The Metaskills are 5 skills a business innovator ought to have. The business innovator must be able to use the skills after a certain amount of experience with them. The skills Define, Design, Execute, Learn, and Lead are key to be successful in a future career as an innovator.
The metaskill define is about uncovering the problem a company or organisation might have. Uncovering the problem in a proper way might lead the way to a creative solution. The Business Innovator listens carefully to people in order to determine the end users' (hidden) needs, underlying motivations, beliefs, values, and preferences.
With the assignment for International World of Business it was quite important to define the problem (or event in this case) before researching for answers. I found that a good way to define a problem is to do some basic research in getting to know the event/company/problem, and then start making a mindmap while doing a brainstorm session. This way you find out what problems there actually are and if there might be more (or even less) than they realize. This is crucial in doing research because if you do this right, you'll save yourself a lot of time later on in the process. This was important for Fundamentals of Business as well. The main thing we had to do was defining the company's way of working and the problems they faced, whether they knew it or not.
The International Business innovator develops ethically sound solutions that can better meet the end users' needs and that generates value for the end users. These solutions can take the form of concepts, products, services, strategies, business model, or processes. After finding the problem, you go looking for a decent solution that satisfies the customer.
It is so important to find a solution that fits with your customer. A customer hires you to work for them and their company so you should find a solution that fits with the company's strategy. For example the case with FrogDesign. They did not have any policy for retaining customers. It should be solved in a way that fits with Frogdesign.
Executing is about working in a business in a way that fits with that business.
Learn is about reflecting upon itself after and during every action, activity and result. You shouldn't wait untill a task is finished to reflect, because it might be too late then. During the activities you perform you have to reflect upon yourself to adjust things in time, get the best result, and spend your time efficient. Reflecting is useful to learn from the descisions you made so you can see what you should do different next time.
Leading is about motivate, inspire, helping, listening, and monotoring people. You give them feedback on their actions to help them getting a better result in the future. You send your knowledge across to maximize their potential.