Monthly Archives: November 2014

The concept of pivoting was defined in class yesterday. To me it was new to me as a term, but not as an idea. I can use the analogy of a secret crush: when you’re in a deep committed friendship with someone, but secretly wish you could be something more. Or as my generation calls it: the Friend zone. It is extremely difficult to change directions, from friend to lover. It comes with confusion and miscommunications, misunderstanding that a chat over coffee was actually a “date”. Many who have tried to break through the friend zone have failed.

A recent success story however, would have to be Tangerine. (Or if you can remember a firm called ING Direct). It was purchased by Scotia Bank in 2012 and in the last two years went through a rapid but well organized rebranding. The Financial Post’s Mitchel Osak dives into the complications that came with the pivot, and differentiates creating a good plan, and executing one successfully. Tangerine broke through the friend zone in less than 18 months, a feat many companies can only fantasize about.

Photo from The Food Network.

Comm 101 has several learning outcomes as an introductory course. The explicit points here are to open our young minds to all the different possibilities of paths to follow on our way through our degrees, what tools to use and what skills to develop. But I’ve also noticed something else happening. One by one I’ve seen my colleagues being picked off. One class topic will just grab them, and they’ll have chosen. They’ll understand what interests them and in a flash they’ll know why they are here. You can see it during in class discussions, and you can see it in their blogs. Just like Sophia’s: you can see that accounting has caught her and she’s not looking back. She sees accounting as more than simple financial statements but as a way to make a difference and help people. Passion.

Another example of someone who found their passion would be Emma Smith. With Zimt, she had an dream and was able to realize it. She spoke of the amount of work and dedication it took to arrive where she is, and that inspired me. In 2012 the business broke out of Vancouver, and now sells across Canada with plans to expand into the US in March 2015.  It’s a story of hard work paying off, I hope to one day be able to work as hard towards something  as entrepreneurs like Emma have been doing.

Image from Zimt

The most important part of becoming wealthy is not spending your money, but of course this is never possible. Instead, a method of spending has been brought to my attention through a financial blog post called Get Rich Slowly. The point writer Holly Johnson makes is that being careful about when you spend money can help a budget stay on track. Johnson tells the story of how she and her husband brought their spending under control by always being one month ahead on payments.

When learning about the Time Value of money in class I was inspired by the idea that value and wealth can be created over time, if calculated wisely. Johnson’s idea relates perpendicularly as the consumption of wealth over time is equally important. When it comes to my own spending, with the little income I have as a student, I have to be very careful.  I believe if I can stay a month or more ahead that will mean I won’t ever miss a payment or incur late penalties. Instead I’ll be able to use my money where it counts: creating value over time.

Image from “Get Rich Slowly” blog.

Jill Lepore’s article: “The Disruption Machine” (June 2014) is an analysis on disruptive innovation theory. According to Lepore the theory does little good to predict the outcomes of business endeavors. What the article revealed to me was that in any industry “Everyone is either disrupting or being disrupted”. It is clear that in business there are many more failures than there are success stories.

Lepore is quick to point out that disruptive innovation is not a study of success rather an explanation for why businesses fail. Every day I take advantage of products that at one time or another broke through and completely re-wrote convention. I use email, I send text messages, and I am able to access info

rmation about anything, from anywhere in the world. All of this I take for granted. But what about the ideas that never made it? Ideas that were too early for their time, or did not have enough support, or were beaten out by competitors. Sometimes making things too cheap or too simple takes away value, and therefor disruptive innovation is not necessarily always the best rout.

It is impossible to predict whether or not an idea will succeed. This serves as inspiration to try my own, and perhaps have a chance to leave a mark on the world.

 ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN STAUFFER.