School of Engineering
Engineering Entrepreneurship
Trimester 2-2019
Assignment 3: Business Plan and Pitching
Assignment topic:
Develop a business plan for your entrepreneurship engineering idea and pitch it to an investment panel
Pre-submission Checklist:
? Completion of the tasks (Part 1 and Part 2)
? Submission report length (4500 words)
? PPT file for Part 1 and PDF file for Part 2
? Submission via CloudDeakin,
Part 1 Assignment 3 Dropbox part1 folder
Part 2 Assignment 3 Dropbox part2 folder
Submission information: Submission:
Via CloudDeakin SEB725 site Deadline:
Part 1 Sep 27th, 2019 11:59 pm
Part 2 Oct 4th, 2019 11:59 pm
Melbourne Time Format:
Part 1 in PPT format
Part 2 in PDF format
Marking weight: 40% (Part 1 presentation 10% and Part 2 report 30%)
Assignment design: Dr Hamid Abdi with the support of the teaching team in SEB725, T2 2019
Please read all instructions and requirements carefully and submit assignment documents accordingly. This assignment is a group assignment and it has two parts, which are Part 1: Entrepreneurship pitch and business plan presentation (PPT slides) and Part 2: Business plan report (a report in a PDF format).
1. Introduction
Starting and building your own business can be dream for many professional engineers, however it could be an overwhelming process, the complexity, time and financial resources it requires as well as the risks that are often involved. Similarly, there are many risks involving with companies expanding their products and services. Performing a quality business plan will be one of the best ways to ensure the future success of the business idea.
This assignment asks you, to develop, write up, and present a business plan for a planned startup company or an expanding company with their innovative product or service, in which they need access to venture capital to do so. Business planning assignment in SEB725 is a great exercise, to take you through a journey of setting up your business ideas. Through this assignment the team will need to demonstrate they have perform the required market research, they know their customer very well and they analyzed the customers problems and pains, they have developed a decent idea and an early MVP for it, and they know how to get their business setup for future growth. The business plan should map out where you are now, what you know about the market and potential customers, what you need to do, where you need to go and most importantly how you plan to get there.
2. Assumptions:
After completing your post-graduation at Deakin University, you and your team have planned to set up your own business considering your idea of an existing or novel engineering related product or service. For this, the team were planning to develop a business plan meeting the business goals through financial and business planning strategies. During the process of your business planning and market research, you identified that some of the potential investors were interested in Engineering oriented business and planning to invest in the booming current market. To impress the investment community, you have decided to develop a winning business plan to fast access to much-needed venture capital to create a market with substantial values to your business. Now,
3. Assignment task:
Develop a comprehensive Business Plan on the Engineering oriented business that you are working with from the past few weeks. Your business plan can included with the following sections covering Market analysis, lean method of design thinking, entrepreneurship canvas, development of a minimal viable product (as best as you could), and entrepreneurship management, marketing and finance details with clear justification and required analysis, you are required to consider below items when doing your business plan.
• Business gap based on analysis of customer needs (empathy and CJM)
• Market research/analysis and validation
• Proposal of the business idea and demonstration of an MVP (early MVP is acceptable)
• Market size, market value and scalability
• Unique Value Proposition
• Marketing and business strategy
• Competitors analysis and your competitive advantages
• Business structure, operation and staffing
• Financial plan, analysis and forecasting results including the breakeven point
• Plan for IP (if necessary)
• Business ethics and control
• Other supporting documents
4. Assignment deliverables Part 1:
Your team should give a live presentation of your Business Plan to entrepreneurs along with a group of venture capitalists who have expressed an interest in investing in business ideas … So, you better make it good and pitch it well.
Tip: Use the required sections meeting the timeline of the presentation. Show that your Business idea/plans is feasible and see that investors get convinced with your Business plan and invest in your business.
The 12-minute presentation will be followed by a Q/A session of 3 minute
Note 1: Distance/cloud student teams need to submit power point slides of their “team presentation” along with a narrative/commentary or vice over Part 2:
Your team should submit a comprehensive Business Plan Report (one team report). The total length of your team report is to be about 4500 words. Your report can be included with the following sections covering Management, Marketing and Finance details with clear justification and required analysis:
• Cover Sheet
• Executive summary or pitching statement (100 words) And your development and works on the assignment tasks.
5. Submission requirements
• This assignment demand a professional response in terms of the Report’s professional writing style and the way you present the Business Plan to your audience of potential investors. For more information, refer to Deakin’s “Writing an Academic Assignment”, available online.
