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Bring the power of So what? who cares? why you? to your clients. Become a So what? who cares? why you? Certified Coach! Join us at one of these upcoming certification sessions:
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September 22-23, 2011
Chicago, IL |
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November 3-4, 2011
Ottawa, Canada |
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November 9-10, 2011
Orlando, FL |
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I had a teleconference with a rep from a VC Angels Fund on Friday. It was a 45-minute session where he did rapid fire questioning. After I hung up, all I could think of was, I'm so glad I put in the time on So what? who cares? why you?. Your program had me ready. I could answer each question, concisely when I needed to, but in detail if he decided to drill down. The result was a very favorable outcome at the conversation's end. He said, "I'm very impressed by the maturity of what you've submitted."
– Steve Deal, Deal Corp
www.dealcorp.net
"So what? who cares? why you? provided my global team of technology oriented scientific staff with a methodology to define and articulate a business value proposition to support their applications for funding from a large investment pool. The transformation in thinking that occurred was significant and as a result, many, many, better investment decisions were made."
– David Mann, former SVP, Emerging Technologies, Nortel Networks
"Your So what? who cares? why you? materials are terrific. I have shown your toolkit to a number of folks and praised the value of your disciplined approach."
– Paul Harris, TechDev Associates
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Feel free to pass this newsletter on to colleagues.
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wendykennedy.com
300 Earl Grey Drive,
Unit 11
Ottawa, ON Canada
K2T 1C1
Tel: 613-851-6621
www.wendykennedy.com
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So what? who cares? why you?® Coaches Converge in Fort Worth
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 For two energetic days in May, incubator managers and staff from across the U.S. and Canada converged in Fort Worth to attend the So what? who cares? why you? Certified Coach training program.
Working with Wendy, participants rolled up their sleeves to learn how to harness the power of the So what? who cares? why you? methodology for their organizations. Many participants came to the session to acquire a set of tools for the "pre-incubation" stage and found a perfect fit in So what? who cares? why you?
David Terry, co-founder and director of the West Texas A&M University Enterprise Center came to Fort Worth to fill a gap in coaching support for those very early-stage ideas. The So what? who cares? why you? Certified Coach program was so tailor-made for the Enterprise Center's coaching-focused philosophy that David decided to bring three of his advisors to the training session in Fort Worth.  "Everyone left the session completely committed, energized and ready to put the methodology to work," says David. "We're already using it as part of our own strategic and sustainability planning, and we're launching the formal pre-incubation service based on the tools in July."
Of course, it wasn't all work. There was also time to take in the city and enjoy some fun over Tex-Mex!!
Register for one of our upcoming So what? who cares? why you? Certified Coach training sessions in Chicago (Sept. 22-23), Ottawa (Nov. 3-4) and Orlando (Nov. 10-11).
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European Space Agency Selects So what? who cares? why you? as Platform for Proposal Submission Tools
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| The European Space Agency Telecommunications and Integrated Applications Directorate has selected wendykennedy.com to develop an online e-tools platform for proposal submissions based on the So what? who cares? why you? methodology. Since ESA has already been working with So what? who cares? why you? in proposal submissions for some of their key program lines, the new multimedia platform will help to streamline and accelerate the process. |
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Scoping the Opportunity – The Power of Visual Models
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 Founders at the very early stages are brilliant at describing the science of their ideas, but can struggle when asked to describe the business value. This is quite natural since scientific and technical professionals don't frame their work on the canvas that we business people do — we need to equip them with a set of mental models to frame their ideas — in essence, visual frameworks that express the value of their discoveries and inventions in commercial terms.
A fatal flaw many people make at this early "opportunity" scoping stage is to put a business planning template in front of a founder — business plans can stifle an idea before it has a chance to take flight and, worse, they ask for overwhelming detail that is not relevant at this stage. What you need are tools and frameworks that encourage dialog and debate with founders about the future commercial possibilities for idea. Join Wendy for her take on this topic. Listen to the podcast...
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Tool Talk: Map Out the Value Chain |
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 Ask any researcher, scientist, or technology entrepreneur to define what a value chain is and chances are you'll get a variety of colorful responses. I've found this to be true in many of my conversations – much confusion surrounds the concept of the value chain, which in turn, causes a lot of confusion in the go-to market plan for an early-stage idea. It was no different when I was working in startups with new and novel ideas, and it's why we created a specific tool in the So what? who cares? why you? methodology to address this area. The tool is quite simple to use, but its power is in forcing a structured conversation around the topic of the value chain – a discussion we should be having with our founders early in the commercialization process.
It helps us to discover and explore (my two favorite words) the relationships that are available to springboard the idea into the commercial world.
Using this Mobile Wireless Market value chain as an example, join me for some "tool talk" on the topic. Listen to the podcast...
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What's your experience with So what? who cares? why you?
Send us an email at info@wendykennedy.com. We'd love to hear from you!
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