Backpack v.s Man Bag

For some weeks I am looking for a cool backpack. They have to be big enough to fit my Moleskine, laptop and several other articles that I carry along with me. I love leather bags but since my old Eastpak died on me with several holes in it, it is time for something different. One brand that caught my eye some time ago is Stockholm-based bag brand Sandqvist.

The brand was build in 2004 by Anton Sandqvist and includes products for everyday use combining style and durability. Their collection includes leather laptop bags and backpacks made from Canvas. Their Inspiration wall is definitely worth checking out!
Since my Eastpak made itself quite usefull, this specific model caught my eye as well as:

Eastpak Floyd

Checking out the Sandqvist collection of this year I came across this old school model featuring brown leather and made out of heavy navy blue canvas. This one definitely goes on my list!





 


Something to reach for!
Straight out of Japan by Yoshida Porter, this one is a keeper! This item can outlive your grandfather, hold your 15inch laptop and a water bottle for those difficult hours. For the shoppers, Nalden his blog is the place to be! My search continues on to find the Perfect Backpak.

Setting Priorities

Today I had an interesting meeting at Seats2Meet  with one of the founders of the business concept after enjoying a good lunch! While I walked away from this conversation, I realised that I had not made really clear what it is that I wanted out of the meeting. For me personally, it was meeting a new person and telling a part of my current undertakings and my dream. However, these intentions did not really came across correctly as I wanted them to. It is okay to go into meetings with an open mind, but what I learned today again is that when you are straight forward in such meetings that that is more appreciated then lacking details.

I always try to be prepared for any question and to be myself whether it is an interview in a big company or a entrepreneur who heard it all. In my opinion, the key to always be prepared is to just be yourself. This can work out differently, for different persons so you are warned but the key is to be authentic. You only get one chance for a first impression!

My first priority is to finish my academic undertaking, after that there is lots more to explore. Therefore, what I did today:

• Found out that you have to treat each person, situation, business conversation as a single chance to make the impression you want to last;
• Be myself, also when it comes to meeting people who can help my business ideas;
• Read up on volunteer work in India, China and in Rotterdam;
• Finished my surveys for my thesis and publicizing them this week and start measurements.

Nobody said it was going to be easy creating my own job and finding my way but I have my positive attitude, oversight and insight into the material at hand and good people around me.

Sincerely,

Stefanos

Inspire Series

Today I sat down for a minute in one of the buildings of the Erasmus University, overlooking the whole campus while enjoying a nice Espresso. Actually I am pretty lucky that all my hard work got me so far that I can sit here, almost as a graduate, and overthink how I got so far. I was reminded of an MBA-student, in his thirties, who left Nigeria to come to Rotterdam and get his MBA in Business Administration. As the world becomes a global village, he is a nice example of how one can pack up and head in a whole new direction. This moment led me to the idea of also sharing the stories, encounters and conversations I have with people who inspire, achieve and work hard and from whose endevaours I draw lessons from.

Sir Ken Robinson

I will post these stories, pictures, random encounters and inspirational moments under the Inspire Series. This will also include encounters while I travel and pictures or can be a story of a personal hero of mine.

On to the next one!

Progress is a Process

Today I had another session with my coach. Currently I am editing my survey and the final 'tweaks' are in sight. One of the questions I faced during drafting the survey was the scale development. Considering my topic, a 5-point Likert or 7-point would suffice so therefore this post is about lessons learned along the way when drafting a survey covering new marketing instruments and to be tested marketing instruments such as the opinion leadership-scale. 

 

Similarly, attitude is the most widely measured attribute in marketing, and the findings should generalize to other concrete attributes, such as beliefs or perceptions, intentions, and satisfaction. Theoretical tests and empirical findings would be unchanged if good single-item measures were substituted for these constructs in place of commonly used multiple-item measures (Bergkvist and Rossiter, 2007).

Lessons learned

• When using marketing constructs which were used in other studies and measured on a 7-point scale and the rest of your constructs are to be measured on a 5-point scale: bring them all in line;
• Try to trim down the number of items by first assesing the construct's concreteness. If the object can be conceptualized as concrete and singular, it does not require multiple itemts to represent it in the measure and if the attribute can be conceptualized as concrete, it does not require multiple items either;
• If you have multiple items belonging to multiple objects (or variables, or as I just called them ''marketing instruments), randomize them and play with the order of the items. Don't forget where you put them in the survey. Here is a helpfull tool which I used: Randomize Items;
• When you have two separate surveys measuring separate groups, such as users and non-users of an online platform, make sure you have a sufficient N for both cases. In my case I have two organizations but mostly users, but the non-users is the group that can help me get the most usefull information: non-adoption reasons.

Reminder to myself: when I will finish my thesis, I will post a couple of the instruments I used in my survey. I can not post the whole survey, but I will share some of the results and the validity of the instruments I used.

