16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

Things that make me different:

1.) I matured fast when I was young. I didn't always have the ability to rely on parents when I was young and often had to work hard to get things I wanted like a car.

2.) I always try to be optimistic about opportunities. Go into each day with a fresh mindset.

3.) I am pretty creative and try to complete things differently from others. Often attacking a situation thinking it through.

4.) I find myself pretty caring always looking out for my friends and what they are up to.

5.) I am reliable. I can be called into work and will show up 9 times out of 10 or my friends know that if they call I will answer.

The first person I sat down with and interviewed was my Mom. She basically stated that I "am a sweet boy who can achieve anything I wanted as long as I am not lazy and get suck in my room." I disagree with being stuck in my room but to each their own.

Secondly was my sister, I was surprised she said genuinely nice things because we tend to bicker but she said "you are helpful whenever I ask for help and that you always make me laugh when I don't want to"

My next interview was with my close friend Pradit. He talked about the time we went camping and how he was impressed with how I filmed the whole thing and made it into a movie. "It was cool how you turned an event that most of us forgot into a heartfelt good time with the boys" I just wanted something for us to post on twitter but it went a long way with my friends.

Ryan is one of my best friends from high school, He went into detail about how I was one of the most determined players on the soccer team we were on together. "You always wanted to go out to practice even when we didn't have practice because you didn't want to be benched for the next game" Being benched was a big fear of mine so working hard was my only way of making sure I didn't have that happen.

Lastly was my Coworker, Courtney. She stated that I catch onto things quickly because I was able to learn the computer systems quickly. By the first week she was pretty confident on me being able to hold my own with customers and understanding their policies.

There is definitely a lot of things I don't want to list about myself in the beginning of this assignment because I don't want to sound boastful but it was nice to hear friends and family state things about me that they see even if some of them call me hard headed because I know its out of love. I think there are differences on how I view myself because I know what I am like when I'm alone and how I can tend to be unmotivated and I am very critical on myself but I think being able to recognize stuff i need to work on can make you a better person. I think the people who I interviewed are more correct about me than I am about myself because how others view you is important. I would make corrections to being creative and adding that I like to make videos or take pictures because it impresses my friends and I like how it makes me feel accomplished to make any type of content. 

15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.2

In my last assignment I ventured into how my consumers picked places to eat. I wanted to see how they would choose where to eat, who to ask and where to look for food. So after my last assignment I've decided to interview three more people who actively look for places to eat and how they evaluate their alternatives.

I went through the process of interviewing three different people. A recently married man, a college student, and a recently graduated High school student. Each had different ways of processing where to eat through alternatives. The high school student held cheap places to eat as a major factor due to their low income whereas the recently married man wanted quality because of places to bring their wife. My college student interviewee looks more for places to be quick like fast food because of their busy schedule. I found it interesting that they all had a different alternative that was important to them. Instead of how and where do they buy I dived more into if they preferred to eat in at a restaurant or to get it to go. One thing that surprised me was that  the college student would actually pay for and order their food before even going into a restaurant so they don't have to wait for their food and get it as soon as they walk in. The others were normal with just going in and paying and ordering like normal and the married man typically would stay in and eat with wife so they could just take a break and talk because they weren't in a rush. The interviewees always seemed to qualify that they made a good purchase if first the food was fulfilling and if the food tasted good. They would qualify if the food was a bad purchase if they ordered something and they got the wrong thing and or if the food made them sick. I think from these you could qualify satisfaction as the rightness of the purchase.

The interviews kind of went how I had thought they would go. I do wonder if paying for food and ordering online before going into stores is going to get more popular. I think this could potentially mix really well with my app idea because with the recommending of a place to eat you could have a link to click on to easily order and go pick up. Through conversing with my people the talks of rightness of purchase really influences my idea of including food reviews as an important piece on my app because with the recommendation you can see other people who either agree on you going and even whats the best to order. There is a mix of alternatives people use when evaluating where to go eat. People generally use cash to purchase their foods with the occasional online buyer. I look forward to thinking more about what kind of features to add to my app to provide more functionality than just recommending popular places to eat in your local area.

