Worcester Innovators Network

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As Paul has already been kind enough to write about more or less every day we were taking part in EPIC, I will here add my own input, experiences, views and thought on the event.

19th Jan

Of the team members sent to ‘WIN’ the 2008’s “Entrepreneurs International Challenge” I only knew Paul from before. It did not take long however to get to know Rob and Phill as they are the right kind of people for an event like this - friendly, open and easy to get along with.

We arrived at our hostel The Generator (how scary doesn’t that name itself sound?!) and checked in, only to find ourselves split up between the rooms. I was put in a girls only room, being the only girl from Worcester. Paul and Rob were put together with some Bath boys and that left Phill on his own. He had never stayed at a hostel before and looked genuinely shaken when the room his key led too was still occupied by some guys who hadn’t checked out yet (at 4pm!) and demanded to be put in another room. He then ended up with the three guys from Birmingham. Unfortunately it didn’t lead to very much insight into their strategies.. ;) In the evening we were invited to listen to Stelios, the man behind EasyJet.

20th Jan

We did not get much sleep, as Paul indicated in his blogg. We were well excited to start the challenges though. After deciding some kind of strategy we split up in twos. Me and Phill ran around London, starting around Piccadilly Circus, with the supervisor Ricky following (or did he lead..?) us.

The most memorable moment of this day was during our negotiation for London postcards. We had to get 30 different ones, including 5 of the Houses of Parliament, 5 of the Royal Family and so on. We made a great deal in one souvenir shop where the owner had the kindness to let us buy 25 postcards for 1 pound! That left us with only the 5 ones of the Royal Family. We soon found a stall in a street corner that sold them, but only one was 10 p, the rest of them we would have to pay 20 p for. Being in a negotiation challenge, we picked up a few cards and went to the man in the stall and asked him if we could get a deal if we bought 5 at once. He looked at me strangely, as it was me who had spoken, and said “but they are 20 p!” We argued that they probably cost way less for him to buy but he didn’t give in to us and turned his head away to prove a point. Fair enough, we walked around the other shops and found 4 Royal Family pictures, each for 10 p. The last one we thought we could get from that man with the stall, cause one of the cards did actually cost 10 p. But when we picked it up and wanted to pay, he RIPPED it apart, threw it in the bin and said “I’m not selling anything to you”. Oh I wish we had filmed that moment. Shocking!

In the evening Boston Consulting Group had a word or two of advice to share with us. It is quite encouraging to get to listen to some professionals, it makes you realize that it is never as hard as it seems to reach the stars. It just shows to you, in the flesh, that they are only people too.

21 - 22nd Jan

These days were filled with more challenges. Marketing on the Thursday, with Pizza to follow, and a Case study on the Friday. The challenges were stressful as it was quite competitive. Rushing around to get stalls and think of best ideas how to reduce usage of plastic gets harder when there’s a very narrow time limit, and everyone in the team has their own ideas we wanted to roll with. Not getting that much sleep didn’t make anything easier. One morning the whole hostel was woken up by the fire alarm. Only “testing” or perhaps it went of by mistake, but it sure did get most of us out of bed (or the shower). I did enjoy the talks we attended in the evenings.

We got to listen to a panel of start-ups, people who recently started their own business and shared their experiences. Interesting to hear about the boy from Scotland who made his Nan’s jam and turned it into a business. The last guy who spoke kept going for quite a while, and honestly I must say I zoomed in and out, but the most impressing thing about this guy was his age - 18 years - although he sounded much more experienced than that. This is probably because he was talking to leading businessmen at the age of 13, in hope to gain some insight to how to be able to afford a Bentley.

23rd Jan

Strategy. Oh, it sure is a love-hate relationship with that word! Our challenge started the night before (22nd Jan) but there was much talk and not very much action amongst the Worcester competitors, and so we ended up enjoying burgers and beer at Wetherspoon’s while suggesting more and more incompatible ideas. The evening ended on LSE campus outside the library filming some wildlife inside the library, more specifically a mouse or rat that ran along the windows. Quite worrying seeing as they eat books, don’t they?

