CRITICAL THINKING & DESIGNING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS...CRITICAL THINKING & DESIGNING BUSINESS...

Private & Confidential – For Exclusive Use Of The Recipient

Agenda

CRITICAL THINKING & DESIGNING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

I. Who am I?

II. What is the purpose of this course?

III. How to get the most of out of this course (and do well).

IV. Purpose you want to take this (or any) course.

-----------------------

I. What is work? What is business? How to become useful?

II. What’s next?

All work contained in this document is property of i.e. Muhanna & co. and is

confidentially being shared with the client listed above.

ANALYSIS COMPLETED BY I.E. MUHANNA & COMPANY.

Design Thinking*Elective Course for Faculty of Sciences, USJ

Spring 2020

Instructor: Michael Muhanna, ASA

*ALTERNATE TITLE:

Critical Thinking &

Designing Business

Solutions

* SECOND ALTERNATE TITLE:

How to be a useful

person helping

businesses succeed

Who am I?

My Background

Michael MuhannaSenior Manager & Actuary

i.e. Muhanna & co [Consulting Firm]

Executive Director & Founder

afikra [Global Social Enterprise]

Read more at:

afikra.com | muhanna.com | muhanna.org

linkedin.com/in/michaelmuhanna

My Background

- Duke University

BS Economics & Music

- Aon Re (now Aon Benfield) in Chicago

Actuarial Consulting (Pricing)

- Teaching in New Orleans

2 Year Teaching Fellowship

- PwC in NYC

Actuarial Consulting (Reserving)

- Morgan Stanley in NYC

Financial Engineering / Quant Fund Mgmt

My Background

muhanna.com

Consulting all over MENA, GCC, East Africa

~35 years old

~50 Employees

Offices in Lebanon, Cyprus, Tanzania

afikra.com

Global Media + Culture Org

Chapters in 6 Countries

Team of 50+

Global Community of 5000+

Why are you taking this course?

What is business?

(Why is worth understanding?)

Purpose of the

Course

Purpose of the Course

Many students enter the professional world without a clear understanding

of how business works and, most crucially, how to be useful when

thinking about business problems, big and small. This course is designed

around business case studies that will give opportunities to try to

understand how and why different businesses operate in various sectors.

This course serves two fundamental purposes:

1. to explore how businesses make money and how shifts in the

environment change opportunities to do so and

2. to connect effective responses to those changes with fundamental

principles in business.

To accomplish these objectives, students will be asked to consider the

present-day challenges confronting a selection of firms spanning a

range of industries. Firms will be drawn from around the world to

highlight critical issues in global management.

Throughout the course, each student will complete four written papers

each on a different business case-study and one final group presentation

on a business case-study.

The course will introduce business concepts such as SWOT analyses,

Design Thinking, the Business Model Canvas and others.

This course does not require a business background; however it is

intended for students interested in working in consulting, business, and

early-stage start-ups.

The course will be highly interactive and will require that students

complete readings before the discussions.

Please note that if students are unprepared for class discussion and do

not complete all the readings before hand, they will have a hard time

receiving a good score and/or passing the class.

By the end of the course, the goal is this:

- Get a better understanding of how businesses operate, and how they

respond to challenges

- Gain practice on how to write / think / speak about these businesses &

challenges effectively

- Read, watch, and listen a lot.

Ultimately, I want you to become more hirable, more useful, and

someone that I would want to work with.

Doing well in

the course

Doing well in the course

Course page: mikeymu.com/usj

Fill out the class sign up

Grade Composition:

• 30%: Productive Participation in Class (dependent on completion of

reading + HW)

• 40%: Four Written Company Profiles (10 points each)

• 30%: Final Presentation

Four Company Profiles: (40% of grade)

• Each week emailed to me before noon the day of the class

• 750-1000 words

• Analyzing one of the weekly companies.

• Each paper should cover the following four questions:

• What value do they offer the world (or their community)?

• How does this company make money?

• What are their major weaknesses & threats?

• What changes in the business environment should they be concerned

with? How might we want to react to them?

