PPT Breakdown !

Social Interactions & Cell Phone Information

This week I attempted to use the first six principles of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” on five separate individuals. Dale Carnegie list those principles as:

- Become genuinely interested in other people
- Smile
- Use their name
- Be a good listener
- Talk in terms of their interests
- Sincerely make the other person feel important


1.The first individual in which I attempted to apply these principles to was my teammates mother, Charlene Weigman. The overall conversation was very thorough and I learned that she studied the same profession as my mother.

2. The second individual in which I applied Carnegies principles to was an umpire at one of our games this past weekend in South Carolina. I found that this interaction was very difficult to initiate because he was unable to understand what I was saying due to speaking slightly different from what they are use to. Overall, I found out that his daughter use to be a Division I catcher at UConn and wanted to stay involved with the sport so he took an interest in officiating.

3. The next individual in which I held a conversation with was our team trainer. Although I already knew a lot about Katie I kept asking questions that led to new information. She had informed me of the surprise visit from her fiancé this past week, who had flew in from Florida to see her.

4. This next interaction in which I attempted to use the principles listed in Carnegies book did not go over to well. I say this because I was told to mind my own business and that us “yanks” should stay up North. I realized that not to many people in the South are fond of the Northern folk. Directly after hearing this comment I continued to pay for my bill and left the restaurant immediately with my father and teammates.

5. Finally, this last interaction was very easy for me to handle. I used the principles on my college coach here at UMBC. Throughout our conversation I learned that he bought his wife two puppies for Valentines Day, due to her losing her older Golden Retriever. Coach is also the one in which I asked about his cell phone service and usage.
Cell Phone- Nokia 6230 by AT&T….
Coach had informed me that he does not know how to use his cellular device for anything other then making phone calls and the occasional text message. I would put him in the late majority. I say this because just recently he was able to understand the concept of text messaging and understands the overall usage of his cell phone preventing his from being a laggard.

Apple vs Microsoft

Microsoft's Current Enterprise Value= $1,249,448,400
$18.00 X 69,413,800

Apple's Current Enterprise Value= $2,442,354,240
$91.20 X 26,780,200

Apple's current enterprise value is 195.47% greater than Microsoft's.

Social Interactions 1 & 2

Last week I made an attempt to apply the three strategies from “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” The first attempt went fairly well although I did not reap any benefit. Last Wednesday I was in Panera Bread getting lunch with a couple of my teammates and I noticed the cashier had made her own name tag. As I approached the register I greeted Summer with a hello and a big smile. She was not making eye contact at the time in which I said her name, but as I continued the conversation. I began asking questions like how she liked working there or if she was in college. She slowly looked up in amazement as to why I was asking her these personal questions. But she had asked if I knew her from somewhere and I explained that I noticed her name tag was designed to incorporate the theme of summer like her name. She started to smile and enlightened me to the fact that I was the first person to ever ask about her name tag and how her day was going. At the end of our conversation she wished my team good luck during our season and to have a good day. Overall it was a pleasant experience. (First Assigned Attempt)

This week I made another attempt to apply the three steps incorporated in “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Unlike the first attempt I received a 10 % off discount of my total bill at Lil Abners. This interaction was a lot more in depth because the atmosphere was laid back and we had mutual knowledge of the same things. As I entered the store I walked passed the cashier and said hello. I began to get the items in which I wanted and came back to the front to then pay for them. As I approached the counter I smiled and asked how his day was and then followed up with asking what’s his name and gave mine in return. Before even ringing me up he noticed I went to UMBC and started to ask various questions about how we were doing in basketball, and if I liked the school. I noticed that not only was I asking questions and getting personal he was doing the same. So by the end of our conversation he rang up the items in which I brought to the front and gave me a 10 % off discount. Therefore, I plan on having a personal interaction with Dave every time I enter Lil Abners in hope of the benefits. (Second Assigned Attempt)

Enterprise Value

Apple Enterprise Value (1980) :

$ 54,215,332 x $ 22= $1,192,737,304
$ 1,192,737,304 - $9,353,870= $1,202,091,174

Total Enterprise Value : $ 1,202,091,174


Microsoft Enterprise Value (1986):

3,095,000 shares x $22.00 per share= $68,090,000

Total Enterprise Value: $68,090,000

Apple's Enterprise value was approximately 1,700% greater than Microsoft's at the time of its initial public offering.

Cell Phone Interaction

The person I approached and interviewed for the cell phone assignment was a girl named Nicole, who is one of my close friends from home. She has the iPhone 3G from AT&T. Nicole explained to me that she uses her phone for basically everything.

Nicole continued to explain that she would not be able to get through her day without her cell phone because she religiously checks her email, IM’s her close friends, and navigates her way through the city with the GPS system. After speaking with Nicole I found it very odd how one piece of technology could be so important for one person to have.

Based off the technological device in which Nicole uses I would say she is between an innovator and the early adopters. I say this because Apple has made major improvements to their technology and she uses it for any and everything. She expressed how impressed she was with her boyfriends iPhone that she just needed to have one for herself. Which led me to asking if she could have any other phone regardless of cost she immediately said she would never alter from the iPhone 3G.