Morning of the 23rd Jan We met our supervisor Ricky and still had no great ideas left. We had been on to a few, but rejected. So we strolled around London and got ideas from a manager of Camden Market to go to East part of London. So, as Paul has explained in detail, we ended up selling fruit door to door. And we made a bigger profit then we’d expected. When it was getting close to 5pm, when we had to be back at the Generator, we went to an apartment block between the hostel and Russell Sq. This place was a little intimidating and put both me and Phill in quite a guilty mood as there seemed to be a lot of people with much less money then we had, and there we were trying to make a profit out of them, and the money was only going to go to the EPIC in the end anyway! We got through alright, encountering an old lady who surprisingly enough didn’t invite us for a cuppa, and an old blind man who seemed pleased someone brought him fruit.

In the evening we all had comparisons between the teams over who had gotten what in the first challenge, as the Magenta tissues, ties and champagne, amongst other things, were all being used for the winners party. Congratulations Cambridge, smart boys deserve to win somehow. It makes sense, doesn’t it? The nwas consumed and we all moved along to a couple of places out in London town to celebrate a great week with new friends and contacts made.

Thanks!
Ida

Day 3 - 4 (final Challenge) - Start a business

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on Tuesday, 26th February 2008

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At the end of day 3 we were set our final challenge. To start and end a business between the hours of 9 to 5. After the rules were explained to us we went for a couple of hours deliberation. We realised that if we were going to sell anything we would need somewhere to sell it. Then the most fantastic idea came to us… a carboot sale. The only problem was that the whole team was required to meet our shaparone for the day at 9am and to run the carboot we would need to be there at 6 in the morning. I went to discuss it with the organisers stressing that it wasn’t in the rules that we had to meet at 9 just that it was part of the plan. As they all discussed it amognst themselves their smiles made it obvious that they knew it was a good idea. After a slight rule amendment they agreed on allowing us to only have 3 members meet at 9 but we wouldn’t be allowed to sell anything untill they arrived.

Finding a carboot was fairly easy but finding something to sell was the hard part. We trawled through the classifieds and tried to find anything free which we could sell. We had ideas of creating our own t-shirts, selling cola and we responded to an ad about some free videos. All was looking promising espcially when we started to realise that many other teams were still struggling for an idea.

At 7 o’clock we had an hour compulsory talk but figured we could collect all the items at 8 once the talk was scheduled to finish. The clcok started to tick towards 8. The guy was still talking. The clock reached 8, past 8 and at 8:15 he finally finished talking. Then just as we prepared to fly like a plane out the door to get to Primark before 9, the question came…”has anyone got any questions”. 15 hands went up and we stayed untill each of the questions were answered. Getting out approaching 8:45 we realised that the t-shirts wasn’t a good idea and no one had eaten since lunch at 12. If only we didn’t have to wait untill the end of the talk to get the team’s money. Sitting down to lunch we discussed what we could buy so late in the evening. The we discussed what we could do instead. I think my idea of an alternative London sightseeing tour shows the caliber of ideas we had. After the meal we went back to the LSE to use the internet. As we arrived the library was closing and 2 teams came out looking tired and extremely stressed. We learnt later that neither had had an idea at that point. At midnight we had nothing to sell at a carboot sale we were attending in 6 hours. As we trawled the internet for wholesalers which we could buy stuff from in the morning and our friends to offer inspiration. Face painting became the only option which didn’t break the rules. Only trouble was non of us had done it before and our art skills weren’t very impressive. As the clock approached 1am we decided to retire hoping inspiration would come to us in our dreams.

The morning came and unless the gods were telling me Britney Spears held the answer, our dreams turned up nothing. We had a plan of action but nothing firmly set in place. We met in the canteen and Ricky (our shaparone for the day) looked at me with a puzzled face and he proceeeded to look for each member of our team. He looked confused, obviously expecting to only find 3 of us there. I shouted over “change of plan”.

