Graham Evens: Entrepreneur and thinking skills

Graham Evens

Entrepreneur and thinking skills

Graham challenged us to think outside of the normal business strategy.  He talked about the success of good thinking skills, he talked of Ford hiring Alan Mulally and how when asked what he was going to do Alan responded with “I have to find out what I do not know”. He also told of another company that moved into the US grocery business and did market research but did not listen to the results. They went ahead and tried to give the consumers what they thought they were missing. This turned out to be a failure. Graham went on to get us thinking with the following points.

He gave us 3 things to think around:

- Know what you do not know

            Do not think that you know everything be able to learn

- Recognize challenges to your paradigm

Humans have a hard time including things that challenge what they believe to be true

- Five wrong ways of thinking – This one is by Edward de Bono you’ll have to look it up.

           

Graham gave us insight into how to present your business to potential investors:

He said there where 4 groups of investors

A.   Interested in my space

B.    Kind of in my space

C.    Might be in my space

D.   Not in my space at all

When looking for investors you want to start by pitching to the group that is not interested. If you fail the effect is minimal. This strategy also gives you opportunity to practice your presentation techniques and your business pitch.

Finally Graham talked about ways to think better:

- Brainstorming – reverse brainstorming

         How do you narrow down all of those ideas to ones that are useful?

- 2x2 Static matrices

         The idea is to break it up into four parts, these can help you to narrow your focus

- SWOT: strength, weakness opportunities, threats

Another matrix that lets you discuss these areas of your idea

- Morning pages

First thing in the morning get out everything that is in your head, then you can be

more focused (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

by Anne Lemott

- Six thinking hats by Edward de Bono. Descriptions taken from Wikipedia

Information: (White) - considering purely what information is available, what are   

    the facts?

Emotions (Red) - intuitive or instinctive gut reactions or statements of emotional

    feeling (but not any justification)

Discernment (Black) - logic applied to identifying reasons to be cautious and

    conservative

Optimistic response (Yellow) - logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking

     harmony

Creativity (Green) - statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a

    thought goes

Business Planning

            The important thing is how you think about it. Do not be too optimistic.