Entrepreneurship Study Group: Entrepreneurship and Management

Course Roadmap and Content

Step 1: From Zero to One: Business Model Thinking

Explore potential business opportunities and master the 'Business Model Canvas'.

Step 2: Entrepreneurial Growth Strategy Mindset

Understand mission statements, strategic planning, customer feedback, and more to build a unique enterprise.

Table of Contents

1. Entrepreneurial Growth Strategy Mindset
1. Developing a Unique Business
2. Crafting a Mission Statement
3. Planning Business Strategies
4. Understanding the Five Stages of Business Growth
5. Leveraging Customer Feedback

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Draft a company mission statement.
2. Utilize the 'Entrepreneurial Strategy Compass' to make critical decisions.
3. Understand the different stages of business growth.
4. Effectively use customer feedback.

2.1 Developing a Unique Business

Being different is your competitive advantage. While competition can provide valuable insights and drive excellence, Henry Ford wisely stated, "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young." Therefore, while we can learn much from competitors, it's more important to clearly understand what makes your business unique – that is the true competitive advantage.

2.1.1 What Makes Your Business Unique?

To understand what makes your business stand out, consider two key factors:

1. Analyze Competitors
   Direct competitors are businesses that offer similar products or services in the same market. Indirect competitors are harder to identify but are often more important – they offer different products or services but fulfill the same customer needs. By observing and analyzing these competitors, you can identify market patterns and understand which strategies are effective and which should be avoided.
2. Identify Your Competitive Advantage
   Consider what gives your business unique value and what factors provide your business with an edge. The qualities that make your business stand out are precisely why customers choose you over competitors. This is why clearly defining your business value is so important. Have you ever noticed why one of two similar products is more popular? By analyzing what makes it more valuable, you can identify its competitive advantage.

2.1.2 How to Identify Competitors

Here are some practical tips for identifying competitors:

• Use reliable search engines to search for your product name or category.
• List no more than 10 main competitors to focus your analysis.
• Pay attention to both direct and indirect competitors.
• Thoroughly research each company's background.
• Identify pain points.
• Analyze each competitor's strengths and weaknesses.
• Look for market gaps and identify areas where you can compete effectively.

Identifying competitors not only helps you find your business's unique aspects but also highlights your competitive advantages. After all, being different is the true advantage. Some may think having no competitors is a good thing, but that's not always the case. If there are no competitors in the market, it might mean the market doesn't exist. If that's the case, you'll need to invest significant time and resources to create a market, which is often a daunting challenge.

2.2 Crafting a Mission Statement

Next, we will explore the company mission statement. A good mission statement helps you clearly define and effectively communicate your company's vision, guiding its future development. Let's delve into what a mission statement is and how to create one that highlights your company's value!

2.2.1 An Excellent Mission Statement

A mission statement is a declaration written by the founder, often presented as a memorable phrase, a concise list of points, or a statement that articulates the company's goals. It should clearly express the company's core purpose and what makes your business unique or particularly valuable. We emphasize this point repeatedly because highlighting a company's uniqueness is always crucial, and the mission statement is the best channel to showcase this. Your mission statement communicates your company's philosophy to the outside world, customers, suppliers, media, and even potential investors. Let's look at some specific examples.

2.2.2 Mission Statement Examples

Here's a simple matching game: try to match the companies with their correct mission statements and see how many you can get right!

See the next page for the answers.

2.2.3 Creating a Mission Statement

A company mission statement is like GPS navigation, guiding your business's direction. Many people underestimate the importance of a mission statement, but it is this mission that allows you to operate your business with a clear vision and goals. It lays the foundation for the company, clearly communicating to customers and the team what you do and why you do it.

A mission statement can also serve as a decision-making aid, helping you ensure the direction is correct and you remain true to your original vision when facing major decisions. Don't forget! A mission statement is not just for the company; it's also for your team. As the company grows, your team will need clear direction. Your mission can provide that direction. A good mission statement grounds the team while inspiring them to move forward.

So, when creating a mission statement, remember these three key questions: What customer problem are you solving? What are your company's goals and expected outcomes? Is it easy to remember and inspiring?

2.3 Planning Business Strategies

Business strategy is the method and means of developing and maintaining a competitive advantage. It is a concrete plan to achieve specific goals, tightly linking the various components of the business model and ensuring smooth overall operation. The 'Entrepreneurial Strategy Compass' is one of the effective tools to help us plan important business decisions.

2.3.1 The 'Entrepreneurial Strategy Compass'

The 'Entrepreneurial Strategy Compass' is a practical toolkit that can help you reposition your business when it deviates from its original plan. This compass has four key elements:

• Customers
• Technology
• Identity, Culture, and Capabilities
• Competitors

While every company may face other choices, for startups, failing to first define these four basic directions will make success and sustained growth very difficult. Clear, distinct direction is crucial for business development. Let's take Amazon's story as an example to understand this principle.

