Level Up: This slide deck is used as an overview for seminars on business skills. Many people are in the enviable position of having a start up that has figured out its product and market and now needs to scale, or are running a small business and want to be more professional about it, or they are hoping to start a business and want to start putting together the skill sets they will need, or they are climbing the corporate ladder and need to close the skills gap. Here is a primer on the different disciplines you need to know ASAP. It includes marketing, sales, accounting, finance, strategy, leadership, management and other skills.
4. The Big Picture
• Create Value
• Marketing
• Sales
• Management
• Organizations
• Leadership
• Accounting
• Finance
• Economics
• Operations
• Strategy
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5. Create Value
• Innovation & Experimentation
• Lean Start up
• Business Model Canvas
• Value Proposition
• Customer Discovery
• Customer Validation
• Monetization
• Search for
Sustainable/Replicable
Business Model
• Iterative Process
• Product/Market Fit
• Minimal Viable Product
• Feature Sets
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6. Start Ups
• Not a mini version of a
company
• Temporary organization
in search of a
repeatable, sustainable,
scalable business model
• Opportunistic
• Different skill set than
growing and scaling an
organization
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8. Technology
• Get versed in the
inevitable
• Futurism: skate to where
the puck will be
• Enabling technologies
• Converging technologies
• Rogue Waves
• Learn to code
• Rapid prototyping
• Agile Development
• AI, VR, CRISPR
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10. Intellectual Property
• Patents
• Trademarks
• Write and file your own
• Create Assets you can
fund around
• Competitive landscape
• Barriers to Entry
• Create a Monopoly
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11. Nail it and Scale it!
• Success:
• Product/Market fit
• Initial sales
– Nothing happens until
something is sold
(Kaufman)
• Customer Segment
Validation
• What Next?
• Different set of skills,
knowledge and expertise
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13. Marketing
• Awareness Campaigns
• Segments
• Channels
• Pricing
• Branding
• Digital Marketing
– Permission and Content
Marketing
– Platforms
– SEO and Inbound
– Conversion Funnel
– Hub and outpost model
– Social Media
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14. Sales
• Proof/Validation
• Pre-tail: gauge demand
– Tesla
– Kickstarter/Indiegogo
• Early adopters
• Crossing the Chasm
• Revenue
• Nothing happens until something
is sold (Kaufman series)
• Valuation
• Risk reduction
• Boot strap
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15. Management and Leadership
• People
• HRM
• Culture
• Negotiation
• Communication
• Vision and Mission
• Presentation
• Organizational Structure
and Behavior
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16. Operations
• People
• Process
• Technology
• Supply Chain
Management
• Manufacturing
• Inventory
– JIT
– Buffer or Suffer
• Quality Control
– Six Sigma
• Costs
www.mba-asap.com
25. Business Skills Books
For a deeper dive on
various business skills,
check out my books
available in paperback or
for the Kindle on
Amazon:
• Managing and
Leading
• Accounting
• Negotiations
• Financial Statements
• Patents
• MBA ASAP
26. MBA ASAP
• Check out my website
www.mba-asap.com for
more business skills
information and
materials
• Sign up for my
newsletter
www.mba-asap.com