Class 1 – Ford, Toyota, Tesla

Class 2 – IKEA, H&M, Prada

Class 3 – Netflix, Disney, Google, Facebook

Class 4 – Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, HSBC

Class 5 – Marriot, AirBNB

Class 6 – Final Group Presentations during class.

*These may change

Final Group Presentations: (30% of grade)

• Final Week

• Each aprox 10-15 minutes long

• Students will deliver an in-class presentation (in groups of

4-5 students) on a different company.

• Each team will be responsible for developing a

presentation on their findings and then managing class-

wide discussion on the issues involved

Final Note

This course should be interesting.

But you cannot wing it.

Full disclosure:

If you don’t do the readings, and don’t put real effort into

the papers, you will have a hard time passing the class

and getting a good grade.

Quick Break

Quick Break to talk about being useful

Again, why are

you in school?

First, what’s a job?

My favorite definition:

When someone pays you to do

something that is useful – either

because they can’t do it, or because

they don’t want to do it, or both.

Speaking to a 21 year old:

I know your job

sucks sometimes...

That’s why we gave

it to you.

So you are studying in the

Faculty of Science….

What kind of job do you want?

What jobs are there?

Many client projects.

Wide Spread.

Multi Tasking.

Faster Pace.

Focus on your own

company.

More depth.

More singular focus.

Less fast pace.

Super Fast Pace

Very Volatile

Multi Tasking x 100

Consulting (External) In House (Internal) Start Up

What jobs are there?

Many client projects.

Wide Spread.

Multi Tasking.

Faster Pace.

Focus on your own

company.

More depth.

More singular focus.

Less fast pace.

Super Fast Pace

Very Volatile

Multi Tasking x 100

Consulting (External) In House (Internal) Start Up

In all cases, your job is basically:

Understand why clients are using your business and

helping improve the product/service you can provide them

How does

one become

useful?

Be humble about being

bad, and be proud

enough to get better.Get excited about mastering the

basic tasks and be okay with the

fact that you are probably going to

be bad at basic stuff. Its okay!

The Best Ability

is AvailabilityBe around.

Be present.

Build mentorships

(as a mentor and as a mentee)

Listen & Read

IntentionallyDuring meetings take notes,

Become a fan of smart writing:

“Planet Money”, Michael Lewis,

Nate Silver, NYT, World Bank

Reports, etc.

Speak and

Write PreciselyLearn to Reduce.

Say what you mean.

No hand waving.

Timing is

everythingBe early.

Know when to listen &

when to chime in.

Don’t leave until you

finish what you said you

would.

How to become useful

• The Best Ability is Availability

• Listen & Read Intentionally

• Speak and Write Precisely

• Timing is everything

• Be humble about being bad and be proud enough to get

better.

Remember:We work with people.

So be a great teammate.

Communicate, be friendly,

coach, be coachable, be reliable,

& pass the ball.

Any questions before we start the first real session?

Intro to

Business

Resources

• What makes you valuable?

• Why would someone want to hire you?

• Do you have a special skill?

• Willing to travel?

• Speak multiple languages?

Resources

• What makes you valuable?

• Why would someone want to hire you?

• Do you have a special skill?

• Willing to travel?

• Speak multiple languages?

• What are your weaknesses?

• Tangible & Intangible

What is Business?

• A business is usually defined as a commercial enterprise

• Some are run by only one person who carry out all of the required

functions. Others employ thousands of people and provide goods and

services to people all over the world

• Each business can be defined or described by:

• its type of ownership,

• the goods produced or services offered,

• the types of jobs provided,

• And/or the functions it performs in a community

Stakeholders

• Who are the stakeholders? – Anyone who has an interest in the

success of a business

• Customers

• Managers

• Employees

• Owners

• Local Community/Environment

• Suppliers

• Government

• Creditors

How Businesses Operate

Take Inputs Process/Manufacture Output

Costs: Fixed and Variable Revenue

Profit

Industry

A group of businesses that all produce

CRITICAL THINKING & DESIGNING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS...CRITICAL THINKING & DESIGNING BUSINESS...

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