'The Piercer\r'

'S w 908M57 The Piercer Colleen Sh arn and Nicole Nolan wrote this case solely to set aside strong for class discussion. The authors do non specialise to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors whitethorn incur disguised sealed titles and former(a) identifying in castingation to cling to confidentiality. Ivey centering Services prohibits whatsoever form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its pen permission. Reproduction of this material is not c everyplace under authorization by some(prenominal) reproduction properlys organization.To order copies or take permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey vigilance Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of tune, The University o f Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; ph iodin (519) 661-3208; auto typeface (519) 661-3882; e-mail [email&#clx;protected] uwo. ca. Copyright © 2008, Ivey Management Services Version: (A) 2008-08-22 â₠¬Å"Don’t for target, your telephone circuit motif pitch is refer qualified in cardinal weeks,” said prof Sh arn at the end of class. Jessica Pierce sullen to look at her shed team mate, Ashley Mound.Jessica and Ashley were fourth-year management and organizational studies students at Brescia University College, taking an introduction to entrepreneurship course. Ashley and Jessica had engendered an view for the assignment: a mortalal sentry go alarm that both shrieked and flashed lights when the psyche carrying it set off the alarm function. devoted the concern that many a(prenominal) people had over personal safety, it hitchmed like a large railway line composition. In order to invest their desire, they drug abuse uped to show that there was a securities industry for this product and that they had a expressive style to shit it to consumers.The problem was that they did not rightfully know how or where to start to get the version that they p auperizationed. They had a lot of subject area to do to be ready to indicate their go out in the next two weeks. THE ASSIGNMENT The strain pitch assignment was ch exclusivelyenging. Sharen had asked students to infract an interesting business idea and present it to a panel of potency investors. These investors implyd a undefeated incidental entrepreneur, a business consultant who execute in the area of elegant- and medium-size enterprises, an possessor of a marketing and advertising services business and a business professor.The students were asked to present an forward-looking 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 get a lineed to view their investments as seeded player money to en up to(p) the students to further develop business plans and prototypes of their ideas. The students weren’t overtopd to do it off a financial analysis for this assignment. Purchased by germanium Cuccarini (gaia. [email&# one hundred sixty;protected] it) on border 21, 2013 knave 2 9B08M057The investors were asked to assess 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 realise the magical spell of the idea itself, the logistics and operations required to ply the business, the effectiveness of the business plan, the foresightful marches 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 note of their notification by the professor. THE IDEA The Piercer was a miserable device that hung on a string worn around the neck.When activated, The Piercer emitted a not bad(p) sound that traveled for approximately euchre meters, as substantially as a bright flashing light. To deactivate The Piercer, the wearer had to draw two buttons simultaneously. This was to prevent an attacker from existence able to deactivate the device. The piercing preventative and the bright flashing light were intentional to scare away attackers and attract those who top executive assist the person being attacked. In the situation of imminent attack, a person would not convey to rely on their voice or bring a whistle to their mouth to signal for helper.Ashley and Jessica had re hunt clubed be and apprehension that by manufacturing in China, they could grant The Piercer for $2 and sell it for $7. 50 wholesale, with a retail price of $14. 95. The idea make sense to Ashley and Jessica. It fit with recent affectionate and demographic trends as aging foul up boomers began to need assistance with injuries and falls, and with increased familiar concerns approximately health, safety and violence. WHAT NEXT? Jessica and Ashley thought that they had a secure idea. Now they had to exp eriment it. What were the target markets for this product? How big were they?Which ones should they accept? How should they sell to them? What proportion of the target market should they expect to capture? Where should they look for info to help them make these decisions? A saucer-eyed GUIDE TO INFORMATION RESOURCES AND EVALUATION Ashley and Jessica essential do secondary re take care to be able to quantify and implement their idea. They exit need to consider 1) how to evaluate imaginativenesss, 2) how to develop effective depend strategies and 3) how to identify trademarked alternatives that support the case for this business. 1. How to Evaluate Resources maintaination is open everywhere, and for this reason, Jessica and Ashley need to be able to separate amid cheeseparing and poor pure tone education. Appropriate entropy usage for an donnish project implicates evaluating and assessing resources for reliability and credibility. Purchased by atomic number 32 Cucc arini (gaia. [email protected] it) on March 21, 2013 varlet 3 9B08M057 Goals ? ? ? ? ? Ashley and Jessica should be able to place and polariate set-apart versus proprietary sack up resources. They should be able to identify a fictional character website. They should be able to evaluate books and other print resources for look and reliability.They should consider the difference between erudite and non- academician articles and resources. They should be able to cite selective reading properly. reconcile Versus Proprietary Web Resources umteen students regard that the World replete(p) Web has the answers for everything. speckle the web bed lay down blue-chip data, students pay (through their tuition) to substantiate gateway to prime(a) proprietary entropy resources. Ashley and Jessica could examine approximately free web sites to help them. For example, associations, caller-out development and government information tramp be very stabilizing, as long a s the user knows how to determine the quality of a website.Quality Web Sites Anyone anywhere fundament make a website. Just because it is on the web, does not mean it is entire 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 participation? ? Does the uniform resource locator make sense (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 send away qualify these pages. While it baron be a place to find almost resources or links, students should not cite Wikipedia as a reliable resource in an faculty member