Creation of EchoATM

Mark Bowles became interested in the topic of recycled electronics when he heard that only 3% of phones were being recycled. He wanted to change this for the sake of the environment and to make a business out of it. He made it his goal to have more electronics be recycled. “How would he do this?” “Where would people turn their electronics?” “How would he make a profit?” These are all questions that would have to plan the answer before going out and fulfilling this great, but complicated idea. He came up with idea of creating 5 foot kiosk that people would turn their electronics to and get instant cash called the EchoATM. There are a couple concepts that Bowles had to concentrate on, assessing the environment and fostering entrepreneurship. When assessing the environment he had to look at the macroenvironment, which includes demographics, technology, competitors, economy, country cultural values, politics. The demographics dealing with users of technology is expanding in each way, to older aged people and to younger aged people. This just expands the market that Bowles has to work with. It is also just natural to have the latest version of a certain electronic, almost human nature. Not only is Bowles receiving technology to be recycled, but he is using his own technology to make the process that much easier. The kiosk recognizes 4,000 phones, tablets, and mp3 players on its own. To take away the time the users of the kiosk have to wait for their money. Mark Bowles has transformed the industry to make it much more convenient for users and completely dominated any sort of other competitors. In other electronic recycling industries most people have to send in their products, and wait for their money to be mailed back. This industry helps the economy flow well due to the instant cash back. In most cases people will use this cash to buy the latest version of a certain electronic. America is constantly on their electronic devices and these devices are extremely valuable to a lot people. So being able to get cash back for old or broken devices is extremely useful. When creating these kiosks Bowles has to make sure he is abiding all the laws so they are not sued or fined. Fostering entrepreneurship can be difficult if you do not have the right idea or make a critical mistake. In Bowles case he came up with a completely original and improved the electronic recycling. He had to use these competencies self-management, strategic action, and planning and administration. To self-manage yourself you need to have a need for achievement or in other words motivation to succeed in your goal. Bowles did this by showing his plans to investors and finding people to make the technology of the kiosk even if he was shot down by a few people. Bowles might have had a desire for independence and was confident in his own abilities to create a new idea and create a business on his own. Mark Bowles must have had to leave his job to pursue his new concept. He might have had to move and it might have cause issues in his family. He had to strategically plan how he would set up operations and see if his idea would even work in practice. Bowles and his team made a wooden machine to test the popularity and the effectiveness of the kiosk. Bowles found great success, people lined up and had to wait 45 minutes to use the EchoATM. Also other investors took great interest into this. Once he knew this company could be huge he had to starting planning how to expand and market this idea. There was also the matter of improving the machine. These tasks can only be accomplished by careful planning. Mark Bowles had a great idea, carefully planned out how to fulfill his idea, and with a little bit of luck it became a huge success. Mark Bowles has created his own industry from the ground up with all his different abilities and confidence in his idea. Without his abilities this idea probably just stays as an idea and never becomes functional. Being an entrepreneur has a lot of risk, but the reward may out way the sacrifice.