The Piercer

S w 908M57 The thrustr Colleen Shargonn and Nicole Nolan wrote this case solely to succeed strong for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective discussion of a managerial situation. The authors whitethorn construct disguised certain names and other identifying instruction to shelter confidentiality. Ivey Management Services prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its written permission. Reproduction of this worldly is not covered under authorization by any reproduction right ons organization.To order copies or orison permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Management Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of Business, The University o f Hesperian Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7 phone (519) 661-3208 fax (519) 661-3882 e-mail emailprotected uwo. ca. Copyright 2008, Ivey Management Services Version (A) 2008-08-22 Dont forget, your line of reasoning idea pitch is due in tw o weeks, said Professor Sharen at the end of class. Jessica Pierce turned to look at her project team mate, Ashley Mound.Jessica and Ashley were fourth-year management and organizational studies bookmans at Brescia University College, pickings an introduction to entrepreneurship course. Ashley and Jessica had evolveed an idea for the date a individual(prenominal) galosh alarm that both hollo and flashed lights when the person carrying it set attain the alarm function. Given the concern that many people had over personal safety, it seemed like a great business idea. In order to present their idea, they motivatinged to show that at that place was a market for this product and that they had a bureau to carry it to consumers.The problem was that they did not really take a crap it off how or where to start to get the data that they requested. They had a lot of work to do to be ready(a) to present their project in the next two weeks. THE ASSIGNMENT The business pitch assign ment was challenging. Sharen had asked students to develop an interesting business idea and present it to a panel of potential investors. These investors included a prospered serial entrepreneur, a business consultant who practised in the area of small- and medium-size enterprises, an owner of a marketing and advertising services business and a business professor.The students were asked to present an innovative idea, show why it would be successful in the market place, demonstrate potential markets, show the business model and sell themselves to the investors as entrepreneurs. The investors were instructed to view their investments as seed money to en satisfactory the students to further develop business plans and prototypes of their ideas. The students werent ask to complete a fiscal analysis for this assignment. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on defect 21, 2013 Page 2 9B08M057The investors were asked to assess project ideas on the basis of the feasibilit y of the idea and whether they believed that the entrepreneurs would be fitted to deliver. They could consider the speak to of the idea itself, the logistics and operations implored to run the business, the effectiveness of the business plan, the long frontier viability of the business or the size of the market. The assignment would be graded 50 per cent based on how much money the teams received from the investors and 50 per cent on the quality of their presentation by the professor. THE IDEA The Piercer was a small device that hung on a chain worn around the neck.When activated, The Piercer emitted a piercing sound that traveled for approximately five hundred meters, as well as a bright flashing light. To deactivate The Piercer, the wearer had to push two buttons simultaneously. This was to interdict an attacker from being able to deactivate the device. The piercing noise and the bright flashing light were designed to scare away attackers and attract those who might assist th e person being attacked. In the situation of close at hand(predicate) attack, a person would not have to rely on their voice or bring a whistle to their mouth to signal for help.Ashley and Jessica had re awaited costs and thought that by manufacturing in China, they could instal The Piercer for $2 and sell it for $7. 50 wholesale, with a retail price of $14. 95. The idea do sense to Ashley and Jessica. It fit with recent mixer and demographic trends as aging baby boomers began to need assistance with injuries and falls, and with increased general concerns nearly health, safety and violence. WHAT NEXT? Jessica and Ashley thought that they had a nigh idea. Now they had to prove it. What were the target markets for this product? How big were they?Which ones should they look at? How should they sell to them? What proportion of the target market should they expect to detain? Where should they look for reading to help them make these decisions? A SIMPLE GUIDE TO INFORMATION RESOU RCES AND EVALUATION Ashley and Jessica must do secondary research to be able to value and implement their idea. They will need to consider 1) how to evaluate visions, 2) how to develop effective search strategies and 3) how to identify proprietorship resources that support the case for this business. 1. How to Evaluate ResourcesInformation is usable everywhere, and for this reason, Jessica and Ashley need to be able to mark between good and poor quality info. Appropriate teaching usage for an academic project includes evaluating and assessing resources for reliability and credibility. