting figures may well be wrong! Also being conservative when it comes to profits and expenditure is something that comes to me naturally. Coupled with my average risk-taking ability, I'm also more calculative and many a times not see the possibility of making huge profits. This lowers the possibility of me putting to action a business plan, which can hinder me from being a successful entrepreneur.//

** Picture Search ** // As I scrolled through the pictures offered by Bing, this really stood out cause it's the only picture that I thought had NOTHING to do with entrepreneurship! But on a second look, THIS might actually be what entrepreneurship is all about: it has no limits and no definitions and no exact representation of it! An entrepreneur to me, is someone that looks at something from a different perspective, is creative and is able to turn even the most simple things into something great. And probably take nothing (like this picture) and make it into something. A HEART-SHAPED POTATO! Something I chanced upon a couple of days ago. This picture speaks volume regarding my viewpoint of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur can be anyone, just like how this potato is still a potato. But it stands out from the rest and is unique, not in a weird way but in a way that appeals to others. A potato is also able to be used in so many ways and in so many different parts of the world. This shows the flexibility and adaptability of an entrepreneur.
 * My 'Entrepreneur' Picture **//

** Research Websites ** As I was coming up with my business idea and doing some research over the internet, I chanced upon this website www.springwise.com, which certainly gave very interesting and never-heard-of-before ideas! It is not a website for a person to pick ideas off the shelf, but it did give me inspiration on how I could fine-tune and modify my business idea.

[|www.spring.gov.sg] is a website which will be very useful to me if I was going to put into action my business idea in Singapore. It has a whole section dedicated to entrepreneurs and provides them with relevant and important information (legal, financial and practical) with steps I can follow to set up a business in Singapore. Personally, I find Singapore a good spring board for new ideas as I have good connections there and being a Singaporean, it will be easier for me to obtain financial help. The small consumer population and some what saturated market is something else I would have to consider.

**Trendwatching for My Business Idea** The major trend that my business idea is following is that of **Nowism,** with the sub-trend of **Real-Time Reviews**. People nowadays are technology savvy, want answers fast and love giving opinions! Tweeter and Facebook are part of most of our lives. My idea of setting up a concept store with high technology fits in perfectly with this trend and focuses on that particular crowd. The store will be equipped with a runway in the middle, where people can strut down in the clothes they picked up from the store. People in the store are then allowed to push the "Hot/Cold" button, located around the store, to give their opinion. Real-time results will be updated into a system which will project onto a screen in the person's private fitting room. If the customer is shy, he/she can simply take a picture of themselves using a camera built in the fitting room. They can then select the picture they want and it'll be automatically uploaded onto the store's webpage where millions of members (you have to be a frequent customer of the store to be a member) can immediately view your picture and comment on it. Following that, you can decide on which clothing you would like to purchase!

Setting up only one of such store in a city will also make it a 'limited edition' fitting in to the trend of **(F)luxury**. Too many of such concept stores will not make the experience that fun and interesting anymore.

Best practice is that which is tried and tested by people and have been proven to work (at least most of the time). This may seem as a safe bet for most people and relatively risk-free. For most parts of our lives, we will often stick to best practices and not seek the road less trodden. This however, may not be that rewarding for entrepreneurs who wish to venture out. That is where next practice comes in.
 * Next Practice Not Best Practice

With regards to my business idea, the best practice would be to open a departmental store with suitable music playing in the background, friendly service staff and a reasonable range of clothing, etc. It may be difficult to imagine a store where everyone is laughing, having fun and allowed to be themselves (or maybe not be themselves). I discussed this with some of my classmates and we all felt that this idea may not seem feasible at first, but if applied in the right city, with the right mix of crowd and culture, it might turn out to be a blast! This would be a shopping experience that people will not have imagined and it might appeal to the child/model inside ourselves. Not all the next practices apply to my business proposal. The ones that I feel can be applied to my business is that of ****__fun__** and the current trend of **__Nowism__**.** A whole portion of my proposal is shaped around these two elements. The other next practice such as being in a special location, can be considered but will probably not work as departmental stores, unique or not, should be in a convenient shopping district. Also, I will not be delving into the business of designing new labels but more into creating the store for these labels to be at. Hence, break-pricing rules will not apply here as well.

