Vishal,
I had some experience with BP competitions, from different perspectives.
I can say participating and going to the finals of Global Moot Corp in 2000 as MBA student was the turning point in my career from a Citibank executive to the dot.com entrepreneurial universe and later as entrepreneurship teacher. Nevertheless, the business never flew because of Nasdaq crash.
After that, I have mentored several MBA teams in international BP competitions and coordinated the Latin Moot Corp in Brazil for several years.
Last year we've launched a book in Brazil with examples of BPs. All of them were finalists or winners of international BP competitions who agreed to publish their BP translated into Portuguese. You know what? Although several of the BPs we've searched in fact became real businesses, just a few of them succeeded and none of them were executed the way it was originally planned.
The annual BP contest we organized at Insper until 2011 suffered several improvements since it was originally conceived in 2006. Let me share some of these learning:
- Undergrad is very different from graduate. MBA students in Brazil are typically mid-management level at large companies so very experienced in their fields and holds very good content to develop highly consistent BPs. You will be frustrated with the superficiality of undergrad students ideas.
- BP contests are very important, not because of the BP quality itself but the whole environment created for that, including networking, pitching, presentations, investors feedbacks, overall climate, etc, that can be offered in different ways, but not necessarily through a BP contest.
- Instead of a BP competition, you should provide this same experience through 'lean' experiences, like a pitching contest, a prototype award, a business concepts fair and only after that, when the students are more prepared and familiar to their product, their market, the business model, they will be ready to write good BPs.
- A great BP not necessarily turns this student into a great entrepreneur. As some of you mentioned, the BP is just the structured part of the business idea. To make it a successful business, the entrepreneurial skills need to be developed (or awakened), which require a completely different effort and most academics are not prepared to face such challenge.
- Good BPs are written by Business administration students. Do not expect a lawyer or a biologist to write great BPs. Mixed teams are the best approach to join different knowledge and competences together into good BPs of innovative ideas.
- A BP competition is just one part of the process to form entrepreneurs. A lot of things must be offered to the students prior to expose them to this experience, like training, mentoring, orientation and, using an effectual approach, DO BUILD THE BUSINESS in a small but controlled scale. And a lot of things must be done after the BP competition. What are you going to offer to the winners? An award? A plaque? Partnerships with accelerators, incubators, tech parks, angels and industry related network are mandatory to increase the chances to turn these BPs into real business which are, at the end of story, the final goal of BP competitions.
- Bring real world entrepreneurs and investors to judge the presentations and BPs. Instruct them to simulate real negotiation rounds so students will experience what really happens on an investor/entrepreneur negotiation. Shark Tank episodes are great to take as reference.
- I try not to use Osterwalder's canvas. It is very good to map an EXISTING business model, but innovative business models cannot be conceived using static boxes. Instead, I use the Magretta's vision of business model, which is the LOGIC behind the business concept. For that, Design Thinking approach fits much better. If you do not have time or resources to personally support the students on this, than the canvas is ok because it is easy to understand and use.
- I have just finished my last book 'Business Plans in 40 lessons', a practical guide for instructors of BP courses, but the key message I leave is: Do you really need a BP? Under my point of view, a BP in the very initial stages of the business is absolutely useless. Using Sarasvathy's Effectuation approach you will see that the BP structured way to map a business uses the Causation approach, in other words, the BP is useful only AFTER the business was effectively launched. So the question is: What's the purpose of a BP then? By the time you will need to take a very important decision, like a huge investment, the proportional risk is very high, because of the high impact and high uncertainty. That is the moment to write a BP, because this tool will help to reduce uncertainty and consequently, the risk. That's why most BPs are related to Venture Capital (huge investment) requirements.
I hope this helps and please get in touch for any doubt.
Best regards
Marcos Hashimoto
Entrepreneurship Center Director
Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado
Sao Paulo - Brazil
mhashimoto@faap.br
55-11-3266-7280
@mhashimo
-----Mensagem original-----
De: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv [mailto:
ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] Em nome de Melissa Baucus
Enviada em: sexta-feira, 8 de março de 2013 01:41
Para:
ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Assunto: Re: [ENTREP] Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition
If you want to learn from one of the best at leading ENT students through business plan/model competitions, you should talk with and possibly observe Van Clouse at University of Louisville. His teams consistently win or place very well in competitions. See the following list:
http://business.louisville.edu/business-competitions/
One of the things you'll learn is that it takes a lot of mentoring and a huge amount of time to succeed at a high level. I would agree with Norris's advice not to do it with the caveat that I'm assuming your school wants you to do some research. You will likely have little time for research.
