Let’s say you’re Rompetrol, a company which, mainly, produces and sells gas. There are quite a few sellers. How to differentiate? You create a gas (Efix) which is different than others. Not much, but enough to make a small difference. You advertise this, and you can sell this gas with a premium. After all, you’re the sole distributor.
You create, thus, your blue ocean. You don’t compete with others, you have created a market for yourself. Good strategy.
On April 16th (Wednesday), Maastricht School of Management Romania organized a free workshop on Design Thinking with Daniela Marzavan. Daniela is senior lecturer for Design Thinking and Human Values at the University of Applied Science HTW Berlin and at the University of Engineering and Design ELISAVA Barcelona. She researches the phenomena Design Thinking at the Chair for International Management of the Bauhaus-University. As a Design Thinking practitioner and former entrepreneur she advises companies, startups and NGOs. The workshop lasted 6.30 pm until 9 pm and it took place at MSM Romania headquarters, Putul lui Zamfir 36.
Below, photos from the event.
Let’s say you want to use a CMS (content management system) for an online store. You know, after the platform is ready, you may need to edit your meta descriptions and page titles for your web site. But what else? What would you ask from a CMS developer? What should the requirements for a CMS be?
Thursday, March 27, 2014, 16:00, took place the conference “Height and Happiness”, by prof. Melvin Fitting, City University of New York, at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest.
Below, photos and videos from the conference.
I’ve just seen
Some thoughts? SPOILERS ahead!
When you pay for something expensive(-er), you have a risk – that item may be good or bad; when you pay little, it’s a guarantee – it’s bad. This is true in lots of cases. What you generally get is the mind safety and peace that you have at least a chance of getting something better. You pay for the mind comfort of knowing you might actually get something good. There are countless cases in which more expensive doesn’t lead to better. The fact that these are the exception, not the rule, only strengthens the rule. (this was said by an Economics teacher I had in school; he told it in the context of salaries – “pay somone a high salary, and you may have a good or bad employee, it’s a risk; pay someone a small salary, and, since the good people will always find a better paid job, you’ll have a certainty of having a poor employee”) In electronics, to get only marginally better products, you pay very high margins. Samsung Galaxy S4 is not 4 times better than a 4 times cheaper phone. An iPad is not 2-3 times better than an average tablet, as it is 2-3 times more expensive. If you can’t settle with little/average quality, you’ll pay much more. (Original quote – “Este absolut incredibil cat de putina “value for money” poti cumpara in ziua de astazi, cam tot pe ce-am pus mana high-end m-a dezamagit teribil. In general platesti 500% peste pretul “pietei” ca sa ai sporuri de sub …
In July 2013 I bought Lenovo IdeaPad K3 Lynx 11.6-Inch 64 GB Tablet
from the US. I had it in my hands since August. I paid $347.84 for the tablet and $22.99 for the cover. The joy of owning it was little, because it broke, and I had to repair it. Below, some feed-back on the process and on the tablet itself.
I’ve been going to Jim Bagnola‘s trainings/workshops for years. I’ve taken part to Intensive NLP by MindMaster (a 5 day training course) two times already, and I plan in taking it again. At times, things repeat themselves. You hear the same things. There’s only so much a person can tell you. Why do I do this? Deeper knowledge. I get to know things better. Re-participating, like re-reading, like re-watching a movie helps reinforce things. I get to know things better. For example, some say in order to be know better a specific subject, you need an advanced course on the subject. Perhaps. But how about retaking the class, in order to better understand and structure what you already know? I have a not-so-great memory, retaking a class helps me better understand things. I’m different. New insights. It’s the same message, I’m different than I was two years ago. I forgot some things, I got new ideas. Things connect differently. The trainings are different. The trainers don’t speak exactly the same way. Yes, the message is pretty much the same, but not identical. You get to see some new faces of the samge message. You become closer to being a researcher. There’s a difference between reading a motto and reading a page. Between reading a page and reading a book. Between reading a book and the whole opera of a person. And between this and researching a subject deeper. There’s one thing to watch a movie and to watch a TV series. There’s a feeling you get …
Two movies:
Why watch a poor movie?
There are two options: Trust yourself and act accordingly. Don’t trust yourself so much, and take the consequences. The thing is, as with many simple things, the decision is not so simple. I don’t think there’s a definite answer on this one. There might be situations in which having a poor self-trust will turn out well. In other situations, things differ. I see things go wrong due to too much self-trust. I think it’s more productive in some cases to have self-trust. In others, not. Examples of poor self-trust: You write an article. You value others’ opinions much. Whenever you say something on your own, you need to emphasize “This is my opinion. The personal one”. Someone wants to help you. You don’t think you deserve it. You say no. Someone wants to help you. You don’t think you have the right to say no. You say yes. Good self-trust: You take decisions on your own, without asking for everybody’s permission. You don’t speak of yourself, you speak of a group, even if not everyone is 100% pleased with this. You initiate things and see them through.