MiniBoss Business Tour to France: Еxcursion to Citroën

Students of MiniBoss Business School at the factory Citroën.









Citroën is a French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group since 1976, founded in 1919 by French industrialist Andrе-Gustave Citroën.



In 1954 they had produced the world's first hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system then, in 1955, the revolutionary DS, the first mass production car with modern disc brakes and, in 1967, they introduced in several of their models swiveling headlights that allowed for greater visibility on winding roads; these automobiles have received various international and national level awards, including three European Car of the Year.







MiniBoss Business Tour is part of a holistic child development program. Traveling helps children see the world, learn how global companies work, learn the culture and history of different countries.

5 Benefits of Teaching Young Children About Entrepreneurship

Think for a moment how much you would have benefited from being exposed to entrepreneurship at a younger age. If you actually were exposed to it, think about how much it has shaped your life. There can be tremendous value in being involved in entrepreneurial activities during your formative years, so you’d be doing your children a favor to bring them in. Here are a few potential benefits they could garner from the experience.

 1. A better work ethic

It should come as no surprise that young children develop a better work ethic when they’re surrounded by entrepreneurship. This happens in two ways. First, they experience business operations first hand. Whether they’re filing papers and stuffing envelopes or cutting grass and pressure-washing driveways, you quickly understand the value of hard work if you’re thrown into the middle of it.

Second, and perhaps more important, children develop a positive work ethic when they’re exposed to yours. There’s something powerful about seeing a parent - the most influential person in your life - treat hard work as a normal state of affairs, and that’s seriously lacking in today’s culture.

2. Stronger appreciation for money

One of the biggest benefits of teaching your children about entrepreneurship is that you’re able to give them a stronger respect for money. Some children might believe you if you told them money grows on trees, but kids who are exposed to business operations know better.

“What helped me most is that I was always making my own money somehow, pretty much since I was 10,” says Fiona Kirkpatrick Parsons, a marketing professional who benefited from being exposed to entrepreneurship from a young age. “The message I received as a kid was, if you want something, you have to get busy and figure out how to do it for yourself. I never expected my parents to provide more than the basics, really. Learning self-reliance, trusting in your creativity and developing courage is a great gift.”

 

3. Creative thinking

Starting and expanding a business isn’t easy. Problems inevitably arise, and it’s up to you to fix them, and keep the firm moving in the right direction.

Instead of hiding challenges and even setbacks from your kids, you should expose them directly to what’s happening. Not only will their unique input help, but you’ll show them what it looks like to think creatively.

 

4. Improved people skills

Certain kids are outgoing and gregarious, but most young children tend to fall toward the shy end of the spectrum when faced with interacting with adults or people with whom they aren’t familiar.

The beauty of working in a small business is that you’re forced to interact with unfamiliar individuals on a daily basis. This will significantly foster a child’s people skills and, in most cases, turn him or her into a better salesperson down the road.

 

5. Better goal setting

The value of setting and achieving goals isn’t something that easily registers with many children. Kids are notorious for starting something and then moving on without finishing it. Somewhere between the excitement of embarking on an adventure and the pleasure of arriving at the finished product, the average child gets bored and loses his or her sense of purpose. Fortunately, research shows that regular conversation and interaction between parents and children actually helps to shape a child’s “academic socialization.”

As a result, they’re better able to draw connections between their current behaviors and future goals. So if you spend extra time with your children in an entrepreneurial setting, where goals are clear and courses of action are constantly being developed and pursued in order to reach those goals, you can accelerate the rate of academic socialization and give your child a head start.

The challenge many entrepreneurs encounter is finding age-appropriate ways to involve their children. Very young children obviously can’t be handed many complex and constructive tasks, but they can benefit from just being near you and feeling as if they’re involved.

As they get older, you can give them more responsibility and even begin to prepare them to enter the business -- if that’s something you and they desire. You don’t need some master plan, though. The best education you can provide your children simply entails exposing them to the duties you handle on a daily basis. This will provide them with life skills their peers won’t encounter for years to come.

Teach them about entrepreneurship, and they’ll make you proud.

Original

How To Teach Your Kids To Be Entrepreneurs

Marc Hardgrove, entrepreneur, USA for Forbes

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a question we ask kids all the time. At a young age, their answers are all over the place: an astronaut, a professional wrestler, a unicorn. But when kids get older, they become a little more realistic. And while every parent wants his or her kids to do what makes them happy, a lot of us would like our kids to follow in our own footsteps, too.