Outside we met the other teams. Some with no idea and some who would obviously do well. I spoke the the Cambridge team. Surprisingly it wasn’t untill the morning that they found inspiration. If they struggled what hope did the rest of us have. I followed their response buy offering our services for 3 hours, then i asked the other teams. Our Hungarian friends all agreed that by investing in us they would help a team they liked to win. They nearly sold on the idea untill a last minute change of heart. I think the idea of being the team to lose all their money was too much of a blow to their pride. So we walked towards the station to approach Oxford St to offer the big name stores the services of “Worcester Promotions”.

Arriving at Russel sq station a sudden change of mind was us herading towards covent garden with the hope of succuring a market stall, to no avail. Although the market manager offered us good advice on where we could go and what we could sell. Back on the tube and straight to Aldgate East station to find a guy called Toby who could solve our prayers at petticoat lane market. After 20 minutes we found ourselves at the gate to the market. The stalls were empty and our hopes shattered. We approached a guy asking what was going on and we discovered that the market was a sunday market. As we turned away a voice shouted “but there’s a market down the road at Whitechapel. Our voyage continued. Little did we know this would be the turning point of our misfortune.

As we arrived at the market we asked the first stall owner where we could find the market manager. He replied by telling us that there was no market manager today and to walk down asking for Martin the market inspector. Asking what he looked like the man responded “like you but with white hair, a baseball cap and a white beard” to which the whole team had to find funny. We carried on walking asking for Martin. Then some put their hand on my shoulder and pointed out a man in the distance. A man with as much resemblence to me as a dog to a rabbit. We explained our situation to which a regrettably replied “you need a licence for this market, there’s nothing i can do”. He offered some interesting advice on fly pitching and made us all smile. As some of us considered it as a possibility someone had the brainwave…fruit. We buy fruit, repackage it and sell it. So crazy it just could work.

We asked about the price of the fruit and were shocked to discover they were undercutting Tesco dramatically. We worked out that we could put together a fruit bowl for £1.50 and who wouldn’t buy off use for £3? We bought enough stock to make 10 fruit bowls, clingfilmed them and ate lunch. We went on our mission to find a nice apartment block to flog our goods. Before long we had wangled our way into a very nice apartment block with around 60 apartments. We explained our situation and asked customers to pay whatever they thought the fruit was worth. We split with 2 going to one door and 2 to another. Every door which answered bought from us. Within 10 minutes we had already broke even. Then we ran out of apartments. We moved on but it was at least 30 minutes before we found another goldmine.

At 3 o’clock we had sold all our first batch and made some more to take to apartments closer towards our meeting point. Again we found another stylish apartment block and again they sold like hot cakes. We moved to our final apartment block next to where we were meeting at 5. a slightly poorer group of people but more of them. At 4:50 we only had 1 left. We frantically knocked on every door in vain. We made our way back to the hostel and resorted to asking people on the street if they were interested. Finally someone who wanted a mango. We were forced to sell it below cost price but with 5 minutes to spare what else could we do. £46.55 was our final profit figure.

Later that evening the results were announced. Our £46.55 got us to 5th place but we realised how much higher we would have been if only we had the idea earlier. Overall we finished a disapointing 7th out of 10. Every team in the competion we had become friends with so it was impossible to be bitter. We had a good time and we finished smiling. Probably the best way to finish if you didn’t win the money.

Day 3 (challenge 1)- A case study presentation

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on Monday, 25th February 2008

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The first challenge of the day was aimed at helping to give us experience of presenting to venture capitalists. Sadly they didn’t explain this to us untill after we had a very unpleasant presentation.

The challenge was to develop a plan on how supermarkets can reduce waste plastic packaging. A relatively relaxing idea compared to the previous running around. We had 2 hours to complete the presentation

We started by thinking of where supermarkets use packaging and where it can be cut back on. We thought about the reasons why packaging was needed and how much was influenced by the customer. We then continued to create a 4 step plan.

Step one - Ethical points

We develped the idea of creating ethical points on top of general points you would receive at tesco etc. These ethical points would be gained when a more ethical approach was adopted by the customer. Food with less wrapping, resusing plastic bags, buying fairtrade etc. These would then go towards supporting a charity. We also played with the idea of helping different charities depending on what they bought. So for example helping protect sea life when you bought fish.

