TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNITY AMALGAMATED = SKILLSTRUCT
An Introduction
Take the present world – a globalist society built on a foundation of technological advancements. Today, the world is fast-paced, effective, and competitive. It's no secret that, in today’s global world, the secret to building a robust enterprise from scratch is the community you build and preserve along with it. And that's what SkillStruct has achieved – a robust enterprise perfectly amalgamating advancing technology and emphasis on community.
SkillStruct is a technology and education consultancy firm, founded by Michael Olatokun – a tech engineer, stack developer and business consultant by profession, and a founder and speaker by his drive to innovate. SkillStruct innovates using technology, building underrepresented technology and early career talent through its services. One tremendous initiative by the firm is the 'SkillStruct University' – an innovative online learning platform that offers courses across various disciplines.
Their success – having done over 100 events with over 20 academic partners – comes from their commitment to their idea of building a community. Michael, committed to that ideal, partnered with Warwick Entrepreneurs and held an interactive talk at the university giving his insights on 'Building Enterprise with Technology & Community'.
Entrepreneurship: The First Lesson
Who is an entrepreneur? What does an entrepreneur do? What are Entrepreneurial Skills and What is an Enterprise? As soon as the event started, so did the racking of the brains of our budding entrepreneurs in attendance. Keeping the audience engaged in a conversation, as opposed to a monologue, Michael built on the opinions of the audience to answer, from his experiences, the questions above. Entrepreneurs are people who take risks for higher rewards using technology.
Michael also taught the audience RISE – Research, Invest, Structure and Evaluation. Not only were we being taught who an entrepreneur is, but we were also being taught how to be a good one, owing to his expertise. One needs to research their options well, the first step towards growth. Investment is another important step – investing in one's education, to get certifications or to just learn more.
The investment of the present is the return of the future. One fundamental quality of an entrepreneur is how structured they are. The structure is the first step towards efficiency, something every entrepreneur strives towards. Last, but could be argued as the most important step, is Evaluation.
Regular evaluation, knowing what you're doing right or wrong, and knowing your skills and weaknesses, are foundational for growing as an entrepreneur.
Technology: The Second Lesson
Within the definition of an entrepreneur is their ability to elevate technology – something Michael and his company have refined over time. It was, thus, natural for him to share his experiences and learnings with the audience. One of the things that Michael managed to achieve during his talk was to keep his audience engaged. Asking basic questions about technology to technical questions about niche topics, he covered it all.
One lesson from the session was how to elevate technology in your early entrepreneurship stage. The 6 elements of elevating technology are social media, freemium products, partnerships, Subscriptions, and the Cloud. Social media is the building block of promotion in today's world. Social media and Freemium go hand in hand; freemium products like Canva are important for your early stages to make the most of the available technology. Sourcing technological partners, like Google/Microsoft to have access to premium technologies is another way of elevating technology. But sometimes, one must invest in subscriptions from the get-go – the returns follow the investments in time. And finally, Cloud services are important to collaborate easily within your enterprise.
Community: The third Lesson
When it comes to community Michael explained how Skillstruct University came around not through social media campaigns or any specific apps but, by being on the front line visiting schools and universities and offering his time which built a following of students who wanted to learn more. He made it clear that communities survive on their members to cultivate it. Hard work, effort, and consistency, not technology but people first. Nonetheless, technology can be built on the foundation of its members. That last point in particular captured me as I continue to build community within the Entrepreneurship Society at Warwick University.
The Conclusion
Committed to making the session as engaging as possible, Michael ended the talk with a quiz for the audience. Questions ranging from the field of technology, entrepreneurship and even the talk itself, this was a very innovative way to end the talk. The winners even got books that SkillStruct have come out with, in partnership with O'Reilly, on topics ranging from Coding and AI. Having learnt the lessons of the session, the audience was highly engaged with the quiz, with there being a mere difference between the winners.
SkillStruct's journey teaches us a lot; one of the most important things being the ability to build a community through your enterprise. Having a Social Enterprise feel, SkillStruct gives back to the community through its work – integrating its success into the community’s growth. The company's journey is unique, and there’s something all of us can learn from it.
SkillStructor NB.