The Renaissance Innovation Method: MBA Class

THE RENAISSANCE INNOVATION METHOD
IDEA GENERATION
IDEASCALE SYSTEM
OPPORTUNITIES
MULTI-VOTE
BUSINESS MODELS
MULTI-VOTE
PREDICTION MARKET
DATA COLLECTION BUSINESS CASE & POA
EXPERIMENTATION SIMULATED CAPITAL
MARKET

INDEPENDENT
PROJECTS

P4-P5
EXIT BY JANUARY,
2013

TUESDAY 8TH FRIDAY 11TH
JANUARY, 2011 FEBRUARY, 2011
SESSION #12+13 SESSION #15+16
THURSDAY 27TH
JANUARY, 2011
THURSDAY, 20TH SESSION #8+9
JANUARY, 2011
SESSION #5+6
8TH – 13TH 14TH – 17TH
JANUARY, 2011 JANUARY, 2011
SESSION #2-#4

750+ opportunities ~250 Opportunities ~50 Opportunities ~25 Concepts ~12 Experiment Design ~12 Business Cases ~0-2 businesses
identified by submitted by pitched by developed by and Reporting by by teams of 4 launched
individuals Individuals individuals teams of 2 teams of 4

COURSE INFORMATION
FOR LATEST INFO: WWW.IDEATOURNAMENTS.COM WARNING
PROFESSOR KARAN GIROTRA Alumni describe this course as a twisted combination of
American Idol, The Apprentice and The Survivor. Outside of
TECHNOLOGY & OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT,
KARAN.GIROTRA@INSEAD.EDU
reality television, this is highly unusual. It is also totally and
ASSISTANT: CONNIE NG completely voluntary, and optional. It is not required for any
degree or major. More alumni feedback is on the next page.
COURSE STRUCTURE
The techniques, tools and approaches followed in the course are
The Renaissance Innovation Method (TRIM) is an experimental
all derived from recent and ongoing research. Like with any alpha
workshop that combines two novel approaches to
product, the course structure and exercises may change during
Innovation/Entrepreneurship: Renaissance Innovation and Idea
the course.
Tournaments. Renaissance Innovation is a novel technique to
identify entrepreneurial opportunities via innovating the business COURSE WORK
models in existing competitive industries. Idea Tournaments is a
process that leverages the wisdom of the crowd for entrepreneurial The context of searching and refining an entrepreneurial idea
opportunity generation, selection and refinement. Taken together, provides many rich problems with which to develop the tools and
these approaches are in contrast to the conventional serendipitous, methods in the course. Thus, all work for this course is focused
solitary process of entrepreneurship and instead provide a on real problems related to advancing the business concepts we
systematic risk-limiting pathway to realizing entrepreneurial will generate. Each exercise will help us refine and help take our
outcomes. business concept to the next stage. There is no "make work“, or
make believe exercises for this course. Of course, real work is
As a class, we will follow these techniques and jointly start one or often much more demanding than make-work, thus participants
more new ventures. We will use the principles of renaissance should budget an exceptional workload from the course.
innovation to generate about 1500 new business opportunities and GRADING
through a variety of selection mechanisms, we will filter and
develop these opportunities until a handful of outstanding business The primary gain from the course is learning a systematic, risk-
concepts remain. Students who have entrepreneurial passions will limiting technique for entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, a grading
be encouraged to take these concepts forward with a team of scheme is mandatory:
classmates in P4/P5. The plan is illustrated on the preceding page. ► Class participation and attendance (25%),
► Simulated Capital Market Performance (10%)
Alumni of this course have gone on to develop multiple successful
businesses and have realized significant financial gains from the ► Individual work. Peer Evaluation (10%) + Professor Evaluation (5%)
ideas generated and developed during this course. ► Group work. Peer Evaluation (30%) + Instructor Evaluation (20%)
THE RENAISSANCE INNOVATION METHOD KARAN GIROTRA INSEAD