This is especially true for entrepreneurs. Many of us have worked our way up from nothing to become successful. But passing that drive on to our kids can be a different kind of struggle. I’m not going to pretend that I have all the answers, but in the last 17 years of being a father, I’ve learned enough lessons — and made enough mistakes — to pass on.

Show Them The Value Of Sweat

I grew up in a blue-collar family. My parents worked their fingers to the bone just to pay the bills. I wanted to give my kids more. After years of working my tail off, I was able to do just that. They took the best vacations, went to the best private schools, ate the best food and wore the best clothes. Then, one day, I realized I had raised a couple of spoiled rich kids.

I could appreciate how much we had because I knew how it felt to go without. But wealth is all my kids knew. They felt entitled to it. As a parent, it’s hard to resist giving your kids the world on a silver platter. But if you want them to appreciate what they have, you have to temper your generosity.

I don’t let my kids get away with being lazy. If they keep up their grades and play sports or do clubs, they get an allowance. If not, the rules change. Last year, my son quit the basketball team. So, I made him come into my office to earn some money on his own. I threw him into the bullpen and had him make sales calls. He might have been unhappy at first, but it didn’t take long for him to catch on. And when he closed his first sale, he caught that sense of accomplishment. Now, he’s a sales partner.

Lead By Example

Our kids learn by watching us. And if I were to keep my work and family life separate, they might get the idea that our money and my hard work aren't related, like the money just showed up on its own. I’ve been very intentional in not hiding my work from my kids. I’ve brought them into the office and made calls from home. I’ve even handled business while we were on the beach in the Caribbean. Because that’s the price of success. I don’t know a single business owner who doesn’t work on vacation. That’s what being an entrepreneur costs.

Our children need to see that for themselves. It’s hard for them to process that the “real world” is going to demand action, so we need to show them a little bit of the action we take every day.

Invite Some Other People In

Our kids don’t always think we’re cool. Some of us know that too well. There are going to be times when you’re trying to teach your kids a lesson, and they’re just going to roll their eyes at you. This is when it’s time to bring in backup.

My son might think I’m a square, but he thinks that our COO George is the coolest guy ever. If I give my son some advice, he might say it’s the lamest thing he’s ever heard. But if George says the same thing, he holds on to it like it’s scripture. So, trust your partners to speak into your kids’ lives, too.

 

Show Them The Hard Stuff

The life of an entrepreneur is filled with struggle and sacrifice. It can be downright painful. If we want our kids to be entrepreneurs, we need to give them an honest of picture of what it looks like. That means being genuine.

It means letting them know when business is suffering. It means letting them know how much sleep you’re missing. And then, when they get their own feet wet, you’re going to have to let them learn what failure tastes like.

When my son first started making sales calls, he didn’t take to it right away. He had a few bad calls. He’s been hung up on. He’s flubbed pitches. It sucked, but it comes with the territory.
Let your kids know how hard it can be. And, who knows? They might even realize they don’t want to be an entrepreneur.

Don’t Pressure Them Into It

Most parent wants their kids to follow in their footsteps. But your kids are their own people. They have their own dreams. And at the end of the day, it’s best for them to do what makes them happy.

I want my kids to have the same success and freedom that I have, but the price of being an entrepreneur might be too high for them. They might value security over autonomy. Working nine-to-five for someone else might seem like a waste of their talents. But if that’s what they really want, you're going to have to come to terms with that, or else they’ll just end up resenting you.

As parents, all we can do is give our kids the best education and opportunities possible so they’ll be equipped to do whatever they want to with their lives. You can show them how to use a resume builder, how to work hard and the reward for that hard work, but it’s up to them to use those tools to build the kind of life they want to live. And in the end, that’s far more important than whether or not they become an entrepreneur.

Origin

The Kids Are All Right: 5 Simple Ways to Instill an Entrepreneurial Mindset

MiniBoss Business Camp Greece

Keep the communication lines about your business open with them

Depending on their age, explain things to them in such a way that they will understand what you do.

Make a family game of encouraging them to look at situations and imagine what it would take to make improvements.

You should also tell them about the sacrifices you've made, why you made them, and what they're worth to you. This will make them value your business, and start thinking of how to contribute to its success.

 

Let your child see you do smart things

If your business has anything to do with computers, the internet, or gadgets, then you understand the importance of investing in security. Don’t keep such smart moves away from your kids. This is especially important when you work at home.


