Global Entrepreneurial Strategies and Creating Economic Value
Published July 26, 2009 | 
Another important global entrepreneurial strategy more specifically focuses on changing economic characteristics of the markets, as the strategy itself becomes the innovation, since the product or services the business carries may have been around for quite some time, the strategy converts the old product or service into something new. It changes the utility value and economic characteristics, while physically there is no change, economically there’s something different and new.
Keep in mind that all the strategies that have been discussed have one thing in common, that they each create a customer, which is the ultimate purpose of any business, and of course, all economic activity. They do so in four 
different ways including (1) by creating utility, (2) by pricing, (3) by adaptation to the customer’s social and economic reality, and (4) by delivering what represents true value to the customer.
Creating utility adapts new ways that enable customers to do what serves their purpose with the product or service, for example, the old idea of a “bridal register” has been adapted by many product manufacturers, to allow customers to give what the bride needs instead of what she already has, and thus this innovative opportunity was created and adopted to give customers the utility they needed to accomplish their gift giving, and a vehicle by which the business can focus customer’s buying on it’s specific products only.
Creating utility through pricing is another innovation that allows manufacturers and businesses to sell their products, such as, computer printers that are priced very low, in fact so low sometimes it seems they’re being given away, which for all practical purposes they are, since the replacement ink cartridges are priced higher than the original printers, thus the utility is created that sells ink cartridges with higher profit margins, and greater value in the mind of the customer.
So what successful Global Entrepreneurs know, and always remember, is that the customers do not buy a “product “, 
but what the product does for them, and how much the customer pays for each item depends on what the product does for the customer, how it fits his or hers reality, and what the customer sees as value.
Now creating true value to the customer might seem at times to be the most elusive and difficult task, since it is the customer who ultimately determines the value for services and products, and whatever the customer buys must fit the customer’s realities for value to be established, and the better the fit the higher the value.
Truly successful Entrepreneurs know their customer’s realities, and the realities of the market that shape and influence the customer’s value systems, can identify changes in the realities that ultimately affect the value customers place on the Entrepreneur’s services and products, and quickly adapt and make the necessary adjustments and changes in the services and products to maintain the level of reality needed to support the economic value needed for success.
Global Entrepreneurial Strategies and the Market
Published July 24, 2009 | 
One important entrepreneurial strategy aims straight at market leadership if not dominance, and is an aggressive strategy right from the very start, planning to have a permanent leadership position, but before an Entrepreneur undertakes this bold strategy they must first realize it is the strategy that represents the greatest gamble, as there is very little room for mistakes, absolutely no room for second chances, and everything has to work out correctly for this strategy to succeed, and it requires significant amount of time for thought, careful analysis and preparation of the business plan. In addition, the strategy demands quite substantial and continuing efforts to retain a leadership position, or all of the Entrepreneur’s hard work simply creates a market for a competitor to take the position as the leader.
Indeed, so many Entrepreneurs over the years have felt like the risk of this strategy is so great that other strategies have been developed, as a result of the notion that the leadership strategy will fail more often than it can possibly succeed, which leads us to another important entrepreneurial strategy that takes what has been developed by somebody else, making improvements that create a better product or service than the original innovative entrepreneurs that first developed the idea.
Basically, this important concept is to let someone else innovate, and then run with their idea, improve on it, and give the consumers of what they really want and most importantly, are willing to pay for. A perfect example of this is IBM creating the PC after Apple created the market with its difficult 
leadership strategy, and within two years it had taken over from Apple leadership in the personal computer field, becoming the fastest-selling brand and the standard in the market.
The main point to focus on here being that IBM chose a far much less risky entrepreneurial strategy, and succeeded at it, and although Apple Computer has been a great success since, as the original innovator it might have failed to fully understand the scope of its success in the beginning, and what was needed to maintain the strategic position as the market leader.
This type of strategy starts with markets, is both market-focused and market-driven, requires a rapidly growing market, satisfies a demand that already exists rather than having to create one, and is likely to 
work most effectively in high-tech industries for the very simple reason that high-tech entrepreneurs and innovators are least likely to be market-focused and naturally concentrate on the technology and product.
The strategy of imitation requires a high degree of innovation that can’t be overlooked, as it is not good enough to offer the same product or services at a lower cost, to the consumer who is always looking for greater innovation in addition to competitive pricing.
Openings and associated opportunities in the market are created by habits and mistakes of market leaders, including arrogance of believing that something cannot be any good unless they thought of it first, focusing entirely upon one segment of the market such as the high profit segment, and ignoring the significant volume of the larger market, and the mistake of misunderstanding of quality, which is not what the innovator puts in, but what the consumer is ultimately willing to pay for. A market leader also tends at times to price products and services too high, creating openings for competition, while failing to adapt to different segments of the market.