REPRESENTATIVE ALUMNI FEEDBACK
Course Objectives
► “I took this to learn about a new way to manage innovation (from business/consulting objective). This was achieved but I also learnt how to
be a better communicator (oral and written), idea generator, team manager, and ultimately discovered deep entrepreneurial desires that I
had no idea I had in me before I did the course. Finally, through the competition I become a lot closer to my classmates, so much more than
any other activity I have done at Insead (academic or otherwise)”

Work Load
► “As hard as you want to make it. Not as bad as ACF but it gets close. To be honest it was a pleasure to work on the pitches and prototypes”

Relevance and Experience
► “I learned quite a bit and think it is imperative to continue this class in the future. It is not an entrepreneurship class, but it touches on a lot
that is relevant for entrepreneurs.”
► “This course has further inspired me to pursue entrepreneurship in my career”

Professor
► “I enjoyed that the professor is sharing his insights fresh from his research activities, and appreciate that the material is still being developed
in part based on the classroom experience.”
► “He conducted a very interested and engaging course in which the students were motivated to present their ideas and listen to other’s ideas.
Everybody was there to learn and have fun in the process.”
► “very effective”, “cogent”, “repetitive”

Download full feedback here.

Disclaimer: Students quoted above are all from class of J’09. Comments are replicated with no editing (except for spelling mistakes)


COURSE STRUCTURE: TOURNAMENT AND CLASS SESSIONS
IDEA GENERATION

IDEASCALE SYSTEM
OPPORTUNITIES
MULTI-VOTE
BUSINESS MODELS
MULTI-VOTE
PREDICTION MARKET
DATA COLLECTION BUSINESS CASE & POA
EXPERIMENTATION SIMULATED CAPITAL
MARKET

INDEPENDENT
PROJECTS

CLASS ACCESS TO ANGEL
INVESTORS
P4-P5
EXIT BY JANUARY,
Idea Generation Selection Refinement 2013

TUESDAY 8TH FRIDAY 11TH
BUSINESS M ODEL PROTOTYPING AND
JANUARY, 2011 FEBRUARY, 2011 TASK
SESSION #15+16
SESSION #12+13EXPERIMENTATION
ANALYSIS
THURSDAY 27TH
PRIORITIZATION
JANUARY, 2011
THURSDAY, 20TH SESSION #8+9
JANUARY, 2011
SESSION #5+6
8TH – 13TH 14TH – 17TH
JANUARY, 2011 JANUARY, 2011
SESSION #2-#4

RENAISSANCE INNOVATION AND INNOVATION TOURNAMENTS IN ORGANIZATIONS

TOURNAMENT EXERCISES

STAGES KEY DELIVERABLES

IDEASCALE SYSTEM • 5 Ideas Selected from 15 or More generated ideas

• 120 second presentation of business opportunity
OPPORTUNITIES • 1 page graphic describing business opportunity.
MULTI-VOTE

BUSINESS MODEL CLARIFICATION • 240 second presentation highlighting why your
MULTI-VOTE opportunity is novel and value creating
PREDICTION MARKET • Naming/Branding/Social Media exercise

• Highlight Key Uncertainties
PROTOTYPING
• Prototype Demo
EXPERIMENTATION
• Experiment Design
• Results from Experiment
Salient elements in a 7 minute presentation

BUSINESS CASE & POA
SIMULATED CAPITAL MARKET • Business Case
• Plan of Action
• Valuation
INDEPENDENT PROJECTS Investor Presentation


COURSE POLICIES- I
CLASS PRESENTATION POLICIES

► You will get as many as 4 opportunities to convince your classmates of the potential of your business idea.
► For each of these opportunities, we will follow a very strict time limit. Please bring your own timer, to help you stay within the
limits.
► You are required to submit powerpoints for these presentations the day before the class. We will integrate these powerpoints into
1 deck and announce a presentation schedule. Any other time you take to setup, will be deducted from your presentation time.
► The classes will be in a standard INSEAD classroom. Take into account the available technology and reliability of INSEAD IT as you
plan your class presentations.
► You bear final responsibility for ensuring the presentation works, and dealing with any unexpected events.
► I will strongly advise to not use proprietary software, animation, etc. in the early rounds of the tournament. In later rounds, when
you have more time for presentation you are encouraged to use videos, role plays, etc.
► Some pointers on making good presentations are provided in Appendix I.

