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29 May 2015, 10:00
| FROM LBS Admissions Blog: Experience our world-enowned faculty in Dubai |
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The forthcoming Executive MBA application deadline is Monday 1 June. Don’t miss this opportunity to talk to admissions staff, alumni and current students to find out more about this exceptional programme. For this event, we would like to invite you to join Richard Jolly who will be doing a presentation on What Derails the […] Read the rest of this entry... |
03 Jun 2015, 06:59
03 Jun 2015, 08:47
03 Jun 2015, 09:08
03 Jun 2015, 09:34
03 Jun 2015, 09:41
04 Jun 2015, 02:30
04 Jun 2015, 02:33
04 Jun 2015, 02:35
04 Jun 2015, 04:02
05 Jun 2015, 10:00
| FROM LBS Admissions Blog: Be part of London |
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Broaden your knowledge of diverse business environments by visiting contrasting organisations to understand their sectors, cultures and structures. Business Immersion Week - just one of the many exciting elements of our Masters in Management programmes. Immerse yourself in the culture and business operations of top global companies. Discuss key issues with senior staff in interactive sessions, get […] Read the rest of this entry... |
09 Jun 2015, 10:00
| FROM LBS Admissions Blog: MBA 2017 Admits Weekend |
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At the end of May London Business School welcomed over 100 MBA2017 admitted candidates along with their partners to campus for a weekend introduction into the London Business School community. The first day of Admits Weekend consisted of engaging presentations from our Career Centre, the programme team and Student Ambassadors. Additionally, two of our world-class faculty […] Read the rest of this entry... |
14 Jun 2015, 07:01
| FROM LBS Current Students Blog: #LifeAtBusinessSchool: How to Start a Successful Business Part 3 |
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It’s been a while since my last post (How to come up with a multi-million dollar idea) so I will skip the introduction and get straight into the most important thing. The first thing you need to do to convert your idea to serious bucks is to figure out who your customers are and whether or not they want your product. Customer discovery is the most important thing when embarking on a new business venture. Say you have a new app that is targeted at university students, go and speak to university students, get them to trial the app. If they end up deleting the app after a few days it means your target customers don’t want it. So go back to the drawing board and try again. The same applies to any other product. If it is a type of food or new recipe you have and no one is buying it, go back to the drawing board. This process should take a few weeks and should include surveys and REAL CUSTOMER DATA, not just market size estimates and market growth forecasts. When you know customers actually want your product and you have market size and growth estimates, its time to think of a business model. Sounds complicated, but its actually just a model/plan which describes who your customers are, what your product is and why it is different to the competition, and how you plan on making money.  Once the business plan is done you can combine this with the customer data + feedback you recieved earlier and start making some initial financial forecasts to see if this is a business actually worth pursuing. In other words check if revenue is greater than total costs in the long term. You obviously don’t want to be operating a business at a loss. If at this point it seems you will be breaking even or losing out, STOP. Don’t think of it as a waste of time, think of it as an investment you made to stop yourself on losing out on money and time. Once you have your business model and you have produced some low cost prototypes and have real customer data purchases, it is time to make a decision. Do you iron out the bugs of your current product before you release or whilst you release it? This is a difficult question to answer and depends on what the product is so read up on past companies and case studies before you decide (e.g. Dropbox). The reason this is very important is because these decisions will heavily influence whether or not you will pass the barrier which occurs at the early adopter’s stage and kills the majority of start-ups (See the figure below)  Most business dont get past the “early adopters stage” shown in the diagram as often their products require a radical behavioural change. If there is one thing entrepreneurs learn the hard way, it is that no one wants to change for your product or app or whatever you have. So find a way to make it convenient around people’s current lifestyles. So once this is decided and you find yourself approaching or at the early adopter’s stage, you will be considering your second stage of funding and will be looking for investors, most likely a venture capitalist. NOTE: Before even approaching a venture capitalist you need some customers, you need to show there is a demand for the product, it works, and your business model and projections are reasonable and can forecast some profits which are worth investing in. This isn’t forecasting profits of £1000 after a year. This is after you have really thought about your business model, what your sustainable competitive advantage is (what you have that is difficult to imitate) and when you have good answers to the following questions:
So to summarise, we have covered a few things in this post. First and foremost is the importance of researching weather or not customers want and will buy your product- this takes weeks and sometimes even months. Second is the importance of having a well thought out business model, knowing the market growth forecast, knowing your customers, and using this information to make a reasonable financial forecast. Third is thinking about how you can get past the early adopters stage to get mass adoption of your product by minimising behavioural changes and tweaking your product to better suit customer needs. And finally once the above points are sorted, preparing yourself for standing in front of a venture capitalist. Stay tuned for part 4 where we talk about what companies do when they have passed the early adopters stage and how they establish themselves as key players in the market. In other words, going from £millions to £billions. Follow me: Twitter:@umarahmed12 Instagram: @umarahmed122 official website: www.umarahmed.com |
18 Jun 2015, 08:00
| FROM LBS Admissions Blog: Upcoming information events on campus – June 2015 |
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Speak directly with admissions staff, alumni and students to find out more about the London Business School experience. Representatives from Career Centre, Student Activities, Women in Business Club and Out in Business Club will be available during the networking session to answer all your questions. Tuesday 23 June, 18.45 – 21.00 GMT for […] Read the rest of this entry... |
22 Jun 2015, 01:57
22 Jun 2015, 03:00
| FROM LBS Admissions Blog: London Business School MiF retains #1 position in FT ranking |
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We are delighted to let you know that our full-time Masters in Finance (MiF) has again been ranked the world’s number one post-experience programme. We have topped this ranking every year since it was introduced five years ago and it’s great to take the top spot again on the 20th anniversary of the MiF. Of […] Read the rest of this entry... |
24 Jun 2015, 03:00
| FROM LBS Admissions Blog: Our new programme, the Masters in Financial Analysis |
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London Business School has created its first new graduate course in six years with the launch of a Masters in Financial Analysis programme. The Masters in Financial Analysis equips fresh graduates to launch and develop a successful career in finance. Stand out from the competition with a solid grounding in finance and accounting, a toolkit of […] Read the rest of this entry... |
Updated on: 24 Jun 2015, 08:12
! I was surprised because the final decisions are not released until the 25/06. Anyway, does anyone know how it works with scholarships? Is it something they would have already talked to me about or is it worth waiting to see until the 25th or would there be something in the offer pack that I will be receiving.
24 Jun 2015, 08:10
24 Jun 2015, 08:56
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 11:30am NY / 3:30pm London / 9pm Mumbai Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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