Administratively, let them see you manage your emails efficiently. Financially, you should equally show them a glimpse of your tax and income/expense reports. If your job requires you using a system for instance, then let them know why you use a very strong password. Or tell them why you use a VPN to protect your system against hackers.

Similarly, if your kids see you engaged in reading books, writing, making music, doing a sales pitch, or doing other creative things, they will naturally imitate you too.

Encourage them to start something of their own

Warren Buffett sold chewing gum door-to-door at the tender age of six, while Richard Branson founded a magazine at just 16. So, being young doesn’t keep them from being entrepreneurs.

Teach your kids about supply, cost, profit, loss and encourage them to work to earn enough money for that special doll or new guitar. If your kid wants to start a lemonade stand, work with them as a parent, but not necessarily as a power figure.

When they ask questions, challenge them by asking right back, “I think…, but what do you think?” This encourages them to think through problems, builds their own sense of self and develops their voice.

Show them the role creativity plays in entrepreneurship

Encourage your kids to think outside the box. How can they do an item of school work better than just the way it was assigned? How can they turn that class project into a business startup? What have they complained about that’s a problem that they could find a solution for instead of being unhappy about?

Coach them into being creative about ideas. Write lists of solutions together. Map out potential answers together. Make time to create with your child. Creativity is a skill that will always serve them in entrepreneurship; and should they chose not be to entrepreneurs, it would serve them in life.

Don’t gloss over failure

Allow your kids to fail. They need to know that it’s okay to fail at something even if they tried hard. The important role for you is to help coach them toward solutions for their own recovery after failure.

Don’t solve the problem for them or blame the world or external circumstances. You aren’t doing them a service.

Did their science project fail? Sympathize then ask them how they might have changed the outcome? They didn’t make the soccer team? Allow them to be upset. But the next morning, ask them how they plan to make the team next year.

This doesn’t come from a place of pressure, but from prompts. Prompt them to think how they can approach “problems” differently for success. Encourage them to look for solutions and lessons from failures.

You never know what will resonate with these kids. Even if yours doesn’t become the next Tony Hsieh, Warren, Zuckerberg or Gates, they still will have an appreciation for hard work and independence, thanks to you.

Origin

The UNITED NATIONS organization has evaluated the merits of MiniBoss Business School

MiniBoss Business School as a concept has entered as the 5-th finalists in the Global UN SDG Challenge "Top-5 social enterprises who change the World to better".

"The UN highly appreciated the innovations in education and the success in training thousands of graduates around the world as a new generation of leaders! The UN understands that this idea can conquer the world in material and spiritual poverty!",- reported on the page in Facebook MiniBoss Business School.



Let us recall that the United Nations supports educational initiatives in the framework of achieving the Global Millennium Goals. The organization supports social innovation, and the idea of making quality education accessible throughout the world.

5 Benefits of Teaching Young Children About Entrepreneurship

Kids taught about business early value money and have a better work ethic.

If you’re an entrepreneur and have young children, it’s very easy to feel as if you’re involved in a constant war between giving enough time and energy to your business and spending sufficient time with your family. There doesn’t have to be so much friction between work and personal life, though. In fact, your children can benefit tremendously if you get them involved in your business pursuits.

Think for a moment how much you would have benefited from being exposed to entrepreneurship at a younger age. If you actually were exposed to it, think about how much it has shaped your life. There can be tremendous value in being involved in entrepreneurial activities during your formative years, so you’d be doing your children a favor to bring them in. Here are a few potential benefits they could garner from the experience.

1. A better work ethiс

It should come as no surprise that young children develop a better work ethic when they’re surrounded by entrepreneurship. This happens in two ways. First, they experience business operations first hand. Whether they’re filing papers and stuffing envelopes or cutting grass and pressure-washing driveways, you quickly understand the value of hard work if you’re thrown into the middle of it.

Second, and perhaps more important, children develop a positive work ethic when they’re exposed to yours. There’s something powerful about seeing a parent -- the most influential person in your life -- treat hard work as a normal state of affairs, and that’s seriously lacking in today’s culture.

2. Stronger appreciation for money

One of the biggest benefits of teaching your children about entrepreneurship is that you’re able to give them a stronger respect for money. Some children might believe you if you told them money grows on trees, but kids who are exposed to business operations know better.