► It is equally important to attend presentations from other participants and give constructive and thoughtful feedback.

OVERFLOW DEMAND- I COULDN’T GET INTO THE CLASS
► If you could not get into the class, you may still attend class sessions, tournament presentations (as long as there is physical space
in the room).
► While in class, you are expected to follow all the same rules as those registered for class- i.e. show up on time, prepare, etc.
► We have limited class time, sufficient only to play the tournament with those registered for the class. This means you can not
participate in the central class experience, the tournament. You will not be able to submit your ideas to Ideascale or in any
further round of the tournament. You will also not be able to get feedback from others.
► I will try to make the class syllabus and readings as public as I can (as long as I don’t receive a violation of copyright notice.)


COURSE POLICIES - II
RESPECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
► The ideas generated and shared are assumed to be the property of those who submit them. The originator may enter any
mutually agreed contract with other team members.
► Of course, basic ethical behavior is assumed.
► These ideas should not be shared outside of the class without the permission of the originator.
► No idea should be replicated within the class.
► In the event of a breach of these rules, disciplinary action under the rules prescribed by INSEAD student policies may be initiated.
► In my experience with similar courses at INSEAD and Wharton– I have not seen any breach of the above expectations;
Nevertheless given the multi-campus structure and no judicial precedence with respect to a course like ours; I can not guarantee
that if these expectations are breached there will be water-tight legal protection.

TEAM FORMATION
► The course starts with individual work, we re-organize in teams of two after session 5+6 and again into teams of four after session 8+9.
► This process is designed to identify the most promising opportunities and to re-allocate our resources to these opportunities.
► If your idea is not eliminated, you will be responsible for finding new members of your team. Put differently, you are now given the right
to integrate more team members to work on your idea. if your idea is eliminated you will need to pair up with a surviving project/team.
► For logistical and class-scheduling reasons all pairs must be formed within the same section. However if you can find a counterpart
from the other section to swap your place, you can change your section to reach the section where your ideal teammates are based.
Inform the secretary of the course swap, and cc me and all concerned students.

► Learning Objective: I understand that some of you may not be able to find your ideal team mates and partners. However, I think the
ability to recruit talent after your idea has been granted more resources, and the ability to become a productive and useful part of a
new startup team are all necessary skills for any aspiring entrepreneur. This team formation exercise will help build these skills. Some
alumni find hiring, working with and managing other individuals to be one of the most useful parts of the course experience.
► Startups have far higher turnover than regular companies and successful leaders in startups work under all circumstances. You are
unlikely to be able to assemble your dream team in your venture. I believe, the course experience is in fact a more pleasant team
situation than at any startup that I have observed.


SESSION OUTLINE: KEY TASKS AND DATES
Detailed descriptions of the tasks, class dates and all readings for each session are available on www.ideatournaments.com.

# Title Prior Preparation Follow up Work
(Before Class) (After Class)
1 Idea Tournaments Course Outline, Prior Business Websites Start thinking of business Ideas
(Th, 6th January) The Bakeoff, Malcolm Gladwell
2 Opportunity Generation I Where do the best ideas come from? Generate 5 Ideas
(Sa, 8th January) Ch-2 from Why Not?; PoBronson, Hotmail
3 Opportunity Generation II Renaissance Innovation Generate 5 more Ideas
(Tu, 11th January) (aka Business Process Inn.) Setup IdeaScale Account
4 Opportunity Generation III Renaissance Innovation Generate a further 5 ideas
(Th, 13th January) Risk Maps Submit best 5 Ideas at Ideascale (24h, 14th Jan)
Evaluate > 100 opportunities (24h, 17th Jan)
5+6 Opportunity Pitches Email graphic and pitch by 17h, 19th Jan. Organize into teams of 2 by 24h, 22nd Jan
(Th, 20th January)
7 Business Model Analysis Better Place
(Tu, 25th January)
8+ 9 Business Model Clarification Powerpoint Slides, 9h 27th Jan Start trading on Prediction Market (ASAP)
(Th, 27th January) Naming work, 9h 27th Jan Organize into teams of 4 (24h 31st Jan)
10 Tournament Design Hypios, Spinbrush, Wisdom of crowds
(Fr, 28th January)
11 Business Experiments How to design experiments 1 pg design of business experiment (24h 3rd Feb)
(Tu, 1st February) Blockbuster case
12+13 Data Presentations Powerpoint slides, 17h 7th Feb Integrate Feedback and start planning for the final
(Tu 8th Feb) stretch.
14 Evaluating Far Horizon Segway Case
Opportunities (Th, 10th Feb)
15+16 Business Case Presentations Prepare Final Investor Presentation Course BBQ/ Party or Drinks (TBA)
(Fr, 11th Feb)