14A – Halfway Reflection

This class definitely was not what I expected I was excited going into the class because I was going to be able to dive deeper into my ideas and business ventures with classmates advice and peer reviews. There were moments where I did want to give up for sure. Getting through the first week was a nightmare because I completed all my assignments but did not turn them in correctly so I got no credit and which genuinely made me upset especially when the professor stood fast in the no mess ups rule for the first week of an assignment class. What pushed me even further to wanting to give up was when he replied with a smiley face emoji saying "sorry". Even though it was a bad start I am not a quitter and I stayed determined to keep going. I stayed tenacious and no matter what I am not getting another bad grade because I don't want to make a B in a class where I get teased with smiley faces.

I have always had a hard working spirit. This class has fine tuned me into getting stuff done which can foster into tenaciousness. You have to be patient and make sure to set a lot of time to complete tasks. Getting your schoolwork done early is not a bad idea for this course either.

Tip one, set time twice a week to look over this class and do assignments. You can't do it all in one night. Tip two, don't be afraid to dive deep in your head if you think any small thing is wrong with society go into it and come up with ways to make something better whether it be through a service or a product that could be made. Tip three, get a good group to discuss your ideas with to help develop further your ideas outside of class. There is nothing wrong with brainstorming with others. These tips will help you be successful in this class and further attribute to your tenacious mindset.

McDonald's: The Franchise That Changed The World

Ray Kroc

Surprised me most:

I think one of the big things that surprised me most was Ray Kroc wasn’t successful until he
reached an older age. He was a multi mixer seller into his 50’s and became McDonald franchise
agent when he was 52. This was a serious rags to riches story where a man who saw an opportunity
took it and showed it all over the world.

What I admired:

I admired Ray Kroc’s vision, he always looked at ways to make that company better whether it be
bringing his own multi mixer product in or new formula of ice cream to even buying the real estate
through making a real estate business that the franchise was being built on.

What I least admired:

Since this book was an autobiography the book did not go into detail on the darker side of Ray and
how his alcoholism that was stated on many interviews with other franchise owners and even the
McDonald brothers pushed people away that could have helped make the business better.

Adversity and Failure:

I think the whole story of Ray Kroc was bleaked with adversity and failure, the McDonald's brothers
didn’t see Ray’s ideal of the future for their franchise and they knew what they had was good just didn’t
know they could replicate it across america. Ray failed over and over his whole life so when he had his
one big success with McDonald's it easily washes away all his other failures to that point.

2) Ray Kroc had a good bit of competencies, one major one that I have stated a few times was vision.
He understood how valuable quick service and uniform routines was considering at the time most was
drive in services where he would have to wait to get waited on and they wouldn't give him food in
wrapping and in a bag for the on the go routine he was used to. Another major competency was his
ability to never stop working he worked for McDonald's until the day he died coming up with many
different ways to improve his franchise and build a literal food empire.

3) I think what confused me most was nearing the end of the book where he went into detail about
owning a baseball team and all the intricacies that came with that. I think that was just him losing
steam near the end and wanting to delve into other fields but I found it weird to be placed in a book
about him and McDonald.

4) I think if I were to ask him questions on his life I would ask if he regrets not giving more royalties
and credits to the McDonald's brothers and why it took him so long to say that they existed. He
basically said he made McDonald and called it that because it was “American sounding” when
that wasn’t the truth at all.

5) I think Ray Kroc’s definition of hard work was giving it all you had. He gave up his family
and wife for the beginning of the business he even sold his own home to start this journey
which was a huge gamble and looking at it myself I do not know if I would have the guts to sell
everything I held dear to me or destroy relationships that i had built like with the brothers.

12A- Knowing Food and Your Own Needs

The segment I wanted to go into for interviews was on local foods and where people wanted to eat.

I interviewed three different people that fit in my criteria as mostly going out to eat and do not often cook at home. One of my interviewees was a college student from my hometown, another was a graduate student home for the summer and the last was a single parent of two children.

The whole point of my product was people wanting to know where they should go to eat and it really helped that all three of my interviews showed that they had the problem of not knowing where to eat. For the home college student he has trouble finding a good place for him and his friends to get a quick bite to eat without having to go to a fast food place to get food in less than 10 minutes. My graduate student friend after getting off work also has trouble finding a quick and good place to eat at during his break so he doesn't have to be late for work. My single parent interviewee has trouble keeping his kids together so finding a place around her that can take care of her needs and let her take care of her young kids is a must. Their needs seem to be most salient during normal food hours like lunch and dinner. Their needs also stem from when their friends want to go out to eat or when they are in a rush. My app would offer them the best coverage on what was the most reviewed food place and best rated place in their local area along with their wait times and how fast their food production usually is.

