 Good morning from a very sunny morning here in Hong Kong. Today, what I'm going to do is I'm going to review this book, New Business Models for the Knowledge Economy, and it's written by three academics in the Netherlands. Now, I stumbled across this book by a complete accident when I was looking for books on my knowledge management assignment in my Masters. Now, I thought this is going to be very academic-y and that I was just going to pick up a thing or two and find it a great reference to add in and so on, whereas instead, actually, it has taken me 18 months to read this properly, even though there's 132 pages in it. It's not that I'm a slow reader, it's just that it's given me an awful lot to think about. And yesterday, on a Sunday afternoon in Hong Kong Park, I did get to the end of it, and all it made me want to do was to go back and start again and actually really identify key pieces of learning out of it, which is what I want to share with you today. So, first and foremost, there's three key things that I wanted to talk to you about, which I think could be very, very useful for you. If you are somebody who is considering how you build your business model, but more specifically than that, I think this book is excellent if you are trying to discern things that aren't taught generally in whether it's a start-up on business course or whether it is those big leadership training courses, etc. There's three things in here that I had not heard of before, really and truly had not heard of before, and I wanted to share them with you. So, the first one, and this one has probably been the most impactful for me, is the theory of reciprocal value. Now, again, some of this is quite text booky, but when you apply it, it's very, very real word. So, reciprocal value is all about if you think about it. Generally, when I would say to you, what is your business model? I'm also asking how do you charge in such a way that you can make money? That's generally the way we think your business model is, but this looks at things differently. It says, okay, if I am going to create value for you, which we're going to assume that I do, if I don't do that, you're not going to buy from me the first place. How else do people pay for that apart from with money? Okay, so for example, I am, as you know, co-founder of Savitini Academy. So, we provide a summer camp for teenagers focusing on careers, communication, confidence, and we provide that for our teenagers, and then parents or sponsors or aunties and uncles pay for it to send their teenagers along, and there is value there. But what else is there? How else? What other value are our customers giving to us at Savitini Academy? So, the way reciprocal value would train you to think is, number one, it gives you a mark of research. The fact that they're willing to buy from you shows that there's an interest in this, but when people don't buy from you, maybe it is because of the lack of suitability of the timing. Maybe it is that they are interested in one particular area of the course, maybe career guidance, and they would prefer to go to somebody directly for a career mentoring for example. Maybe it is that they're solely interested in public speaking and since they're interested in public speaking, they're willing to pay for the whole program to get that piece of it. So, there's a lot of market research comes from engaging with your buyers and your non-buyers. Secondly, a lot of our parents, delightfully, have recommended us to other people. So, therefore, when they buy from us, they're also willing to be advocates for Savitini Academy as well, as are our students who have given us some really wonderful testimonials over the years. And also, when our teenagers come along, I've told a lot of you about this already. When our teenagers do come along to us, I'm in July, they share a lot of their views, so whether it is about Snapchat or whether it is about how they see employers of tomorrow or how they feel society reflects on them, etc. So, rather than simply think of business model, it's just about the money that you receive in exchange for the value that you give. But this book has taught me to do is to look at many of the other ways in which we are getting value from reciprocal value from our customers as well. So, let me give an example of here, okay? So, I'm over here at the moment here in Hong Kong, I was in Shanghai last weekend for four days of working with other people as well. So, I'm just here with a view to selling aspects of our business and I could look at it like that and I could solely measure the value of the trip doing that. However, this book again has taught me to think differently because while I'm here, I'm also gathering those types of insights that you simply can't get from Google or even that you can't just get from people who have traveled over here. It's talking to people who are living here, both Irish and Hong Kong and Chinese. And it's talking to local people here. It's talking to those people here who have views about the way in which Europe is working or the way in which they feel about doing business with the Irish. And all of that feeds into our training business and it feeds into our Saviteen Academy because let's just say in July I will meet people who probably will ask me about what it's like to study abroad or maybe what it's like to get an internship in China and so on. And now I have not alone have my insights but I actually have connectivity that I can direct them accordingly with. So, therefore there's actually quite a lot of reciprocal values that I can lean from being here. I've met many of the people from Team Ireland. Team Ireland would be Enterprise Ireland or Via Tourism Ireland, etc. So, if those contacts and of course what has also happened is that from being here, people here have referred me to people in other countries including Ireland. So, therefore China and Hong Kong are already directing business to us at home. So, that is the whole idea of reciprocal value. Now, much of this book is built on that. It's built on looking at the business models and each of the three business models that it outlines, it really hones in on what reciprocal value is there and how that reciprocal value can then move it around and move that value into other areas also. Now, the second thing I want to talk about is something that is very close to a Chinese heart and that is, some of you will have heard if you've ever even attended a presentation or spoke to a person doing business in here in China, you will hear about a term called and that is the whole idea of businesses built on relationships and that's the way business is done in the East and that term you will hear over and over and over and over and over again here in China. Now, the thing is if you think about it, if business is built on relationships, well then ultimately business is based on trust. Now, if we think of that further again, what really is trust and more importantly, how is trust created? So, that is one of the other things that's done in this book is that they decipher and discern what consists of trust and they do this in a certain way relating to business modeling because one of their business models in here called the innovator model is all about shared governance and enabling various different parties who aren't all shared or don't all work together in the one entity how they can work together in a trusted way. So, here's the five elements of trust, consistency over time which means that you do what you say you're going to do and you're going to do it with reliability and predictability. Two is integrity is that there's coherence in words and deeds so what you say you will do is equally followed up with deeds and they're not the same thing so integrity is if you say something that I can believe in you, consistency over time is that I can do that consistently over time. Communication and openness is that we don't hide information from each other is that instead we're open with each other and also if there's feedback to be shared that isn't always comfortable that we know that we will do that directly with each other as opposed to going behind someone's back or not at all and carrying it out in the past the price of way. Number four is genuine care and attention towards each other. I think that speaks for itself and five is shared governance is that we know that if something goes