1. IDEA TOURNAMENTS

REQUIRED READING:
1. Course Outline (latest version on the course website,
www.ideatournaments.com)

OPTIONAL READING:
1. TheBakeoff-Gladwell-TNY.pdf

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT (COMPLETED INDIVIDUALLY BEFORE
START OF CLASS):
1. Visit the websites of some ventures that either came out of
this class or were created by alums from the
class (www.terrapass.com, www.smatchy.com,
www.gordiancapital.com, www.pixily.com www.docasap.com,
www.officedrop.com).

2. Start thinking of some good ideas for new businesses for us to
pursue this year. Although you should feel free to consider any
compelling concept, for purposes of the course and for future
plans, the most valuable businesses are those that:
• Serve markets that include 25-35 year-old professionals
(in part so you can "use yourselves" as representative
customers).
• Require relatively limited capital investment to get to a
validated business concept.
• Can be prototyped/demonstrated in some (limited?)
way with a few weeks of effort.


2. OPPORTUNITY GENERATION I
FUN READING:
1. "Where the best and worst ideas come from?", MIT Sloan
Management Review Interview with KG. Contains
synopsis of KG’s research on idea generation. Full paper
available via SSRN
2. "Good Ideas and How to Generate Them?", Chapter 2
from book "Why Not?: How to use everyday Ingenuity to
solve problems Big and Small" by Barry Nalebuff and Ian
Ayres. Buy book at Amazon. (Also available in the course-
pack)
3. "Could anyone have thought up Hotmail?" Book Excerpt
from "The nudist on the late shift" by Po Bronson. Buy
book at Amazon. (Also available in the course-pack)

Sketch from one of Thomas Edison’s lab notebooks.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT (COMPLETED INDIVIDUALLY BEFORE START OF NEXT CLASS):
1. Based on techniques learned in class today, generate *at least* five opportunities for a new business. An opportunity is a novel match
between a customer need and a solution to that need. The novelty arises from identifying latent needs, new solutions or superior
ways of “delivering” the solution to the need. We will use the opportunities generated today to feed the innovation process we
operate in the course. Although you should feel free to consider any compelling concept, recall that for our purposes the most
valuable businesses are those that:
► Serve markets that include 25-35 year-old professionals (in part so you can "use yourselves" as representative customers).
► Require relatively limited capital investment to get to a validated business concept.
► Can be prototyped/demonstrated in some (limited?) way with a few weeks of effort.

2. For each of the opportunities, generate a descriptive title and an exciting 50 word description. The description should identify the
novel element– the need, solution or delivery mechanism and make a strong pitch for the business opportunity. Save titles and
description. You will be required to enter them into a web-based system in a few days.

3. GENERATION II: RENAISSANCE INNOVATION- BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
REQUIRED READING:
1. “Business Process Innovation", Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine,
Forthcoming article in the Harvard Business Review. Alternate Title:
Renaissance Innovation.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT (COMPLETED INDIVIDUALLY BEFORE START OF
NEXT CLASS):
1. Based on techniques learned in class today, generate *at least* five
opportunities for a new business. We will use these opportunities to feed the
innovation process we operate in the course. Although you should feel free to
consider any compelling concept, recall that for our purposes the most valuable
businesses are those that:
► Serve markets that include 25-35 year-old professionals (in part so you
can "use yourselves" as representative customers).
► Require relatively limited capital investment to get to a validated business
concept.
► Can be prototyped/demonstrated in some (limited?) way with a few
weeks of effort.

