Instructions
The New Business Road Test REPORT
Mullins Chapter 5 – Micro Industry Test Questions (Individual DD Assignment
No doubt you are all ready to extend your work on your identified business opportunities. This is the note that I mentioned during class last week (9/28) regarding the Informed Resources/Due Diligence Report Assignment which is due in my email inbox by 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 9th. The Informed Resources/Due Diligence Report is an INDIVIDUAL assignment and should be considered a “deep dive” analysis/study associated with your team’s opportunity/market need/solution. With the informed resources/due diligence reports, teams (through the efforts of its individual members) capture critical information/evidence about the macro/micro industries/markets, etc. associated with your opportunity, using the Mullins framework. I recommend that each team divide up the due diligence effort across team members, with each team member working on one or two separate areas of analysis (Different Chapters from Mullins — check the additional assets folder for WORD document templates that you can use for each of the relevant Mullins chapters). Thus, each member is responsible for and will report individually on their separate area(s) of analysis for their informed resources/due diligence report assignment. The combined results and work effort of all team members can then later be efficiently synthesized (Chapter 10) as your team moves forward in the development and construction of your written business plan and associated PowerPoint presentation. Obviously, this assignment is an important milestone in your business plan development effort. I posted several files in this folder. One, entitled “Informed Resources Focusing Questions” asks three important guiding questions that should provide an overall guide for your due diligence. While strategic and seemingly simple in nature, I trust that these questions will help you stay focused as you identify your due diligence/Informed Resources needs, conduct your analyses (guided by the Mullins chapter questions), and present the evidence that you have uncovered in your INDIVIDUAL Informed Resources/Due Diligence Report. For specific guidance as to the salient individual questions that you should be asking and answering, I suggest you review the chapters in Mullins that we are discussing in class (Chapters 1-10) — I assume that you have already begun reviewing the remaining Chapters 11- 17. Again, as mentioned, there are several other Word Doc files posted in this folder as well (Click on the Folder title to access). They contain the aforementioned important “Mullins” questions (each on a separate page in each of the word documents from the relevant Mullins’ chapters that we reviewed in class. They should serve you well as templates as you move forward. These Word Docs are also posted in the “Additional Assets” Folder. Remember not to assign the Chapter 10 questions to any individual on your team for it will serve as a guide to the entire team working together to put all of the domains info together. In essence, when you eventually write up the results of Chapter 10 in “story form” (not in Q&A form), it will serve as the majority content of your business plan. Your individual informed resources/due diligence report SHOULD NOT be in a Question and Answer Format. While you can use the Mullins’ Chapters Word documents as a repository for your research results, I am expecting that your actual submitted DD report will be in the form of a report (prose) that integrates the results of your research in more of a story format. You can include your Q&A as an appendix, along with other applicable material. Please submit your INDIVIDUAL Informed Resources/Due Diligence Report as a Microsoft Word document, double spaced, in 12 point ARIAL font. With respect to length, I will leave that up to you – that said, the length of your report is usually determined by the thoroughness of your thinking, research and analyses, as opposed to a required number of pages. I would be highly surprised if you could do a great job in just a few pages. Using Mullins as a guide, he highlights the numerous areas that need to be visited (at both the industry and market level — and others) prior to the writing of your plan. You can get many ideas there and determine what is relevant for your business idea/opportunity and divide those parts for research and analysis across team members. The idea here is to ask the right questions so that you can then work to uncover the appropriate micro, macro, industry, market, and team information/evidence and use it to mitigate as much risk as possible associated with the potential capture of the opportunity that you have identified. Remember, please, that your INDIVIDUAL Informed Resources/Due Diligence Report is worth up to 20 points of your course grade – so it is an important assignment and you should treat it as such. Of equal importance is the fact that when collected and combined, the evidence from your INDIVIDUAL analyses will significantly benefit the quality of your team’s business plan. You have several weeks to work on your report prior to the November 9th deadline and while I do not expect you to have all of the answers for every question by then, you should be well on your way there. I expect that you will present the evidence that you have gathered at that point (11/9) with a plan on the subsequent direction and process for what remains to be gathered. My best advice is not to think that you have plenty of time – get started now. Clearly, there is a reason that I am posting this assignment 5 weeks prior to the deadline. Take advantage of the lead time. Posing the questions is relatively easy, answering them correctly with evidence will require you to “roll up your sleeves.” Let the evidence speak and inform your analyses and decisions. I am very much looking forward to your work product. Know well — The process of discovery is iterative. Every time that you ask a question you will become better informed, with the ability to ask even better questions and get better answers in the second, third, fourth, …, rounds. Additionally, don’t forget to keep looking in the “Additional Assets” folder. I have posted some helpful material there. Embrace the Challenge and Enjoy the journey! And thanks for your continued commitment to learning!
#We’ve designed a melatonin product before. The following is our product introduction:
Sleep deprivation affects nearly everyone at some point in their life, and at any point in time there are between 50-70 million people suffering from lack of sleep. According to an article on college sleep patterns, 70% of college students do not get a sufficient amount of sleep. The use of melatonin as a supplement is on the rise in the United States in the form of gummies and pills. However, our product, Sleep Sound, plans to expand the market into the liquid additive branch. Sleep Sound is convenient in that the product can be carried around in a small container, similar to a MIO bottle, one can add it to any drink, and the product has a long shelf life. The product, essentially melatonin in liquid form, holds approximately 77 servings, which differentiates us from melatonin gummies and drops, where you need to lug around a bulky bottle for a small number of servings. Additionally, we provide a value to the growing number of vegan consumers in the market who can not eat gelatin (melatonin gummies). The melatonin market, valued to be worth approximately 1.26 billion USD (2021) is projected CAGR of 14.30%, which opens the doors for the entrance of a new game changing way to … Sleep Sound.
The task this time is to answer the questions in the following document. Try to fill a page with each question.
Please do it around the book charpter4. （The New Business Road Test – John Mullins）
