Entrepreneurial Leadership

This leadership course has taught me a number of things about leadership and moreso about myself. The assessments, not necessarily all, gave me a better understanding of the way I think, act, and react. I’ve come to realize I am a more task oriented leader. While I do care about the feelings of others, to a certain extent, when there is a task at hand to be completed, that goes to the forefront for me and everything else is on the back burner.  I’ve also learned that I truly despise blogging. When introduced at the beginning of the semester I never really had blogged before on my own, and definitely not forced by an academic course, hence I had no real basis for objections. Experiencing the difficulty I came across in finding the time to write a blog, nevertheless finding the words to express my thoughts, if I had any at all, became somewhat excrutiating and led to a lack of completion.  With that said, and while I accept complete responsibility for not trying harder, I think the blogging should have been optional for those that rather blog every week than to write an essay type of paper summarizing their experiences. I found that I am much better at looking back on what I’ve done and learned, and summarizing that into a well written essay than to blog about my thoughts and/or experiences each week.  Nevertheless, this will not turn into a complaint letter because I also learned much about leadership.

A well rounded leader seems to be the most successful. He/she can shift betwen situations, people and tasks easily and gains followers almost effortlessly. A leader cannot be a leader without a following and to gain followers one must give off a air of passion, charisma, intelligence, among other traits.  Leadership has its own contraversies when questioned whether it is an innate trait or something we can learn like math or science. I, personally, think its a mixture of both. Some people are born with the “talent” like athletes but they need to practice it in order to reach their full potential as we’ve mentioned numerous times in class. Others learn to be leaders because their situations have forced them to be so.

With regards to the leadership group work, I have to say overall we worked together despite our schedule conflicts and managed to help Sandra’s business idea take its first steps into possibly becoming a reality.  Sandra was designated as our CEO because it was her initial idea that brought the group together.  However I feel that Marie really stepped it up for the entire group.  She took the initiative of making sure we stood on top of deadlines, knew what the milestones required, and was always responding via email rather promptly.  Prixilla and I, took on the roles of researching our respective/designated areas of the business and we did what was expected of us.  Although we were not necessarily the leaders of the group, we gave our input in various decision making conversations and those ideas were taken into consideration and implemented if valuable.  Overall, I truly feel the presentation could have gone much better. I felt the males looked much more organized, informed, and passionate about their project.  I never felt as unprepared for a presentation as I did that day.  I think if we would have made a mandatory time to practice, go over each others parts, give a chance to constructively critique one another and put ourselves in the shoes of the audience and question the presentation as one would expect another to do, then we would have had a much better presentation.

With that said, I enjoyed this class. I really liked that it was a small intimate class which was a nice refresher to the larger sized classes where there really isnt room for discussions as we had them.  I liked the variation of the books; how one was more informative and the other was more about the leadership experience.  It was an interesting class and I wish more classes could be set up in a similar manner.

When I started this journey I was not sure into where I was embarking.  But I have to say that I really enjoyed the class. I like the format and the discussions and reading from Bennis. I wanted to take the course seriously, so, reading each chapter I forced myself into thinking deeper about the material discussed and take others into perspective. That was the most beneficial part of the learning for me. I also realized that leadership is really about a situation and that you can be a leader in different ways. Therefore, it is perfectly okay to take on a leadership role sometimes and to let a more capable person take control while still keeping things into perspective.

Kinderkareonline.co which started as babycareonline.com is really Sandra’s baby. From the beginning, I was very enthusiastic about the project and immediately embarked on board. Sandra being an expert in children care, took the lead and was always available to discuss the project and help understand a concept whenever necessary.

The leadership role I took on this project was to make sure we stayed on top of things where IVE was concerned. I reached out to different mentors and researched the subject on different facades.  I also kept track of what we were doing and made some recommendations. There was a good communication channel within our team and each individual was able to expose their ideas and opinions to take the project where it needed.

This was a great experience and I really appreciate to meet the people in the class. Each student has such strong and unique personality, yet we came as a group and were able to respectfully bring something to the table that was beneficial without clashing. That is to be respected!

Leadership course taught by Professor Raymond has been one of my favorite course taken at Baruch and is a great way to finish my Bachelor’s education. My initial opinion of a Leadership course was in the frame of “What can this course teach me about leadership that I don’t know already” I thought that I have already established my character and pretty much know my strengths and weaknesses, as well as have a decent understanding of leadership qualities. Yet! This course has opened my eyes in many ways.

First of all it were the Leadership assessments, all of which I kept and plan on reusing in the future for personal reevaluation and self-check.  I especially enjoyed the ones where we had to get other people’s opinions of ourself – a great way to level with yourself and see where you are.

