The Piercer

S w 908M57 The Piercer Colleen Sh atomic number 18n and Nicole Nolan wrote this case solely to earmark material for class discussion. The authors do not int break to illustrate from each one effective or ineffective handling of a managerial stake. The authors whitethorn sacrifice disguised certain squalls and other identifying teaching to comfort confidentiality. Ivey concern Services prohibits any form of re reapingion, storage or contagion without its written consent. Reproduction of this material is not covered under consent by any reproduction rights organization.To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Management Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of Business, The University o f Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7 ph 1 (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 duty bringing close together fork ov er is due in devil weeks, said Professor Sharen at the end of class. Jessica Pierce turned to look at her frame team mate, Ashley Mound.Jessica and Ashley were fourth-year management and organizational studies schoolchilds at Brescia University College, taking an introduction to entrepreneurship course. Ashley and Jessica had developed an idea for the duty assignment a personal safety alarm that some(prenominal) scream and flashed lights when the person carrying it set off the alarm function. Given the concern that approximately people had over personal safety, it seemed like a great product line idea. In order to present their idea, they needed to show that there was a market for this product and that they had a counseling of career to handle it to consumers.The problem was that they did not really know how or where to start to get the knowledge that they needed. They had a lot of work to do to be takey to present their film in the next two weeks. THE ASSIGNMENT Th e byplay pitch assignment was challenging. Sharen had studyed students to develop an interesting descent idea and present it to a bloodshed of potential investors. These investors entangled a successful serial entrepreneur, a line of credit consultant who practised in the area of small- and medium-size enterprises, an owner of a market and advertising services business and a business professor.The students were asked to present an advanced(a) idea, show why it would be successful in the market place, instal potential markets, show the business model and sell themselves to the investors as entrepreneurs. The investors were instructed to linear perspective their investments as seed money to enable the students to further develop business plans and prototypes of their ideas. The students werent required to complete a financial analysis for this assignment. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on edge 21, 2013 rogue 2 9B08M057The investors were asked to asse ss project ideas on the basis of the feasibility of the idea and whether they believed that the entrepreneurs would be able to deliver. They could take up the appeal of the idea itself, the logistics and operations required to run the business, the effectiveness of the business plan, the longterm 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 fictitious character of their presentation by the professor. THE IDEA The Piercer was a small device that hung on a chain worn just roundwhat the neck.When activated, The Piercer emitted a sharp sound that traveled for approximately 500 meters, as easy as a bright flashing light. To deactivate The Piercer, the wearer had to bear on two notwithstandingtons simultaneously. This was to prevent an attacker from being able to deactivate the device. The piercing noise and the bright flashing light were designe d to scare external attackers and attract those who might assist the person being attacked. In the situation of imminent attack, a person would not beat to rely on their voice or bring a whistle to their mouth to argue for do.Ashley and Jessica had re exploreed costs and thought that by manufacturing in China, they could make The Piercer for $2 and sell it for $7. 50 wholesale, with a retail price of $14. 95. The idea made brain to Ashley and Jessica. It fit with recent social and demographic trends as aging fluff boomers began to need assistance with injuries and falls, and with increased general concerns about health, safety and violence. WHAT close? Jessica and Ashley thought that they had a honest idea. Now they had to prove it. What were the target markets for this product? How big were they?Which ones should they choose? How should they sell to them? What proportion of the target market should they wait to capture? Where should they look for study to help them make these decisions? A plain GUIDE TO INFORMATION RESOURCES AND EVALUATION Ashley and Jessica must do secondary re look to to be able to evaluate and implement their idea. They will need to lot 1) how to evaluate picks, 2) how to develop effective chase strategies and 3) how to identify proprietary imaginativenesss that life the case for this business. 1. How to Evaluate ResourcesInformation is available everywhere, and for this reason, Jessica and Ashley need to be able to tell apart between good and poor flavor randomness. Appropriate nurture practice for an donnish 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 distinguishableiate set-apart versus proprietary entanglement resources. They should be able to identify a attribute website. They should be able to evaluate books and other print resources for quality and reliability.They should ascertain the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly articles and resources. They should be able to elevate information properly. Free Versus copyrighted Web Resources Many students think that the World roomy Web has the answers for everything. charm the web can nominate valuable information, students establish (through their tuition) to allow access to quality proprietary information resources. Ashley and Jessica could examine some free web sites to help them. For example, associations, lodge information and giving medication information can be very laboursaving, as long as the lend oneselfr 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 deal Who is providing the information? ? Is it a government institution, a un iversity or a federation? ? Does the url make sentience (e. g. .org, . edu, . on. ca)? ? Does the owner of the website have anything to gain by providing the information? ? Does the owner of the website have good credentials? ? Has anyone updated the website tardily? 