Growing Social Capital



1. I spoke to John who has a background in installations. For this project he is a domain expert since he knows a lot about how I can effectively get my product into the homes of customers. I found this person through my parents because he does a lot of work on our home including remodeling as well as appliance installations. During our exchange I told him about the product and asked him his opinion on it. He said he liked the idea and told me how it is simple to install new thermostats into a home. There was no return expected. Including John in my network will help to enhance my opportunity because if I ever had any concerns about how my air conditioning system needs to be installed I could easily ask him for advice.
2. I met Ian through my internship when we were having work done in our office. His background is helping to manage the office of Morris Highman. He is experienced in working with other products similar to mine since his business gets a lot of inquiries. Our conversation was interesting because it was while I was working at the receptionist desk. While he was waiting for my boss we struck up a conversation and he told me about his job and what he does. It will be helpful to have Ian as a contact because since he works with other business owners similar to my product, I can ask him for any future advice.
3. Kris is an important supplier to my industry because he works at ADT which is actually a huge competitor for my product. I met him through a friend of mine who works as an accountant for ADT. Since they have a smart thermostat product I think it is convenient to have a contact like Kris who can tell me the struggles that the company faces with their products such as technology, installations, etc.. When I told him about my smart watch app for thermostats he thought it was an interesting idea and could do well if marketed it correctly.

Targeted networking helps with future networking events because it teaches you how to talk to people that you don’t know but yet shows you how to get the information that you need. This definitely differed from past networking experience because most networking that I have done has been within the music industry so a technological industry is definitely further out of my comfort zone.

Comments

  1. katerinagarciaNovember 5, 2018 at 12:02 PM

    Hi Brooke! I enjoyed reading about the different interviews you conducted. I think the coolest of the three was the last interview with Kris. It’s so important to know the struggles that you may face when entering a market and asking a technician who does this every day is the best way to educate yourself. Overall I loved reading your interviews and you did a really good job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 5:22 PM

    Brooke,

    I think it's awesome that you spoke to such a wide range of people to receive advice about your product. You identified people that you had access to in your life or that you could easily contact. It's really cool that you just struck up a conversation with another professional at work to receive feedback on your device. I think it is really important to speak to your competitors so you know what to expect in the industry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Austin GalbraithNovember 5, 2018 at 10:31 PM

    Brooke,
    You do a great job on this assignment and interviewed a wide range of people who could all be great additions to your network to help your product take off. Targeted networking is very useful to help start a company because sometimes it takes knowing someone who can help to make a product get recognized.

    ReplyDelete

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