"What helped me most is that I was always making my own money somehow, pretty much since I was 10,” says Fiona Kirkpatrick Parsons, a marketing professional who benefited from being exposed to entrepreneurship from a young age. “The message I received as a kid was, if you want something, you have to get busy and figure out how to do it for yourself. I never expected my parents to provide more than the basics, really. Learning self-reliance, trusting in your creativity and developing courage is a great gift."

3. Creative thinking

Starting and expanding a business isn’t easy. Problems inevitably arise, and it’s up to you to fix them, and keep the firm moving in the right direction. Instead of hiding challenges and even setbacks from your kids, you should expose them directly to what’s happening. Not only will their unique input help, but you’ll show them what it looks like to think creatively.

4. Improved people skills

Certain kids are outgoing and gregarious, but most young children tend to fall toward the shy end of the spectrum when faced with interacting with adults or people with whom they aren’t familiar.

The beauty of working in a small business is that you’re forced to interact with unfamiliar individuals on a daily basis. This will significantly foster a child’s people skills and, in most cases, turn him or her into a better salesperson down the road.

5. Better goal setting

The value of setting and achieving goals isn’t something that easily registers with many children. Kids are notorious for starting something and then moving on without finishing it. Somewhere between the excitement of embarking on an adventure and the pleasure of arriving at the finished product, the average child gets bored and loses his or her sense of purpose. Fortunately, research shows that regular conversation and interaction between parents and children actually helps to shape a child’s “academic socialization.”

As a result, they’re better able to draw connections between their current behaviors and future goals. So if you spend extra time with your children in an entrepreneurial setting, where goals are clear and courses of action are constantly being developed and pursued in order to reach those goals, you can accelerate the rate of academic socialization and give your child a head start.

Teach them about entrepreneurship, and they’ll make you proud.

Origin

9 Powerful Ways to Mold Children Into Leaders

We all want our children to become leaders.

Whether they spend the bulk of their days in the mailroom or the corner office, we want our children to grow to be courageous, passionate, and authentic. We want their actions to inspire other people to be their best, to get more out of life than they ever thought possible.

As parents and caretakers of children, their path to leadership is in our hands.

We can model and teach the skills that will equip them to lead themselves and others in this hyper-competitive world, or we can allow them to fall victim to the kind of thinking that makes them slaves to the status quo.

It’s a big responsibility—but when isn’t being a parent a massive responsibility?

The beauty of building children into leaders is that it’s the little things we do every day that mold them into the people they’ll become.

Focus on the eight actions below, and you’ll build leadership in your children and yourself.

Model Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Emotional intelligence is that “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible; it affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results.

Children learn emotional intelligence from their parents, plain and simple. As your children watch you every day, they absorb your behavior like a sponge. Children are particularly attuned to your awareness of emotions, the behavior you demonstrate in response to strong emotions, and how you react and respond to their emotions.

EQ is one of the biggest drivers of success in leadership positions. EQ is responsible for 58% of a leader’s job performance. Likewise, 90% of top-performing leaders have high EQs.

Most people do very little to develop their EQ growing up. Just 36% of the people we tested are able to accurately identify their emotions as they happen. Children who develop a high level of EQ carry these skills into adulthood, and this gives them a leg up in leadership and in life.

 

Don’t Obsess About Achievement

Parents get sucked into obsessing about achievement because they believe that this will make their children into high-achievers. Instead, fixating on achievement creates all sorts of problems for kids. This is especially true when it comes to leadership, where focusing on individual achievement gives kids the wrong idea about how work gets done.

Simply put, the best leaders surround themselves with great people because they know they can’t do it alone. Achievement-obsessed children are so focused on awards and outcomes that they never fully understand this. All they can see is the player who’s handed the MVP trophy and the celebrity

CEO who makes the news—they assume it’s all about the individual. It’s a rude awakening once they discover how real life works.

 

Don’t Praise Too Much

Children need praise to build a healthy sense of self-esteem. Unfortunately, piling on the praise doesn’t give them extra self-esteem. Children need to believe in themselves and to develop the self-confidence required to become successful leaders, but if you gush every time they put pen to paper or kick a ball (the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality), this creates confusion and false confidence. Always show your children how proud you are of their passion and effort; just don’t paint them as superstars when you know it isn’t true.

 

Allow Them to Experience Risk and Failure

Success in business and in life is driven by risk. When parents go overboard protecting their children, they don’t allow them to take risks and reap the consequences. When you aren’t allowed to fail, you don’t understand risk. A leader can’t take appropriate risks until he or she knows the bitter taste of failure that comes with risking it all and coming up short.

