The Chronicles of Desprorado

LEE KUAN YEW GLOBAL BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION at Singapore Management University (SMU)

Initially, I thought that my entrepreneurship group was nominated for the competition. Basically, my group was comprised of students from different course of studies like 2 accountancy and finance students, 2 engineering students (specializing in Multimedia or something like that) and 1 engineering student (specialize in those network or something). This cross functional group was formed during my course of study and we do not know one another beforehand except my fellow accounting polytechnic classmate.

The story goes that, we need to do up an entrepreneur project in less than 20 weeks. Some of the difficulties faced.

1. A need to break the “ice” and build a working relationship.
2. An idea that must make use of technology, feasible and the last criteria (I forgotten).
3. A prototype.
4. 3-4 formal and informal presentations to our lecturers as well as to outside judges (manager or CEOs of company) on the so-called “Entrepreneurship Day”
5. Meeting up for only 2 hours a week, for less than 20 weeks. (2-3 weeks meeting are cancelled as lecturers are busy or not scheduled)

I must say that it is remarkable considering the difficulties we faced. Yea... Self-praise is international disgrace. So I shall let my blog reader/readers to judge for them.

Story continues... The team managed to think of a feasible idea, work it out (detailed analysis, conclusion and recommendations), done a prototype and finished the presentations. Everything should have been wrapped up on the Entrepreneurship day in mid-February. Our end products are a report of over 40 pages with a font size of 12, one and a half spacing and inclusive of appendices. Plus, about 20 slides of PowerPoint as we only need to present our idea for around 10 minutes.

Then... I received a call from our lecturer-in-charge that my team has been nominated for the LKY Business Plan competition. I was glad of course as it means that my team’s effort has been sort of recognized by the school and we are going to be one of the teams to represent our school. (This may sounds so clichéd but that is how I felt). The day was March 9th, and this is the so-called secret on my blog entry that only my grape friend did I mentioned it to. LOL~ I even told him to keep it a secret as I want to be sure that I did make it to the preliminary rounds before I hao lian (show off) to my family and friends. HAH~! Actually is to surprise them that I could have “perform” on a big stage.

Thereafter, the lecturer in charge emailed us that we need to register our business plan by 10 AM the following day. Due to the unexpected nomination, almost all of my team members are dazed and on cloud nine at the news. However, some of them just started to step into the working society and one member was even in her native country, Vietnam.

Next, we are faced with the problem of the registration as we do not have the guidelines to register. Do note that it is a rather complicated registration; moreover I did mention that one team member was still in Vietnam at that time and I’m unsure if she could access internet as and when she wants.

After that, the registration was completed without my team member as it was too urgent and she did not check her emails until much later. Then, we also need to submit our report to SMU through the internet. The submission of our business proposal was another problem faced. I contacted the lecturer and he said to email him our proposal and he would make changes to it. The file did not reached him until Mar 10th, I do not know what had happened as I cc a copy to my other email and my project team members email account and all of us received it.

Then on Mar 10th early in the morning, I was already up due to the excitement. Let me tell you something, the Global Biz Plan is quite prestigious I think. C’mon... There are undergraduates, college and polytechnic student from around the world participating in this event. The cash prize is US$1,000 for semi-finalists; at least US$5,000 for the 4th to 6th finalist, 3rd prize is US$10,000, 2nd is US$15,000 and 1st prize’s worth US$20,000. Well... Guess you should get the idea how grand the competition is going to be.

So on Mar 10th morning, I contacted my lecturer as he was supposed to send me the amended business plan. Instead, he told me that I shall submit the plan 1st as the school had already posted a copy to SMU. But... I do not have the amended business plan and the submission process needs a word document in order to complete the submission process. To solve the situation, I handed in a blank document so that the submission process can be done. OK! Everything’s done...

Later in the morning, I received another call from the lecturer who told me to submit the business plan again as he was supposed to send me the amended copy. The time was well over the deadline of 10 AM. I said “Okay. I would be home in 20 minutes.” Once I reached home, I came online to check my email immediately. Emails were received but none of them contained the attachment document. Time was close to 12. I waited till 12 plus and I msg the lecturer that I still have not received the document yet. He replied that he would send it over ASAP. After a few clicks of the “refresh” button, there was still no emails received. I did some work and checked the email at close to 1 o’clock. Finally, the mail was received. Without delay, I submitted the amended copy. Problem solved.

Ytd, on Mar 14th, I sent an email to ask a few questions as follows.

1. What are we going to be doing on Mar 20th when we meet some of the top CEOs
2. Must everyone be present?
3. What about Mxxx who was not registered?
4. The venue that we are going to meet them, time and other information
5. Are our business plan accepted? (because of the delays and sudden events etc)

I even add in a paragraph as follows.

“Sorry for troubling you but there are no one else to turn to. Hope to hear from you soon. On behalf of my team, I would also like to thank you and XXX for selecting us and giving us the opportunity to represent the school. Our team are glad that our work has been recognized by the school and would hopefully help the school to better glory if possible. Cheers~PS - I'm aware that some of the questions may not be easily answered. Do give us some information if possible.”

He replied back at 3.01 PM with the questions answered. Case dismissed.

Today, on Mar 15th morning, I received another mail from him.

