Flow is the feeling of getting immersed in something you love doing.

A person is said to be in a
state of Flow when they do something they love. Typically, the person will lose track of time,
get immersed in what they are doing, and will not need to be pushed by someone to do it.

Flow is important for an entrepreneur because to become a successful entrepreneur-, love and

passion for what you do is very important. The passion that you show towards your business
idea convinces others to also believe in your business.

Flow is not leisure.

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Effectuation – is a term to describe entrepreneurial thought process.

- Face challenges with common sense

- Focus on what is doable
- Framework to make decisions
- Mindset and the practical approach

Effectuation is not a formula.

Effectuation does not imply that Entrepreneurs do not plan.

Effectuation is a mindset and a practical approach that entrepreneurs practice.  It is not a ready-
made formula that can be applied to start a business. Entrepreneurs determine the goals
according to the resources in their possession. They believe that since you have almost no
control over the future, don’t try to predict it. Instead, you should focus on what you have for
certain, and accordingly plan your way forward. 

Five Effectuation Principles:

Bird-in-Hand – start with your means

Affordable Loss – focus on the downside risk

Lemonade – leverage contingencies

Patchwork Quilt – form partnerships

Pilot-in-the-Plane – control versus predict

The Bird-in-Hand principle suggests that you start with what you have instead of hunting
around for resources, technology, etc. It implies that you should plan your way ahead
considering the resources that you have in hand.

Affordable Loss – how much can one afford to lose?

The Lemonade principle encourages entrepreneurs to embrace and leverage surprises rather
than avoid them. It encourages entrepreneurs to turn unpleasant surprises, in other words,
problems, into new opportunities.

Patchwork Quilt or Crazy Quilt – leverage your networks and form partnerships. Network
and collaborate to come up with solutions.

Pilot-in-the-Plane – control and steer your own path – write your own future.

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Left Brain

- Practical
- Think in straight line
- Like structure
- Objective and analytical
- Logical and linear
- Detail-oriented

Right Brain

- Spontaneous
- Subjective
- Imaginative
- See the big picture

Orientation – is how we naturally tend to be.

People Orientation – energized by people.

Action Orientation – energized by tasks rather than by people.

- More action-oriented.

Deep Skill – dedicated to one field or subject and wants to spend time to get better at it.

Entrepreneurial Styles

Maker

- Organized
- Always planning ahead
- In control
- Goal-oriented
 - Looking to work independently

Narayana Murthy – founder of Infosys

- Bringing ideas to life through tangible plans and execution

- Looking at the bigger picture and never missing the smallest detail
- Maker are great at getting things done
- They prefer processes and systems over people
- Tends to be really good at operational roles

Merchant

- Keen observer
- Someone who spots opportunities that others missed
- Rational and decisive
- Good at improvising

Kishore Biyani – founder of Future Group

- They are often on the lookout for the next big thing
- Quick to spot market opportunities and unmet means
- They are really good at cleverly applying ideas from other industries
- Building profitable businesses out of them

Magician

- Brimming with ideas

- Question things often
- Go with their instincts
- Comfortable taking risks

Steve Jobs – founder of Apple and Pixar

- Dreaming of what can be

- Staying ahead of the market
- Surprising and delighting customers
- Navigating entirely new territories and lands

Mobilizer

- People person
- Bring people together
- Enjoy working in a diverse team
- Feel creating social impact is important
Verghese Kurien – founder of Amul

- A great catalyst
- Bringing about systemic change
- Addressing large scale social problems by gathering the right people

Master

- Detail-oriented
- Perfectionist
- In love with learning in depth about something that interest you

Bill Gates – founder of Microsoft, a highly-skilled knowledgeable expert with a great passion
and high quality standards. Seen as a role model by others in his industry.

Entrepreneurs see problems as opportunities.

Opportunities are not always disguised as problems. Sometimes, they can be found around a
group of people or the customer.

Customer:

Problems faced:

Product may be the opportunity.

Identifying problem is the key to the opportunity.

Entrepreneurs trip because they start with a solution, and not the problem.

Ash Maurya, author, Running Lean – building a key without knowing what door it will open.
Build a key to the door that will take you places.

Problem – is a job that someone is unable to do.

Where to look problems? Look for existing products, alternatives or pain points, friction.

Which of the following situations can be considered an opportunity disguised as a

problem?

