As we examine entrepreneurial opportunities, we're going to spend this session in setting some ground work and foundational elements of the context of entrepreneurship. Specifically some classic definitions. We'll also talk about some modern interpretations of the term, and discuss some emerging opportunities as well. So we look at defining what are entrepreneurial opportunities, this is an area that's been studied within research and within universities predominantly in the US over several generations. So this is not brand new to us by any means. What we see in some early definitions is that situations in which new goods, services, raw materials, and organizing methods can be introduced and sold at great than their cost of production. And while this definition is a bit perhaps overly focused on the commercialization of concepts and ideas, it broadly gives you some insights into the element of new. And then to the element of bringing something to a market and doing it where the economics makes sense, even if you're a non-profit, a foundation, a government, that there's some economic model that makes sense, in the creation of delivery of new services. There are also other competing definitions out there. There is the creation of new information, an invention, an exploitation of markets, and a reaction to shifts by Drucker and others. The key theme that we see here is that entrepreneurs are able to identify and act on entrepreneurial opportunity, bring that to market, and bear some fruit or success from that. In this video on the resource revolution, we're gonna highlight and talk about some of these elements, and begin to set a landscape on a global context for the coming decades of what's the opportunities that are taking shape in a global context. [MUSIC] And with a resource revolution, there are names we know. There are the software, the retail, the Internet, the energy and auto tycoons that have come in recent years. The Gates, the Waltons, Elon Musk and other names that we know are doing tremendous things. They're having great success in their ventures and realizing their vision. They're not the first. They're not the wealthiest either, when we look at the urbanization that was taking place largely in North America and the U.S. in the gilded era of looking at oil and shipping and lumber, railroad, things of that nature. Tremendous sums of wealth made by entrepreneurs and tremendous influences made on society of building that basic infrastructure. We're seeing those opportunities begin to emerge as well in developing regions around the world. They, again, not the first. You can go back a century prior and look at the mechanization, the industrial age. What was going on in manufacturing? What was going on in banking and land? What we see here, again is another generation of entrepreneurs that saw opportunities, that recognized the ability of themselves to bring something to market and create that entrepreneurship. And it's happened time and time again and we're going to learn from some of these individuals as we move on in the course. We also see that on the global scale, there are tremendous changes taking place. And we know this in a general context. But we may not know it in a quantitative context. One way to quantify that is through GDP. What this gives us is a sense of what are the emerging markets that are country based this year. That are creating whole new classes of citizens. That are creating not only a large upper class, but a tremendously large middle class and upper middle class. That can buy things that were once unaffordable. That can consume and participate in markets that previously were for others. And that are bringing a lot of the western products and opportunities to new markets worldwide. What does that mean for us as entrepreneurs? One, if we are effective in realizing that and recognizing that, we can make great things happen, often times in partnerships with individuals that are local to that region. So that's a another benefit of our coursing, our course going forward is having a global classroom. Where we have students that are representative of these areas, that may live in these areas or have relationships of these areas and that actual opportunities can be brought to bear there as well through partnerships with others. We can also see the adoption rate of new products and technologies has rapidly changed from a time of the early entry of automotives, washing machines, and telephone. That took decades to reach a 60 or 80% adoption rate in the market, to the more recent technologies of cell phones, of internet, and computers, that in a very short time span have reached 60, 80, 90% market option. The rate of growth, the rate of adoption of new technologies, is unprecedented. It also gives us an insight when we look at these new regions and these new markets around the world, the curve will be all the. And so, as we have ideas, we need to execute on them. Recently soon, a good idea now will be someone else's good idea later. So in that way, as we talk about decision making, we'll think about how that happens within us, what we can do to enhance that, and what we can do to bring our ideas to market, with perhaps a little more urgency. And to leverage the great adoptions that are taking place for new technologies, and new products. Amazon is a great example of this, and Amazon is the company that we're gonna look at through the first few lectures of our course, as a mini case study of how to identify and act on entrepreneur activities. Amazon, for decades, has been a leader in print books, has been a leader in printed music, CD based music. Has been a leader in movie sales and DVD sales. But, today, 43% of their sales are coming from media, and digital goods are an increasing piece of that. Amazon is not waiting. They're not waiting to see what happens with ebooks. They're not waiting to see what happens with online music. In that way, and you'll see what happens with streaming music, and media, and television, and video, and movies by leading that charge. And, what we see are some data that give you some insights on what does that mean, and what have they done. To enter and be the leaders in that space, and not be comfortable with being the incumbent. Not being comfortable with the large company that used to be successful, but that went away because they were too slow to respond. So Amazon, again, an interesting company to examine and a company that we'll examine from a few different contexts within our first few lectures of the course. By all definitions entrepreneurial opportunities differ from the general set of business opportunities. There are new relationships that are uncertain and dynamic. There are new players involved. There's a rapid race involved with bringing the evening products and technologies to market. And what we want to do by helping you understand that is that the opportunity identification piece is just the first step. What we'd like to do in these first lectures is help you improve your ability to see entrepreneurial opportunities to help you make more decisive decisions. To help you invoke these elements of being rational and intuitive and not having to pick one or the other. That you can make big decisions quickly and comfortably that have significant consequences. And that you can take the necessary steps to capitalize on the ideas and the concepts that are emerging. So in summary, when we look at entrepreneurial opportunities, it's a well-established term that's well entrenched and widely studied. And we're going to bring information to you from both the academic arena, as well as from the practical arena and the industry experience that we bring to bear. We're going to talk about how new opportunities are emerging in the market, and what you can do to either validate or expand opportunities you may already be considering. Or develop new opportunities that you may not yet have thought of. And we want you to understand decision-making is the foundation for entrepreneurial success. Now, we could skip this and jump right into how do you do financials and marketing plans, but we recognize the value of decision-making and the role of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. And so we're gonna spend a little bit of time on talking about the thinking element of entrepreneurship, of talking about decision-making, of talking about the entrepreneur. And give you a good solid foundation from which to build on. And then later in the course we'll begin talking about industries and markets and finance and things of that nature. But it starts with the entrepreneur. And for us, that's gonna start with a discussion on decision-making.
