[MUSIC] In our last module, we talked about the third phase of the entrepreneurial life cycle: planning your strategy. We explained the strategy is fundamentally about creating a sustainable competitive advantage by being different. We also stressed the hardest thing about strategy is not what to do but what not to do. To develop your strategy, we recommended following a three-phase approach. The first phase was analyzing your market using Porter's five forces. The first force we talked about was barriers to entry, and the defensive role they can play in your strategy. We then talked about the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers. In particular we talked about the conditions likely to give your buyers and suppliers significant bargaining power, which will allow them to severely alter your strategy. The fourth competitive force we talked about was the pressure from substitute products, which are products not directly in your industry, but that functionally could be used as a substitute to your product. And the last force we talked about was the rivalry among existing competitors, and how that can lead to heavy price competition. The second phase we discussed in developing your strategy was to perform a SWOT analysis based on these forces. You need to assemble your team to carefully consider your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, giving an honest assessment of where you're strategically strong in the industry and well you, where you're vulnerable. With the insight gained through your SWOT analysis, we then talked about the last phase of developing your strategy: forming a consistent strategic approach that maximizes your strengths, avoids or shores up your weaknesses, exploits potential opportunities, and addresses competitive threats. It's important to note, that everything we've been talking about in the entrepreneurial life cycle is true, whether your venture is for profit, social or artistic. Even the noblest social enterprise will face heavy competition for donations. Without developing a strategic position, you're leaving yourself vulnerable to another foundation peeling away your donors. Any successful artistic venture has to be different in a way that attracts admirers. Again, strategy ensures you position yourself in a way that makes sure this happens. In this module, Buck's going to talk about how you go about actually implementing your strategy. To do this, he'll rely heavily on the business model canvas, which is a tool to help you visualize the building blocks of your enterprise. Throughout the module, we'll see how the information we obtain through the previous entrepreneurship life cycle phases feed into the business model canvas, facilitating our ability to understand what's necessary to make our big idea a reality. At the end of the module, Buck's going to talk about what's known as the elevator pitch. Everything we've done up until this point is structured to make sure you have a clear vision of your product, your strategy, and the activities necessary to implement your strategy. The elevator pitch is the process of distilling this information into 30 seconds or less, so you can communicate your vision to a potential financier or customer extremely efficiently. To do that though, we first need to identify the strategic activities we'll need to implement our strategy.
