Saturday, November 25, 2017

Class 8 Slides and sample presentation that I went over in class

Class -

Here are the slides that I covered in class Tuesday:
Class8 - Business 95 - 11-21-2017.pptx

And here is a sample presentation that I covered as an example a way to present your idea to the Sharks:
Class8 - SAMPLE - TheDect.pptx

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Assignment for Tuesday - MOD Pizza

Class -

I want you to read this "case" from the Harvard Business School. As I mentioned in class, all of the classes at the Harvard Business School (HBS) are taught with cases. There are no textbooks, a case is reviewed the night before each class and examined in the classroom the next day. Cases allow the class to learn important business concepts in a real-life business. In the end, the business concept makes real sense and knowledge of a specific business is learned along the way.

Here is the case on MOD Pizza - please read it and we will discuss it in class Tuesday.

HBS - MOD Pizza-A Winning Recipe?.PDF

Ben

Slides from November 14

Class -

Here are the slides that I covered in class last week:

Class7 - Business 95 - 11-14-2017.pptx

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Takehome MIDTERM assignment

In place of a midterm, you have the following take-home assignment:

Put your Business Idea down in one sentence or phrase

Describe what your Legal Business Structure will be and why (DBA, Partnership, Corp, LLC)
List and describe your Market Segments
Describe your Target Market and why you choose it as your target market (remember, Know your Customer)
Briefly, mention how your idea address each of the 5 P’s of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Position, Promotion)


Email it to me BEFORE class next Tuesday!
Have a great weekend!

Ben

Class 6 - November 7th - slides

Class6 - Business 95 - 11-07-2017.pptx

Monday, October 30, 2017

Class #5 - Oct 24th - slides

Here you go!

Class5 - Business 95 - 10-24-2017.pptx

Class –

We will not be having a class this week!! I had to go out of town on today and I won’t be returning until Thursday.

In place of class, I want you to read a portion of Peter Thiel’s new book, Zero to One. Peter Thiel founder PayPal and then went on to start Palantir Technologies where he is the largest shareholder (and the company is valued at more than $20B - Palantir_Technologies ) In addition, Peter was the first institutional investor in Facebook and turned a $500K investment into well over $1B.

You will see that Peter Thiel is very opinionated but I like how he is very strong on his opinions.

Peter also created and runs the Thiel Fellowship (ThieFellowship.org). Each year, he offers 20 young entrepreneurs (under the age of 23) $100,000 dollars over two years to work on their business idea. Part of the rules of accepting his $100K is that entrepreneurs have to drop out of school. His whole idea is that young people see the world differently and can take chances that older people won’t or can’t take, and great ideas can’t wait until you finish school.

Read this attachment and I will send out an assignment from this and some other things in place of a MIDTERM EXAM. I will get this together before Wednesday and it will be due before class next Tuesday (Nov. 7).

Have a good week and great Halloween too!!

Ben

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Here are the slides that I presenting in Class #4

Class - Here are the slides from Class #4 - we talked about IDEO, Innovation (again!) and the 5 P's of Marketing!

And the 5 P's are:
Product
Price
Position
Place
Promotion

Class4 - Business 95 - 10-17-2017.pptx

See you today in class at 6pm!

Ben

Saturday, October 14, 2017

IDEO Videos and Assignment for Tuesday

Class -

Please watch these ALL 3 of these videos about IDEO - the interesting design company in Palo Alto:
https://youtu.be/ooN05Q030Qo

Do you think that the IDEO process works? I want you to send me an email about what you think the most interesting thing(s) about how/why IDEO process works - or doesn't work.

IN addition, here is a more recent video about IDEO from 60 minutes, it will give you some more background on the company and what they are all about:
https://youtu.be/_9TIspgTbLM

Have a great weekend!

Ben

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Class -

That was a good class Tuesday - we have lots of great things to figure out and learn about entrepreneurship.

Here are the slides that I covered in class: Class2 - Business 95 - 10-03-2017.pptx

Here are the TWO assignments that I want you to do BEFORE CLASS next week:

#1 Phil Knight is an amazing leader as he has managed to keep Nike growing since he co-founded it back in 1964. The video I showed you in class went over his 10 Rules for Nike's Success. Here they are again.

Have a crazy idea
Get the right people
Build great products
Have a reason to succeed
Persevere
Define your values
Get help
Stand for something
Compete
Know your mission

If you want to watch the video again, here is a link to it: Phil Knight's 10 Rules for Success.

The assignment is for you to order these rules in the order that YOU think is most important for the company you will someday create. Put them in the order of most important to least important. Also, give me a sentence or two about what the first one you picked is so important and why the last one you picked is your least important.

#2 Give me TWO example products for each of the 4I’s

Innovation (HIGH novel and HIGH useful and valuable)
Invention (HIGH novel and LOW useful and valuable)
Improvement (LOW novel and HIGH useful and valuable)
Irrelevant (LOW novel and LOW useful and valuable)

Put these in an email and email them to me at: dubinbennett@fhda.edu

See you next Tuesday at 6pm - Ben

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Great First Class Tuesday!

Class -

I really enjoyed meeting all of you and I think that we will have a really great quarter where we can both learn from each other.

Here are the materials that I covered in the class:

The class description document that contains all of the information about the course:
Bus95 - Course Information - Fall 2017.pdf

The class calendar:
Bus95 - Class Calendar - Fall 2017.pdf

And the powerpoint slides that I covered in class:
Class1 - Business 95 - 09-26-2017.pptx

Contact me if you have any questions or interesting thoughts on business or the class!

See you next Tuesday at 6pm - in Room 220.

Ben

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Foothill College Busi95 Class tonight!

Class -

I am the teacher that has the lucky assignment to teach and learn along with you in this upcoming quarter of Busi95. And I mean this sincerely - teaching and interacting with new entrepreneurs (or soon to be entrepreneurs) is awesome.

Our first class is tonight at the new Foothill College Sunnyvale Center. We will be on the second floor, room 204.

The address of the building is 1070 Innovation Way, Sunnyvale

Our class starts at 6 pm! See you there. Email me back if you have any questions/comments/thoughts.

Also - I should have plenty of space in the classroom, so if you know anyone that hasn't signed up for the class yet, they can still add the class. Have them come tonight to class, and I will hand out add codes.

See you at 6 pm!

Ben