1. The first person I interviewed was Commander Elder, who is both a pilot in the naval reserves and a pilot for Delta Airlines. I consider Mr. Elder to be a domain expert in aviation due to his complex background and career. I am lucky to work in a naval P-3 Orion Squadron, where I am able to talk to many people and use them as resources. I served with Mr. Elder on the same combat aircrew last deployment, so I was able to easily approach him and speak with him about my ideas. I pitched him my business idea of having a specified section of a commercial airline for pets to fly aboard, and he was very impressed and supportive. However, he did say that the hardest obstacle would be getting the FAA to approve the rules and regulations. There really was not a return expectation in this encounter, except that I keep him updated on my class and my education. Adding Mr. Elder to my network will allow me to stay connected to the always changing aviation community- both military and civilian sectors. By having this connection, I can easily exploit opportunities that may become available.
2. The second person I interviewed was one of the chiefs that I work for, Curtis Jackson. He is very involved in real estate, specifically in renting out numerous properties to military personnel and their families. Because he aims to target military families, I consider him to be an expert in the market regarding buying behaviors, etc. He is also a military member himself, so he was able to provide personal professional opinion as well. Chief Jackson is also very involved in the Six Sigma community and shares an interest in business. Again, I work with him so it was rather easy to have a conversation with him. He wanted me to keep him posted on my accomplishments in this class as a return expectation. Having him in my network enhances my ability to exploit an opportunity because he is very realistic and I value his opinion and suggestions to go for a goal.
3. The final person I interviewed was Commander Pritchard, who is both a Naval flight officer and an employee of Boeing. I consider him to be a an important supplier in the industry. Mr. Pritchard manages orders for most major civilian airlines that we are all familiar with. I specifically focused on pitching a new design to the interior of the aircraft with him. In doing so, I found out that the interior is rigged according to the preference of each individual airline, and it does not affect the structural orders that he receives. My conversation with him helped me put my idea into perspective. Nothing major would have to change in terms of the aircraft itself, and that helped me get a better grip on my opportunity.
Reflection-
I absolutely loved this exercise. It is very rewarding to get feedback from such heavy hitters in the industry. The people that I talked two also gave me the best of both worlds- civilian and military. It is sometime hard to get both perspectives. This exercise overall gave me some validation and I was also able to further pinpoint my biggest obstacles to overcome. After doing this exercise, I know what questions I need to ask in future events. This was different than other exercises in the past, because I took the time to fully explain my idea and lay all my worries out there. I was very honest and open, and in doing so, I received some very valuable feedback.
Hey Salena,
ReplyDeleteI found this assignment challenging because I had to look for my own experts outside of my own domain and it was a little difficult at first. I think that since you’re part of the military and your idea revolves around them, you already have a good social capital and you could easily take advantage of it. I think you did an excellent job of utilizing your existing social capital to build more social capital and that it ties in very well to what the professor recommends in his lectures. Anyway, like you, this exercise was very useful as it allowed me to take into consideration some possible obstacles I had not considered before.