Amazon Whisperer

Describe the revenue drivers you currently include in your business concept for this class. Revenue drivers are the different ways you make money.

The only revenue would be from the sale of the Trashport Pro.  Future revenues would come from future products.

Describe what kind of product offering you believe should be next. What's the next thing your customers want?

While doing the customer interviews, a lot of customers mentioned they would want different sizes to the Trashport Pro.  This could be an option, but it may end up costing more than it would be worth.

Describe how this "next" thing will enhance your existing product/service offering. Does it improve the user experience, does it increase customer switching costs, does it foster customer loyalty, etc.?

The different size options would not necessarily improve the user experience, but it could potentially increase the market for the product.  If someone only carried smaller bags then they might prefer a smaller product.

Go to Amazon and try to find a product that is similar to the one you want to offer next. Describe the product. Include a picture of the product.

This is a similar product to what I am offering except this requires a specific type of trash bin that apartment renters and condo owners typically don't have.

What are the customer reviews for the product? What, exactly, do customers not like about the product? What do they like about it?

There were only a few reviews but the positive ones said it worked as described.  There was a negative review stating it was not a universal product, in that it worked on some cars but not others.  They also stated that it rubbed off the fragile paint on the bumper.  Another negative was that it required part of the leather to remain in trunk, which made it very difficult to close, along with also possibly damaging the gaskets that line the trunk.

Describe what design/usability changes you'd make to the product. 

From the reviews that I received from the previous product pitch, many people mentioned the same thing that the negative reviews mentioned about the product about.  I redesigned the product to suction to the top of the trunk, and it wouldn't require the bin to carry the trash.  Instead, the bag would be placed in a rubber carrier that would use suction to attach to universally any flat surface.

Describe why you think this product would make a good addition to your current product/service offering.

The product would be my current offering, as there is only one device that satisfies the conditions required to be viable.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I was most surprised by the idea that many companies would try to copy the concepts that created innovation, such as splitting up R&D into teams, without any real goal in doing so.  It seems like something that would be obvious but I hadn't considered that a company would just copy a style and hoped it worked for their company.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I initially found the four categories of innovation to be confusing, especially distinguishing between the radical and architectural categories.  They gave good examples of them but I'm not sure I would be able to pick the right one given a different example.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

The author mentioned that he did a lot of consulting for the businesses that he mentioned, I would ask him what types of consulting he did for the businesses and what types of changes came about from his input.  I would also ask the author about his definition of "innovation strategy" at the beginning of the article.  I would like to know if the strategy stems from the mission statement of the company or somewhere else.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

The author had a lot of interesting points, I can't particularly disagree with any of it because most of the article gave specific examples of each type of innovation strategy.

My Unfair Advantage

VRIN Analysis

1) Human capital - Me

Valuable- Yes

Rare- Yes

Inimitable- Yes

Non-substitutable- No

2) Social Capital - Network in Chamber of Commerce

Valuable- Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- Yes

Non-substitutable- No

3) Financial Capital - Investors in my business

Valuable- Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- No

Non-substitutable- No

4) Access to 3D-Printer

Valuable-Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- No

Non-substitutable- No

5) Customer Service

Valuable- Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- Yes

Non-substitutable- No

6) Marketing Experience

Valuable- Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- No

Non-substitutable- No

7) Sales Experience

Valuable- Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- No

Non-substitutable- No

8) Support Staff

Valuable- Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- Yes

Non-substitutable- No

9) R&D Idea Team

Valuable- Yes

Rare- No

Inimitable- Yes

Non-substitutable- No

10) Brand Reputation

Valuable- No

Rare- No

Inimitable- Yes

Non-substitutable- Yes

According to the VRIN Analysis, I would be the most important asset to my company.  Without the mission and determination of the CEO, the rest of the assets are disconnected.  This is understandable due to the nature of the CEO having so many responsibilities during a business's start-up stage.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

There wasn't too much in the reading that stood out to me as it was a basic review of financial accounting.  I did enjoy reading, "Despite what traditional thinking suggests, customers are not always right and they are not always profitable."  This was in regards to when you should take time every year to identify customers that cost more to deal with than they are worth.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