Here's my PP Slide :

Entrepreneurship in America

Moguls and tycoons, they are people that have built empires from their businesses and thrived. They are the envy of the common folk, but as per the definition of entrepreneur: they take great risk for the potential of great reward. They are only humans and they have their own faults and weaknesses. Entrepreneurs were not necessarily born great, but achieved greatness through their business savvy and the indomitable entrepreneurial fortitude. They all had their fair share of trials and tribulations that they needed to overcome. Entrepreneurs are a financial inspiration for the rest of us and their methods are simply incalculable regarding wealth and success.
For anyone involved in athletics, you know that perspiration can be the depths of despair. Kevin Plank’s unremarkable career as a college football player hardly ranks him with the greats of the network. But Under Armour, a vivid idea emerging during his days as a walk-on fullback at the University of Maryland, has taken Plank, 31, to the promise land in the sports apparel industry.
Plank set out to capitalize on the perspiration that goes hand-in-hand with sports by creating clothing that wouldn’t become saturated with body sweat. After playing fullback for the Terrapins, Plank knew what just about any other athlete knows… equipment, clothing, and shoes reek after several intense games.
Under Armour was started with a twenty thousand dollar budget, and a lot of groundwork. The company never spent money on print or media advertising, but instead, relied on word of mouth. They passed out samples of their clothing to football players from Georgia Tech. The players fell in love with it almost instantly, and Under Armour received it’s first order… for $15,000.00. Still relying on word of mouth advertising, fledgling this business into the limelight needed a great breakthrough.
Pure word of mouth. UA's marketing misses the mark with anyone here, When you find something that allows you to do the activities you really love without dealing with crappie gear, you tell your friends. In fact the company snuck up on the industry. It's not really revolutionary and I would argue that it's not well branded, but the products work really, really well. Perhaps under the radar a little bit, but certainly benefiting from the explosive growth of organized youth sports, both team and individual, as well as the increasing number of young people who are regularly exercising and working out, you might not think of Under Armour, unless you visited a high school gym lately, because they are everywhere. Now, after creating this new category niche of apparel in the performance space and forcing top behemoth competitors like Nike and Adidas to innovate quickly and bring a similar product link to market, Under Armour has set its sights on the other gender, and my prediction is that they will succeed. Why? For the same reasons they have been wildly successful targeting high school and college aged men who participate in organized sports or regularly work out. Guess what, the girls are doing the same thing, and in some cases, even more so. Plank no longer has one set target market for his product because both male and female desire to exercise in apparel well suited to their fondness and sport.
Furthermore, I do not feel like the concept “targeting the point of attack” fits entirely into Under Armours image. Yes, at one point it was directly specified to a specific target market, but Plank and his colleagues have realized they can no longer can “divide the universe of possible customers” because there is no remaining market segment.
After a weekly lunch visit, Kevin Plank received a call asking if he could make the shirts long-sleeved as well. Kevin, without an advertising budget, nor a well-recognized brand made his first sale to the Atlanta Falcons. Well known connections between the Falcons and Georgia Tech led to Planks success receiving orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise from professional sports teams and apparel shops all over the world. Under Armour therefore established a firm grasp on the industry by signing contracts to provide athletic apparel to all major pro sports, and most college sporting programs as well.
I admire Plank due to the fact that he was able to identify a void that lurked within the sports world, and was able to accomplish his thoughts and ideas through simple self motivation and the desire to work for himself. He was quoted by Claire Koehler in an article stating, “"If you want to do something, you need to practice it and you need to have confidence and the know-how to realize what it takes to start a business.”
Dale Carnegie author of How to Win Friends & Influence People mentioned precise fundamental techniques in handling people amongst business and personal lives. One principle in which Plank seemed to achieve very well was the fact that he was able to arouse an eager want in other people. Initially, Plank felt that his game apparel was not of high quality and further pursued a better fitting material for game day. Once he realized his invention was merely brilliant he became a huge advocator for his design. Plank showed great interest in his product and advised others that they too should be fascinated by the performance in which it held up in game days. Enabling others to see the enchantment behind a specific product allows them to think there is nothing better on the market then that exact development, and Plank did just that!
Although our life stories do not exactly fit the mold of one another, we have some qualities in which I can relate to. Being an athlete myself I have internal motivation that allows me to strive for what I want and the fear of failing has never been an issue. Plank, like myself did not always succeed on the first attempt, but the never ending fight to accomplish what we had started out for is something that one needs to excel amongst intense competition. As a result, Planks achievements are an outcome of his hard work and leadership in bringing Under Armour to the forefront of the apparel industry. Furthermore, I too wear Under Armour sporting apparel from the T-shirts to the socks. Purchasing a product from a former athlete gives me liberation knowing that he can relate to what I experience on the playing field during those intense nail biting games.


Sources:
Crossing the Chasm pg. 89
How to Win Friends and Influence People pg. 50