i rest my case

This week we were introduced to Case Analysis. I feel this is a more hands on approach, tantamount to a pragmatic application of the knowledge we have acquired. We were given a case, the ASEAN Food Safety Initiative (AFSI), and were told to apply the Web 2.0 concept to solving the problem. This is what my group came up with:

I guess this pretty much covers what we wanted to say. We applied as much of Web 2.0 as we possibly could. We used the Web as our user interface, thus this allows it to be accessible on multiple platforms and mediums, eg. pc, laptop, PDA, or mobile phone. It also allows end user interactivity as each person involved in the life cycle events can make changes to the database in their various areas of speciality. Also, all the processing is centralised and done on the server side, and requires very little power on the client side. The system is intelligent and can compute graphs, charts and other graphical representations of statistical data, and also cross reference the data and make smart relationships and hence track sources of contamination.

These time constrained case analysis are very helpful as it helps us better understand the concepts involved as a solid grasp of the material is required to be able to properly apply it to real world situations and adapt it to varying circumstances. It also helps us to be quick-witted, which will definitely go a long way when solving similar problems in future. Cases are really simulations of real world situations and provides us with an avenue to gaining experience without losing too much when we fail.

Prof Gilbert encouraged us to join the Citibank Case Challenge, which I have taken a keen interest in but alas, I'm not a final year or penultimate year student and so I don't meet the prerequisite for admission. Oh well. There will always be more opportunities. Anyway, Prof Gilbert was really helpful when I asked him about resume writing. Got me to think in the right direction. I should be crafting my curriculum vitae soon, and maybe I'll decide to upload it to the digital dropbox and face the firing squad that is the MB362 class. =P

the elevator pitch

Elevator pitch week! Unfortunately, my group did not expect the elevator pitch to solely consist of the video, so we did not present this session. We expected the video to be followed by a short speech or Q&A, so we didn't include a lot of details. We redid the presentation and added a voice-over. I got some of my friends to view it and feedback was varied. Many people caught many different things from the video. Some could clearly tell me the concept of our business. Some could even tell me the revenue model for our business, our target audience and which segment of the market are we trying to reach. Yet there were others unclear even of the medium we were using. There is definitely room for improvement, but so far feedback is not bad and most people understood our idea, so I'll save any changes until after the pitch is given next session. I can't wait to show it to the rest of the class and hear what they think of it!

Our idea is to replace the conventional tour package with a game played entirely on the mobile phone. Our target audience are families or younger travellers, ie. backpackers. I'll wait until after the next session before I blog more about it.

We saw the elevator pitches of the various groups and it was good that none of the groups came up with similar ideas. All their ideas were different, again showing how diverse the students taking this modules are. However, none of the ideas caused my heart to skip a beat. I might be overly critical but everyone is entitled to his own opinion and this is nothing personal. I feel the idea of a website that gives tourism information is nothing new! People have already been doing it, and it's probably no different from carrying around a copy of Lonely Planet. The next idea on the traveller's card requires the installation of the card reader all over the nation. This means everyone has to buy this idea in order for the idea to even work. This comes up to a rather high startup cost. The great thing about this idea is the reusability of the cards everytime the tourist comes back to Singapore. However, how many casual tourist visit the same place twice? The last group's idea was basically a personal chaffeur, whose car has a laptop placed in it. I think one thing all of these groups missed is the element of play and the idea of fun. There are plenty of means where information can be provided that are already in place, so the only way one can be different is how this information is actually provided. That is why I quite like my own idea on the mobile phone game. An important concept in Web 2.0 is interactivity on the part of the end user. He must feel like he can contribute to the community.

The most important point the elevator pitch must bring across is the value proposition and the revenue model. This is probably the biggest take home of the day. From our analysis of various elevator pitches, we can clearly see that one doesn't need a technically excellent and aesthetically astounding video to bring across the 2 points. One of the groups did a rather archaic one-man-talking-to-a-video-cam pitch but it was interesting and presented his ideas in a clear and concise manner. After this, we proceeded on with the lecture proper.

This week's topic was on Freedom. As mentioned earlier, a big part of Web 2.0 is end user interactivity. This immediately allows the user to feel like he has a certain degree of freedom, that is, freedom of speech. He can blog, podcast or upload content of his choice via any of the 'sharesites' such as flickr, blogger and youtube, all of which are household names now. The onset of such technology is a dual-edged sword. On one side of the balance, there is freedom and there is choice; yet on the other side, comes the removal of privacy. Previously, privacy infringement was a widely debated issue. Now, the disappearance of privacy is almost as sure as the popping up of the next tissue from the box of Kleenex. I guess this is another case of 'Who moved my cheese?". In the book of the same name by Dr. Spencer Johnson, a story of 2 pairs of mice is told. They were eating cheese from a cheese station. One day, the cheese ran out, so the first pair left their cheesestation in search of a new cheesestation. However, the second pair got furious and immediately belted out the now famous line, 'Who moved my cheese?". It speaks of being able to accept changes, adapt to them and move on. As e-commerce and m-commerce continually play a larger role in today's society, we must learn to accept and adapt to the changes that this force brings about. The cheese in the cheesestation will not magically grow back, just like technology doesn't move backwards. Web 2.0 is here to stay. We may move on to Web 3.0 and with it comes a new set of rules, but we will never move back to Web 1.0.

Anyway, another session was concluded and its more work yet again as we work to improve our elevator pitch. We just found out that part of our project evaluation would be the performance of our pitch on YouTube. Now that was something no one expected. Yet another MB362 surprise. ;P

jurong bird park and the 4 stages

Jurong Bird Park (JBP) is one of the premier attractions in Singapore. One of their main demographic, the overseas visitor, experiences a language barrier problem. Each group came up with an idea to overcome this and took turns to present it. I was glad that each group managed to have different selling points, and that there was little overlap between each group's ideas. Perhaps this does show that people from different backgrounds do see things from different angles. We then aggregated our ideas, which just consolidates what we learnt the previous week from 'Wisdom of the Crowd'.
Well I guess the underlying concept on my business idea for JBP was to keep startup cost low by using the existing mobile infrastructure around the JBP. Why reinvent the wheel, right? Most of the other groups required the purchasing of a product, such as the bird-buddy, or the installation of bluetooth transceivers amongst other devices. Technology should not be implemented for implementation's sake, but to aid the application of the business idea. High technology does not necessarily translate to high quality, so it is important not to get carried away with new technology. The biggest selling point of my idea was the guided tour. This provides a service that definitely has a market, and reduces the number of personnel needed to fulfil this niche. It allows every visitor to have a quality experience at JBP with their very own tour guide, at a fixed cost to JBP.

Subsequently, we talked about business models. Besides the quality of the people involved, the next most important thing is probably the business model. Good people mixed with good ideas usually results in success. When we aggregated all our ideas for JBP, we divided them into 4 stages - Initiate, Enter, Complete, Retirement. Initiate is how the user begins the service. Enter is when the user begins using the service. Complete is when the user finishes using the service. Retirement is what happens after the user terminates the service. Thinking along this track allows us to track the value-addedness of a particular model, and thus pinpoint the pros and cons of different models.

The project topic was finally revealed to us - "Tourism On the Go". Seems like this module focuses on the tourism industry, and the application of e-commerce and m-commerce to enchance the tourists' experience. We are to present our elevator pitch next session in the form of a video.