paper. The University of Alberta put together a good web evaluation check number: http://www. depository prog ram library. ualberta. ca/ teaching method/science/evalweb. pdf For a more all-inclusive 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. [email protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 4 9B08M057Evaluating Other Resources Ashley and Jessica need to be critical of all the resources they use, not secure 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 overwhelm: ? Who published the book or make the information operable? ? How old is the information? ? Has the information been updated recently? ? Is the information confederate appraiseed? Does this matter? ? Did the library buy and commend the resource? Is the author credible? scholarly Versus Non- critical Resources An schoolman l ibrary forget provide main course to both scholarly and non-scholarly resources. profound decease generally refers to published work that has been through a peer review process. Especially in the welkin of business, there are many practitioner resources. at that placefore, 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, however the information within them could be valuable.Alternatively, ProQuest ABI Inform world-wide provides door to scholarly articles. Ashley and Jessica may likewise consider the relative apprize of deduction or fact versus position. Students should not read things and trust that what they are reading is accurate. Students should think somewhat the rigor with which the stemma is made and the evidence presented. ? Is there evidence to back up a train? ? Has the evidence been collected in a reliable way? ? Is the author stating an opinion without backing up his or her ideas? Citing survive It is primary(prenominal) that Ashley and Jessica cited their work properly, to avoid accidental plagiarism.Some of the more confusing things to cite include Statistics Canada info or online information. Statistics Canada has a website that describes systematically how to cite its tables, government issues or other datasets: http://www. stat shag. ca/english/freepub/12-591-XIE/12-591-XIE2006001. htm In addition, most academic libraries impart have information closely reference point procedures, or will have copies of outlet manuals available for borrowing. Any bibliothec can be asked about citation procedures. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 5 9B08M057 2. How to stop Search StrategiesGoals ? ? ? ? Ashley and Jessica should know the difference between inquisitioning in different search fields, such as the abstract field and title field They sho uld be able to use this technology to search the peculiar fields They should be able to use the â€Å"AND,” â€Å"OR,” or â€Å"NOT” features of a search railway locomotive to help nail down their search. They should volume what truncation and proximity search strategies are, and how that influences a search. Most search engines that power information have confusable 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 linguistic communication, title, author, publication title, muniment title, abstract, full document, date, author, etc. It is a good deal possible to specify what part of the record to search in, which helps to be more unique(predicate) with the search. curious an entire text document may think less meaning(prenominal) records than a search of just abstracts. manipulation Bo olean Search Strategies Using â€Å"AND” and â€Å"OR” can be helpful in expanding or narrowing a search. AND narrows a search and OR expands it. Using the term â€Å"NOT” can also be helpful, but should be limited.For example, searching for beer companies will retrieve companies on diamonds (DeBeers). Excluding the term â€Å"diamond” from a search on beer companies could be helpful in narrowing one’s search. Truncation and proximity many another(prenominal) search engines allow for truncation and proximity searching. In ProQuest, an asterisk symbol will truncate. For example, if one types â€Å"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 good two linguistic communication 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 o ther. In ProQuest, a â€Å"w/1” or â€Å"w/2” (â€Å"w/3,” etc. ) facilitates proximity searching. For example, if Ashley or Jessica typed â€Å"organizational w/3 cultivation” in the search box, they will retrieve documents where the word â€Å"organizational” is within three words of â€Å"learning. ” Find Creative ways In There are many different ways to find information. crafty a company name or a competitor’s name is convenient. Taking utility of key words (or subject terms) also is a good way to search.Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email protected] 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 counsel to read some articles to learn the buzzword of the topic, then go back and do t he 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. program 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 world-wide 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 on the right that allows users to search in specific fields. For examp le, users can search the title, abstract, author, company or publication fields. Scopus is a database that indexes articles on the kindly sciences, purport 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 commodious 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 means 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 serv er 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 bailiwick indexed there. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email protected] it) on March 21, 2013 There is alsoPage 7 9B08M057 Finding Industry Trends Several databases including Standard & Poors NetAdvantage, Mintel and Marketline provide pass overs on industry trends. These databases provide on a regular basis updated reports on broad industries. Each database tends to report on different industries, so students would have to do some trial and phantasm research to find relevant reports. Students may find their topic is too narrow for these reports. The Fi nancial Post Investor Suite is a database that provides industry information from a Canadian perspective. Finding Company randomnessCompany 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, hence checking both resources is recommended for company research. Marketing and publicize The World Advertising Research ticker (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 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 stu dents can find demographic data for each 2,000- to 7,000-person neighbourhood across the country. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email protected] 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 monitoring device 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 setting 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. Purchased by G aia Cuccarini (gaia. [email protected] it) on March 21, 2013\r\n'