Customers: Validating Your Product Through Customer Feedback

Identifying customers and understanding their needs is usually the first step in any market entry strategy. However, be aware that target customers are not always the primary customers – understanding the difference between the two is very important. You can validate your product by talking to potential customers and gathering their feedback. For example, Amazon's initial decision to target book readers was a strategic one. While the leadership team believed readers were a good entry point, they later found they could expand their business into broader retail.

Technology: Choosing Appropriate Technology Based on Customer Needs

Technology choices are closely related to customer needs. For example, Amazon could have simply built a basic online ordering system for physical bookstores. However, they chose a more ambitious goal: to allow customers to purchase books not available in local stores. To achieve this, beyond basic transaction functions, the company had to invest in building a robust database and search engine, enabling readers to easily browse millions of books.

Identity, Culture, and Capabilities: Establishing a Clear Corporate Identity and Communicating Effectively with Stakeholders

In this aspect, the company's choices should clearly shape its positioning, communicating the expected behavior patterns to all stakeholders and the core capabilities the company will develop. For example, while customers loved the book-buying experience Amazon offered, and Wall Street quickly saw the company's profitability, founder Jeff Bezos's vision went far beyond building an online bookstore. His goal was to build a "store that sells everything." To achieve this, it was necessary to win the trust of general consumers, convincing them they could buy quality products at Amazon at good prices. Therefore, despite pressure from investors for quick profits, Amazon persisted with a low-price strategy as its core.

Competitors: Understanding Competitors in Your Industry

In the early stages of entrepreneurship, Amazon could have taken a very different approach: partnering with existing retailers, or even viewing those retailers as customers, and considering other search and logistics service providers as primary competitors. However, Amazon chose to view other retailers as competitors and actively captured market share by offering consumers more choices, higher reliability, and lower prices.

2.4 Understanding the Five Stages of Business Growth

In your entrepreneurial journey, you will inevitably go through five stages, including:

1. Existence Stage
2. Survival Stage
3. Success Stage
4. Take-off Stage
5. Resource Maturity Stage

Next, we will introduce each stage.

2.4.1 The Five Stages of Business Growth

1. Existence Stage (Existence)
The initial development phase of a business. In this stage, the business is in the critical period of market exploration, with the primary task being to find potential customers and perfect product or service content. The business's operational system is usually still under construction or just established, actively building a stable operational model and work rhythm to lay the foundation for future growth.

2. Survival Stage (Survival)
The business has crossed the initial existence threshold and shows potential to become a sustainable entity. In this stage, the business has established a stable customer base and can effectively provide products or services. However, the main challenge lies in managing cash flow, including revenue management, cost control, and operational forecasting.

3. Success Stage (Success)
The third milestone in business development, where the business has successfully navigated the survival period and achieved a state of stable profitability. At this stage, the business owner faces important strategic decisions: whether to pursue further growth and market expansion, or to maintain the current scale of operations and focus on refining expertise and operational efficiency. The definition of success varies for every business owner; some may prefer to maintain the status quo and enjoy the current stable operating model. This is a perfectly understandable choice. However, if the business has growth potential, expanding its operational horizons moderately may bring unexpected opportunities and achievements. The ultimate decision rests with the business owner, but maintaining an open mind and flexible adjustment attitude often opens up broader development space for the business.

4. Take-off Stage (Take-off)
This is a critical period for rapid business growth. At this point, the business has the conditions for expansion, but it requires careful evaluation of the financial aspects of growth strategies, including cash flow management and the scale of capital investment. In this stage, the business must realistically assess its operational capabilities, ensuring that the management team has sufficient human resources and expertise to support the business's expansion plans. To support business growth, you can also consider applying for small business loans. Many local banks have dedicated corporate finance departments that can provide one-on-one consulting services to entrepreneurs, assisting with financial document preparation and increasing the success rate of loan applications.

5. Resource Maturity Stage (Resource Maturity)
The final stage of business development, where the business needs to comprehensively review and optimize operational efficiency. In this stage, the business can reduce costs through scaled procurement or improve operational efficiency by reasonably allocating human resources, such as hiring more staff to reduce overtime. When the business reaches this mature stage, it becomes crucial to re-examine all operational aspects. While reviewing budgets, planning strategies, and optimizing management systems, businesses must not neglect the importance of innovation. Maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit from the beginning and continuously exploring opportunities for growth and innovation will ensure the business maintains its market competitiveness even in its mature stage.

2.5 Leveraging Customer Feedback

As your business grows, you will inevitably receive customer feedback – this is a crucial driving force for business progress! This feedback may include positive praise or critical suggestions. While some entrepreneurs may tend to avoid negative feedback, all feedback holds significant value. Customer feedback not only helps you improve product and service quality but also strengthens the trust relationship with customers.