“HI Desprorado, regret to inform you and all that your team, Massager Jacket is not selected for the CEO feedback on Monday, 20 Mar 06. Thanks all for the time and effort put in to register, and submit your entry

All the Best to all !”

It was literally a slap in my face... Such an emotional roller-coaster of highs and lows. True to say, we might not stand a chance against the undergraduates or other representatives from other polytechnics around the WORLD. However, I dare to say that literally the blood, sweat and tears. The hard work. The (true) team work. The forming of an idea from scratch. The process. The end product. The support. The difficulties faced. Everything has been so wonderful. I can’t believe that... But tears are on automatic mode now... Nah.. I ain’t feeling sad that it is over, but was truly glad that it had happened. I’m really in tears now... Thanks team. We might not have shared a lot of time together. I may not understand all of you, neither do you understand me. But it was such a beautiful process~ Looking at the positive side; we managed to be short listed as one of the 8 or 10 other teams from out of perhaps a hundred teams in the school. I really do have some reasons to be proud of the team. Good job!

PS – I shall share with you my executive summary. It’s done by yours truly. Since every word is written by me, I guess I shall have the right to introduce the team’s project to the world. This entry shall also serve as a reminder to me for certain reasons.

Here is my executive summary, anyone using the summary for project or commercial purposes. Pls do update me in the comment box as basic courtesy to say the least.

Executive Summary

After a hard day of work, being all worn out regardless of the working environment. Be it an air conditioned office or working under the sun, toiling for 8 hours away without a break. What usually follows are the aches and cramps after being inactive or overly active during work. It is a fact that blood circulation is weak after staying in a poor posture without much of a movement, as a result individual’s health will start to take a beating. What can be done to solve this problem?

Hereby, introducing you to our Reliever, it is a revolutionary portable massager that can be worn whenever wherever you are situated. Our unique selling proposition is a truly portable and hands free jacket that can massage those aching muscles at the same time. Unlike major competitors with their “portable” massage that requires A/C power supply and the usage of hand to apply pressure, our Reliever is totally hands free and can be worn as a jacket that makes a fashion statement at the same time.

The main objective of our business is to improve the well being of people in general. Our vision is to create a healthier body for people at a low cost. Our team believes that health is much more precious than wealth and prevention is definitely better than cure. Thus, our products seek to relieve people of their problems before they even exist. Due to the special design of our product (direct acupuncture points), it can enable better blood circulation that would prevent aches and cramps from occurring. As a result, the body would feel better and health would also be enhanced.

In brief, our business model consists of ourselves as the product owner who owns the patent rights over the innovative Reliever. From there, we would source for contract manufacturers from China. After production, the completed massage jackets would be shipped back to Singapore and stored in the warehouse. Thereafter, we would be able to supply the Reliever to our distributors (major departmental stores) who will in turn sell them off to the final consumer after mark- up.

At this stage, we lacked the huge capital, economies of scale of manufacturer and marketing experience of established distributors. For our business model, we will focus more on the design aspects in addition to improvising our products. Then, we also did background researches on the internet and newspapers to check whether there are any similar products on the internet. In the end, we found out that there is an identical massager in the United States awaiting patent. However, there is a main difference as their motor massage vest is not as convenient as ours due to A/C consumptions while the Reliever is battery operated.

Subsequently, we also recognized some of our major competitors and they are: Osim, Ogawa and Oto Bodycare. Although, they did not have any similar portable massagers their experiences and presence in Singapore and major countries made it difficult for us to enter the market. Besides, they also have the financial power to advertise their products, open outlets and invest in research and development.

Nevertheless, the Reliever strengths lie in its portability, convenience and style. From the analysis of our competitors, we realized that their prices are quite steep and they did not consider the interests of lower income group who may not be able to fork out a few hundred dollars for a massaging device. Thus, our massager would be more affordable as compared to our competitors’ products.

Next, we also did a market research out of a sample size of 100 people. From the survey that we have done, we found out that majority of the surveyors are health conscious and have bought health products before. These establish the point that people are willing to spend money in their own personal well being. Besides, the results also show that consumers are willing to try out a relatively new brand as long as the product is good. These boost our confidence as we were concerned that the lack of branding would be a critical hit to our success.

Under the business implementation, we proposed a selling price of $50 to our retailers, major departmental stores. As part of our promotion, we would have approaches such as packaging our products with other interrelated health products, giving out free movie vouchers etc. Then, we would also promote our products through pamphlets and positive word of mouth.
In the financial plan of our business, we projected first year sales unit of around 21,110 Relievers. As we are selling to major departmental store, the sales units would be quite sizeable. Then, after subtracting our expenses from the gross profit, we would get a net profit of $197,360 after taxes. Based on the cash flow figures, we would be able to repay our capital of $100,000 within a year.

In conclusion, our product can be considered as the first truly portable, fuss free and inexpensive massage equipment that can be worn as normal clothing. We foresee a good chance of succeeding in the market in the initial years as long as we continue to churn out new forms and designs of our Reliever. Besides that, we would also include a timer, variable intensity and a heater to market to other sections of the population. With these improvements done to the Reliever, we believe our products would be able to sell well locally and expand into the global market. The business venture is worth investing.

posted by Desprorado @ 16:31