The Mansfield College - Essay Example

Lecture: Affiliation: Due Introduction The young oxford Entrepreneurial leadership Program was organized by Al Faisal and was held at the Mansfield College from the 22nd of March to the 28th of March 2015. The major objective of the program was to provide the students with the familiarity and knowledge they may require in their future entrepreneurial lives. As a Saudi, the program was of great interest to me because back home, our economy is largely entrepreneurial. Most businesses in Saudi are run by youths but most of them fail at their earlier stages because of the many problems faced and principally due to the lack of entrepreneurial knowledge. The Entrepreneurship program I attended along with many other lectures was held at a prestigious institution; Mansfield College, University of oxford, one of United Kingdom’s most established colleges. The institution provides a platform where students and lecturers from numerous universities around the world meet to share knowledge and ideas. On this occasion, I and numerous other students from Al Faisal got the chance to participate. The visit at the college gave us the chance to meet business leaders as well as academic leaders who have made their names in the respective fields by their achievements and overall reputations. It was an extremely organized program with different activities all geared up in the schedule, all of which are discussed in the report. The program is significant in the lives of students as it tends to inspire and offer direction to students. Through such programs, students are able to interact with leaders that they look up to. They gain academic knowledge in process and get to enhance their career prospects. Therefore, interacting with such accomplished individuals offered excellent opportunity for prospective entrepreneurs to comprehend the dynamics of being successful in that field. The following are the lecture Topics covered: The lecture topics that were covered during the program were as follows: # Topic 1 Orientation Raise Seed and Growth Capital for Entrepreneurs Making Acquisition 3 Management Competitive Positioning Strategic Innovation 4 Entrepreneurial Leadership The Islamic Entrepreneurship 5 Writing a Business Plan 6 Entrepreneurial Opportunities 7 Building a Global Brand 8 Value Chain Management 9 Experiences as an Oxford Entrepreneur 10 Female Muslim Entrepreneur 11 Halal Entrepreneurship The lectures were brilliant in their presentations and were highly knowledgeable in their respective fields. They made the sessions lively and fun. Lecturers Dr. Stuart Kewly welcomed everyone and gave a thirty minute introduction on what the program was all about, the objectives of the program and benefits of such programs. The introduction gave all the people present a glimpse of what is expected. The introduction was quite important as it prepared people on what to expect from different lectures. Dr. Stuart also gave lectures on making acquisitions and another one on raising funds for a business venture. His lectures offered a clear detail on the imminent problems in entrepreneurship, the major one being how to raise capital. From Dr. Stuart’s explanations I understood that good planning tend to ease up the process of funding. With good planning, funding will not be a problem. Refunding can however be a problem because some businesses tend to fail at their initial stages and do not turn out as expected. Acquiring other similar businesses to extend the business into different sections is also a good idea but requires careful consideration of many aspects, such as the business’s future growth and scalability etc. Other lectures were presented by Ms. Fiona Reid and another one by Ms. Kubi Springer. Ms. Reid’s lecture was on the writing of business plans that would raise capital. According to her, writing business plans requires ample understanding and extensive research on the business’ objectives. When writing a plan, one can focus on different aspects like what the business actually is aiming to achieve, and how it plans to achieve it, who the target customers are, and who the target audience who will read the business plan be. To raise funds, like getting a loan from a bank, an effective business plan would help persuade investors in moving forward towards the business and investing into the potential that would be visible through the business plan. A poorly drafted business plan undermines the business’ potential. On the other hand Ms. Kubi springer’s lecture focused on building a global brand. Ms. Kubi is an accomplished brand management specialist who has vast experience in building successful international brands, a factor that is highly crucial to an entrepreneur. This lecture relates to the two previous lectures; first of all without building a brand a business in today’s world simply cannot survive. Secondly, today the business environment is no longer limited to a single geographic location, but all businesses are global, and if at startup they are not then later they would have to be. Mr. Ali Aslan kicked off the subject of Entrepreneurship by giving a lecture entrepreneurial leadership. His lecture focused mainly on how entrepreneurial skills are achieved and how to go them. Recognizing an opportunity and driving it to success is not a simple task. Every opportunity that might be seen needs to be evaluated on its potential outcomes and risks associated with the opportunity, and then pursuing that opportunity to become the leader in that part would require knowing what to do, when to do it and then achieving the results. Mr. Ali’s knowledge and abilities were quite apparent through his lectures; he demonstrated his mastery of the entrepreneurial leadership and gave in depth analysis of every concept. Mr. Aslan also gave a lecture on Islamic Entrepreneurship which I found important and useful. According to him, there are certain considerations a Muslim entrepreneur has to make in terms of society and Islamic values as well, and Mr. Ali was able to elaborate how these can easily be kept and one could still be a highly successful entrepreneur. Ms. Barbara Diehl’s lecture on Entrepreneurial opportunity was of my precise interest. The lecture gave a realistic approach to opportunities that one has in their surroundings. It was somehow different from the one given by Mr. Ali. According to Ms. Barbara, evaluating those opportunities and realizing them require logical understanding and sound thinking. One cannot simply dream up a business plan and focus on making it successful, and every entrepreneur has different skill sets which would help him in his entrepreneurial goals. A lecture on Halal entrepreneurship was interesting and quite amusing. At the age of 21, he stated his business and became successful and has a love for food. He defined what Halal entrepreneurship is, and how it is what can benefit Islamic society as well, and how it’s concentrated on focusing in productive development of businesses which are beneficial for society and are in line with Islamic practices. The lecturer gave an elaborate approach to his lecture. A Malaysian female provided an insight of her experiences as a female entrepreneur and caught the attention of the Malaysian female students. This lecture sparked a lot of questions, as female students inquired on “what” and “how” (s) they should approach the field of entrepreneurship and on the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs. Other lectures on Strategic thinking and Value Chain management, were also quite beneficial, but were not really in detail therefore did not have the same impact as the previously discussed lectures. However, strategic innovation was of particular interest, and had caught the attention of many students, because innovation is a key term in the business world today, and the most successful businesses that have come out so far have been innovative ideas. How to become innovative or how to innovate requires a thought process which is not necessarily an inherited trait, but can be accomplished through logical thinking, and thinking outside the box. Site visits There was more to the project than just attending lectures and learning. There was also the leisure part of it. There were visits to historical locations and a tor around the institution. We visited a BMW mini-factory in Oxford just before we finished our trip. The mini-factory produces mini coopers. The factory is highly modernized has unique facilities unlike the typical car building factories. The visit was quite fun and also educative, plus BMW is one of the most prestigious brands in motor world. We had a scheduled tour of the Blenheim Palace which was later cancelled. We were however given an insight of its history. We also visited the Oxford University Churchill. The site visits offered the group to be ability to relax, and feel comfortable with the overall program, and in a way did help enhance the experience that we went through as a group. The lectures had their impact on increasing the knowledge, but the site visits provided a much more relaxed, and a feeling that cannot exactly be placed in words, but if I was to choose a word it would be that the site visit to BMW mini-factory to me was truly mesmerizing. Not only because I have a love for cars, but also because of the factory and its modern age functioning, and historical importance. Program Takeaways The program gave us a ton of knowledge that will forever change our lives as students and as entrepreneurs. It gave me an insight of what I want to be in in future and made me rewrite my career goals. The trip was highly beneficial to me and it opened up my eyes to the entrepreneurial life. Read More