The road to success is paved with failure. When you try to shield your children from failure in order to boost their self-esteem, they have trouble tolerating the failure required to succeed as a leader. Don’t rub their face in it either. Children need your support when they fail. They need to know you care. They need to know that you know how much failure stings. Your support allows them to embrace the intensity of the experience and to know that they’ll make it through it all right. That, right there, is solid character building for future leaders.

 

Say No

Overindulging children is a surefire way to limit their development as leaders. To succeed as a leader, one must be able to delay gratification and work hard for things that are really important. Children need to develop this patience. They need to set goals and experience the joy that comes with working diligently towards them. Saying no to your children will disappoint them momentarily, but they’ll get over that. They’ll never get over being spoiled.

 

Let Children Solve Their Own Problems

There’s a certain self-sufficiency that comes with being a leader. When you’re the one making the calls, you should also be the one who needs to stay behind and clean up the mess these create. When parents constantly solve their children’s problems for them, children never develop the critical ability to stand on their own two feet. Children who always have someone swooping in to rescue them and clean up their mess spend their whole lives waiting for this to happen. Leaders take action. They take charge. They’re responsible and accountable. Make certain your children are as well.

Walk Your Talk

Authentic leaders are transparent and forthcoming. They aren’t perfect, but they earn people’s respect by walking their talk. Your children can develop this quality naturally, but only if it’s something they see you demonstrate. To be authentic, you must be honest in all things, not just in what you say and do but also in who you are. When you walk your talk, your words and actions will align with who you claim to be. Your children will see this and aspire to do the same.

 

Show You’re Human

No matter how indignant and defiant your children are at any moment, you’re still their hero and their model for the future. This can make you want to hide your past mistakes for fear that they’ll be enticed to repeat them. The opposite is true. When you don’t show any vulnerability, your children develop intense guilt about every failure because they believe that they’re the only ones to make such terrible mistakes.

To develop as leaders, children need to know that the people they look up to aren’t infallible. Leaders must be able to process their mistakes, learn from them, and move forward to be better people. Children can’t do this when they’re overcome by guilt. They need someone—a real, vulnerable person—to teach them how to process mistakes and to learn from them. When you show them how you’ve done this in the past, you’re doing just that.

Bringing It All Together

We can mold our children into leaders, but only if we work at it. Few things in life are as worth your time and effort as this.

Origin

How to Develop a Great Startup Idea

How do you come up with the next idea like Mark Zuckerburg with Facebook, Elon Musk with Tesla, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia with AirBNB, or Garrett Camp with Uber? I have been asked many times how to come up with a great business idea. After more research I believe this is one of the biggest barriers to young entrepreneurs. It all starts with the idea, but how do you come up with the next great thing?

Businesses Solve Problems

A useful tool is something that solves a problem. A few years ago someone was frustrated by not being able to join two boards, so they invented a nail and figured out something to use to drive that nail; the birth of the hammer. The real challenge of a great idea is making it personal. It isn’t finding just some problem to fix, it is finding the problem that you would love to fix.

Keep a “Problem Journal”

Carry a small notebook in your pocket. Every time you come across a problem write it down. Examples are “I hate scraping my windows” or “I hate sweeping” or “I hate waiting for taxis” or “I can’t pay rent” or “I hate hotels”. There are so many problems in the world, large and small. Just consciously thinking of these problems as opportunities has led to great companies and products like Roomba, Uber, and AirBNB (the latter two being billion dollar companies). This all possible because of an idea!

Solve Everyday Problems

About ten years ago, before I had the guts to go for it in entrepreneurship, I had a great idea. I lived in Wisconsin. They call it the frozen tundra for a reason. It was the middle of the winter and it just dumped about 8 inches of snow. As I was trying to warm up the car enough to de-ice the windshield so I could scrape it, I thought “wouldn’t it be awesome have something that you could just lay over the windshield before it snows that you could just pull off when you are ready to leave in the morning and never have to freeze your hands off as you scrape a window again?” But I never acted. This is a real problem and I thought of a real solution, but never tried to build a prototype to test the idea, something that would have cost me less than $50 to do. I have recently seen products on the market that do this exact thing. $50 and no follow through cost me potentially the opportunity of building that great idea into a very successful business.