When my people I interviewed became aware that they were hungry they would usually go to the app around me and look for whatever place is closest and what they were filling at that time. They also would go online and google search "Fast Food" which would give all the places in their area. They also get recommendations from their friends on where they should go.

Through my interviews I learned a few valuable lessons, my app seemed to get all my interviewees interested in what would be the best places to stop by around them. I also learned that even though it could give the best advice certain people will have a craving for a certain thing like burgers and fries so this makes me want to go into my app and make categories that will take in all the different types of food places and rate them between each other. I think my segment goes very well into need awareness and information search. In fact my app proposes the idea of taking away information search entirely by being the platform people will look on.

Idea Napkin

In this assignment I will be going into detail on fleshing out the "bigger picture" of my online website that will provide the service of foods and goods from around the globe convientently on my website.

My name is Christian Highfill, I am a third year telecommunications student who has traveled all over Europe when I was living with my parents on base in England. My talents specialize in Management I started at the bottom at my first job when I was in high school and eventually helped manage the store within my first three years at the business. I saw the first ever 1 million dollars in profits in my first year as a manager. I left for college to pursue video editing and marketing. I aspire to one day be on a marketing team and make promotional videos for corportations. The business that I want to start would be ideal to get my hands on concepts of running a business and be able to market it myself and watch it grow.

What sets me apart from everyone else is I lived overseas with family I remember experiencing unique foods from all over and when coming back home not being able to find certain foods from England like their choclates or even Jaffa Cakes a pastry that is very popular there. I understand the want of certain goods that you can't easily aquire so I will try and provide that central place that people can look for goods in. I am offering products that are imports from overseas at a lower rate then ordering from independent importers due to having employees building relationships with those businesses and buying in wholesale. I would be offering my goods to idelaly consumers who want to experience new foods or goods that they may not have ever tried before because they were not able to go overseas to experience for themselves. Also this service would help relive nostalgia for foreign born citizens that want to acquire items from back home. People from my interviews showed to value this service because many people did not know where to look nor wanted to pay all the expensive fees to get a food or soda from overseas. This service would help ease looking around instead of popping into random stores around town in confusion and instead would be able to be able to look it up in a much quicker manner and be able to get what you want and how much that you want of it.

I think my idea of the business is strong but there are a lot of discrepancies that could be weak. I don't have a lot of experience on building a website and we would have to have a huge internet presence if we wanted to push out that it was available. I think my video production abilities could come into play for marketing. Also managing over multiple employees would be a strong suit of mine because of my work experience. I think it would be very pricey in the beginning due to building inventory and growing the website but I still think it is a genuinely good idea.

A Quick Bite to Eat - Elevator Pitch 1

Pretty cringy but let me know what I should change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDZtH0h8Wd8

Testing My Boundaries

My Opportunity that I wanted to dive into was starting a Online platform that distributes directly to consumers or grocery stores that want international products or regionally exclusive products at a lower rate than independent importers. I decided from the last assignment to include having a store that holds a mass of international items separated by countries in aisles with a layout like the size of Sam's Club. In this assignment I will be diving further into the boundaries of who, what, and why, my service could be successful and determining areas that may lie outside my boundaries.

I went through the process of interviewing five more people who could potentially be the prototypical consumers of my service but instead did not have the need for it and included their information in my chart alongside with people who wanted the service from the last set of interviews.

Who: Although they fit the criteria as being knowledgeable on international goods, they did not see themselves using my services because they are content with the goods local grocery stores offer and would rather look for a cheaper alternative than foreign imported goods.  

What: Having access to a good from a different country does not make you cultural meaning just because someone US born buys foreign goods does not make them culturally aware because they may have not visited or are really supporting that country.   

Why: The outsiders need for the item may be nonexistent because of family being able to send them the good or because they are content with the goods they can access at a store or provider.