2. For each of the opportunities, generate a descriptive title and an exciting 50
word description. The description should identify the novel element– the need,
solution or delivery mechanism and make a strong pitch for the business
opportunity. Save titles and description. You will be required to enter them into a
web-based system in a few days.

3. You should have received an email invitation to our web-based high throughput
idea screening system (http://spsd.ideascale.com). Reply to the invitation and
The Coronation of the Virgin 1502-3, by Raphael
setup your Ideascale account. Familiarize yourself with the interface.
Note: Invitations will be sent to your INSEAD account. Only registered
students will receive an invitation.

4. GENERATION III: RENAISSANCE INNOVATION –OPPORTUNISM
FUN READING:
1. TBA

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT (COMPLETED INDIVIDUALLY AFTER CLASS):
1. Based on techniques learned in class today, generate *at least* five opportunities
for a new business. We will use these opportunities to feed the innovation process
we operate in the course. Although you should feel free to consider any
compelling concept, recall that for our purposes the most valuable businesses are
those that:
► Serve markets that include 25-35 year-old professionals (in part so you can
"use yourselves" as representative customers).
► Require relatively limited capital investment to get to a validated business
concept.
► Can be prototyped/demonstrated in some (limited?) way with a few weeks
of effort.

2. For each of the opportunities, generate a descriptive title and an exciting 50 word
description. Save titles and description. You will be required to enter them into a
web-based system in a few days.

3. You have now generated over 15 opportunities. Select the best 5 of these, and
submit at http://spsd.ideascale.com. All Submissions should be completed before
end of the day 14th January (Local Time). Do not rate opportunities now.

4. Sometime after 14th February, visit http://spsd.ideascale.com again and vote on
*at least* 100 different opportunities. You are encouraged to vote on as many
opportunities as possible. All ratings should be completed before the end of day
17th January (Local Time).


5. OPPORTUNITY PITCHES
PROJECT ASSIGNMENT (COMPLETED INDIVIDUALLY BEFORE
START OF CLASS):.
1. Consider the IdeaScale data for the opportunities you identified.
You can access this data by logging back into IdeaScale. Based on
that data, your own beliefs and passions, and any additional
investigation you have done, select one opportunity to pitch to
the group in class today. THIS OPPORTUNITY MUST NOT BE ONE
THAT SOME OTHER CLASSMATE HAS IDENTIFIED, UNLESS YOU
OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM A CLASSMATE TO USE THEIRS. You
are free to choose an entirely new opportunity that was not
identified by any other classmate.

2. Prepare a < 120-second pitch and a single PowerPoint slide for
one opportunity. (The nice thing about a 120-second pitch is that
you can practice it 15 times in just 30 minutes. Please do!). Use
the presentation to convince your classmates that there is a
legitimate, untapped, profitable business opportunity. Typically,
at this stage you need not make a business case, but you just
need to excite the class about the opportunity and your
capabilities. A pitch could be direct advertisement of the
product/service to the class.

STUFF TO HAND IN A DAY BEFORE CLASS:
1. Email to ideatournaments@gmail.com no later than 5 PM Wednesday January 19th, 2011: A single Powerpoint slide (1 page
graphic) describing your opportunity (.pdf, .ppt or .pptx formats only). We will integrate this slide into a single deck for use in
class. (Please make sure to include your name on the slide and your last name in the file name.). PLEASE AVOID ANIMATION.
Make sure your graphic is an attractive and appealing. It will be your main advertisement medium (point 2 below). The
Appendix of this outline contains some resources to help you make good business presentations.
There is no need to cc anyone else for any course homework submissions.


5. OPPORTUNITY PITCHES (CONTD.)
CLASS LOGISTICS:
1. Please bring a timer or any other device that will help you
pitch the opportunity to class in 120 seconds. You will have
exactly 120 seconds and at the end of 120 seconds, you will be
forced to stop.