As with most of the chapters, the most confusing thing is trying to understand the tables, When they have definitions in the figures, they are very easy to understand, but the list of numbers don't explain much and it doesn't show how the calculations were done.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask the author to examples of what companies use the three different types of capital budgeting and why.  I would also ask the author why they chose to include the excerpt from the article relating to the weakening dollar and the Chinese favoring the Euro from 2007, as only the first paragraph said something about going international to diversify risk, but then it goes on to say, but since it's out of your control, there's really nothing you can do.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Most of this chapter was a regurgitation of financial accounting definitions and examples, nothing new was added, so not much could be disagreed with.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

The comments I received from the second elevator pitch were very good points that I tried to incorporate into this pitch.  Someone mentioned that the original idea would not comply with traffic laws if it hung off the side of the car.  I agreed, so I redesigned the product to use a suction cup to attach on top of the roof or trunk.  He also mentioned that there might be an issue with the Trashport Pro starting to smell like the trash that was being transported, so I changed the material to be resistant to odor absorption.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

There weren't too many surprising things in this reading as it was about marketing and sales, most of which is covered in Principles of Marketing.  I enjoyed reading about the three marketing philosophies, production-driven, sales-driven, and consumer-driven.  I was a little surprised to read that a consumer-driven philosophy works best in the long run.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Due to the familiarity of the information in this chapter, nothing was that confusing other than the figures that the author used to display the different types of marketing information.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask the author why he is directly quoting a source from 1994 and displaying it in a figure instead of making the figure easier to read and more relevant to today.  I would also ask the author if he could include more examples in this chapter, as it was mostly stating of marketing information rather than modern day examples.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I don't know if the author is wrong about it or not, but I didn't see any source or statistics to determine how a consumer-driven philosophy would work better than a sales-driven, or production-driven philosophy.  It seems like an opinion rather than a fact.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1)  About Myself- My name is Robert Rogers and I am a student at the University of Florida set to graduate at the end of April, 2016.  In addition to my Bachelor's in Business Administration and the many business classes that entails, I also studied many science courses to get into the University of Florida's Chemical Engineering program.  I decided to switch to business after speaking to many chemical engineers during my junior year at UF. After doing this, I discovered that I may be happier in a field that is more people-oriented.

I plan to open my own business after I have more experience working in managerial roles.  Regarding this business concept, I don't see it playing a major role in my life.  It is a potentially marketable product but there isn't much that can be done to enhance the final product.  I really enjoyed the entrepreneurial process of thinking of a product and speaking to potential consumers about the product. 

2) What are you offering to customers? I am offering an easier way to transport trash in apartment complexes and condos.

3) Who are you offering it to? The type of customer that would buy my product would live in a location where they have to drive a short distance in their vehicle to transport trash to a central location.  These would most likely be apartment renters and condo owners.  These people dislike putting trash in their car as they don't like to make the car smell.  They also don't like putting trash on top of their car for fears of it falling off.

4) Why do they care? These customers care about their car and don't like the smell of trash in their car.  They also don't like driving over speed bumps while the trash bag is on their car with fear that it might fall off.

5) What are your core competencies? A product like this doesn't exist as far as I know.  This means their is potential for patenting and selling the concept itself or making the product and selling it.  There currently isn't any competition but unfortunately the product could easily be imitated and reproduced after the patent expires. 

I believe that this concept holds well for an "As-Seen-On-TV" product.  There aren't many enhancements that could be made to the product.  During a customer interview, one customer mentioned the possibility of different sizes, which is a potential option.  The company could continue to grow if it produced different products but after competition arises, it will be hard to differentiate the product.

Feedback Memo:  I only received feedback from one person who mentioned that I should determine the size of the population that would buy the product to find out if it would be profitable or not.  It would be a very good idea to find out before marketing this product so that it isn't put to market only to lose money.  I read several other Idea Napkins and incorporated a different approach in my introduction.  I liked that other people were more formal and set up the introduction like an interview.  I incorporated this theme into my introduction and plan to use part of the introduction in upcoming interviews.