Second, it were the discussions fostered by Professor Raymond.  A simple question could turn into a flourishing discussion, drifting in many different directions and opening subjects and issues that I personally would have never dug up. The “tenis ball” story will certainly retain in my memory. 🙂

Third, it was a book by Warren Benis –  by far one of the biggest highlights for me in this leadership course.  Benis’ incredible chapters were flooded with wisdom, leadership knowledge, tips and examples. This is one of those books that will stay with me and be reread numerous times.

Now, as far as my reflection about the project conducted together with Juan and Jonathan I have the following to say, “One head is great, but 3 is better.” Initially I started this project on my own and completed the first 2 milestones by myself.  It was going well, but there was something missing, perhaps a spark of something new.  When Juan joined me, his expertise in financial analysis inspired me, and the project picked up its speed and more importantly, my interest in it.  In Juan’s skills, analytical thinking and realistic approach, offered by some changes and my projections could easily land a position of the COO in my company.  When Jonathan joined us there was even more excitement added to The Lazy Place.  There is a LOT of Jonathan and it is an extremely valuable skill on the client-facing side of the company. It was an ideal decision on my behalf, with of course Jonathan’s suggestion to have him take the Marketing side of the company, and our Marketing blossomed!. Blossomed in a big way.  Jonathan had may creative ideas, some of which needed refinement and that’s were Juan and I came in.

Overall it was a great team to work with and an easy team to present the scope of our company.

Professor Raymond,

On a personal note, I’d like to thank you for this course and wish you all the best! I will keep in touch with you in future, letting you know of my progress and achievements.

As all the previous Benis’ chapters, Forging the Future also has much insightful knowledge and wisdom.

The comments about Chaos are really inspiring, because they 1. they develop an optimistic view and 2. help you stay leveled and calm when a disaster is all around you.

” Chaos is all around us now, but the leader knows that chaos is the beginning, not the end.  Chaos is the source of energy and momentum”

I’v also enjoyed Max De Pree’s quote from the Leadership is an Art, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last thing is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant”.

Defining the reality is crucial, and Benis talks more about it his discussion of envisioning the future, and assessing the current situation in order to develop something new. I think it is also a challenging task to “Define reality”. I will try it someday. I’ll sit down and brainstorm everything I think about the current world reality and the reality of my nearest surrounding.

Other quotes I’d like to stash in my bag of knowledge include

“Vision is a waking dream”

“Failure is not the crime. Low aim is”

“I never know what I say until I hear the response” – get other’s opinion of yourself to get a better understanding of your actions and who you are. A spouse, Benis mentions would be the best source to the truth about yourself

“Leaders need people around them to have contrary views” – an important part of perfecting your goals and vision

I’ve also laughed over Benis’ story of Khruschev’s visit to the U.S. 🙂

“Optimism, faith and hope” – I consider to be my personal attributes as well. I am a much of an optimist, rather than a pessimist, and may need to find a COO to manage my vision as John Sculley did.

The family business course was an enjoyable experience and was the class which made me think most this semester.  Its format of a roundtable discussion on the reading of Bennis sometimes verged on a debate on ethics and culture as they pertain to leadership constantly and I feel wiser for it. While my core belifes were not swayed it did give me more context into how others view leadership and their supporting reasons for it. I also gained insight further insight into my own approach to leadership in thinking about the topic and finally understand the distinction between mangers and leaders.

My participation in CUNY IVE was much like what I think my experience in starting an entreprenurial endeavor would have been and I am thankful for learning the lessons in this low cost environmental. As I started the semester I thought I could strike it out on my own, near single-handedly creating an idea, quickly finding myself insufficent, I sought a team. Which was Ronnie and the real-estate endeavor, I quickly found the team dissolving from a lack of passion and communication and  finally found a niche for myself in the lazy Place as Eugene’s’ marking guy. I enjoyed Eugene’s leadership style which was willing to accept any level of feedback and see if ideas could be incorporated into the Lazy Place idea. During the second deliverable when we were discussing models for the Lazy Place we discussed turning the lazy place into an online platform for connecting people with apartments with people who would scedule reoccuring naps, much in the same way that airbnb.com does it however after much discussion we found this model impractable for even if it works then our competitor airbnb would just copy the model and out execute us, which reverted lazy place back to its inital viable idea of a brick and mortar store. Juan was great with his analytical thinking and ability to drum up accurate numbers for  what it would realistically cost to start the lazy place. Overall Juan and Eugene are individuals I find I could really partner with and do business with and incidentally I took great amusement in how much of a night owl Eugene is as most of our think-tank sessions started at 1am.

How I Incorporate this experience into how I view leadership is that if I try to start a venture on my own without first identifying a team, it will most likely fail. Further when identifying partners I should do more due dilligance on their motivation for the idea that they are presuing to avoid a partnerhsiip which would be dissolved later due to a misalignment of desired outcomes. I believe if I had followed these steps I would have partnered with Eugene from the begining as he had the most fleshed out idea with the greatest passion for actually achieving it.