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 enthrone together a good web evaluation checklist http//www. depository library. ualberta. ca/ management/science/evalweb. pdf For a more comprehensive list on evaluating web resources, see the bibliography on the topic http//www. lib. vt. edu/help/instruct/evaluate/evalbiblio. hyper textbook mark-up language Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013 Page 4 9B08M057Evaluating former(a) Resources Ashley and Jessica need to be critical of all the resources they use, not just websites. Ideally, they should be able to discriminate between 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? prenticely Versus Non-Scholarly Resources An academic library will deliver the goods 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 surface area of business, there are many a(prenominal) practitioner resources. on that pointfore, Jessica and Ashley need to be aware of the type of information they are gathering. For exampl e, labor trends, say from streamer and Poors Net usefulness, is not a scholarly resource, yet the information within them could be valuable.Alternatively, ProQuest ABI Inform Global provides access to scholarly articles. Ashley and Jessica may as well as consider the relative value of evidence or fact versus opinion. Students should not run down things and trust that what they are reading is accurate. Students should think about the rigor with which the pipeline 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 classic that Ashley and Jessica cited their work properly, to avoid accidental 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, takes or other datasets http//w ww. statcan. ca/english/freepub/12-591-XIE/12-591-XIE2006001. htm In addition, most academic libraries will have information about character procedures, or 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 build Search StrategiesGoals ? ? ? ? Ashley and Jessica should know the difference between inquisitioning in contrasting take care handle, such as the abstract 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 NOT features of a search engine to help narrow their search. They should understand what truncation and propinquity search strategies are, and how that influences a search. Most search engines that index information have connatural features. If Ashley and Jessica understand the concepts in searching, they can apply them to any search engine.Take Advantage of Search Fields For example, records in an index have many different fields such as key oral communication, title, author, publication title, document title, abstract, full document, date, author, and so forth 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 meaningful records than a search of just abstracts. practice Boolean Search Strategies Using AND and OR can be helpful in expanding or narrow 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 adamants (DeBeers). Excluding the term diamond from a search on beer companies could be helpful in narrowing ones search. Truncation and Proximity Many search engines quit for truncation and proximity searching. In ProQuest, an asterisk symbol will tr uncate. 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 manner of speaking 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 tercet words of learning. Find Creative Ways In There are many different ways to find information. Knowing a company name or a competitors name is convenient. Taking return 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 begi nning a search. Being d eliberate about a search strategy and decision making on what concepts to combine can really help make the search go easier. Searching is iterative as well. One is advised to read some articles to learn the jargon of the topic, then go back and do the search 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 an d 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 visiting card on 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 social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. For the purposes of a business or entrepreneurship project, searching all 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 room that any article the student has access to via the library, is also available to them via Google Sc holar. Because Google Scholar is integrated with library resources, the student will likely need to each be on campus, or logged into the off-campus proxy server to take expediency 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 Marketline provide reports on industry trends. These databases provide regularly updated reports on broa d industries. Each database tends to report on different industries, so students would have to do some trial and misunderstanding research to find relevant reports. Students may find their topic is similarly narrow for these reports. The Financial 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 winning 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. Technology Information two 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 poke Initiative.This means that information a member of the public would have to conciliate 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, CA NSIM data, nose count 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 community 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 light Unit, Global Market Information Database and Business Monitor Online are three resources that provide global market and industry information.Other Helpful Resources Students are back up to use the World Wide Web to help them find good information. For example, city homepages often have information about setting up a business. Association websites also can have h elpful 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. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. emailprotected it) on March 21, 2013