Business Skills for Engineers

Technopreneurs and Technopreneurship

August 2018
Introduction & 6Ds
Felicia Wong Yen Myan
B1.13
 Outline
• Course structure and assessment
• Alternative tutorial schedules
• Technopreneurs
• Technopreneurship
• 6Ds
• Customer value proposition
• Crowdfunding
• Brain Rewiring
 Course Structure & Assessment
Duration – 14 weeks
Distribution (%) LO 1 LO 2 LO 3 LO 4 LO 5 LO6

Test 15 X X X
Assignment 10 X X
Crowd Funding
15 X X
Campaign
Final Exam 60 X X X X X X
 Alternative tutorial schedules
• Tutorial sessions for the module
• Felicia:
– Wednesday (8am – 10am at D8.14)
– Thursday (8am – 10am at D8.13)
• Dr. Chou Pui May:
– Friday (8am – 10Am at BG.10)
• There is usually no need for tutorials every week.
If there are change in plans I will let you know in
advance.
 Technopreneurs

Aresh Ferdowsi and Jeff Bezos

Drew Houston
Evan Speigel Sean rad

Ariana
Elon Musk Pua Khein Seng
Huffington
Demis Hassabis
Greta Van Riel
 Technopreneur
• Starts with the right frame of mind.
• See opportunities to create and innovate.
• Combine technology with entrepreneurial
ventures or projects to create and/or innovate
something of value.
• Able to manage many risks and uncertainties.
 Technopreneurship

A process that combines technological

prowess with entrepreneurial talent and
skill to create or innovate a product or
service of value to potential users/
customers under high risks and many
uncertainties
 6Ds of Exponential Technology

“The Six Ds are a chain reaction of technological

progression, a road map of rapid development
that always leads to enormous upheaval and
opportunity.”

Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, Bold

 6Ds of Exponential Technology
• Digitalisation I Dig
• Deception The December
• Disruption Disco
• Demonetisation Demon
• Dematerialisation & Demand
• Democratisation A Democratisation
Digitalisation

To
 Deception
0.01 megapixels doubling to
0.02 to 0.04 to 0.08
≈ ZERO right???
Digital??? No
competition……
Meanwhile…
• Digital photos were gaining
momentum although profit
margins were considered
low
• Sales of photographic film
gradually declined
 Disruption
• Kodak became too comfortable.
– Did not realise that digitizing photography was
gaining recognition rapidly.
• They did not transition quickly enough into
the digitilisation of photography.
• Started to lose out.
• Decided to file for bankruptcy by January
2012.
 Demonetization
• With camera films
• Often have to develop
the whole roll.
• Can’t see the photo
until it is developed
• Photos can be laden
with issues (E.g. Over
exposure, bad lighting,
red eyes).
• All of that is MONEY!!
 Demonetization
• Digital cameras:
• Removes money from the equation!
• Who needs film when there are megapixels?
• You can take thousands of pictures and immediately
preview them. No need to spend more money.
 Demonetization

Skype Google, Facebook

No need to pay for No need for libraries,
long distance Purchases of
phone calls. newspapers, magazines,
etc. decline.
Dematerialisation

NOW….
 Democratisation

Kevin Systrom
 3D printing
• Already existed 30 years ago…is exponential
tech NOW!
• Disruptive to manufacturing (e.g. automotive,
prosthesis, fashion, military, toys, etc.)
• 3D print almost ANYTHING!
• Extremely customizable…DIY
• Demonatise and democratize manufacturing.
• Creates more opportunities for more
technopreneurs.
Drones?
• Agriculture: Drones watch for
disease and collect real-time data
on crop health and yields. This is
an estimated $3B annual market
size
• Energy: Energy companies monitor
miles of pipeline and oil rigs with
autonomous drones
• News: It's faster and safer to
deploy drones to cover breaking
news/disaster/war zones than
news crews.
Virtual reality / Augmented reality
• Brick and mortar retailers:
• Education industry: Immersive
education
• Medical industry
• Gaming industry
What other examples of disruptive
technology can you think of?
 6Ds of Exponential Technology
• 4 critical insights:
– Only change is constant and rate of change is
increasing
– You disrupt yourself or wait to be disrupted by
something/someone else. Being Uncomfortable is
necessary! (Being static = BYE BYE~)
– Competition is not large corporations anymore! It’s
the innovators and exponentially empowered
entre/technopreneurs!
– Your mindset is PARAMOUNT!... Positivity in the face
of adversity if KEY!
 Customer Value Proposition

Customer value

To convince your customers to Add value to customers’

want your product / service lives

Who What How Your strengths? Competitors?

 Customer Value Proposition
• Good customer value proposition should differentiate
itself from competitors in terms of :

Novelty Performance Nova Performed

Price Design Prettily Despite

Risk
Brand Breaking Ring
reduction
 Crowdfunding
What is crowdfunding?
the practice of funding a project or venture by
raising many small amounts of money from a
large number of people, typically via the
Internet.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding
 Crowdfunding
• Teams of 4 - 5 students..
• Decide on a project.
• You should have your projects uploaded to the
respective sites by week 5/6.
• Campaigns should end by week 12/13
• You should start forming groups and start
thinking of projects
• The project brief is uploaded on Times.
 Brain Rewiring
• How many thoughts on average do each of us have in
a day?
• 40-50 thousand thoughts per day
• 70 -80% are negative!!!!!
• Our brains are built to respond to negative stimulus
(danger, threats) and we need to train them to
behave otherwise to identify opportunities
• From now until the end of the module, we will make
it a habit to share five things that we are grateful for.
 What should you do next?
• Join Facebook group for this module.
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/460617811123974/
• Look for Business Skills for Engineers at Taylor’s University
(August 2018)

• Form a team and start thinking of a project for your

crowdfunding campaign