Naked Pizza What Naked Pizza did was very interesting, intelligent and also bold in a sense! They took something (pizza in this case) which already has a loyal and wide customer base, and further opened it up to new markets. People who did not want to eat pizza before because of the high calories, oil and sometimes unhealthy ingredients, may now make a switch back to eating this naked pizza! And those people who are already big fans of pizza might actually consume even more now due to the availability of this healthier choice. Aside from being a unique pizza company that is appealing to the current horde of health conscious consumers, it also stands out with its Twitter feature, where they tweet promotions frequently!

Core Competencies ** Five core competencies that my team should possess: 1. Administration skills 2. Communication skills 3. Team worker (and able to build on each others' ideas) 4. Resourceful 5. Fast learner

Three others that I picked out from Prasena's Generic Dictionary: 1. Responsibility 2. Ability to analyze and solve problems 3. Proactive

After coming up with my first 5 core competencies, I realized that I first looked at the skills of the person without considering the character and personality, which is equally important. For example, a person with good administration skills is of no use if he/she has no responsibility. Personally, I feel that the person's character and attitude towards work plays a huge part in the success of the business.

Blue Ocean Strategy **__NetJets__** It created the blue ocean of fractional jet ownership by breaking marketing boundaries and breaking free from competition. Purchased by Berkshire Hathaway in 1998, today NetJets is a multibillion-dollar business. NetJets’ success has been attributed to its flexibility, shortened travel time, hassle-free travel experience, increased reliability, and strategic pricing. In the past, people can only choose between first, business or economy class. Now NetJets created a whole new market of 'private' jets at a lower cost. This opened up the choices people can now have.

__**Body Shop**__ Body Shop managed to plunge into untapped market space by creating functional, eco-friendly and natural cosmetics and distanced itself from other emotionally-appealing cosmetics companies. It has many values and campaigns such as "Put an end to child sex trafficking", "Stop HIV", "Violence at home". This was something no other cosmetic companies ventured towards. Consumers who purchased their products may feel like they are supporting a good cause and also not encouraging unethical business behaviors.

__**Starbucks**__ Most experts believe that Starbucks' success is not due to the coffee sold but more so HOW it is sold. They combined good coffee with comfortable, friendly locations. W. Chan Kim said that while it is true that Starbucks sells coffee, "what they are really selling is atmosphere". By changing the atmosphere in which coffee is sold, Starbucks created an uncontested market and made the competition irrelevant and also captured new demand. People who initially did not want to buy coffee (but liked coffee) because of the truck stops and places it was sold at, now would purchase them. (Reference to "Help Navigate Blue Ocean to New Markets" by J.J.Smith)

It first created completely new industries with its safe online auctions. Following that, eBay kept the Blue Ocean strategy in mind, and has been constantly questioning its positioning and strategies. It used to charge developers fees, based on the number of people who use the programs, but later decided to eliminate those fees. By doing so, the number of developers increased 100-fold and eBay grew tremendously. The use of non-conventional yet highly effective approaches, which defy conventional wisdom is discussed in the Blue Ocean Strategy. There is a discussion which relates to the need to identify and unlock new opportunities in highly competitive spaces and that is what eBay managed to do.
 * __eBay__**

Instead of remaining in the red ocean and competing with rivals like PS3s and XBox over graphics, capturing usual consumers, Nintendo Wii decided to step into a blue ocean by bringing in a whole new level of fun! Nintendo Wii formed this whole new unique gaming experience with easy access to back-catalog of games, while at the same time creating a product ecosystem and keeping the cost of it's system lower than Sony's and Microsoft's. All this factors propelled them to the forefront of the industry.
 * __Nintendo Wii__**

__**Ikea**__ Unlike its competitors that focus on improving customer service and product improvement, Ikea's approach is totally out of tradition. They provide a wide range of products with most at very reasonable price, and very little customer service. Most of the products require the customers to do the assembly themselves. Together with Ikea's ability to source for low cost materials and partner with manufacturing companies all around the world, these factors brings down the price of their products and help position Ikea in a whole new market segment.

__**Fedex**__ You know you are successful when your company's name becomes a verb in the English dictionary! Fedex was the first logistics company to provide customers the technology to track their items. Not only do they provide good, fast and safe services, customers can now have an ease of mind when they are able to find out the location of their item.

__**CNN**__ CNN stepped out of the red ocean when Turner decided to focus on making something different by introducing 24/7, real-time news without star broadcasters. They were initially ridiculed by established players in the market, such as NBC, CBS and ABC. From this example, we notice also that being different can be hard at times, but it can pay off in the end!  Turner said with words that are full of passion: "We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event... and when the end of the world comes, we'll play 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' before we sign off."