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013 Page 3 9B08M057 Goals ? ? ? ? ? Ashley and Jessica should be able to locate and differentiate free versus proprietary web resources. They should be able to identify a quality website. They should be able to evaluate books and other print resources for quality and reliability.They should understand the difference between cr itical and non-scholarly articles and resources. They should be able to cite entropy properly. Free Versus Proprietary entanglement Resources Many students think that the World commodious Web has the answers for everything. While the web throw out have valuable information, students pay (through their tuition) to have access to quality proprietary information resources. Ashley and Jessica could examine some free web sites to help them. For example, associations, company information and government information tummy be very stabilizing, as long as the user knows how to determine the quality of a website.Quality Web Sites Anyone anywhere can make a website. Just because it is on the web, does not mean it is good quality or reliable. When Ashley and Jessica are evaluating websites, they need to consider Who is providing the information? ? Is it a government institution, a university or a company? ? Does the url make sense (e. g. .org, . edu, . on. ca)? ? Does the owner of the w ebsite have anything to gain by providing the information? ? Does the owner of the website have good credentials? ? Has anyone updated the website recently? Note that Wikipedia is not necessarily a reliable resource.Anyone anywhere can modify these pages. While it might be a place to find some resources or links, students should not cite Wikipedia as a reliable resource in an academic paper. The University of Alberta puzzle together a good web evaluation checklist http//www. program subroutine library. ualberta. ca/instruction/science/evalweb. pdf For a more(prenominal)(prenominal) than comprehensive list on evaluating web resources, see the bibliography on the topic http//www. lib. vt. edu/help/instruct/evaluate/evalbiblio. html Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013 Page 4 9B08M057Evaluating Other Resources Ashley and Jessica need to be critical of all the resources they use, not just websites. Ideally, they should be able to discriminate bet ween proprietary and non-proprietary websites, scholarly and non-scholarly resources and evaluate the quality of any book used. Things for Ashley and Jessica to consider include ? Who published the book or made the information available? ? How old is the information? ? Has the information been updated recently? ? Is the information peer reviewed? Does this matter? ? Did the library buy and recommend the resource? Is the author credible? critical Versus Non-Scholarly Resources An academic library will provide access to both scholarly and non-scholarly resources. Scholarly work generally refers to published work that has been through a peer review process. Especially in the field of business, there are many practitioner resources. Therefore, Jessica and Ashley need to be aware of the type of information they are gathering. For example, industry trends, say from Standard and Poors NetAdvantage, is not a scholarly resource, yet the information within them could be valuable.Alternativel y, ProQuest ABI Inform Global provides access to scholarly articles. Ashley and Jessica may also consider the relative value of separate or fact versus opinion. Students should not read things and practice that what they are reading is accurate. Students should think or so the rigor with which the argument is made and the evidence presented. ? Is there evidence to back up a claim? ? Has the evidence been collected in a reliable way? ? Is the author stating an opinion without backing up his or her ideas? Citing Work It is important that Ashley and Jessica cited their work properly, to avoid inadvertent plagiarism.Some of the more confusing things to cite include Statistics Canada data or online information. Statistics Canada has a website that describes systematically how to cite its tables, publications or other datasets http//www. statcan. ca/english/freepub/12-591-XIE/12-591-XIE2006001. htm In addition, most academic libraries will have information about citation procedures, o r will have copies of publication manuals available for borrowing. Any librarian can be asked about citation procedures. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013 Page 5 9B08M057 2. How to Develop inquisition StrategiesGoals ? ? ? ? Ashley and Jessica should know the difference between searching in different search handle, such as the hoist field and title field They should be able to use this technology to search the unique fields They should be able to use the AND, OR, or non features of a search engine to help compact their search. They should understand what truncation and proximity search strategies are, and how that influences a search. Most search engines that index information have similar features. If Ashley and Jessica understand the concepts in searching, they can apply them to any search engine.Take Advantage of Search handle For example, records in an index have many different fields such as disclosewords, title, author, publication title, enter title, abstract, beat document, date, author, etc. It is often possible to specify what part of the record to search in, which helps to be more specific with the search. Searching an entire text document may retrieve less importeeful records than a search of just abstracts. Use Boolean Search Strategies Using AND and OR can be helpful in expanding or narrowing a search. AND narrows a search and OR expands it. Using the term NOT can also be helpful, but should be limited.For example, searching for beer companies will retrieve companies on diamonds (DeBeers). Excluding the term diamond from a search on beer companies could be helpful in narrowing ones search. Truncation and Proximity Many search engines allow for truncation and proximity searching. In ProQuest, an asterisk symbolisation will truncate. For example, if one types leader* into a search box, records with leader, leaders and leadership will be retrieved. This helps capture all variations of a word. Proximity searching refers to how close two words are together in a document.Presumably, if two words are close together in a document, they are more likely to have something to do with each other. In ProQuest, a w/1 or w/2 (w/3, etc. ) facilitates proximity searching. For example, if Ashley or Jessica typed organizational w/3 learning in the search box, they will retrieve documents where the word organizational is within terce words of learning. Find notional Ways In There are many different ways to find information. Knowing a company name or a competitors name is convenient. Taking advantage of key words (or subject terms) also is a good way to search.Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013 Page 6 9B08M057 It is also a good idea to brainstorm for synonyms prior to beginning a search. Being d eliberate about a search dodging and deciding on what concepts to combine can really help make the search go easier. Searching is iterative as well. One is talk ove r to read some articles to learn the jargon of the topic, then go back and do the search over again using the subject jargon. Most librarians will help on developing a search strategy 3. How to Identify Proprietary Resources GoalsAshley and Jessica should be able to identify library resources and understand what type of information they can find in various types of resources. The following databases are some of the library databases that Ashley and Jessica could consider. They could also go to the library (or call or e-mail) and ask for assistance. Library staff will know what resources the library has, if there are any other resources that may be of use and how to access and use the resources. Finding Background Scholarly Articles ProQuest ABI Inform Global is a database that indexes business and management journal articles.Most of the articles are available in full text, and both scholarly and non-scholarly articles are available. The search box in ProQuest has a drop-down menu o n the right that allows users to search in specific fields. For example, users can search the title, abstract, author, company or publication fields. Scopus is a database that indexes articles on the affectionate sciences, life sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. For the purposes of a business or entrepreneurship project, searching only the social sciences category would be appropriate. This resource indexed scholarly articles.Google Scholar is a free resource that indexes scholarly information from the World Wide Web. There is an advanced search engine feature to help specify a search. Many academic institutions integrate access to full text articles with Google Scholar. This convey that any article the student has access to via the library, is also available to them via Google Scholar. Because Google Scholar is integrated with library resources, the student will likely need to either be on campus, or logged into the off-campus proxy server to take advantage of these services.If they are off campus or not logged into the proxy server the student can still search Google Scholar, but access to full text resources may be limited. Finding News and Magazine Articles Factiva is a database that indexes newspapers and magazines. While this resource does not index scholarly articles, it is a broad resource that captures current global news and events. LexisNexis has a comprehensive database that indexes newspapers and magazines. significant Canadian content indexed there. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013 There is alsoPage 7 9B08M057 Finding Industry Trends Several databases including Standard & Poors NetAdvantage, Mintel and martline provide reports on industry trends. These databases provide regularly updated reports on broad industries. Each database tends to report on different industries, so students would have to do some attempt and error research to find relevant reports. Students may find their topic is too narrow for these reports. The pecuniary Post Investor Suite is a database that provides industry information from a Canadian perspective. Finding Company InformationCompany information may be important for a project such as The Piercer, especially for researching competitors. MarketLine provides company information, including financial information, company descriptions and a list of competitors. Similarly, Hoovers provides comprehensive company descriptions. Not all companies are in both resources, therefore checking both resources is recommended for company research. Marketing and Advertising The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) is a resource that provides access to information about marketing and advertising, as well as to case studies of win ad campaigns.Such a resource could be helpful in this context to see if other, similar products have been marketed, and if so, how they have been marketed. There is scholarly and non-scholarly information in this resource. Technolo gy Information Both eMarketer and Forrester have information about technology trends. There may be information about the Internet, emerging technologies or electronic marketing. Statistics and Demographics Statistics Canada provides access to demographic data. Many secondary educational institutions participate in the Data Liberation Initiative.This means that information a member of the public would have to pay for, can be retrieved for free by a student. Students, through the academic library website, can use data for research. For more information about accessing statistics, students can talk to their subject librarian. Some resources that Statistics Canada has that might be useful to find demographics include the Market Research Handbook, Canadian Business Patterns, CANSIM data, Census data, and Canadian Social Trends, among others. There are other resources available via www. statcan. ca such as Community Profiles.Data are available down to groupings of the population of about 2,000 to 7,000 people, meaning students can find demographic data for each 2,000- to 7,000-person neighbourhood across the country. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013 Page 8 9B08M057 Global Information Although global research may not be as important for a product such as The Piercer, other entrepreneurial projects may require researching the global market. Economic Intelligence Unit, Global Market Information Database and Business Monitor Online are three resources that provide global market and industry information.Other Helpful Resources Students are encouraged to use the World Wide Web to help them find good information. For example, city homepages often have information about scope up a business. Association websites also can have helpful information. Also, banks have entrepreneurial information on their websites. In addition, many books in the library explain how to develop small business plans or provide information on entrepreneurship. P urchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013