Skip to main content

Great Entrepreneurship Ideas Must Root in Useful Service

Yesterday, I met with a group of college entrepreneurs at the 2011 Student Sandbox Demo Day, an event hosted by The Syracuse Tech Garden and Syracuse University, with the partnership of other colleges and universities in the region. Over the summer, more than 50 student entrepreneurs worked at the Tech Garden on startup ventures. In this culmination, they presented their business projects at the Pitchfest and showed off their business ideas in the Tech Innovation Demonstrations Exposition. Seventeen (17) projects were presented. It was a great and very successful event!

Many of these entrepreneurship ideas are built upon information technology, engineering, and computer science. The “core science” of these projects is certainly very important. It seems to me, however, it is the “service implications” behind the “core science” that turns human technology into great entrepreneurship ideas. To name a couple of examples: iGetMoreFit is an idea that connects a fitness sensor to a user’s iPhone so that people can monitor their workout process directly on the iPhones. The Helios Innovative Technology is an UV-C sterilization system that can safely eliminate bacteria and sterilize objects or surfaces. These projects may not make any break-through impact on science or technology; their value comes from the connections between existing technologies and the services that will benefit a group of target customers. An idea without the service component is not going to fly. Accordingly, a team with an interdisciplinary background might have some advantages over others when launching an entrepreneurship idea. Now, I can understand better why I, as a hospitality professional, am called a “domain expert” in SBP11.

In addition to technology and service, what other components are important for entrepreneurship?

References:
The picture was downloaded from the webpage of The Clean Tech Center, which is also located in The Syracuse Tech Garden.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Luxury vs. Millennials and Their Technology: The Ritz-Carlton (By Julia Shorr)

Embodying the finest luxury experience, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC has been established since 1983. In 1998, Marriott International purchased the brand offering it more opportunity for growth while being independently owned and operated. They are known for their enhanced service level as the motto states, “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”. The luxury brand now carries 97 hotels and resorts internationally and is attempting to keep the aspects of luxury while keeping up with the trends of the technologically improving generations. The Varying Demographics of the Target Market The Ritz-Carlton’s typical target market includes: business executives, corporate, leisure travelers, typically middle-aged persons and elders, and families from the upper and upper-middle class section of society .   This infers a large range of types of travelers in which all are similar in that they are not opposed to spending extra for the luxurious ambiance. However, with

Want to win in future competitions? Invest in data-driven decisions now

Speaking of the permanent changes in the hospitality industry, many people will probably agree that demands for “bleisure”/“work-from-anywhere” travel and contactless self-service will continue to grow in the near future. Not everyone, however, realizes that data-driven decisions will become a key driver for growth in the industry, which has already affected how we do business now.   Automatic service enables businesses to capture more operational and consumer data for business decisions   One advantage of using automatic service comes from its ability to spontaneously capture and store real-time operational and consumer data for additional analysis. In the old-time when businesses still relied on workers to serve customers, operational data were collected usually through careful book-keeping, documentations, and observations; consumer data through market research were often limited to their perceptions, behavioral intentions, or past experience.     Now that automatic service is provi

Is It OK for Hotel Staff to Wear Piercings and Tattoos?

Time has changed. I see more and more college students wearing piercings and tattoos nowadays, but is it OK for hotel staff to wear piercings and tattoos? The answer is “no, no, no.” According a report at USAToday.com, customers across the board do not want to see any hotel workers with pierced eyebrow, pierced tongue, tattooed arm, or nose ring. Some may argue that tattooed and pierced workers may seem more acceptable in edgy boutique hotels as compared to the big franchised hotels, but the survey results did not find any differences among a variety of lodging products. Many respondents believe people who wear visible tattoos and piercings are taking a high risk of their professional lives. If you stay in a hotel, do you mind being served by tattooed and/or pierced staff? What if you are the one who makes the hiring decision? References: USAToday.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08042010 Picture was downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08042010P