In Pursuit of Elegance: 12 Indispensable Tips

Matthew E. May is the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing and the ChangeThis manifesto called Creative Elegance. He spent nearly a decade as a close adviser to Toyota and works with creative teams and senior leaders at a number of top Fortune companies.

1. Question: How do you define elegance?

Answer: Something is elegant if it is two things at once: unusually simple and surprisingly powerful. One without the other leaves you short of elegant. And sometimes the “unusual simplicity” isn’t about what’s there, it’s about what isn’t. At first glance, elegant things seem to be missing something.

2. Question: Why is elegance so important?

Answer: Elegance cuts through the noise, captures our attention, and engages us. The point of elegance is to achieve the maximum impact with the minimum input. It’s a thoughtful, artful subtractive process focused on doing more and better with less. That’s especially important during this economic crisis when everyone is trying to move forward while consuming fewer resources.

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Can Entrepreneurs Change the World?

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Global Entrepreneurial Marketing

This weekend I attended a workshop at Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship about Global Entrepreneurial Marketing. Workshop has been held by Rasmus Rahm, who is a Research Assistant at Stockholm School of Economics and Founder & Owner at Pop n Roll. It was a two days workshop and we have learnt lots of practical things. We watched lots of commercials from different sectors and gained vast amount of tools and methods. As a summary;

1- Customer is the boss

2- Marketing is a complex thing and should not be seen as an isolated event.

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Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs

For the last two years I lived in Stockholm and studied as a master student at ICT Entrepreneurship. In my opinion networking is the crucial part of entrepreneurship. I am not an experienced entrepreneur, who made billions of dollars, but still I have some recommendations for you. These are my stories as a young entrepreneur in Stockholm and may be you will not agree with me. Let’s get started;

 

Lessons Learned 1: Be active but not over-active

Some friends of mine, who runs after people to collect their business cards and mail addresses, generally see that people only once. I think this is really disturbing and has no value inside. As a young entrepreneur I sometimes feel that people do not pay enough attention to me since I do not have a lot to offer them. But, once you show them the energy and sympathy it will be easy for you to have good connections with them. So, there is no need to run after people to get their contact details. They will never get back to you.

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Cloud Computing

Currently I am working on my master thesis on a large-scale ERP systems integration project (a SAP Integration Process project for a large energy company in Sweden). I am still in the early phases of my research but I started to match some terms with the practical things in the real world. It is perhaps a well know truth that the role and impact of IT on today’s organizations has dramatically changed over the last decade. Across a wide spectrum of markets and countries, IT is changing it’s role from “back office” to “strategic”.

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Sun Certified Java Associate

I am a Sun Certified Java associate and would like to share my knowledge and recommendations with you. I think the exam is really evaluating your IT and Java knowledge. The Sun Certified Associate (SCJA) for the Java Platform, Standard Edition, Exam Version 1.0 certification exam provides an ideal entry into an application development or a software project management career using Java technologies.

Since I am a computer engineer and has several years programming experience, becoming a SCJA will be beneficial for me in the future. I think, Sun Microsystems’ certificate exams are really prestigious in the market and help professionals to find better positions.

Lets come to my recommendations:
1- Write codes as much as possible by using NetBeans IDE (personal recommendation).
2- Study through Sun SAI (online learning services)
3- Solve lots of mock up exams and questions (You can find examples from links below)

For more information please check my SCJA Tips page

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Emerging Markets

We can define Emerging Economies as those “regions of the world that are experiencing rapid informationalization under conditions of limited or partial industrialization.” It appears that emerging markets lie at the intersection of non-traditional user behavior, the rise of new user groups and community adoption of products and services, and innovations in product technologies and platforms. Examples of emerging markets include Russia, China, Turkey, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and some more. But, obviously China is one of the most important in emerging markets.

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Gartner’s Hype Cycle

Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a graphic representation of the maturity, adoption and business application of specific technologies. This framework tries to provide opinions, advice and data on the global information technology industry if they should invest in some technology or not at the moment.

From here you can find an example document, where i try to position the PC-Based Open Source Networking business. Download the document.

A hype cycle in Gartner’s interpretation comprises 5 steps:

1. Technology Trigger — The first phase of a hype cycle is the “technology trigger” or breakthrough, product launch or other event that generates significant press and interest.
2. Peak of Inflated Expectations — In the next phase, a frenzy of publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations. There may be some successful applications of a technology, but there are typically more failures.
3. Trough of Disillusionment — Technologies enter the “trough of disillusionment” because they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons the topic and the technology.
4. Slope of Enlightenment — Although the press may have stopped covering the technology, some businesses continue through the “slope of enlightenment” and experiment to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology.
5. Plateau of Productivity — A technology reaches the “plateau of productivity” as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted. The technology becomes increasingly stable and evolves in second and third generations. The final height of the plateau varies according to whether the technology is broadly applicable or benefits only a niche market.

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Technology Adoption Life Cycle – TALC

I am a computer engineer and a master student in Sweden. I am studying ICT Entrepreneurship at The Royal Institute of Technology. Currently, I am working on an Open Source Project at KTH, Stockholm and i have done a Technology Adoption Life Cycle paper for Open Source, PC-Based Networking in Africa. I would like to share it with people and i am also waiting for your comments.

You can find the document from here

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PC Based Open-Source Networking

In the 1990s the computing industry shifted from expensive proprietary systems to open systems based on standard, low-cost hardware. This move changed a 20-year pattern of IT buying and deployment models. Some of the biggest IT buyers, like universities and research centers, also started to look for better, flexible and cheaper IT solutions.

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