On the positive side, the business plan competitions have a profound positive impact on students. They end up with more confidence, able to present (sell) themselves and their ideas, and they appear more resourceful and proactive in identifying and solving problems.
Good luck!
Melissa
-----Original Message-----
From: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv [mailto:
ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Norris Krueger
Sent: Friday, 8 March 2013 1:59 p.m.
To:
ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: [ENTREP] Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition
Normally, I would plead with you "Don't Do It!" :) The typical biz plan contest adds about as much to students' entrepreneurial mindset as teaching them about biz plans... Very little and may even do harm.
Unless you really know what you're doing.
BUT....
Sean is right to contact Kauffman. The person to contact is Katie Peterson who manages a terrific platform for this sort of thing called iStart (www.iStart.org, I think): A great platform makes a big, big difference. (And not a fruitful area for DIY.)
I would also urge you to look at all the lean startup tools out there.
Spend several months getting really up to speed. Participate in a Startup Weekend or Lean Startup Machine.
Following Steve Blank's Lean LaunchPad course (available free on
Udacity) is not for amateurs either, but it's well worth the investment. The "Startup Owners Manual" (Blank & Dorf 2012) is designed to be a text for all this. The book is cheap and students will keep it. Also, there are a few lean fanatics, er, fans on this listserv who'd be happy to help. (Doan, you lurking out there?)
However, you can profitably look at doing a business *model* contest.
Nathan Furr at BYU is probably the most experienced here and I recommend his book, "Nail It, Then Scale It."
p.s. Sean, don't you have a new book that might also be helpful?
Norris
On 3/7/13, Sean Wise <
sean.wise@ryerson.ca> wrote:
> you may wish to ping the Kauffman Foundation.
> They have concept papers, rules, on line voting tools, etc.
>
> most is free!
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Dr. Sean Wise, BA LLB MBA PhD
> Asst. Professor, Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department, Ted Rogers
> School of Management, Ryerson University
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Director, Dobson Micro-Financing Seed Venture Fund Chair, Ryerson
> Angel Network Chair, $25,000 Slaight Business Plan Competition Member,
> Digital Media Zone, Steering Committee
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
sean.wise@ryerson.ca | (416) 995 9017 |
www.nakedentrepreneur.tv
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Vishal K Gupta <
vgupta@BINGHAMTON.EDU>
> Date: Thursday, March 7, 2013 11:20 am
> Subject: [ENTREP] Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition
> To:
ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
>
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>>
>>
>> We are considering starting a business plan competition here. The
>> idea is that students will present new venture ideas to a panel of
>> local judges who will decide who gets the funding necessary to start
>> the business. We have been asked to put together a concept paper for
>> the competition which can be circulated to the different
>> stakeholders to get buy-in from them. Does anyone have any examples
>> of such a concept paper? We can use what you have already developed
>> as a basis for our concept paper, rather than starting from scratch.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks for your help,
>>
>>
>>
>> Vishal Gupta
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *********************************************************************
>> ********************
>>
>> Vishal Gupta, PhD.
>>
>> Assistant Professor of Strategy,
>>
>> School of Management,
>>
>> State University of New York- Binghamton,
>>
>> Vestal, NY 13902 (USA).
>>
>> Phone: 607-777-6853
>>
>>
www.professorvishalgupta.com
>>
>>
www.linkedin.com/in/vishalkgupta/
>>
>>
>> *********************************************************************
>> *********************
>>
>> **************************************
>> This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the
>> Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.
>>
>> Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages
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>>
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>> If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
>>
jbunch@benedictine.edu.
>>
>> Ventures HO!
>>
>
> **************************************
> This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship
> Division of the Academy of Management.
>
> Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages
> or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of
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>
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>
> If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
>
jbunch@benedictine.edu.
>
> Ventures HO!
>
--
Norris
*
*
* "How can I help you to grow entrepreneurs?" * Norris Krueger, Ph.D.
Entrepreneurship Northwest
208.440.3747
www.about.me/norriskrueger
**************************************
This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.
Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.
You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here:
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If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
jbunch@benedictine.edu.
Ventures HO!
**************************************
This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.
Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.
You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here:
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If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
jbunch@benedictine.edu.
Ventures HO!