ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNAL

This week I studied a case study on Jack Welch and General Electric.   I tried to be empathetical towards those in the 1980’s who lost their job due to Welch’s cuts.   I found that, even though I’ve lost jobs before, it was easier to see the big picture through Welch’s eyes, than to feel the job-loss in the employee’s eye’s.   The case study opened up nearly three decades of the visionary internal workings of a masterful leader.   Welch made moves that seemed risky and unorthodox, however is created a learning/ teaching experience for all leadership involved.   I can see today how a lot of companies are riding on the shirttails of Jack Welch.   The company I work for now (Cummins, Inc.) tries to emphasize a liberal agenda – the “happy hand holding” method of leadership.   However, on the ground level (where I reside and labor), the fight is real.   Our division was purchased by Cummins, Inc. in May of 2014 and corporate leadership remains in a struggle to get all divisions in line

This week I learned a lot from studying different case studies.   One of the things I learned is to choose good business partners.   It’s clear to me that if your partners don’t have the same goals and mindset, then struggles can often arise.   Also, if your partners aren’t investing enough time and energy, possibly because they have multiple “other” business responsibilities pulling them in different directions, it would be hard for them to devout as much energy towards your own project.   Another thing I learned was choose wisely for the location of a new business.   For an example, near my home in Arizona there are plans to build a very large outdoor theme park.   This park would be in competition with others like Magic Mountain or Disney.   The main theme would be extreme sports and activities.   I’ve read many articles about different inclusive theme areas that would suit our climate and surrounding area.   Southern Arizona would be ideal for something like this.   Our state i

This week I started off by studying the assignments involving “case studies”.   I’ve used case studies before in other classes, however this week I read Hammond’s “Learning by Case Study” and found that my initial assumptions of this method of learning were not on target.   I learned that there isn’t a right/ wrong answer.   We’re given a case study to read, digest and allow brainstorming to happen.   If we ask questions during the process than it allows a simple case study assignment to help find answers in others tasks and daily situations.   I also learned what a “mompreneur” is.   It’s a very clever name, however I think the concept behind the idea is the true genius.   In my experience, most mom’s will develop ideas when they run into problems that arise during childrearing.   The simple fact that a toddler’s foot didn’t quite fit the booties available allowed a mom to develop and market a fresh idea that has made millions.   This leads me to another thing I learned this week.

This week was spent reading, a lot.   Many interesting things were learned about the ever-changing markets and worldwide competition.   The one thing that really surprised me was how much culture played into business choices.   I’m able to understand how language could be a barrier, however I never quite understood the requirements needed when dealing with a countries cultural differences.   I find it very intriguing that many other countries struggle with the same difficulties that American companies do – that of understanding both foreign strategic business partners and competitors.   I found this is a topic that piques my interest and I’m curious to know if there are careers in understanding the cultural bias of partners and competitors within some businesses. There’s a great question in comparing and contrasting the pride cycle found in the Book of Mormon and an economic/ business cycle.   I prefer to start this cyclical pattern on the humility stage.   I think humility is t