22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

Reflection: Feedback from Elevator Pitch No. 2 was very positive. My delivery and energy level improved and my message was clear. Professor Pryor gave some specific feedback that I needed a smoother transition to describe my firm, be specific with the size of companies I was targeting, and then talking about the savings my firm would bring before the cost of the engagement.

What I Changed: I added in a few more specifics about my firm and had a smoother transition describing them. I did mention the size of the companies that my firm would focus on. I also moved the cost of my engagement to after where I communicate the savings it will bring. This is obviously the point, but I like my 3rd pitch the most. I took the feedback from the first two and feel I have a solid pitch at this point that I can feel confident delivering to my target customer.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Pete Drucker

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

I feel the theme of the book is that innovation and entrepreneurship should be a normal everyday thing. It can be learned, practiced, and scaled. I like the thought of this, as I used to have a mindset that an entrepreneur has some special skill that I don't have. Certainly, successful entrepreneurs are better at things than others, but everyone should practice these at ever chance. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I believe that the analysis piece, specifically in the first part of Drucker's books connects to our class. We all have great ideas, but we need to perform analysis, whether through interviews or industry research, in order to validate if those ideas are scaleable and can make money.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

I would design an exercise for us to journal for a month straight about one thing we did that day that was innovative or entrepreneurial focused. I bet we do a lot more than we are aware of. So if we bring better awareness to it for ourselves, it will give us more confidence to act on it.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I mentioned it briefly in question one, but it's that we should be incorporating innovation and entrepreneurship in our everyday work and lives. It is easy to get set in routines and stuck in the same thought patterns, especially if we have a career that does not afford a lot of creativity. But we can make a conscious choice to have this mindset, it is not just something that we have or we don't. 

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Person 1:

Jim Wong is the Founder and Board Member of Brilliant, which is an award-winning recruiting firm. He has over 15 years of experience in recruiting. I would consider him a domain expert based on his vast knowledge of the recruiting industry and with how many companies he has assisted in helping them hire better people. Jim was recommended to me by a former colleague of mine who met Jim at an industry networking event. I sent Jim my elevator pitch to get his feedback. The feedback he provided is that it is a sound idea, but the challenge may be that the time it takes for the Talent Acquisition teams to truly start reaping the benefits of my service, they may have lost out on additional qualified candidates during that time, which would lead them to still leverage a recruiting firm. I will continue to keep in touch with Jim and solicit more feedback. He may even be a potential angel investor down the road.

Person 2: 

Peter Leffkowitz is the Owner of Morgan Consulting Group, which is a consulting firm that specifically trains recruiting agency recruiters to be better. I would consider him a market expert due to him offering a similar service, but focused on recruiting agencies, not companies. Another former colleague of mine went to a training seminar that Peter led and recommended I contact him. I emailed him to connect and have not received a response from him yet. I feel adding Peter to my network can provide invaluable insights about building a consulting business based on training. Additionally, I would assume he has a vast network of former agency recruiters that he trained that now work on the corporate side that I could tap into. 

Person 3: 

Daniel Zinn is an Enterprise Account Director at pymetrics, which is a recruiting assessment company that uses neuroscience backed gamification assessments to help companies better identify candidates for their openings. I would consider him an important supplier in my industry since he is currently selling a technology product to companies I would be targeting. I came across Daniel from some of my own research since my company may be looking to add an assessment. I spoke with Daniel and he was receptive to my idea. He felt there could be a partnership opportunity for some channel sales of pymetrics through my engagements. Adding Daniel to my network may open doors up into existing pymetrics business partners.

Reflection:

This networking exercise was right up my alley since a larger part of my job in Talent Acquisition is proactively networking in the market to find the best candidates. With that said, this was my first time networking for myself, so it was interesting pitching myself in a way that did not come across over-confident. I will certainly do more proactive networking for myself moving forward.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? specifically, regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

I am currently enrolled for the online BA in Business degree at UF. I work full time as a Sr. Talent Acquisition Advisor for a $17 Billion automotive company that is recognized by Fortune as one of the best companies to work for in the US – I’ve had this job since September 2016. I spent 6.5 years as a headhunter, with the last 3.5 of those years before joining my current company helping a company in Chicago expand into the South Florida Market. I was the first hire in South Florida and built the office into a team of 12 generating $2.5 million of revenue yearly before I left. I see this opportunity as a way to eventually run my own business. With the 6.5 years as a headhunter for recruiting agencies and the 3.5 years now on the corporate side, I feel I have the experience needed to start my own business. 

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).

I am offering customers a way to grow their revenue by improving how they hire. My firm would train their employees, redesign their hiring processes, and help them select the best technologies needed to have an effective talent acquisition program.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

In general terms, I’d be offering this to any companies who want to grow their revenue by hiring better people. More specifically, companies that have current challenges hiring and retaining top performers due to limitations with their people, processes, and technologies would be my target customer.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe it is valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.