right that it will be rewarded and if it goes wrong that there will be feedback groups there for that information to be shared in such a way that is the same for everybody and if you think about it if we take those five aspects right like take those five aspects of trust and think about that in terms of doing business in a new country which I'm now doing now on my way to doing we're not doing business here yet but on the way so if you think about that if I take those five principles and while they may seem obvious when they're explained if you think of every single aspect of the way in which we work with our new customers and new stakeholders and new suppliers and do everything here I take those five principles and with each transaction whether it's an email whether it is an action whether it's a meeting whether it's a call whether it's a proposal whether it's a contract whether it's a business deal and I keep those five right in place that is how I can build Guangxi that is how I can do it now of course many of us on this page are Irish and therefore we know that we have an Irish advantage which is that we've charm and we've we have a lot of people around the world and that we have got the Irish advantage which is those entities around Ireland house who can help us along the way all of those are all there too of course I need to bring those before and of course is being Irish and building trust isn't going to be enough we also need a product that this market wants and that is of course why I have spent this is my third trip here third trip here in five months so what I'm out here is to see what does the market want and what we're offering is it of relevance to them is it something that they're willing to pay for is it something that they're willing to buy into etc so of course we need to have that also and that of course is what we're working on so when you put all of those three things together I've got the reciprocal value of the market research I've got the product and the service that I'm constantly evaluating to see is this what the market wants out here and how do I tweak it accordingly which has been a complete work in progress for every moment that I've been here as well as thinking about how can I build that trust in that's absolutely key the last thing that I really took out of this out of this book here new business models for the knowledge economy is generally when we are thinking about our market we think in three areas we think of demographically so men and women between a certain age savvy team academy focusing on Krillers communication and confidence for teenagers between 15 to 18 typically who are going into fifth and sixth year okay that's one way I could look at it secondly we think about it geographically so businesses who are operating here in Hong Kong and China that want to upskill their people here locally and how to do business in Europe could be for example a geographical target market that here at Hayes College and that we would be targeting here in Hong Kong and China okay and the other way we can do it is psychographically so we might also say well people who are interested I'll give you an example and I see Deirdre McGlone from from Harvey's point just joined good morning Deirdre so for example give you a way in which I worked with Deirdre and a number of our colleagues a while ago so last September I spoke for the Donegal women in business network and fantastic event that was held in Deirdre's new conference center at Harvey's point so psychographically that is a group of women in business in Donegal and the surrounding areas who are particularly interested in learning more about how to do business in wanting to be inspired by a range of different speakers who were there including Michelle O'Donnell and they had some a range of other fantastic speakers check out their Facebook page they're constantly evolving all the time and there are also people who are interested in networking with each other they had 150 women in that room today sorry in that room that day who are interested in networking with each other so there are three psychographic elements they're looking for learning inspiration and networking now that's generally the way and it's a very useful way right very very effective way to characterize or categorize your target market however this book gives you an additional way which is how about if we actually categorized our market in terms of what they value so let's not necessarily think about where they are let's not think about what age they are and let's not think about this the state of mind that they're in and what specifically how that relates to the product that we're offering but instead let's think about what do they value so I read a fantastic article a couple of a couple of months ago in the Harvard business year around to 30 elements that consumers truly value okay so some of us value things like connectivity we want to feel connected to other people that's why we form part of communities some of us want to save money okay I will move utility provider from A to B when I realize that I can save money some of us will do something when we want to make money obviously any of us who are entrepreneurs we want to do that some of us want to feel part of something greater than ourselves which is transcendence so I want to be part of a much bigger entity for example the global Irish I'm a really passionate member of the Irish diaspora even though I live in Dublin and I travel regularly I still feel part of the global Irish diaspora and I'm very passionate about helping the global Irish community into furthering what it wants to do so therefore I'm part of the Irish international business network for example I'm willing to give my time which has a value like all of yours does to IIBN in a voluntary capacity because I feel passionate about that so there are values that we have so whether it's convenience it's connectivity it's transcendence or many many other other different things and wouldn't it be a very different approach if actually we categorized our business modeling we categorize the people who buy from us in such a way that it actually holds in really and truly focuses in on the way in which people value what we offer and then from there take demographic psychographic and geographic because if we did that well then we probably would have a far greater sense of what that person wants how to serve them and then from there we could build our business models accordingly so in summary I found this book very useful it is going to be on my bookshelf at home for a very very very long time it's called new business models for the knowledge economy and just by the way just to give you a very quick summary of what the three are so the first one is called the comedian the second one is called the innovator and the third one is called the foyer business models all very very useful the reason that I didn't elaborate specifically on them is that they're all honing in on a specific mindset that one of you are sorry not one of you a percentage of you would have whereas the other three that I picked up on namely the value of reciprocal value and how that has changed my mindset in terms of every interaction that I do discerning and really putting together the principles of trust and how that particularly is a value when you're doing business with new and existing contacts but particularly new contacts and in a new market particularly with a new product it becomes all more relevant and the third thing is segregating your market in terms of what they value first and then demographically, psychographically and geographically so on that case from a very sunny morning here in Hong Kong I'm going to wish you all the very best would you believe I'm now going to go to watch Dragon Bowling down here in the harbour that is something that because it's a it's a public holiday here in Hong Kong that is something that has been done it's a tradition for thousands of years so I'm going to meet a number of people and we're going to go and watch that and when I come back here it's just been landing on my desk South China Morning Post so this evening I'm going to realise what happened in South China this morning so thank you all so much indeed thank you for joining me right here this morning and to each and every one of you have a truly truly truly fantastic week thank you very much and goodbye