• The Assessment Criteria Guidelines: read these for guidance on how this assignment will be marked. See Section 11 for Presentation Guidelines and Section 12 Report Guidelines
• Word limit is 4500 words–not including the References section. The word count is a guide to encourage you to write succinctly (this means writing in a way in which each word matters) but not at the expense of good, solid research and analysis. The aim, for all report writing, is to be brief, yet fully informative, and must contain all the information needed to understand a situation and take action. It is acceptable to be 10% above or below this word limit. The word limit does not include the References section
• File Format: The submitted report file format must be PDF and include the Report, the PowerPoint presentation and as one file.
• Format: Use a format that makes it easy for your reader to readily read and understand the information. Also, use a basic and common text font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman with at least 11 point font size for body text with single-spaced paragraphs
• Citations and referencing: As in all professional reports, readers will look for the presence of an appropriate number of relevant citations as they reflect the range and depth of your research. Cite these correctly in-text and list them in a Reference Section using an accepted referencing style such as the Harvard or IEEE. A minimum of 12 references is expected in the report.
• Be Professional : Plagiarism and collusion are academic offences, these are forms of cheating and severe penalties are associated with them, including cancellation of marks for a specific assignment
6. Submission Deadline
Please upload your PPT file of your pitch and business idea presentation in CloudDeakin under the Assignment 3 Dropbox Part 1 link on or before 21/09/2019 (Melbourne Time).
Please upload your Team report as one PDF file in CloudDeakin under the Assignment 3 Dropbox Part 2 link on or before 29/09/2019 (Melbourne Time). Also, complete the Self and peer assessment on Feedback fruit. (Details to be communicated in coming weeks)
Please note that it is mandatory for all students to individually complete the self and peer assessment in FeedbackFruit before due date. Your submitted assignment will not be marked unless all team members complete self and peer assessment using FeedbackFruit. Incompletion of self and peer assessment will impact your marks and you will be penalised up to 50% of your total marks.
Note 1: Please remember that Assessment 3 is a teamwork so each individual will be:
• Expected to contribute equally in the presentation and report writing.
• Your complete work (report and presentation) will be assessed collectively based on the overall performance of the team;
Note 2: Presentation Schedule: The details of venue and time will be communicated in due course.
7. Extensions
I will consider a genuine request for an extension on its merits, but only when sent to the Unit Chair at least 5 days prior to the submission date and using the form available at the Faculty office
8. Important Notes:
1. A written report is to be prepared using an appropriate style and to include a list of references and appendices. Refer to Deakin’s Guide to Assignment Writing and Referencing, available online from Student Life for assistance on appropriate report styles and referencing. Please use either IEEE or Harvard reference formatting.
2. Read the Assessment Criteria guidelines and Rubric in the Unit Guide for guidance on how this assignment will be marked.
3. Don’t waste time with fancy layouts, colours, cover pages, and so on. A simple text-based format is all that is needed with the report layout consisting of a few sections of text (with section headings). Use photos or diagrams sparingly and only if necessary and/or relevant to include in your report. Just use a basic and common text font such as Caibri, Arial or Times New Roman with at least 10 point font size for body text. Single-spaced paragraphs are acceptable.
4. Don’t plagiarise. If you unsure what constitutes plagiarism, cheating, or collusion then refer to the academic honesty information provided for all units on CloudDeakin in the unit guide and information folder.
5. Online and in-person resources and materials are available from Student Life for all students to assist with assignment writing and referencing skills. Student Life also provides online and in-person resources to assist with understanding plagiarism and how to avoid producing it in your academic work.
9. Late Submission Penalty
A marking penalty will be applied where the assessment task is submitted after the due date without an approved extension as follows:
• 5% will be deducted from available marks for each day up to five days
• Where work is submitted more than five days after the due date, the task will not be marked and the student will receive 0% for the task.
'Day' means working day for paper submissions and calendar day for electronic submissions. For more information, please visit: https://policy.deakin.edu.au/view.current.php?id=00187
10. Learning Outcomes
This assignment allows you to demonstrate progress towards achieving the following Learning Outcomes:
ULO3 Develop and present a detailed business plan for new engineering ventures, including; financial, supply chain, development team, marketing and production.
ULO4 Analyse the roles of engineers in creating productive, economic, successful venture in a variety of engineering projects.
