Objective:
- To explore and critically evaluate the concept of opportunity recognition and evaluation in practice
- To develop entrepreneurial skills in practice, such as working in teams, and communication and presentation skills
Overview:
The focus of this task is for students to develop their theoretical knowledge and practical skills in relation to entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and value proposition creation. As a part of the task, the learners will work on creative and innovative solutions, and will able to grasp the concept of opportunity recognition, evaluation, and development of value proposition, but also hone communication and strategic skills. To this task, the students will rely on knowledge not only related to enterprise and entrepreneurship, but also other modules that they took during their study programme.
Activity:
You will co-create this activity with a company, either a start-up or small business. This activity takes into account that, due to conflicting schedules, as enterprise and entrepreneurship educators, we cannot always guarantee that we will have a guest speaker present in the class, but that should not prevent us to involve industry/companies into generating activities for students. Working with a company, you will co-create a live brief that will be used for the activity.
The specific ask for the students is to come with new ideas, and creative ideas (i.e. specific ask about the ideas will come from the company and will be influenced by their line of business). To work on the brief, students will need to: undertake research on the company and specific products/services that
the company produces; undertake wider market research; assess the competition; recognise the opportunities, gaps in the market and market potential; and also use specific skills: working in teams, communication skills (i.e. with the team, and in producing a pitch), and thinking disruptively.
The activity can take up to approximately 40 minutes, however, can be shorter or longer, depending on the time available. You can start the activity by reminding learners of some theoretical concepts that you covered in relation to opportunity recognition and evaluation and value proposition. Following that, you will introduce the activity, and allowed students 35 minutes to work in their teams of 4-6 learners. During this time, students will engage with a brief and produce a short presentation (up to 5 slides) to present their solution.
Your preparation for this activity will involve getting in touch with company representatives, co-creating the brief suitable for the needs of the module and level of studies, and doing the background research about the company and their products. You will also need to spend time listing a number of questions that students might be asking, and do some research and speak to company representatives about the answers to these questions, so you can provide timely answers to the students during the activity (i.e. as the company representative will not be present in the class). While the students are doing the activity, you will go from one group to the other, providing a listening ear or giving feedback on the ideas students came up with.
At the end of the activity, you will submit the presentations to company representative. Although the feedback is not shared within the same session, the feedback from the company representatives and yourself should be shared with the students via e-mail within the next few days following the activity. Organising the activity in this way still allows students to work on real-life, live case studies, which would otherwise be difficult due to the clashing schedules.
Skill Development:
Following the activity, students should reflect on the activity. Students will be able to learn from the feedback that is provided to them. In addition, students are able to enhance their skills of working in teams, and thinking more entrepreneurially in the context of the activity.
Resources:
- Smartphones or computers, to enable students to undertake their research and produce a presentation,
- Pen/papers, or digital whiteboards to allow students to make note of their ideas