S1E4 Democratize Entrepreneurship, applying the appropriate product. Podcast guest Ernesto Sirolli.

03/19/21 • 35 min

With your host Mika Tienhaara. Guest Ernesto Sirolli, Sirolli Institute.

Ernesto is a such a fantastic person to listen to, amazing stories about entrepreneurship - he takes us from Italy to South Africa, Australia and USA. This story also includes Fritz Schumacher, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Peter Drucker.

Bringing the psychological aspects to business can bring so much value to making the best of entrepreneurship. We talk about the holy trinity of Product, Marketing and Finance.

The three actors of business:

(P) The Producer.

What is your skill, what is your Product. The magnificent craft person, the inventor. This person is the salt of the earth. They build something that adds value to our lives.

(M) The Marketing person.

The Seller. They are passionate about the people they encounter - they are fascinated by the people they meet, they make friends. Their best phrase “how can I help you”. They try to find a solution for the person, the customer, even with products they do not sell themselves.

(F) The Financial Person.

These are doing the “parent supervision”. (P) wants to make the best product. (M) wants to give what people need. (F) Does the Supervision and has to come in between otherwise the whole concept collapses.

This way you get the right product, to the right price. This team has to build the business plan TOGETHER.

The true entrepreneurs are disappearing. The startup model has become a television show, a competition. This is not the right way according to Ernesto. Don’t pick the best one, rather work with the 399 rejected - why? (listen to the podcast and you will learn).

Are we experiences “tunnel vision” in entrepreneurship- believing that everyone should become a unicorn with hi-tech? The incubator and accelerator model does not democratize entrepreneurship skills. Learn everyone to swim, don’t just try to make one olympic winner. The genius is a disruptor and does not come out of a mould - go back to the garage mode, not TV show pitch competitions.

We could have continued for another hour...means there will probably be a sequel with Ernesto.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

With your host Mika Tienhaara. Guest Ernesto Sirolli, Sirolli Institute.

Bringing the psychological aspects to business can bring so much value to making the best of entrepreneurship. We talk about the holy trinity of Product, Marketing and Finance.

The three actors of business:

(P) The Producer.

What is your skill, what is your Product. The magnificent craft person, the inventor. This person is the salt of the earth. They build something that adds value to our lives.

(M) The Marketing person.

(F) The Financial Person.

This way you get the right product, to the right price. This team has to build the business plan TOGETHER.

We could have continued for another hour...means there will probably be a sequel with Ernesto.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Previous Episode

S1E3: Show your emotional intelligence! About leadership. Podcast guest Sara Sabin.

With your host Mika Tienhaara, ROCSOLE. Guest Sara Sabin, transformational coach.

About Leadership and Emotional Intelligence.

APOLOGIZES FOR THE SOMEWHAT BAD SOUND QUALITY IN A COUPLE OF SEQUENCES -BUT THOUGHT THE CONTENT BEING SO RELEVANT DECIDING NOT TO REMOVE/EDIT THOSE PARTS. WE HAD SOME CONNECTIVITY ISSUES ON THE DAY OF RECORDING - ACTUALLY ON THE INTERNATIONAL WOMENS’ DAY.

Do you want to be among the best, a top performer as a company. Sara firmly believes that it is a small risk to have those big ideas and bring that purpose to your company. This will help you to make it successful, and it is a vital intellectual challenge.

Be ready for the future - emotional intelligence is critical. The transformational leaders can envision the future and empower the team to deliver.

Everything is changing that is for sure, make use of the tools available. Can you create the beauty out of the beast?

And what is it that Sara wishes that companies will do now coming out of the pandemic phase - listen and you will learn.

A talk with Sara about transformational coaching and leadership.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Next Episode

S1E5 "Sometimes it's OK to fail". From Subsea to Space, but mostly about People. Guest John Saiz.

Host Mika Tienhaara. Guest John Saiz, Innovation 360 Group and Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.

Wow, it was fantastic to talk to John again. A lot of fun, but a lot of good points learning about technology development and much beyond. Leadership, competence and culture pays a huge role in how successful you are.

John during his time at NASA got to use the Technology Readiness Level from the 90’s and this has had a widespread use also in heavy-asset industries like Oil & Gas. But is this sufficient, what are the limitations? Don’t just blindly use one tool, there are also other systems that can support your development.

Failure is an option. When it is not costly and has a low impact, like when you have a low TRL. Learn as much as you can. But when you deploy for real, you better be sure to have a ready product as then failure is NOT an option. When your product becomes complex, with a lot of systems, you should also consider additional tools and systems.

Digitalization is here and we have to embrace it. As an organization be ready or get ready to utilize the data and convert to have it digitally available.

Condition you culture and cultivate your organization. John emphasizes how important the people aspect is, and there are shortcomings in so many organizations. People need to be inspired and motivated. There needs to be creativity in your team. Find the passion, which at the same time is difficult to achieve.

What about digitalization - humans are more prone to errors with repetitive tasks, let machines do this. Humans can focus on the really cool stuff. But you need to ensure that you automate in the right way.