Mia Maki

Date: April 20, 2016

Name: Company of Young Professionals – From ideas to actions

Presenter: Mia Maki

Many young leaders have ideas to change the world. However, a majority of them seems to have difficulty to turn ideas into the next level. Company of Young Professionals invites Mia Maki, the Principal of Quimper Consulting Inc, to explore tips for young leaders to expand their innovative ideas. In this presentation, Mia Maki will help young leader s to unleash their inner creativity. Young leaders will understand how and where to get their next big idea. Moreover, Mia Maki will provide strategies for young leaders to turn ideas into actions.

Mia Maki is a University of Victoria professor in the Faculty of Business. She is also the Principal of Quimper Consulting Inc. she has been involved CMA British Columbia as a board member and Board Adjudicator for over 10 years. Maki has been mentoring many entrepreneurs and early stage startup companies. In addition, she has been invited to speak on the topic of innovation at many professional platforms.

Mia Maki believes many young leaders understand the theory and practice behind creativity and innovation; however, they often forget the idea behind intrapreneurship. Maki defines intrapreneurship as leader who acts like an entrepreneur within a large organization. Currently, a majority of young leaders are considered as craft people, who care about services and products. There are some freedom fighters, who want to create lifestyle, and hardly any achievers. To become achievers, young leaders need to practice negotiation and listening skills.

Maki believes effectuation is a lost art in this generation. The effectuation is the logical that heavily used in the initial stage of venture creation and new service. The logic helps young leaders to determine their affordable loss, strategize their mindset to shaping the world, and understand what others are willing to commit.

Overall, young leaders need to leverage their means and goals. This will create new interactions and lead to new commitments. New commitments will find new means and new goals. Therefore, new products will produce. This whole cycle is the formula of effectuation.

Maki engages an interactive activity to all young leaders in the audience. She wants all young leaders to imagine a scenario of the ice sculptor event. The day before the event was raining hard and all ice sculptors were melting. Maki asks all young leaders to come up with creative solutions.

Maki reveals this was a real case happened at Sweden. Because of the rain, all ice sculptors were moved into all the room in the residents. Since all ice sculptors occupied all the visitors’ room, the visitors were invited to stay with the ice sculptors. Later, the idea turned into the famous “Ice Hotel”.

Takeaways

Maki believes intrapreneurship starts with resources or means. Young leaders must know what they have and work on what they have. Young leaders are encouraged to have conversations and experiences that are cross-discipline. They also need to foster relationships outside of their departments.

Maki suggests young leaders to walk across the floor, building or buildings to gain new ideas. Sometimes, they might bump into other people and chat. This chatter would yield something useful, and one of the participants would head back to his or her desks with a new idea.

Maki encourages young leaders to ask questions. Asking the right questions can help young leaders to be more innovative and creative. Two main questions young leaders need to ask to themselves.

1. What would make a customer’s life easier?
2. What would make a customer’s transaction easier?

“Process innovations are long-lasting and value creating”

Young leaders must calculate their affordable lost. Affordable cost is deciding what it would cost for young leaders to confirm there is a market or prove technically it can be done, or another unknown. If there is no market, young leaders must forfeit and move on.

“Failure is an option, mistakes are expected”

Maki recommends young leaders to do these 5 things if they are in charge of developing new products or services.

• Talk to potential co-creators
• Ask for commitments
• Look for ways to shape the opportunity
• What is the affordable lost
• Start with what they have and build from them

Date: April 14, 2015

Name: Company of Young Professionals Success Series – Innovation & the Entrepreneurial Mindset

Presenter: Mia Maki

Innovation and creativity are the two main factors that set apart good and successful young entrepreneurs. Many young entrepreneurs need to understand creativity and innovation will lead to the next level of their success. CYP invites Mia Maki, CPA, CMA, Principal of Quimper Consulting Inc., to speak about the importance of innovation and creativity. Maki is formerly CFO and COO for a Vitoria-based technology company. Moreover, Maki assists many acquisitions, strategic partnerships and joint subsidiary creation. This presentation will benefit many young entrepreneurs to think about their path of entrepreneurship.

Mia Maki believes creativity and innovation come from theory and practice. In corporation, many entrepreneurs need to understand intrapreneurship. There are research for entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and creativity from many expert theories, such as Simon and Chase.

Maki mentions there are 3 types of entrepreneurs.

• Achiever
• Freedom Fighter
• Crafts People

Crafts people are among the biggest within these three types of entrepreneurs. They usually deliver the most values to their clients.

“Entrepreneurs are made, not born”

Effectuation

Maki indicates effectuation is important for young entrepreneurs. Maki defines effectuation is a logic to be used heavily in the initial stage of venture creation and new product or service development. Effectuation needs to take consideration of the affordable loss. The logic thinking should be shaping the world instead of fitting in to the current world. The logic should use the bird in the hand principle where young entrepreneurs should examine what they currently have. Lastly, logic is helping young entrepreneurs to seeking co-creation, where they understand what others willing to commit to the venture.

Maki creates the effectuation formula that simplifies the theory.

Means -> Goals -> Interactions -> Commitments

The first two steps will contain leverage surprise that will change the goals. The formula will lead to new means, which exposes new resources, or new goals from new commitments to help crystallized the goals. The formula is designed to create new products, markets and firms.

The effectual logic requires low prediction and high control. The casual reasoning starts when young entrepreneurs believe if they can predict the future, they can control it; however, effectual reasoning starts when young entrepreneurs believe they can control the future and do not need to predict it.

Maki illustrates all innovative and creative ideas can be created by setting the primary target market, the type and the emotions. Maki concludes this as forced combination.

Maki believes sometimes being innovative and creative is about intersection. Many industrial problems are often solved by another discipline. For example, chemist solves an electronic problem. The intersection is where innovation comes from.

“Intrapreneurs can bring commitments together in the organization”

Maki believes sometimes being innovative and creative is about clear. Young entrepreneurs need to understand how their companies are different from the competitors. In addition, they need to know how they can be more successful marketing and promoting their companies. They can start by understand their value proposition. By asking questions will help young entrepreneurs to lead to their answer.

Maki believes sometimes being innovative and creative is about asking questions. Young entrepreneurs can think what can make their customers’ lives or transaction easier. The progress can be simplified or changed by adding new values. The process innovations are long-lasting and value creating for companies and young entrepreneurs.

Maki suggests many resources for young entrepreneurs to expand innovative and creativity. In the resource of “Steal like an artist”, there are 10 unique tips for young entrepreneurs.

1. Steal like an artist
2. Do not wait until you know who you are to get started
3. Write the book you want to read
4. Use your hands
5. Side projects and hobbies are important
6. Do good work and share it with people
7. Geography is no longer our master
8. Be nice
9. Be boring
10. Creativity is subtraction