Customer Interviews No. 1

The opportunity I chose was a transportation method for college students going home for the holidays.  Trying to find a ride home from college can be stressful and expensive.  I asked 5 strangers if they thought that a service that provides reasonably priced rides would interest them at all.
The questions I asked were:
"What mode of transportation do you use when you are going home from Gainesville?"
"Would you be interested in a service that can provide you a ride with a stranger for a reasonable price?"

 After talking to them, I am now unsure if the opportunity would be viable.

I learned a lot about interviewing customers from this exercise.  At first, I was very nervous to talk to 5 strangers.  However, by the fifth interview, I was very comfortable asking a stranger questions.  I also learned what kind of questions to ask someone during an interview.

Week 4 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise for me in the reading was when the author stated that researchers believed entrepreneurship and bureaucracies were mutually exclusive and incompatible with one another.  This surprised me because I think that the two could actually be compatible with one another.  Entrepreneurs could help bureaucracies by giving them new ideas.

I was confused by one of the Corporate Innovator's Commandments.  One of them said that a worker can ignore their job description entirely if that is necessary for the innovation of their work.  I don't think it is a smart idea to tell workers that they do not have to do their job.  Innovation is important, but is it worth the cost of ignoring one's duties.

I would ask the author, "Do you think it's worth it for a worker to ignore their job description for innovation?"  I would ask him this because this was what confused me the most.  I would also ask "What are some examples of bureaucracies that contain entrepreneurs?"  I would like to more examples of these types of companies.

I did not really disagree with anything the author had to say in this chapter.  This information was new to me, so I felt that the author actually taught me a lot.

Top 5 World Problems

Top 5 Problems:
1. Terrorism is a huge problem the world is facing right now.  ISIS has been terrorizing the world and killing innocent people.
2.  War is a huge problem in the world today.  Countries go to war which leads to many innocent people dying.
3. Nuclear weapons are a problem in the world.  These weapons of mass destruction have the potential to destroy entire cities.
4. Hunger is a huge problem in places like Africa.  There are starving people with nothing to eat.
5.  Racism is a huge problem in the world today.  There are still many people that are prejudice against minorities.

Top 5 Solutions:
1. A solution to terrorism would be to destroy ISIS.
2. A solution to hunger would be to keep donating to charities that provide food for these poor people.
3. A solution to racism would be to keep educating our children about human equality.
4. A solution to nuclear weapons would be to stop the manufacturing of these weapons.

5. A solution to war would be to try to resolve conflicts without violence.

I listed terrorism as the number one problem because terrorist deaths have increased by 80% over the past year.  This problem is growing and needs to be stopped.  Even though racism is huge problem, I still put it at number five.  We are getting more tolerant and accepting as a society of different races.  The solution to terrorism is also the most feasible.  The whole world is against ISIS.  I believe if we all come together, we can definitely defeat them.  War is much harder to solve.  War has been around since the dawn of time.  Unfortunately, that problem may never go away.