USA trip was an eye opener from many prospective...Sushant

The thinking hat session at Stanford University with Tina Seeling, was very creative and allowed me to analyze my decision making process more closely.  This activity taught me that everyone have their own ways of seeing things. And many times people get their frame so close to their face that they cant see others ideas/prospective without being biased or prejudiced.

The session with Dr Richar Dasher gave more insight about how the ventures go through different stages and the entrepreneur should keep their mind open to new creative ideas and not get stuck with old ones and thus stopping their creativity.   

During the week at Stanford we had a chance to tour the School of Design. It was great to see how ideas can be generated and feedbacks and discussion can be positive and constructive.  The building itself was creative and one can change the room layout as they wanted so that they can stimulate their brain every day without getting stuck with old ideas and layouts.

The founder of DripTech showed us how even small innovative ideas can create value and you can start small and grow big as you build on the idea and keep re-inventing yourself.

Session with Randy was another eye opener. It just lifted our way of thinking from just being a mediocre to as being a part of the process and entrepreneur world. It was an assurance that even big company have started from a small idea and with first step.

 The session with Bryan Weller to learn how people’s brain function and to make use of this knowledge to train our brain was really a great one. His teaching to draw mind map is so helpful and enhances the reading and understanding skill.

 Green-MBA was all about sustainability. We are a part of the world we live in and so is the business we do. So our cost and profits should take all the factors in account, including the natural and environmental factors. During the session, many guest speakers came and talk about their perception about sustainability and how they do business. There were speakers from the permaculter primer, golden nectar farm, Sanoma Village, Potter’s creek.

Bay model was very educational as well. It shows how if we think simple and extend the idea, it works. Some adjustments are needed based on the other factors impacting it environment.

The business competition at ‘Dominican University’ was another learning experience. The business ideas were so similar to ours and so promising.

The USA trip was over all a great experience which broadened our mindset and the way we think. It also gave assurance that we are on the right track and we just need to think big and take one step at a time towards our goal.

Mee USA Trip Stanford&Dominican Green MBA

First of all the purpose of this travel is to open the world of entrepreneur in USA where totally different from Thailand.  I can see the energy and possibilities that normal person with great idea can become entrepreneur and it could happen in Thailand too.  The more important is the core idea of opportunity is everywhere and entrepreneur is the one who can siege that opportunity and turn it to what we call “innovation” 

Starting with Silicon Valley Stanford University, the facilities were great.  I have a chance to meet Tina who teaches us about 6 hats, 6 habits.  The activities made me realize the character of who I am and people in the team.  We perceive thing on how we think not how we see it.  The design rooms where student can gather together discuss and brainstorm idea till present idea to the class was the greatest place in campus.  This place is where idea came out and it has very dynamic design for study.  Many prototypes from student can be found in here. 

Moving from Stanford to Green MBA, I met Mr. Brian who teach us mind map and speed reading.  Those two skills can be trained within 3 days.  It is very useful for academic and daily life.  Mind map is how you use the schematic way of thinking conclude what you have learn in to one map where the ideas link together.  This method helps me recall the content of what I have learned shortly when back to see it again. Brian is a very talented teacher.  It was the great opportunity to learn from him. 

In Green MBA, Dominican University, we started the first day with graduate ceremony of Green IMBA student.  If you never join this event you would have no idea how great it is to be a part of it.  It was the business Plan presentation, where all students stood up on stage in front of teachers, students, family and community.  It was full of courage and energy during the presentation.  It should become our IMBA model somehow.  Key point is community also attended and has contributed on the student business Plan.  You would never able to see any situation like this in Thai.  The idea can spread out to general public, to community they live and create the mutual benefit to the society not just only show off to the teacher in the class.

In the class and the entire trip we had visited, they were talking around the word “sustainability”  Professor john’s house was a great sample of how sustainable life look like.  We went to red wood and some preserve area for salmon breeding.  It was so hard and costly to bring back what you have lost than preserve what you have. 

Beside from study, the flexible schedule of arrival and travel by car are extremely convenient and made the trip become incredibly interesting.  I could sometime make a trip to visit some outlet mall and restaurants you prefer.  Overall the trip was great, definitely worth join it.

US trip by Oak

Before I went on the trip to USA, I felt very exciting and thought that it would be like vacation trip. But, in fact, IMBA gave me a lot than I ever expected.

Since the first day I arrived at Stanford University, I felt this university is fully equipped with all learning material needed. All the environment and structures are well planned. During that time, Tina Seeling, one of the faculties over there took us to campus tour. I have a chance to visit School of Design, which is my most favorite place. From the outside, it looks like ordinary building. But inside, I could feel lots of learning environment and energetic people. Moreover, I very interesting in the change able room, which could re-design to match with the group need. In my opinion, the change able room idea is very incredible. We should adopt this idea in Thai university.

Improve reading skill class with Bryan Weller was my most favorite class during the trip. He is very unique and talented. From his class, my reading speed is increase about 2-3 times faster than before. He also made me understand more about the way our brains work then try to maximize its capacity. Moreover, the mind map method is very good idea to remember anything in our life. I will use this method more often in the future.

After we finished class at Stanford University, we went to the Green MBA in Dominican University. On the way to Green MBA, we stop by at one of the guess speaker house near by the ocean. I can’t remember his name, but I can remember his house. It is a very beautiful house that I want to have one in the future. I could tell that his house is the most inspiration for success during the trip.