When someone is unable to do a job or doing it with a lot of friction

When the solution to a certain problem has a lot of pain points

Most opportunities come hidden as problems. In fact, it is said that where others see problems,
entrepreneurs see opportunities. When the customer has to undergo a lot of pain points to use an
existing solution, it is an opportunity for you as an entrepreneur to offer a solution with fewer or
even no pain points. On the other hand, if the customer is happy with an existing solution or it
doesn’t matter to them whether the solution works or not, it is an indication that this is not a
problem worth solving.

Anticipate future problems based on current trends, structural changes, and some entrepreneurs
can predict problems.

Before taking up a problem and creating solutions for it, verify whether the problem is worth
solving.

Basic Steps:

1. Observe, observe, observe! – emphatize while observing people. A job getting done is an
opportunity. Find out what is the trigger pushing the customer to look for a change.
2. Focus on the existing alternatives. Validate the answers with your customer.

When does a problem become a problem worth solving for an entrepreneur?

When the problem doesn’t have any alternative solution yet

In other words, a problem becomes worth solving when people are facing the problem, but have
no alternative solution for the problem. If you can provide a solution to this problem, these
people become ready to pay for your solution.

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Harnessing creativity to make something of value, solve problems and change the world is
design.

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. It is not just what it
looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – Steve Jobs

Design is not about how a thing looks or feels like. It is how a thing works. It is also about
fulfilling the specific needs of people or changing the way existing alternatives work.

Design Thinking – it is about taking the designer’s method of thinking and working and
applying it to different kinds of problems.

- Deeply human-centered this means that we start with the user by trying to understand
their needs and wishes and how they see the world.
- Identify an opportunity for improvement or just a better way of doing things. The design
mindset is not problem-focused, it is solution-focused.
 - Action-oriented towards creating a preferred future, it is not about just thing what is but
imagining what can be.

Design Thinking - is a creative process.

- Based on building up ideas versus learning from the past, which means it is different
from traditional approaches that need that in logic.
- Design thinking is about thinking wildly and hoping possibilities.
- Testing ideas rapidly to find multiple solutions not just a single answer.

Design Thinking is about combining empathy, imagination, intuition, and reasoning to explore
possibilities and create desire outcomes that benefit the end user.

“Design thinking can be described as a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and
methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable
business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.” – Tim Brown

Effective Design Thinking comprises three aspects:

· Desirable – what people want.

· Viable – what makes business sense.

· Feasible – what is technologically possible.

Values of Design Thinking

Design thinking is far more than a problem solving tool, it is a mindset. One that can be
develops and nurtured over time.

1. Empathy – walk in the shoes of your user or the person you’re designing for, get inside
his or her head and discover his or her needs and wants.
- Empathy is described as putting oneself in the customer’s shoes. It can be achieved by
wearing the customer’s hat and then understanding his or her needs or wants.

2. Curiosity – ask vivid questions and investigate everything.

3. Imagination – let your imagination play. Play is important process of making new
discoveries.

4. Making – make, break, repeat and create. Keep experimenting, shaping or find your
ideas.

5. Optimism – have a positive mindset, frame problems and the opportunities.

Design Thinking is not guess work, it is a structured way and a process to harness your
creativity.

Models of Design Thinking

1. Stanford d.school – empathize, define, and ideate, prototype and test.

2. Design Thinking For Educators: Toolkit – discovery, interpretation, ideation,

experimentation and evolution.

3. Design Minds: DT Process – it has a 3 step process: inquire, ideate and implement with
reflection stages in between.

4. Wadhwani Foundation Design Thinking Model – which is a 5 step process:

- Immerse or deep dive to understand what the problem is.

- Empathize the end user and express the problem from their point of view.

- Ideate to come up many ideas and possible solutions for the problems.

- Prototype one of the solutions.

- Validate or test it with the end users to get feedback.

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Brainstorming – is a group creativity technique which is used for idea generation. It allows the
free flow of ideas and thoughts within a short frame of time.

For brainstorming to happen there must be more than one participant.

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique for idea generation where two or more people
ideate and shortlist ideas on a chosen topic.

4 Rules of Brainstorming

1. Generate as many ideas as possible – quantity will lead to quality.

2. Don’t criticize or stop or even interrupt anyone – let everyone have they say.

3. Welcome seemingly wild ideas and crazy ideas.

4. Build upon each other’s ideas

For effective brainstorming, it is important to encourage participants to come up with as many

ideas as they can, even if the ideas seem unrealistic.  Participants should also try to absorb what
the others are saying, and further build on the ideas shared by others. This will help them
shortlist the best ideas.

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