Entrepreneurs: Financial / Economic Data is Critical for Decisions
Published July 20, 2009 | 
Team Altman Interesting News:
“Successful Entrepreneurs know it is critical to have the latest financial and economic market data available, to help them make the best and most informed business decisions possible, regardless of market conditions.”
Fact: To be able to make decisions that impact the success or failure of their respective businesses, Entrepreneurs need to have the latest financial and economic data available, which means they not only have to maintain good financial records that are up to date, but they need the latest economic data about what is going on in the economy at the local, national, and many times global levels.
For example: If the net profit for the business is positive, but the cash flow is neutral, it is critical for the Entrepreneur to also have the latest economic data to best determine the course of action that must be decided and taken in a timely manner, 
especially if the business must place orders for the coming months, adjust levels of employees and so forth.
Fact: Withholding economic data as U.S. Whitehouse staff has decided to do, for whatever reason, is going to have the same impact on the global markets that negative economic data would have, since it is sure to be interpreted as negative economic data by the global markets anyways.
The Rest of the Story: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090720/D99I4A0G0.html
Mastering the Markets: Entrepreneurial Strategies for Success
Published July 20, 2009 | 
Global Entrepreneurs who have owned and operated their business for very long have learned to appreciate the impact the global economy can have on their businesses, even at a local level that seems to be in relatively good shape in comparison to other niche markets.
The track economies take always goes up in good times and then comes down in more challenging market conditions, and then back up, riding the optimism of good times followed by the pessimism of shrinking markets, and back up again, leaving the entrepreneur with greater challenges to successfully adjust operations during economic downturns.
The first thing global entrepreneurs need to do to master their markets is grow emotional skin thick enough to not only keep from feeling sorry when the economy slows, but also not to get too excited when the economies are performing at a high level. 
A realization and understanding has to be developed and reached the ebb and flow of economic conditions of the markets, as they are going to do what the markets are going to normally do, and of course there is very little that anyone can do to change the natural occurrence of economic cycles, although governments try, but too many times they only succeed in exacerbating the negative portion of the cycles.
Once Entrepreneurs gain control of their emotions it becomes easier to focus on the process of operating the business in the most efficient way in relation to economic conditions. Also, when focus and clear thinking is developed, the easier it is to maintain focus and the more creative one becomes and the more success Entrepreneurs experience in making the right strategic decisions, especially when there is some level of discomfort.
The focused mind set of the Entrepreneur always looks for ways they can use poorly performing economies to their advantage, making “lemonade out of the lemons” they have been handed, and they succeed through innovation which is what the true Entrepreneur is best known for. 
Not only are customers, products and services thought of differently, but promotional strategies are viewed with an emphasis on regular adaptation and modification based on challenging market conditions, or “lemons” the world has thrown at the Entrepreneur.
It is critically important to keep in mind that when the global economy improves, the fruits of innovative mindset thinking remain in the form of new ideas and concepts within the business, and the Entrepreneur has developed and put together a bigger bag of new market strategies, systems and processes that ultimately pay great dividends during both growing economies and recessions.
Global Entrepreneurs collectively with the other millions of small business owners throughout the world are the global economy’s backbone and ultimate solution to moving it towards any economic turnaround, whether locally, nationally or globally. Together, the collective entrepreneurial mind set of small business moves from pessimism to optimism, and as people become more optimistic they in turn spend money, and jobs are created.
The best advice to remember is to “think globally and act locally”, take the “lemons and make lemonade”, and always be part of the solution as the markets grow and recede, and economic struggles are fought, won and lost, and people go back and forth between optimism and pessimism.
Unexpected events and tragedies will always have an effect on the economy, but how the Entrepreneur looks at their business, reacts to challenges and develops innovations will determine ultimate survival and the level of success achieved, which is why any of us make the choice to become Entrepreneurs in the first place.
Entrepreneurs: Lessons to Learn from Great Twitter Hack Attack
Published July 19, 2009 | 
Team Altman Interesting News:
We wrote previously that “Entrepreneurs and business owners should always maintain a constant vigilant guard against someone obtaining confidential personal and secret information either through use of online technology and fraudulent system access by individual hackers, or covert espionage operations for either corporate or government infiltration of offices and systems.”
As both Entrepreneurs and individuals, one of the best ways of maintaining your constant vigilance in the ongoing battle of fraudulent activity involving your vital personal or business information and systems access, is to review and learn from the experience of others and make the necessary adjustments to your own security measures on a regular basis.
Remember, that many times the simplest of measures like creating passwords that have no reasoned connections to your personal history information, using a different password for each service you use, and once again, don’t relate answers to recovery questions to personal information that can be easily determined, or better yet, create false answers that only you know and can remember.
Most importantly, when it comes to your data security, being PARANOID is a good thing.
The Rest of the Story: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/19/the-anatomy-of-the-twitter-attack/