Take your ideas from your journal and read through them. Which one drives you crazy? How can you fix it? If no great idea comes to you, go to the next one. Make drawings and follow through on testing your idea by building a prototype and using it yourself. Make changes to improve your solution. The point is solve YOUR problem first, then work on solving it for others. If it’s a common problem your potential customer base is huge and people will easily identify with your offering. This is how the unicorn businesses of Uber and AirBNB came to be.



Find a Problem You’re Passionate About
Business is not easy. You need to enjoy your work and feel passionate about the problem you are fixing so you can sell your idea to others. I mean sell in the literal sense and the figurative. You have to build passion for your idea in other people, get their buy-in the problem and solution.

So, what problem to you hate to face every day? What drives you bonkers? (Yeah, I’m bringing back bonkers.) This passion is the key to the rest of the development. You have to have something that will drive you through in the tough days of building the business. Yes, there will be tough days, but so many more great ones if you love your idea!

Create A Problem

Some of the greatest startups come from problems people didn’t even know they had. It’s innovation. Many entrepreneurs fail to come up with a great idea, because they don’t even really consider what is possible. To know what is possible, one must learn and expand their context. I am primarily a real estate guy and I can solve a lot of problems because I have studied a ton. I know the perceived limits and I love to push them. That is what a great start up does. You have to push the limits of something you love.

Innovate and Challenge the Status Quo

Some great examples of my point are Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Tesla. What do all of these companies have in common? Innovation and being one of the originals in their market. They created a problem and solved it. Before Apple and Microsoft, people were just fine working they way they did. The status quo was comfortable, but once these men that were crazy enough to conceive of a world with a working computer sitting on every desk in every office in the world. This computing power was not just limited to large corporations any more. Now a small business can compete with large ones. Look how this one idea changed the world!


Startup Forum 2018/Ukraine

LEARN, LEARN, LEARN

You have to be committed to the idea enough that you are hungry to learn everything about it. This is the most important part of the puzzle. Doing a lot of research and learning to expand your context is like building the edge of the puzzle first: it gives you the basis to build everything else. You have to learn the market. What retailers would carry your product (if physical) or how you will get it in the hands of as many people as you can so you can solve the problem for them? Who is your ideal customer? Who are your competitors? How much would you pay to solve that problem? Go out and ask people. Start with friends and family, but then get out to malls or areas where your ideal customers would hang out. Read books, magazines, and online articles like this one to continually improve your knowledge. I will write another article on this another day.

The most useful startup idea is one

• you love
• that solves a problem that drives you bonkers
• that you can produce on a large scale.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Just remember, people want their problems solved. Do that and you will have a great business!

Origin

International Accelerators Speak Out on the Top 4 Components for Startup Success

If anyone could unravel the mystery of why some startups succeed and others fail, it would be the business accelerators. They have a front-row seat with real-world experience. Their reputation is on the line, and rapid turnover is not their friend. They have a vested interest in seeing their clients succeed.

Work/Action

As Alyse Daunis, Program Manager, of Launch Alaska says, "Startups need doers. Doers live for building things and executing. Founders who execute intelligently and quickly are more likely to succeed".

"In the early days, the founder(s) need to be hands-on with all parts of the business - the technology, sales, finances, etc. It is inevitable that they will need to do things outside their comfort zone and do them at least well enough to get others to buy in", says Elza Seregelyi, director of L-SPARK Canadian Business Accelerator.



Eric Mathews, founder and CEO, of Start Co adds, "… action removes doubt. A startup’s main advantage is speed of learning. You learn what works and doesn’t work when you take action, run tests, get feedback, and iterate. You can’t be an entrepreneur in an armchair -you must do".

And Greg Wright, founder, of HATCH pitch says, "(Maintaining) a relentless focus on doing whatever it takes (acting, not talking)".

Customer Focus

Ashish Bhatia, founder/MD, of India Accelerator offers, "Don’t focus too much on funding! Focus on solving the right problem, the right way. Focus on basics; customers, their experience and retention".

"(Having) a deep understanding of the market (you) plan to serve, its size and realistic revenue potential, and the needs of the customers there. Apply technology to solve real customer problems better than anyone else is currently doing it", says Jason Cole, CEO, of Da Primus Consulting.

"(Keep) a laser focus on the customer", says Joe Bush, executive director, of Worcester CleanTech Incubator. Susan Langdon, executive director, of Toronto Fashion Incubator adds, "(Use) Innovation: Develop a product or service that's more innovative and desirable than what your competitors are offering".