INSIDE THE BOUNDARY                                  OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARY

Who is In- People that want to explore different products from other countries and consumers that want access to goods that they know about but might not have had access to otherwise.	Who is not- Consumers who are content with their own local goods or not being aware that there are goods that are different in other places.
What the need is- Accessing products from other countries that they cannot find from local grocery stores or online at an inexpensive shipping rate.	What the need is not- Buying goods from the store or webspace while making you appear more cultured by having goods from all over will not actually make you aware of more about other cultures.
Why the need exists- Grocery stores often try to find items to stock their shelves with that are interesting enough to attract attention and with the improvement of international trade the use of our service could make it easier to stock shelves with popular international goods. Also many consumers order online goods from other countries but because the goods come from importers they tend to only ship in large quantities or a higher shipping rate making it very expensive to get your home countries popular soda.	Alternative Explanations- Some people do not want the service because they have family in that area to supply them at a cheaper cost. Also some did not want the products offered because they are good with their local goods or where consumers could be unknowledgeable about such an opportunity could exist

From all of my interviews and the table I made it put in perspective all the different boundaries that it would take to get someone interested in my store. This exercise also helped with figuring out what I would need to do to potentially reach the people outside of my boundaries and even with them as a barrier now, I still think this could potentially be an opportunity.

Solving The Quick Bite To Eat Problem

The Problem:
  The problem that I propose is that whenever somebody wants to go to a restaurant nobody likes waiting for a table to sit down and eat. In this day and age a lot of people are on the go and have enough time to get food before they might have to clock back into work. But, they want to maximize their time to eat and get their food as fast as possible. Upon going to a fast food place it has slow service or to a sit down place like a local burger place and it has long lines so you have to wait. Causing less time to eat before having to rush off.

The Solution:
 I propose starting an app from the opportunity of growing technology that centralizes on telling their users how long lines are at restaurants and averaging the time food takes to get table. This solution can be sold as a scanner that restaurants and fast food can install to their front doors that uses occupancy of a restaurant to help give accurate depictions of how busy they are. Along with the scanner, we would include a software into the order manager that takes the average of how fast food can go out and will tell the user what is the best spot to eat at for the day. Although people can make reservations at restaurants this is for the average consumer who might want to get lunch or a late impromptu dinner with friends. This app could be made profitable as businesses want to use this app to gain attention due to their fast services and basic advertising as being the top place to eat at from the apps top ranking board.

International Foods Inc.

I would like to create a business that distributes foods from other cultures all around the US in an online platform or through distribution from grocery stores. Many unmet needs have been stated by my friends and even on online pages that I frequent who have to order from online vendors at ridiculous rates.
The original who, what and why
The Who: Grocery Stores who want access to more international goods and regular consumers who may want foods they can't get locally

 The What: Foods from all over in a central place or website platform which will make acquiring sought after items easier to get

The Why: Challenges happen when trying to find a certain international item which causes consumers to give up and not get it.

I interviewed five people with different cultural backgrounds, genders and all differed in age. My control group was a man from the US who hadn't traveled. A frequent traveler from the US and I interviewed one person who was originally from Thailand. One with a Honduran background and lastly one person from a Japanese background.

The Who: Upon asking my interviewees they responded that they would want foods from other places all around the globe. It seemed that even the person from my basic control group that was from the US and had not traveled even replied that he would want goods from other places just to experience them since he wouldn't normally be able to get them from stores he frequents.

The What: Asking what kind of items they would want got very many mixed answers. There were things that people wanted to obtain all over some didn't even have to do with foods. Items ranged from cosmetics and cigars to candies and different types of soda. Interesting enough I had expected for them to want items from their home countries like Thailand's specialty coffee brews or seaweed snacks but instead it was a Haitian Soda even though they weren't Haitian. In my interviews with the two from the US they even talked about items that weren't actually in another country but were just only relatively popular in certain regions of the US like for example a soda called Cherwine that is only really available in states like North Carolina and Virginia.

The Why: Asking why their needs aren't met are simple enough. Not many people may know about certain goods so stores wouldn't hold them because the demand isn't super high. Some people would go to buy certain items online but purchasing from overseas may have special rates or it would take a extremely long time to have sent or even have a minimum shipping requirement so they couldn't have individual items delivered. Other people didn't even know if goods were available at certain locations so they wouldn't go out of their way to look around for it.