2. At the end of class today, we will stick all one-page
opportunity slides on the walls, and ask the class to vote on
their favorite opportunities. The 24 opportunity-
entrepreneurs that receive the most votes will be selected for
further development.

3. If you are one of these 24 entrepreneurs, you are *required*
to partner with another student registered for this section of
the class. If you absolutely must partner with someone in
another section, one of you will need to *swap* sections with
a corresponding person in another section. Send an email to
ideatournaments@gmail.com no later than end of the day
January 22nd with your new team. If you cant find a partner,
send me an email and I will try my best to find you a partner.

4. If your idea did not make it, you need to partner with
someone whose idea makes it to the next round. If you can’t
find a partner, send me an email and I will try my best to find
you a partner.

5. The working unit from now on is the team and not the idea,
thus you and your team-mate are free to pursue any idea
whatsoever for the next stage. It will be the same after every
elimination round.


7. BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS: BETTER PLACE INC.
FUN READING:
1. Is Better Place Really Better? INSEAD Case. (Download here)

PREPARATION WORK:
1. Visit the website of Better Place, www.betterplace.com and familiarize
yourself with the concept of the business and the hype associated with
the business.
2. Analyze the business model of Better Place. What are the revenue
streams, cost streams and what is the asset velocity?
3. What are the risks in the business model, highlight environment risks,
opportunism risks?
4. What are the key uncertainties in this business model?
5. What should be the valuation of Better Place?

PROJECT WORK:
1. Analyze the business model of your venture. What are the revenue
streams, cost streams and what is the asset velocity?
2. What are the risks in the business model, highlight environment risks,
opportunism risks?
3. What are the key uncertainties and threats to this business model?


8. BUSINESS MODEL CLARIFICATION “Will the dogs eat the dog food?”
- Almost any venture capitalist
HELPFUL READING:
1. Girotra, Karan and Ulrich, Karl T., Empirical Evidence for the Role of the Domain Name Itself in Website Performance (November 25,
2010). INSEAD Working Paper No. 2010/98/TOM. Download from SSRN

PROJECT ASSIGNMENTS (COMPLETED AS A TEAM OF TWO):
1. Business Model Clarification: In the previous elimination round, you identified a business opportunity. In this round, you need to:
1. Clearly identify what makes your opportunity novel. List all potential competitors, incumbents, etc. and highlight what
differentiates your business from them. You can use any of the tools learned in this or other classes, to contrast your business
with the existing business . Possible tools include, SWOT analysis, Business Model Maps, Market Attribute Decomposition,
Risk Maps, and Business Process Sequences.
2. Clearly outline your business model. At a minimum, you must analyze three aspects of the business model:
1. The revenue model (key market segments, size of the segments, the pricing policy in the segments, the willingness to
pay of the customers),
2. The costs model (fixed, direct and indirect costs, per unit-cost at different levels of volume.
3. The customer acquisition strategy (how will you acquire customers, and how much will it cost you to acquire them)
You will have to convince your classmates of these analyses in less than 240 seconds.

2. Naming/Branding Exercise: Identify a name/branding for your business. I need you to come up with a business name and a four
letter ticker symbol, which we will use in our simulated capital market. Naming is a search problem very similar to our search for a
good business idea (recall the metaphor of searching for the deepest point in an ocean). I would suggest that for finding a good
name, you employ the same principles that are behind the idea tournament in our course: a) Generate a large number of ideas b)
select c) refine d) iterate till you have an acceptable solution. I would encourage you to generate as many as 50-100 names and then
sequentially select the winner. Some resources to help you with this:
1. Recent research by KG on what makes for a good name. Referenced above, Download from SSRN
2. Igor Naming guide 15-Igor+Naming+Guide.pdf

(CONTD. ON NEXT PAGE)