Empathy

"It sounds incredibly counterintuitive, but those who practice grace, generosity and peace are more likely to succeed due to their inherent capabilities and perceptions of life and business", says Lauren Tiffan, director of Ocean Accelerator.

"Understanding the customer’s situation. I love founding teams where at least one person has firsthand experience in the customers’ world so they inherently understand the pains and opportunities. But even so, founders still need to validate their assumptions", adds Elza Seregelyi, director, of L-SPARK Canadian Business Accelerator.



Nobu Kumagai, founder and managing partner of Wildcard Incubator, offers "Compassion. This along with "gratitude" are both taught from notable entrepreneurs in Japan who (achieved) success during the post-war period. Successful founders and businesspersons, historically and across the Pacific, possess this compassionate mindset, to empower those surrounding (them), including co-founders, co-workers, customers, intermediaries,and so on".

Persistence

"Willingness to listen and learn, persistence, and the ability to excite others about their idea", says Christian Busch, CEO of German Accelerator Tech NY.

"Determination and resilience in the face of disappointment", adds Keith Hopper, CEO of Danger Fort Labs.

Eric Mathews, founder and CEO of Start Co says, "Perseverance is the X-factor. There will be troughs of sorrow, pits of despair, crashes of ineptitude, but understand that the obstacle is the way forward. Know that there are only two steps on the path: start and never stop".



Other desirable qualities the respondents mentioned more than once included sales, cashflow management, team building, coachability, resourcefulness and basic business and social skills. Jim Bowie, site manager/associate director of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program thinks another desirable quality is, "The ability to be a persuasive communicator and focus on sales".

Ben Hsieh, program manager of Nest added, "Time management, interpersonal/communication skills and quick learner".

We are grateful to the accelerators who have shared their experiences to help us better understand and reinforce what it really takes to be a successful startup. After all, it’s their business to know!

Stay tuned for more great advice about entrepreneurship from accelerators who have seen it, lived it, and learned from it!

Origin

What are the 21st-century skills every student needs?

The gap between the skills people learn and the skills people need is becoming more obvious, as traditional learning falls short of equipping students with the knowledge they need to thrive, according to the World Economic Forum report New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning Through Technology.

Today's job candidates must be able to collaborate, communicate and solve problems – skills developed mainly through social and emotional learning (SEL). Combined with traditional skills, this social and emotional proficiency will equip students to succeed in the evolving digital economy.

What skills will be needed most?

An analysis of 213 studies showed that students who received SEL instruction had achievement scores that averaged 11 percentile points higher than those who did not. And SEL potentially leads to long-term benefits such as higher rates of employment and educational fulfillment.

Good leadership skills as well as curiosity are also important for students to learn for their future jobs.

Another Forum report, The Future of Jobs, launched during the Annual Meeting 2017 in Davos, looked at the employment, skills and workforce strategy for the future.

The report asked chief human resources and strategy officers from leading global employers what the current shifts mean, specifically for employment, skills and recruitment across industries and geographies.

Policy-makers, educators, parents, businesses, researchers, technology developers, investors and NGOs can together ensure that development of social and emotional skills becomes a shared goal and competency of education systems everywhere.

Origin: weforum.org

3 Biggest Education Innovation Questions For 2018

"Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow" – William Pollard

Which forces and trends will drive the next 20 years of education innovation?

In this spirit, here are three big, important questions for 2018, the answers to which have implications not only for the coming year, but for the next decade and beyond.

Is education technology poised for a new wave of innovation?

Several years ago, I often frustrated ed tech entrepreneurs and investors by pointing out that the last thing teachers wanted was another online gradebook. I’d say, “We already have a bunch of those.” Nonetheless, it was the most frequent pitch I heard from 2009 – 2011.

Fortunately, this imitative drought gave way to a flood of innovation. Investment in ed tech increased fourfold from 2010 to 2015. The sheer volume of instructional content and tools produced during this period resulted in many high-quality digital offerings in segments such as math, classroom management, and school communications.

But over the last couple of years, it’s felt like we’re in a trough again as the volume and variety of early-stage companies slowed significantly. Investments in ed tech dropped by 40% in 2016.

But there are early indications that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and machine learning are creating fresh possibilities to deepen and accelerate student learning.

