A Taste of the Real World of Business

16 November 2009elizabeth.wolfe

by Savannah S

On Monday November 9th, the 6th annual Project Innovation competition came to a close. The competition consisted of seven groups of students all of whom had planned, managed and run a business within the school for a two-week period. Students had to choose a product, a marketing plan, advertise and sell a product to other students within the school. There was a great range of products from noodles to graduation t-shirts for each grade. After the selling period was over, students had to present their company to a panel of judges; each judge had virtual dollars to invest in a company of their choice. The group who received the most investment dollars from the judges was named the winner of Project Innovation. Each judge ruthlessly grilled the student presenting him or her with questions asked in a real business situation. The winner of Most Innovative Project was Rapid Refresh – a group who sold refreshing snacks, such as all natural Popsicles and Power Aide, to the students after their afternoon sports. The group showed true entrepreneurial skills during this project. Bailey L, Caitlin P, Greg W and Victor A got off to a rough start as the group misinterpreted a major guideline of the project and had to restart their business. The group changed their name, product and had to rebrand their name throughout the school. The students rose to the challenge. This group overcame and adapted. A key to their success was the risk taken as they gave credit to a number of their customers and fortunately showed little bad debt by the end of the exercise. The judges also presented an award to the group who earned the most profit over the selling period. Dylan G, Natalie C, Ashley W, Maurghen M and Michaela M made Grad T-Shirts for each grad class at Brentwood. The t-shirts were custom printed with the customer’s choice of name across the back. Project Innovation was a challenging assignment for the entrepreneurship students. This project threw the students into a real life entrepreneurial situation, with the problems, stress and long hours that a professional business person would experience in a normal day. Many lessons were learned the hard way but it gave the students a glimpse of reality. Project Innovation is the stepping stone for the student’s major assignment which involves the start up of a business with a complete business plan to be implemented at the 2010 Brentwood Regatta.

Where Students Choose To Be