They will care because my solution will have significant long-term ROI for them. My firm would not be coming in for a one-time fix. We’d be positioning the companies to have sustained success after our engagement is over. My firm would be providing value like the Chinese proverb "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." I feel companies will care, especially now with the COVID-19 financial impacts because they will want to save money longterm by hiring the best employees. If companies are able to pay the upfront cost for my service, they will absolutely not only save money but also generate more revenue long term. 

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?

I personally already have 6.5 years as a headhunter in South Florida where I acted as an external consultant to companies who were not able to recruit for specific positions. I had to negotiate contracts with leaders from Fortune 500 companies down to family-owned small businesses in which I provided a custom solution to fill their positions. I am skilled and influencing and changing business behaviors by leveraging data and getting emotional buy-in.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others.

I feel my experience and career/education choices have positioned me well to tactically execute on this business opportunity. Additionally, I have worked very hard over the last 3.5 years to grow my emotional intelligence. I have been a part of a start-up environment before when I was hired to start a South Florida office for a company in Chicago. I know what it takes to enter a new market segment and how to scale processes and teams to meet business objectives. I have established relationships and an established brand in South Florida, so I feel I am positioned as well as I can be.

Feedback Memo:

So I only received one feedback comment from my peers for Idea Napkin No. 1. The two main points from that feedback are that my experience certainly aligns with my business idea and that companies who are able to pay for the service will do so due to the longterm value. I added some of this feedback to why companies would care. They will care because they will save money by hiring better. And in certain roles that are revenue generators, they will be able to grow their revenue more as well.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

What stood out to me the most about the feedback from my first pitch was that I had a solid delivery. There was some feedback to be more specific with what my startup does and to clarify a statement I made about technology that seemed to come out of nowhere. Another piece of feedback was to further define how a bad hire actually costs a company the $114,000.

I took all of that feedback and added in a couple of clarifying statements, specifically defining/quantifying a bad hire while also being more specific with what my startup consulting firm will do. Even though I received positive feedback on my delivery, I feel I smoothed it out and had more energy while also shortening it. I feel the whole pitch is improved from the first one and I would be confident actually pitching this to a potential customer. I am certainly interested to see if the improvements I think I made are actually seen as improvements by whoever reviews it.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

My ideal customer is a 42-year-old female Director of Talent Acquisition for a company that has between 100 and 200 employees. She has 15 years of professional Human Resources and Talent Acquisition experience and currently manages a team consisting of 2 Talent Acquisition Advisors and 1 Talent Acquisition Coordinator. She is an avid reader of books focused on developing her emotional intelligence and she attends group fitness classes at Orangetheory at 5:30am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She drives a 2019 Lexus RX SUV, which is perfect for her to transport her 2 kids to school and sports activities on the weekend. She loves watching reality tv shows in order to completely disconnect from the daily challenges her job brings. She was an avid support of Amy Klobuchar before she dropped out of the presidential race.

I have several things in common with my ideal customer. First, we both have been successful in our Talent Acquisition careers. This will create instant credibility and a common language between us when I meet with her. Secondly, we are both focused on self-development - specifically with our own emotional intelligence. We recognize that the more our emotional intelligence grows, the more impactful and influential we will be in our people-focused roles. I think we have these things in common because it speaks to the type of people who are successful in our industry.

16A – What’s Your Secret Sauce?

My Human Capital:

• I feel I am skilled at building relationships with all types of people.
• I feel I am strong at influencing peoples behaviors and decisions.
• I feel I am a contrarian and always bring new ideas to discussions.
• I feel I am able to use my emotional intelligence to navigate tricky situations.
• I feel I am action oriented and can quickly identify a solution to a problem.

Five Interviews:

• Interview 1: Katie Jones - Katie feels I can use my energy and soft skills accurately assess people and situations.
• Interview 2: Jennifer Furbino - Jennifer feels I am a strong relationship builder and that I am able to share my knowledge in a way that doesn't come across pushy.
• Interview 3: Mayra Kotch - Mayra feels I do what is right no matter the circumstance and that I live by my convictions. She also feels I bring humor to people's lives.
• Interview 4: Sergio Sibaja - Sergio feels I am able to flex my personality to get along with people at all levels in all circumstances to build strong relationships. He also feels I am able to identifying opportunities.
• Interview 5: Jason Holland - Jason feels I am skilled at deconstructing problems down to the core cause in order to create the correct solution.

Reflection:

I feel the observations made by the five colleagues I interviewed were extremely accurate and align with my own thoughts. I am glad that my colleagues feel I am able to build relationships and solve problems, especially since it is a core part of my current job and is important moving forward for my business idea. I would not make any corrections to my list based on the feedback from the interviews.