Therefore, it is recommended that you proactively establish feedback channels to allow customers to express their opinions easily. Without a feedback mechanism, customers may turn to online platforms, causing you to miss opportunities to grasp and respond to feedback in a timely manner.

2.5.1 What is Customer Feedback?

Customer feedback refers to users sharing their experiences and feelings about products or services. This valuable feedback not only reflects customer satisfaction but also helps product development, customer service, and marketing teams identify areas for improvement. Without customer feedback, businesses cannot know if their products truly meet customer needs; conversely, through this feedback, businesses can continuously optimize service quality and provide products that better meet customer expectations.

2.5.2 Best Practices for Collecting Customer Feedback

Here are some best practices for collecting customer feedback:

Choosing the Right Channel to Reach Customers

To effectively collect customer feedback, the key is to choose the communication channel that best suits your target customer group. You should strive to make it as convenient as possible for customers to provide feedback. For example, if your customer base does not frequently use social media, collecting feedback through this channel will not be effective. Therefore, it is recommended to first understand your customer's characteristics and habits to find the most effective way to reach them and obtain genuine feedback.

Utilizing Customer Feedback to Optimize Products and Services

When faced with customer criticism, maintain an open and rational attitude rather than being defensive. The key is to analyze the feedback with a pragmatic mindset. When you identify recurring issues or common needs, take active steps to improve. Letting customers feel that you genuinely listen to and value their opinions will not only enhance customer satisfaction but also build long-term trust.

Responding to Customer Feedback Promptly

For issues raised by customers, prioritize and promptly take corrective actions. Especially for easily fixable issues, such as broken website links or incorrect information, they should be addressed immediately to prevent these minor flaws from affecting the company's image and customer experience.

Proactively Communicating Improvement Results to Customers

After implementing improvements based on customer feedback, be sure to inform customers about these developments. This not only demonstrates that you value customer opinions but also strengthens mutual trust, making customers feel that their voices have been heard and valued.

2.5.3 The Customer Feedback Loop

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once said, "We think of customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. Our job every day is to make every important aspect of the customer's experience a little bit better." This statement perfectly illustrates the importance of the customer feedback loop. This loop includes four key steps:

1. Solicit customer feedback
2. Categorize feedback
3. Take action
4. Follow up with customers who share their opinions

Let's explore the details of each step.

1. Solicit Customer Feedback

The first step is to ask customers appropriate questions, and the design of these questions should be closely aligned with your business goals. You need to consider: What values are most important to the company? When asking for feedback on products and services, pay special attention to common trends, service gaps, and product issues in customer responses. This feedback can help you grasp improvement directions and enhance the customer experience.

2. Categorize Feedback

The next step is to systematically categorize the collected feedback. By grouping feedback into different categories, you can gain a clearer understanding of the prevalence and importance of issues. Without proper categorization, you might overlook many important issues that customers commonly reflect. The following are typically divided into three main categories:

Product Feedback

Product feedback may involve minor or major product issues, or it could be customer requests for new features.

Customer Service Feedback

Customer service feedback is most commonly received via email or instant messaging channels. You can analyze the following points:

• What are the most frequent types of issues?
• What questions do customers frequently ask?
• What is the response time of the service team?
• What issues tend to cause customer dissatisfaction?

Marketing and Sales Feedback

When a company fails to fully deliver on its marketing promises or when product features do not meet customer expectations, it often leads to customer dissatisfaction. Establishing a robust customer feedback mechanism allows marketing and sales teams to grasp market reactions promptly, effectively preventing such issues and ensuring marketing messages align with actual product experiences.

3. Take Action

After receiving customer feedback, the key is to take practical action. This may require relaying the feedback to the relevant departments within the company that can implement improvements. It is important to ensure that every significant piece of feedback is fully communicated within the company and translated into concrete improvement actions.

4. Follow Up with Customers Who Share Their Opinions

It is crucial to maintain contact with customers who provide feedback, letting them know that you are planning improvement measures and value their opinions. Many customers are reluctant to provide feedback because they believe these opinions cannot be conveyed to the actual decision-makers. This is precisely your opportunity to demonstrate professionalism. Remember, it is rare for customers to invest their time and effort in providing feedback; your prompt response not only expresses gratitude but also makes customers feel that their voices have been heard and valued, thereby building a closer customer relationship.

Summary

Let's review the key learning points of this course:

• Mission statements clarify how a company solves customer problems and creates unique value.
• The 'Entrepreneurial Strategy Compass' helps businesses make correct decisions at critical moments.
• Understanding the five stages of business growth and their characteristics.
• The importance of the customer feedback loop in building trust and driving business growth.

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