J. Lindeberg Spring/ Summer 2011

Johan Lindeberg started J. Lindeberg as a brand back in 1996. J. Lindeberg is a Stockholm based designer who built the brand to what it is today. Coming from Diesel and wanting to establish his vision, he built J. Lindeberg as a brand he loves to wear himself and I have been digging the label's offering for quite some time now.

Currently, they are in their last days of their Season Sale which still has some great accessoires and fine quality knits that never go out of style. I first came across this brand a year ago and their cardigans fit like a glove and are being made from the finest wool and cotton. Their The Bridge Collection is definitely worth a look!

A cardigan from JL is definitely on my list!

J. Lindeberg Spring/ Summer 2011

Work & Passion

Today I had another session with my thesis coach and after this session, I faced the following question: how can one estimate the market demand for an innovation? What happened before I came up with this question was this: me and my coach were discussing the concept of social contagion and how organizations can use this. I mentioned this concept in my previous posts but I will discuss this in more detail. My research is in full force and I am making progress in tuning all the constructs, which I will discuss more in posts to come. 

The central theme of my research is to develop our understanding of how social contagion comes about in relation to the consumer adoption of new products and how social networks play into this. In general, consumers do not make their needs and requirements explicit and then subsequently go and look for products to fulfill them. I argue that consumers are very aware of which products others around them are using. How many times have you heard your friends about their Iphone 4 and some other cool App they found.

Firms do not take this social process in account in their new product development activities, preferring to focus on the practicalities such as product functionality and design.

My research, which I want to carry on with after my graduation, interest is:

How information diffusion in online Social Networking Platforms within organizations influences demand patterns, word of mouth behaviors and knowledge sharing.

I am in the process of gathering data from two major Dutch organizations which have a Social Networking Platform (one build it themselves, the other had it built by a Social Business consultancy company) in use for their employees. I will use the gathered data to assess peer influence in adopting the Social Networking Platform, factors that influence knowledge sharing, how interpersonal influence affects the product adoption and word-of-mouth behaviors within organizations concerning new product diffusion.

Along the line of thought of Professor Sinan Aral of NYU: "Research on how information and behaviors spread through social networks can help us understand the productivity of information workers, peer-to-peer marketing strategies, and the success of health policies such as the containment of disease and smoking cessation."

Maybe I am biting off more then I can chew but it has my deep interest and as I am moving towards my graduation I am thinking of a way to make it my profession.  Any suggestions are more then welcome!! 

PS: the last time I told you all that I would make a list of everything I have done on that day relating which relates to my passions. Well here the things I managed to take a crack at today, this one relates to my graduation research:

• I finished the concept version of my survey for both organizations;
• I managed to get a interview at an organization which has the newest formula for exciting meetings (in Europe!);
• I made progress in writing this blog and explaining a little bit (without a picture still!) what keeps me busy as a person but the next post will be about something I love, which is Lifestyle!

All the best!

Stefanos 

Wake up Call

Today became a day that became dear to me, since I got a huge wake up call from someone close. I noticed that working hard has his pay offs, but it is important to take a time out for certain things, especially when you are not going for your goals but strayed away from them.

Starting today I will make a list of everything that I have done on that day which has a connection to my ambitions and goals.

More to come and that picture of course!! 

Stefanos - How It Works?

Who are you?

I am Stefanos Karakasis, both Dutch as much as I am Greek. I will post in Dutch and English (for my Dutch readers, sorry but there is more to come!) I love helping other people out as much as I love doing nice things, such as: finishing my Master in Marketing Management, beating my twin brother in Fifa2011 on his PS3, watch maffia movies and having a good time with friends and family. Currently I am working on several things and there are several ''shifts'' going on in my life. This entry is more personal since I will start telling my story and what is keeping me busy as well as my focus for this year and the years to come.

What can I read which is authentic?

I will write about current undertakings in personal development as articles, movies and other content which relates to Social Business*, Co-creation and other exciting news and my perspective on what is going on. If it is out there, it will find its way here if it is cool enough. I love lifestyle and fashion, Blackberry is always with me (most of the times to make pictures), working on business concepts, improve my writing skills and read up on anything that has to do with Marketing and mobile technology.

Current focus

I am finishing up my Master in Marketing at the Rotterdam School of Management, where I became interested in consumer behaviour and social networking, especially social contagion. Social contagion (Iyengar et al., 2011) relates to the interpersonal influences people exert on eachother and how this Word of Mouth (WOM) affects new product adoption or behavourial changes.

This interest became the main topic for my thesis, which respectfully is being conducted at two major organizations in Holland. I am looking at the social side of ''knowledge sharing'' on Social Networking Platforms which are active, and build, within organizations. This takes me through a whole lot of interesting data, books, articles and gives me the opportunity to meet lots of interesting and inspiring people.

Next to this ''project'', there are several other things that keep me busy and goals for the future, but for now: i will upload a picture and will start unpacking my new Moleskine and go for a walk for some new inspiration!

* I will use the concept of 'social business' as a term for Knowledge Based Working, Social Media principles and Sustainable Enterpreneurship.