What might help push this wave along? Two things: 

1. Smart, accessible market intelligence that gathers and analyzes the wisdom of educators, students, researchers, and other experts to identify specific, high-priority instructional use-cases that might benefit from emerging technologies
2. Education could use one or more funds that could make large, patient investments in efforts to apply emerging technologies to concrete learning challenges that have proven difficult to solve with existing instructional approaches. 

An increased focus on social-emotional learning opened an innovation window over the last few years. Has it closed already?

A broad coalition of educators and policymakers now agree it’s too narrow to rely on test scores as the sole indicator of student success. A strong academic foundation is important, but students need additional mindsets, habits, and skills to be successful in the long run. The new federal education law (ESSA) allows for an expanded set of indicators for school performance, including social-emotional learning (SEL).

It’s time to coalesce around a manageable number of SEL skills that are meaningful, malleable, and measurable. This will make it easier to mobilize resources and expertise to advance the state of the art in SEL assessments, tools and practices, test them responsibly, and spread the most effective ones widely.

Will our renewed focus on career and technical education stimulate smart investments in ways to better prepare all young people for the future of work?

In June 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming reauthorized the Perkins Act, creating updates to funding rules for career and technical education (CTE). The bill is stalled in the Senate. This legislation is the largest federal funding program for high schools. If passed, it could help accelerate efforts to prepare more students for good paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree. In a separate effort, ten states are participating in the New Skills for Youth project, working to connect their CTE systems to jobs available in their states.

However, the real innovation challenge is how to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s economy, not just the jobs available now. With nearly 40% of U.S. jobs likely to undergo massive shifts due to automation by 2030, we need to begin designing education and workforce development opportunities now that reduce the probability of economic displacement later. Today’s kindergartners are the graduating class of 2030, so while the challenge might seem far off, it is actually quite urgent.

Now is the time to rethink CTE in service of preparing all students for where the economy is headed. This kind of shift is difficult for government agencies to do at scale. This is where education entrepreneurs can make a huge contribution, helping schools, nonprofits and businesses try out new partnerships, designs, and funding mechanisms. Doubling down on approaches that show early promise and jettisoning ones that do not will create proof points that can be adopted more broadly as states revise their CTE systems to keep up with the changing nature of work and opportunity.

Every young person in America deserves to finish high school prepared and inspired to create and live a good life, full of opportunity, choices, connection and meaning. As the answers to these three questions take shape in the coming year, I hope they bring us closer to realizing this aspiration.

Stacey Childress, CEO, Venture Fund (USA)

New opening! MiniBoss Gyumri Armenia

Best wishes for our team from Armenia!
In Gyumri started classes at the business school.

Look at these happy faces of children! Before you a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators!

In Armenia, a great interest in education, which gives MiniBoss Business School International!

We are glad to see you in our large team of professionals who are trying to change this world globally for the better!

MiniBoss Kaunas Business School, Lithuania

Classes started in Kaunas, Lithuania

Children can study in the international educational system MiniBoss Business School.
A nice day to change your life!

Lessons are held in a game format. Therefore, the children are interested. They love to learn new things.

Look this video !

"Pagaliau pristatome MiniBoss Kaunas mokyklos užkulisius. Mūsų mokykloje skirtingose amžiaus grupėse, verslo paslaptis analizuoja 28 mokiniai. Susipažinę su grupės draugais ir pasimatavę “bosų kepurėles” visi kibo į darbus. Ką gero nuveikė mokykloje ir kas sužavėjo jaunuosius „MiniBoss‘us“ galite pamatyti video reportaže", - reported on the official website in Facebook. 

INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

Over the past decade, we have trained more than 4,000 children, most of whom have become entrepreneurs and top managers.

System of training entrepreneurs is multilevel.

The First level - MINIBOSS Business School for children aged from 6 to14 years (1st type of franchise).

The Second level - BIGBOSS Business School for students 15-25 years old (2nd type of franchise).

The Third level - Business Incubator of the European Bureau for Business Development. Create a real enterprise, company, organization. Implemented startups.

The Fourth level - membership EARB (European Association of Business Development). 

Association of like-minded study of international markets, the exchange of experience among experienced entrepreneurs, mutually beneficial cooperation, development and protection of the business; search for domestic and international investment; technology transfer, innovation.

Each level is self-sufficient and independent.

MINIBOSS Business School provides comprehensive business training for individuals and corporate clients (special conditions for complex additional training of students of schools, colleges and universities).