Management

Business in Britain

Corporate taxation
Annual investment allowance(AIA): You can claim 100% tax relief for spending on plant & machinery excluding cars, upto the amount of £25,000(tax year 2012-2013), excess amount can be carried forward by claiming WDA.
First-year capital allowances: 100% allowances on eligible new environmentally friendly equipments, renovating commercial premises or plant & machineries in assisted areas(Black country, Humber, Liverpool, North Eastern, Sheffields, and Tees Valley
Writing-down allowance(WDA): capital spending which cannot be fully write off in the first year, main pool 18%, special rate pool 8% for long life assets over 25 years(tax year 2012-2013)

National Insurance contributions
Class 2 NI: for earnings >£5595, flat rate of £2.65/week(2012-13), entitlement to claim incapacity benefit, maternity allowance, basic retirement pension, bereavement benefits
Class 4 NI: 9% of profits for earnings >£7,605, 11% for >£42,475
Income tax: primary threshold £7,605, employer NI starts at lower secondary threshold of £7,488

Points from Steve Jobs biography - Makkula principles on philosophy of Apple Computers
1. Empathy: an intimate connection with the feeling of the customer
2. Focus: eliminate all unimportant opportunities
3. Impute: presentation of the products, customers' perception of the products, importance of marketing and packaging

Maxim: 
- making most out of current situation
- long-term goals with higher vision and contribution to the community

Self-assessment
strength: global experience, charisma, risk assessment
interest: music(e-sheetmusic), travel, technology, education
experience: event planning, information processing, web advertising, free knowledge

Corporate Values Case Studies

Coca-Cola
  • Mission: To refresh the world, To inspire moments of optimism and happiness, To create value and make a difference.
  • Vision 6P's: great workplace to inspire People, Portfolio of quality beverage brand, nurture healthy network with Partners, responsibility to support sustainable Planet, maximize long-term Profitability to shareholders, highly effective, lean & fast-moving organisation of Productivity
  • Live our lives: leadership to shape a better future, leverage collective genius for collaboration, integrity/be real, accountability, passion/commitment in heart & mind, diversity, quality
  • Focus: on needs of consumers/partners, listen/observe/learn market, world view possession, execution in the marketplace, be insatiably curious
  • Work smart: act with urgency, responsive to change, courage to change the course when needed, remain constructively discontent, work efficiently
  • Ownership: accountability, steward system assets, focus on building value, reward people for taking risks & enhance solution, learn from previous outcomes, be the brand
  • Inspire creativity, passion, optimism and fun 

Product planning

Crawl buddies
Monetization plan: bar promotion, ticket discount
Key factor: users must be able to add venues, merchants can post promotions/event w/o approval
venue info.: closing time
interactive: announce, current location tag, start/join a bar crawl, friends list, venue rating
implementation: gps, mapkit, query for open places
collect evaluation upon user leaves the area
step forward: tennis partner, travel mates

eCommerce - Hanbok retail
Objectives: simplified interface, easy payment processing, global delivery
Maxim: promote cultural tradition and reach globally
To do: unit cost projection, operation manual
potential sales platform: shopify, weebly or pure HTML5
payment processing: Paypal, Google checkout, Amazon


TED Video scribble

Dan Ariely - A revised model of labor
Motivation = payment + meaning + creation + challenge + ownership + identity + pride + etc.

Bruce Feiler - Agile programming for your family
- apply agile development methodology to family management
- Collins business approach - preserve core, stimulate progress
- family mission statement to outline values of family
- weekly scrum to review what went well, what didn't work, next week plan
1) Adaptability - productive time limited to 10 minutes, weekly goals based on 
2) Empower your children - give autonomy to choice & reward/punishment
3) Tell your story - about the family roots/background, own youth story, boosts self esteem

Tim Ferriss - Smash fear, learn anything
material over method
This is the difference between what you do and how you do it, Effective (do the right things) Efficient (do the things well wether or not they are important

Innovator's Dilemma

Organisational Capabilities framework - best fit for disruptive technology survives
1. Resources - people, equipments, technology, design, brand, cash, relations to vendors
2. Processes - how to interaction, coordination, communication, decision making, transformation
3. Values - criteria on how to decide prioritization

Technological competition sequence - capacity, size, reliability, price(sustaining decline)

Summary
1. Pace of progress that makes markets demand or can absorb may be different from the progress offered by technology
2. Managing innovation mirrors the resource allocation process: innovation proposals that get the funding and manpower they require may succeed; those given lower priority, whether formally or de facto, will starve for lack of resources and have little chance of success
3. Matching the market to the technology, find a new market that values the current characteristics of the disruptive technology - marketing challenge
4. The capabilities of most organizations are far more specialized and context-specific than most managers are inclined to believe because capabilities are forged within value networks
5. The information required to make large and decisive investments in the face of disruptive technology simply does not exist
6. It is not wise to adopt a blanket technology strategy to be always a leader or always a follower.
7. There are powerful barriers to entry and mobility that differ significantly  from the types defined and historically focused on by economists. Because disruptive technologies rarely make sense during the years when investing in them is most important, conventional managerial wisdom at established firms constitutes an entry and mobility barrier that entrepreneurs and investors can bank on.

Entrepreneurship

David Rose on pitching to VCs

10 Characteristics VC's look for
1. Integrity
2. Passion
3. Experience
4. Knowledge
5. Skill
6. Leadership
7. Commitment
8. Vision
9. Realism
10. Coachability

Presentation guides
Logical progression - gradual build up, then hit the climax
Things I know or understand
Validation - ideas which others have acknowledged
Believable upsides
Things I know are not true
Things I don't understand
Things that make think
Internal inconsistencies
Typos, errors, unpreparedness
Perfect role model - Steve Jobs

Powerpoint guides
good - short, short bullet points, better - just the headline, best - only images

company logo - picture only, no names address
business overview - what we make
management team - show if who has relevant experience
market - situation
product - image of product
business model - monetization, target customer
strategic relationships - buyer/supplier
competition - competitive edge, barriers to entry
financial overview - 3-5 years revenue/profit model
use of proceeds - how the money will be used, capital structure history
capital & valuation - back to logo

Presentation tips
5. Use presenter mode (Adobe Ovation tool)
4. Remote control
3. No handouts
2. Don't read out your speech
1. Never, ever look at the screen