Step 2 - Bags

We came up with the notion of replacing bags with net bags. cheap to produce and very environmentally friendly. These bags could start by replacing carrier bags and then move on to hold fruit and veg. We suggest the notion of charging for plastic bags and using this money to make net bags free

Step 3 - Packaging

Here we felt was the strongest point of our plan. The introduction of a scale, such as the one to tell you how much salt and fat is in your food, but to instead tell you how environmentally friendly the products packaging is. This we felt would stop customer ignorance and also force producers to take more action for their food.

Step 4 - Influencing suppliers

As we know supermarkets have a lot of control over suppliers. This could then be used to require suppliers to adopt the above scale and to also increase their use of biodegradable packaging.

Obviously the plamn was a bit more detailed but this was the jist of it.

We had to submit the presentation by email so we couldn’t change anything. We then had an hour to practice our presentation. A luxury that earlier teams didn’t have.

Walking into the board room we had no idea what was instore for us. Our slides already to go we had to present from the second we walked in the room. Something we were not aware of. An instant way to look disorganised and make you nervous about the presentation. Today i definetely learnt why so many people struggle on Dragons Den. They’re not unprepared just forced to be uncomfortable. With my mind instantly confused i stubbled slightly on our introduction. Then a video we planned on playing didn’t load. Something your just competely unprepared for. This then made me rush to move the presentation on and made me forget a section of speach i wanted to use. Although i managed to work it in later, the optimum efffect was lost. Several slides later and it was over. The end line “have you got any questions” couldn’t have come soon enough. We thought. Then came the unimpressed look, 30 seconds silence and the first question. We got asked the same question 3 times but in a different way. I kepting thinking what is it that you want us to say, we’ve already given you the answer. The last question they asked was about the suppliers. We all looked at each other. I eventually answered it and by the smile on the judges face as they knew they couldn’t come back made me know it was a good way to end the challenge.

Outside we spoke to other teams and it became clear that everyone had had a bad time in there. The instant start and asking the same questions proving a common theme amongst the presentations. Hearing others ideas we thought we had done well. Esspecially after hearing cambridge’s idea of throwing science at them and what sounds like the creation of a new plastic. Something that wouldn’t surprise me from the boy wonders.

A dissapointing and unexpected 5th for the challenge.

Day 2 - Marketing Challenge

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on Friday, 22nd February 2008

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Today was hard. Unlike last year where we had to present a marketing campaign, this year we had to present it and execute it.

The company we had to do the campaign for was www.uuni.com. An alternate to facebook where you can win competions and all of the freatures of facebook which annoy people are removed. Our challenge was to get as many students as possible to join. Straight away we decided to contact as many students we knew as possible. Then we managed to get a stall on the main road of LSE. Narrowly beating the Hungarian team who obviously had the same idea. In Hindsight this was out first mistake. It wasn’t successful and didn’t show huge creative thinking. We knew this wouldn’t be enough to impress the judges. So some of us focused on internet marketing and getting the message to as many people as possible while i went to local businesses to claim free stuff to raffle off to all who joined on our stand. One of our defining factors. The use of free publicity on student radio and in a free paper is something that impressed our judge.

We saw many of the other teams throughout the day and again it became increasingly obvious that many people had the same ideas. Again at this point i regret not reacting to the competion. The simplist rule of marketing and it was ignored.

The presentation stage Our presentation went well considering. However every team we didn’t want to be against, we were against Cambridge and both Bath teams. While the other group had teams which we knew had done badly.

When the scores were announced we were placed at 7th out of 10. Only the results of the signup count on friday can help us now. Then we got to see the top 2 presentations. Cambridge and Birmingham. Birmgingham was first. A very similar campaign to ours but used free food. Obvious but effective. We couldn’t help but feel saddened that an idea as similar as ours could get someone to the final while we stayed in 7th place. Then Cambridge presented. Oh dear. Their youtube advertising campaign was the obvious winner offering professionalism and showing best understanding of the company. What they did on 6 hours was unbelieable and every team was in awe. I would love to hate them right now but they are just too nice. I can’t think of a nicer team to win.