ULO5 Demonstrate evidence of enhanced personal knowledge, skills and competencies relevant to the management of engineering entrepreneurship
GLO2 Communication: using oral, written and interpersonal communication to inform, motivate and effect change
GLO4 Critical thinking: evaluating information using critical and analytical thinking and judgment
GLO5 Problem solving: creating solutions to authentic (real world and ill- defined) problems
You are encouraged to review other Unit and Graduate Learning Outcomes to discover, and include, additional learning outcomes important to you personally, and which will increase the quality of your submission and end-of-trimester final results.
11. Assessment Guide –Team Presentation (10 marks equivalent to 10% of the total unit mark)
Pitching of the business idea (50%)
The pitch part of the presentation is professional ,entertaining, and it is sells the business idea well,
The pitch presentation contains the material suggested by the pitch canvas from the workshops
Customers and the need/pains are clear and opportunity is nicely identified
UVP and marketing strategy are clear and thoughtfully laid
There is a good effort on developing MVP or proof of concept
Asks are clear from the pitching presentation
I am motivated to either become a customer, an investor, or join the founding team
Business planning presentation (50% marks)
The business plan presentation provide a further details demonstrating quality and genuine effort on either of the below topics
• Empathy study,
• CJM
• Market research
• MVP development
• Competitor analysis
• Design of marketing strategy
• Details of business operation and staffing
• Details of financials including expected costs, revenues and expected weekly growth for a chosen breakeven point
• Key measures to check the success of the business
• Exit strategy for the case of success and failure
• Strategy for IP (if there is any), strategy to ensure business ethics
12. Assessment Guide: Team report (30 mark equivalent to 30% of the final mark)
Organization (20 marks) Score
• Overall, the written report is clear, well organized and while appropriately scoped shows a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the topic and relevant business principles.
• Executive summary is attention-getting. It establishes a clear pitch for the business idea, other components of the report, business gap, market research, …, lay out the problem and its relevance, identifying key aspects of each topic and explain the outcomes
• Presents information in effective, logical order. Line of reasoning is interesting and easy to follow.
• Uses relevant subheadings throughout enabling readers to move easily through the text and good structure of paragraphs and transitions enhances comprehension and readability
• External resources are properly cited and they are relevant
Knowledge/Research Base (20 marks)
• Provides good, relevant background information on the chosen business idea. Defines technical terms and acronyms clearly, and demonstrates a clear understanding of the topic
• The methodology should demonstrate entrepreneurship thinking and use entrepreneurship procedures and tools, and in addition might represent a novel and insightful approach
• The Business plan demonstrates a robust knowledge of the field that is accurate and current, and has a sharp distinct focus that enhances the impact of the report
• Explores all the topics in business plan in detail and in depth, information is focused, rigorous, and accurate, makes scientifically valid arguments supported by reliable evidence (sources)
Task completion (30 marks)
• Demonstrated a quality and genuine effort on either of the below topics
• Empathy study,
• CJM
• Market research
• MVP development
• Competitor analysis
• Design of marketing strategy
• Details of business operation and staffing
• Details of financials including expected costs, revenues and expected weekly growth for a chosen breakeven point
• Key measures to check the success of the business
• Exit strategy for the case of success and failure
• Strategy for IP (if there is any), strategy to ensure business ethics
Critical Thinking (20 marks)
• Uses specific inductive or deductive reasoning to make inferences regarding premises; addresses implications and consequences; identifies facts and relevant information correctly.
• Thoroughly identifies and addresses key aspects of the problem and insightfully uses facts and relevant evidence from analysis to support and defend potentially valid solutions
• Insightfully interprets information; identifies obvious as well as hidden assumptions, establishes credibility of sources on points other than authority alone
• Insightfully relates concepts and ideas from multiple sources; uses new information to enhance chosen solution; recognizes missing information; correctly identifies potential effects of new information.
• Identifies strengths and weaknesses in own thinking: recognizes personal assumptions, values and perspectives, compares to others’, and evaluates them in the context of alternate points of view
Written Presentation (10 marks)
• Quotations are well chosen, correctly cited and effectively framed by the text and explained as needed.
Effective choice of illustrations (graphs, tables, images, etc.) that truly enhance understanding of the topic
• Vocabulary and tone are consistently precise, accurate, consistently professional and appropriate for investors and funding bodies. Sentences are well-phrased and flow smoothly from one to another.
• The writing is free or almost free of errors and word length is within the range specified
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