The comic above illustrates the missinformed zitgiest of the public on the topic of outsourcing. Cost efficiencies through divison of labor only creates an aggrgrate growth in output due to specializtion, this notion created by every half-rate news anchor and parable about bugs, continually reminds the American public about all the industrial jobs being lost to China, completely ignoring the reality that we are both richer for it.

Bennis discusses the technological globlization of the twenth century and its implicatiosn for the twenty first centuary as can be seen in its first decade in this chapter. These thoughts on globalization are further explored in Thomas Friendmen’s The World is Flat . Friedmen discusses how technology is creating a “flat world” where now one must not simply be the best in New York but the best globally as geogrophic distinctions are becoming incresingly irrelivant and while there are many who view this change as something to be feared, Friedman says it’s for the best and not only that a flat world is here to stay.

Bennis succinctly sums up the argument to globalization on page 167 when he states “Change cannot be viewed as the enemy – instead, it is the source of both personal growth and organizational salvation. Only by changing themselves can organizations get back into the game and get to the heart of things.”

I’m so glad that I chose this class. I really liked the class for two main points:

First, My major is Business Entrepreneurship, and this class covers several important factors for the daily life of Entrepreneurs. The fact of having 2 textbooks for the class was very smart because they both cover the same topic, but from 2 different perspectives.  The Northouse was more the knowledge and facts to be learned, and the Bennis book was more to learn the daily experiences on an entrepreneur’s life. Both books compliment each other.

The other aspect that I loved about the class was the way of being conducted. Because we were discussing each chapter of Bennis at the classroom, it  helped us to get involve more in the topics and to communicate more with each other. Also, having those interactions in class helped us think as an entrepreneur and a leader at the same time. I definitely learned a lot on this class , and most of them are very helpful to re define my leadership skills and styles.

Our Children’s Care providers online website was Sandra’s idea. She owns a Day Care facility at her home and was raised on that environment. Therefore, she has more than just experience to help putting this platform together. We all had an idea of this type of business, but because of her experience, she knew more about what kind of services we can offer.

One of the good things about our group was the sense of cooperation in all of us. We always divided our work to be submitted by certain time prior to the specific due dates to have it review before submitting it to the CUNY IVE, and we always worked it on timely manner with more than enough time to edit it. In this case, Sandra was the leader of the group, the one in charge of making the last decision on every idea that we would come out. Marie was the one keeping on track on the due dates of all milestones and requisites from them. While Sasha and I were the ones collecting, researching, and putting together the documents to be submitted.

We used our leadership skills to put the project together. This venture helped me learned more about this industry and getting involved in the actual process of doing an Executive Summary for a business plan.

Leadership in The Lazy Place, seems somewhat hard to discuss. I think leadership in small group may not be as visible as it is in a large group. Eugene was visionary and so of course he had an influence over part of the project, regardless of who was heading a portion of the project. My involvement in the project towards the beginning of the semester wasn’t where it needed to be and still Eugene was able to chug along. He did a great job of taking on the project fully and developing it as far as he did. I’m not exactly sure why I did not get as involved earlier in the project. Eugene may not have motivated me enough to become as passionate as he did or maybe I wasn’t motivated because I had my own agenda to rekindle my idea. My reasons for my involvement are longer relevant.

When came time to buckle down and get the project done to complete milestone 3, I made sure I dedicated the time needed. From the moment I showed Eugene I was proficient in something, he gave me a lot more autonomy. After a point, I would just run ideas by him and explain my reasoning for doing things. Usually he agreed. When Jonathan came onboard, he was able to bring something to the table niether Eugene or I could. His experience in Marketing and his ability convey that experience really pushed our presentation to a new level. Eugene’s ability to communicate his vision articulately, helped both Jonathan and myself deliver on our end.

In the end, I feel the presentation was really successful. Eugene was a great leader and was able to get the team going in the right direction. In this instance, I was a follower but I was more than satisfied with that role.

In the past ten years, there is been a huge upgrade and change in terms of technology. Depending on how companies and organizations take this change, it might either hinder  or help them. Companies must be up to date with the changes in society and technology to help  increase their market shares. For example, in the past ten years social networks have been revolutionary. This new tool is helping organizations to expand their markets. The fact that a company may have or may be connected to different social networks allows them to target different types of audience.

Mobile/ Smart Phones!! It is also another tool to reach and get more in contact with the clients. These new change in the phone industry helps companies aswell. SmartPhones and these new technologies keep companies closer to their customers. People can easily access/ search any company through their phones, without the need of having a PC. It increases the sales, customer loyalty, and even customer satisfaction. However, if a company is not on top  of all these sources, they might hurt their productions and sales. Customers are always looking for innovations and oportunities when choosing a company or products.