There are a lot of factors that detract this business from starting like the fact that there isn't enough knowledge about goods from around the world and it would be very pricey to have goods sent from all over. Another could be forming relations with international businesses to have those goods be available. One of the things I discovered was that people don't just want foods from other places they could even be specialty items like colognes from France or that some people wanted things from within the US that they aren't able to buy from grocery stores which could open opportunities for intercontinental trade and not even leaving the states. I still believe that the opportunity to start a business like this is here we would just have to find cost efficient ways to receive the goods and get the awareness or marketing about popular items from around the world out.

Economic and Regulatory Opportunities

1)Two opportunities I found in economic trends were that technology is reaching record new highs and oil and gas prices are predicted to stay on the rise until 2050. Also in accordance to finding two economic trends I found two regulatory changes that may hold opportunities. One being that around the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic are opening back up their shrimp fisheries. and that grocery stores in America are starting to ban foods with additives.

2)Tech 
https://www.investopedia.com/news/tech-stocks-seen-rising-new-record-highs/
  The tech industry is reaching new heights which I think is fundamental in growing as a society. I found this off of Investopedia which was in Google finance which basically talked up about how Tech has a strong momentum and companies like Nvidia are shining. A opportunity might lie in this because unemployment is at numbers so low that have not been seen since 1969 which can hold more chances for people willing to spend money on leisure like on a home computer or games. Companies like Google or Amazon might love this because it allows them to push out more subscription based services like YouTube Red or Amazon prime. This opportunity would not be very hard to get into but difficult to conquer because there is so many other types of competitors out there.

Oil & gas potential alternatives 
https://www.thebalance.com/us-economic-outlook-3305669
Oil has always been a huge factor on everyones mind because gas is such a huge stress on the average Americans lifestyle with cars. I found this on a website that bases itself at economic outlooks and what to expect in the future. Basically I believe there is a opportunity in this because crude oil is only going to become more expensive because it is a natural resource and it will eventually run out. Easy sources for oil will have ran out by 2050 and prices will jump to dizzying heights of more than double what we pay now in gas as making crude oil will be more expensive. I believe the biggest customer that might pay for this is trucking companies or even airline companies charging ridiculous fees just to break even to have a flight. This opportunity might be difficult to exploit because we would have to find a way to have cars maybe use other forms of energy instead of gas to run.

Shrimp regulations 
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=NOAA-NMFS-2015-0125-0074
 A regulatory change that surprises me is that fisheries are being reopened for the catching of shrimp. The information off regulations.gov led me to believe that this will maximize harvest benefits and potentially boost that market. This would be a major opportunity in my hometown because we have a local shrimp festival where we buy a ton of shrimp for different meals all week. A major consumer would be all seafood restaurant chains because of their mass purchases on seafood. Would not be hard to exploit because of relatively cheaper purchases and will boost profits in my hometown.

Grocery store bans equals new opportunities
 https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2015-F-3663-0014
Banning foods with additives is an important step to becoming a healthier nation like how other countries have stricter health and safety rules. This opportunity was found from the regulations board on regulations.gov where they explained that  food additives are no longer safe to consumers. An opportunity could exist because this might allow farmers that don't have additives or GMO implants to become higher in demand with grocery stores which wouldn't be difficult to exploit if you could meet the demand.

3) Technology has always been a huge part of my day to day I have always used devices to make my life "easier" so when I see that technology is on the rise in stocks I picture that companies with big track records for online services could potentially gain new customers. Like I said earlier gas is such a big deal to us as consumers but with cars like the Tesla being in such high demand the idea of an electric car doesn't seem as far out of reach and I would assume companies will be looking at other ways of transporting their products instead of heavily relying on gas. Shrimp Fest is huge in my small town everyone eventually participates in it and people from out of the county will make long treks just to get some of our food so seeing shrimp become more abundant in the marketplace was a instant opportunity that I could immediately latch onto. My values as watching what I eat have always led me to buy some maybe pricey items because I don't want to buy items that could be potentially harmful so opportunities that might allow farmers or grocery stores to acquire healthier goods makes me believe prices might go down now that they won't have as much competition and it'll be more sought after.