In the Green MBA, during the Business plan presentation, I could learn lots of ideas. The Idea I like most is the environment friendly lubricant. In my opinion, this idea is most likely possible and could generate lots of profit in the future. However, I already forgot the detail of his product, but if I have chance, I would like to talk with him again. His idea and product may workable in Thailand.

Finally, I have to thank you to John, his wife and Roberto to give us a very warm welcome in this farm and a great dinner in his house. His farm is like an eco-tourism place. The living roof idea is a very great idea. In the future, I would like to have my own living roof too.

The trip to USA with IMBA was one of my great experiences in life. It has opened my vision wider and expands my thinking a lot. And I was very surprise that the heart of Green MBA teaching was focus on sustainability which the same as our King teaching. Therefore, Now I believe that it is the essential concept for doing businesses. I will thing very carefully and concern a lot about the consequence effect in the future.

Thoranit Sukhumanant (OAK)

US trip by Jint

Being a part of the US trip can lighten me up inspirations. The session at Standford University with Tina Seeling, what I like most is Six-Thinking Hat.  This activity can teach me that each people have their own aspects in seeing things for example by emotion or by creativity. This can be used in the meeting where normally people always think the way they used to. By this activity Tina try to make everyone think through every aspect(6 colors) to show us that the thinking way that each of us not used to  it’s kind of difficult but we can improve such skills.    During the week at Standford I have a chance to visit the School of Design leading the tour by Tina, such place is really out of the box.  Inside the building you can change the room as you like to suit your group work.  Tina mentioned that every time we get into this place, the room is different.  A session with Bryan Weller to learn how people’s brain function and to make use of that I learn to draw mind map which is brain-like also with the reading skill the can help us a lot both in studying and in working. Being in Silicon Valley atmosphere together with meeting with Randy the author of “Getting to Plan B” can change my way of thinking that opportunities lies in everywhere you just need to start, start thinking and don’t hesitate to do it. From listening the guest speaker of DripTech show me that to be innovative, you can start from small thing, things that you’re used to.

Moving to GreenMBA where we talk a lot about sustainability.  To do the business sustainably we need to have the sustainable world.  So the environment comes to the essential part of this session.   During the session, many guest speakers come to talk about their sustainable business for example the permaculter primer, golden nectar farm. This also shows that to do a business we cannot concern only profit in term of financial profit which is money.  It shows that we also need to concern more about other stakeholders outside the company.

To be respect every person’s opinions, we have a chance to learn systematic thinking which every can express their own thoughts freely by writing in one piece of paper

The lesson learned from the US trip the thing that I can suddenly use is mindmapping and reading skill.  I also have loads of ideas back to Thailand.  Some ideas for example the design of School of Design and Six-Thinking Hat that I want to use in my family business. And also to do business sustainably, to implement this concept somehow I need to spend sometimes on my family business. But in the future, sustainability will be the key concept to run the business.

US Trip By Save

Bay area, this name sounds very familiar to me since I have been there for a year. I started to think about what I expect to see there before boarding time. The first thing in my thought was a well management of area municipal or a great innovation at Stanford.  However, I didn’t know any timetable or agenda. So, I just hoped that IMBA will surprise me with great stuffs.

Let’s start with the first venue, Stanford; this was not the first time to Palo Alto for me but it was the first time for me to Stanford campus. I found that I have fallen in love with the place already. I thought it would have been a serious place that gathers all geeks from this planet together, but it’s not. It was turned out that the place is very cool. They are doing things innovatively. The atmosphere there is support and encourages people to think creatively. Not only regular classrooms, there are adjustable to any shape they want. There is a prototype room that students can model there prototype to get on their own.

People there are inspiring as well. We have met a lot of interesting people there. But the one I want to mention is Tina Seelig. She is an executive director of Stanford Technology Ventures Program. This was the first time that I get to know academic people by going bowling together. I like her style which is energetic and systemic. She began our day with a fun activity but it’s very meaningful such as 6 thinking hats. After that, she showed us how Silicon Valley is going in the present and past time. We had chanced to meet many entrepreneurs.

Next venue is a very peaceful town, San Rafael; this town is a small one but people live their life sustainably. We were took care by GreenMBA. Two of them are professors that have been teaching in our class before, John and Roberto. We started here with a three days course to boost up our studying potential with mind mapping and speed reading. The guest speaker, Brian, was very talented. He showed us how to do mind mapping which is very useful for our daily life with IMBA or even our work. It was similar to our meditation but it was not hard to understand.

In San Rafael, it was totally different from Palo Alto. Places that we visited here were more on natural preservation. Moreover, almost of them can be related with our water project. We can use them as our huge inspiration. For example, Marin County Watershed Program, we have learned a lot about upstream water and how it flow and support the entire western county.

In conclusion, when I come back, I can use lots of things I have found there. I can use what I learned from Brian in IMBA class and to organize my messy meeting plan in my department.  I can also use six-thinking hat to work with people in group and understand the way they work. Actually, I am also planning to do the party for students who are graduating from IMBA. It is going to be like the party in GreenMBA where local people come together and celebrate for their students. The best of all, I have learned that the sustainability is not only how to sustain natural resource but it is about how to be friend and live with natural though.

 Nopparuj Ungeprapakorn