2 Practical Assessment
Assessment Title Practical Assessment: Your Business Idea and the Constructive Workshopping of Ideas
Task Description
This is an individual assignment that students complete in consultation with their group/team. The objective of Assessment 2 is to learn how to develop a business idea by brainstorming and levering off the skillsets of others.
Thus, you will be focussing on developing a business idea of YOUR own in the first instance. However, Assessment 2 should also be seen as an opportunity to learn how to work with others to realise business ideas. It is also structured in such a way that it represents an opportunity to do work towards Assessment 3, which is when your group presents via Powerpoint a business idea jointly.
While working on Assessment 2, your group/team MUST via a consensus process identify the best idea, that is, the idea from the ideas workshopped that will get YOUR team the highest proportion possible of the pool of investment money available. N.B. All the teams will be trying to get as much as possible of a potential $100k investment from an investor.
You should also note that if you are an on-campus student you MUST attend the workshops to be assessed for your ability to work constructively and collaboratively as part of a group/team.
If you are an online/flexible student, you will have a different set of challenges. Instead, of being required to cooperate in a workshop setting on-campus, online/flexible students are required to be proactive and make sure they get themselves in a virtual team and then communicate as is required with team mates to complete Assessment 2 and Assessment 3. It will also be necessary for you to schedule AT LEAST ONE conference group meeting with your lecturer. You can schedule this meeting in Week 7, 8, 9, 10 or as late as Week 11. It is your team's choice and you can also schedule more than one meeting if this suits your team. The meeting with your lecturer will be your team's opportunity to explain what you are doing to ensure successful completion of Assessment 2 but also Assessment 3. Think of the meeting as simulating what you would need to do to convince an investor or a manager at a large firm to fund your business idea realisation project. Investors think big and they want to find entrepreneurs who also think big.
NB. Online/flexible students will be given advanced instruction on the Moodle site at the commencement of the semester.
In summary, there are two parts to Assessment 2 upon which the individual student is assessed: One involves written assessment and the other involves the assessement of the individual's ability to work constructively with team mates to develop their own and other group mate's ideas, that is, involves being observed as having the ability to work constructively and collaboratively in either a workshop setting or by inference (as a result of what gets done and submitted and via a reassuring conference call). Assignment 2 is an opportunity to work towards Assignment 3's tasks in a workshop environment, drawing on the advice of your lecturer as required.
The following describes the materials individuals must submit and what is required of the group/team:
INDIVDIUAL SUBMISSION
Develop the following:
2-3 page (1.5 spacing, A4) summary of YOUR business idea and its most essential business model components
GROUP ASSESSMENT
The individual as part of a group must be observed as having the ability to work constructively and collaboratively in a workshop setting with others or, if an online/flexible student, working constructively and collaboratively by inference. The objective is to successfully develop any three of the following as part of a portfolio of materials:
description of the innovation process to be used
cashflow projections, including profit & loss, balanced sheet estimates for the first two years
short videos or animated Powerpoint communications that are focussed on explaining and selling an aspect of the
business to potential investors and customers
a draft website (maximum 6 pages) that is focussed on explaining and selling the business to potential investors
and customers
an example of a blog or newsletter or other such communication that is focussed on explaining and selling the
business to potential investors and customers
a 2 page plan/outline (A4, 1.5 spacing) that explains how social media will be used
a related application software
a short brochure in pdf
a prototype of the product
a schematic or simulation or other such representation of the planned service offering
another such item that positively demonstrates some aspect of the product/service you want to develop and which
will persuade investors to fund your project.
Do note that the assignments that have got the highest marks in previous terms produced an extremely creative and informative portfolio of materials. Assignment 2 involves you working on these items together so that you are all in a
position by the end of the term to produce something that is truly impressive when you present your group business ideas as part of Assessment 3.
It is mandatory that the group/team completes a team charter and submits this with the porfolio (see the description of
Assessment 3). A half page of dotpoints will be sufficient for the charter but you can submit a more detailed charter if you would like to do so.
To reiterate, in the first instance, the focus in the workshops will be on each student getting feedback about how to develop their individual business idea.This should enable the individual student to put together a 2-3 page (1.5 spacing, A4) summary of HIS/HER business idea and its most essential business model components.
The focus of workshops will then shift to developing the idea that the group/team thinks has the best chance of getting them a large slice of the grant/investment money on offer when they (convincingly) present in the final teaching week for this unit.
One of the important aspects of this assessment is that it reinforces that though entrepreneurs must be dogged in their determination to succeed and see their business idea fully realised, successful entrepreneurs do not get fixated on just one idea. They keep an open mind. They also appreciate that there can be many good business ideas and the best business idea might be generated by someone else. Indeed, the most successful entrepreneurs are usually serial entrepreneurs and they are very good at working with and persuading other people, including proactively and positively levering of the business ideas of others.
Assessment Due Date Week 9 Friday (12-May-2017) 11:45 PM AEST
Each student must submit a 2-3 page (1.5 spacing, A4) summary of HIS/HER individual business idea and its most essential business model components. Individual group members' ability to work constructively and collaboratively as part of a team is also assessed during the workshops.
Return Date to Students Feedback will be provided in class and a final grade will be provided in 1-2 weeks.
Weighting 30%
Assessment Criteria
Please see the rubric on Moodle.
Referencing Style American Psychological Association (APA)
Submission Online
Word via Moodle.
2. Investigate cases of disruptive innovation in a social, commercial , digital and service context.
Learning Outcomes Assessed
4. Develop ideas using conceptualisation frameworks, innovation personas and horizon thinking in a digital, service, social and commercial context.
5. Demonstrate understanding and apply the stages of the innovation process.
7. Assess the environmental, social and economic factors for market entry of the innovations developed in the unit.
1. Knowledge
2. Communication
3. Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4. Research
5. Self-management
Graduate Attributes
6. Ethical and Professional Responsibility
7. Leadership