So this has left us in 4th place overall. The close race could bring us back to third or possibly even 2nd if we have signed up the most people. Looking at the signups of home universities it isn’t looking too unlikely either. But many more people need to join under our name.

Lets hope that the next challenge brings prosperity and a happier team.

Shropshire Business Expo

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on Friday, 22nd February 2008

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On the 9th April, Northwick Events are hosting the Shropshire Business Expo - a fantastic opportunity to network with other small businesses.

We’re looking to put together a group of people who are interested in attending this event - if this sounds like the sort of thing you’d be interested in, let us know.

Help Worcester Win EPIC

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on Thursday, 21st February 2008

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Do you want to do your bit to help Worcester win EPIC? Well now you can! The teams have to try and get as many referrals on a website as they can - this is where you come in.

To help, visit: http://www.uuni.com/ - click on register, and sign-up using your university email address. At the bottom of the page it will ask you to choose which EPIC team refered you to the site, make sure you select University of Worcester. Then just log in to your university email account, confirm the registration by clicking on the link, and you’re done.

It’s very important you follow all the steps above, or your registration will not be counted - so head over to http://www.uuni.com/ as soon as you can, and help Worcester win! You’ve got until the 23rd Feb, so get to it!

Thank you

Day one -Negotiation

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on Wednesday, 20th February 2008

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After a very short nights sleep we awoke to the start of our first day here in London. We received our challenge the night before which gave us some careful planning time.

The challenge was fairly straight forward. There are 10 teams, 10 bundles and we all had to bid for each bundle. If you failed to beat anyone elses bid you were given the reserve price for the final bundle. This was the bare minimum that the organisers thought it could be done in. We researched each item in the hour deliberation time we had this morning and decided on what we thought we could easily get and what we thought would be impossible. Sadly we didn’t win any of the top 3 bundles we wanted. However we didn’t win any of the worst either.

Our list consisted of several items. 2 x Champagne, 100 paperclips, 300g box of chocolates, 4 winners medals, 30 different postcards, 250g Jammie Dodgers and 60 “magenta” napkins. A common colour in our challenges but easier for us to find then 4 magenta ties, something another team struggled with. The paperclips were our first find (for free) and then the day progressed with us collecting the napkins and chocolates for free. Our biggest struggle was the champagne and also the last item we got.

Towards the end of the challenges we found ourselves split 2,1,1 as we raced to collect the remaning items. As i arrived out of breathe and extremely tired to our final rendezvous point at 4:03 (already incurring a penalty of 3 points for the 3 minutes i was late), i was mortified to see that the rest of the team hadn’t made it back at all. As i waited patiently Ida and Phill came dashing around the corner followed sometime later by Rob. We were the last team back and incurred 17 points. I can only remember regretting having sent Rob on a final crusade minutes before we had to return. However without the items he returned we would have undoubtably been worse off. In many ways today he was a saviour.

All sure we had come last when hearing of other teams spoils, our hearts sank knowing that we still had 3 challenges remaining. After a quick change of attire we arrived for a lecture with the Boston Consulting Group and then followed dinner at the Old Dutch which provided a strange combinations of foods all wrapped on a pancake and served with milkshake. Then came the scores. Our hearts were in our mouths as we heard the first name read out…Budapest. Each announcement we egerly awaited, a smile growing bigger as we became further and further away from failure eventually finishing a close 3rd. We were later taken aside and told that we would have been second if it wasn’t for the time delay but thats something completely unavoidable and to be honest, we were glad just not being the first names read out.

All in all a good start to the day. A big thank you to everyone who helped with suggestions. And in true apprentice style…the challenge has begun!

Paul

EPIC 2008 Starts Tomorrow

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on Monday, 18th February 2008

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Lets all be sure to wish our team entering the EPIC 208 competition tomorrow the best of luck - lets hope they bring us home a victory.

EPIC 2008

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on Tuesday, 8th January 2008

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Good news, we’ve been accepted into the final round of this year’s EPOCH challenge, now known as EPIC.

The challenge will be taking place from the 19th until the 23rd of February.

Minutes 4th April 2007

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