8. BUSINESS MODEL CLARIFICATION (CONTD.)
PROJECT ASSIGNMENTS (CONTD.)
3. www.lingzini.com , a website platform to help you generate names for your new businesses. (full disclosure: The
website was created by my co-author, collaborator and mentor, Karl Ulrich)
At this point, you may choose to buy a domain name, construct a wiki site, setup a business blog, establish a
Facebook/Twitter platform. You are encouraged to use social media aggressively as you try to win over the hearts of your
classmates
3. Presentation Practice: Prepare a four minute presentation covering the most salient features of the above analysis on business
concept clarification. Make sure that you consistently use and reinforce your newly created brand.
4. A prediction market will open at the end of the class where you can “invest” in any of these businesses. Picking good ideas can
be almost as valuable as generating new ideas.

STUFF TO HAND IN:
1. Before start of class, email your PowerPoint slides to ideatournaments@gmail.com. Also bring them to class on an USB Disk.
You will have one minute to setup. (Please make sure that you include your names on the slide and your last name in the file
name). Please provide only pdf/ppt/pptx formats. Keep in mind INSEAD IT technologies as you prepare your presentations. You
will be responsible for the conduct of your presentations.
2. Email an excel sheet/text file with all names that you considered for your business, no later than start of the concept pitches
class. Note if you use Lingzini, you can export your lists.

CLASS LOGISTICS:
1. Please bring a timer or any other device that will help you pitch the opportunity to class in 240 seconds. You will have exactly
240 seconds and at the end of 240 seconds, you will be forced to stop.
2. After the pitches by teams of two, we will have a detailed survey covering the business prospects of the presented ideas. Based
on the results of the survey, we will select only half of the projects to go forward. The results of the survey will be announced at
end of the day 29th of January.
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE….


8. BUSINESS MODEL CLARIFICATION (CONTD.)
CLASS LOGISTICS (CONTD.)
4. At the end of class, a prediction market will open that will allow you to bet on the survival of
all 24 businesses. Use the time between end of the class and the announcement of the
results to make some bets in the prediction market and realize some early gains!
5. If you are one of these 12 winning teams, you are *required* to partner with two other
students registered for this section of the class. If you absolutely must partner with a
student in another section, the student must find another person to swap sections with in
the section he/she wants to join. Send an email to ideatournaments@gmail.com no later
than end of the day January 31st with your new team. If you cant find a partner, send me an
email and I will try my best to find you a partner.
6. The working unit from now on is the team and not the idea, thus you and your team are free
to pursue any idea whatsoever for the next stage. It will be the same after every elimination
round.
7. If your idea did not make it, you need to partner with someone whose idea makes it to the
next round. If you can’t find a partner, send me an email and I will try my best to find you a
partner.

ACCESSING THE PREDICTION MARKET:
Visit the prediction market at www.spsdmarket.com . Register for a new account using access code “ideatournaments” . This
market will allow you to buy or sell contracts whose value is contingent on the performance of different business concepts
demonstrated today. Specifically, you will be able to bet on the probability of a company surviving to the round of last 4 . You will
have an initial cash allocation of 50,000 Monetary Units. You can put in buy or sell orders for any of the available contracts. The
contracts will pay out as the tournament progresses. Recall that a significant fraction of the course grade depends on the value of
your portfolio at the conclusion of this market.


10. IDEA TOURNAMENTS: THEORY AND PRACTICE
FUN READING:
1. Hypios INC. INSEAD Case, Karan Girotra and Christian
Terwiesch.
2. BusinessWeek article on P&G-spinbrush
3. Book Review, "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James
Surowiecki
4. IdiocyofCrowds.pdf, David H. Freedman in INC.
Magazine

PREPARATION QUESTIONS/HOMEWORK
1. What would be some of the challenges in running these
idea tournaments in an organization? Should
organizations run these tournaments or not?

Map of the Dusty Mac Gold Mine


11. LIMITING VENTURE RISKS: EXPERIMENTATION ON THE CHEAP
FUN READING
1. How to design smart business experiments? Tom Davenport, Harvard
Business Review, February, 2009.
2. From Blockbuster to Video on Demand, INSEAD Case, (not related to
class, but a fascinating story)

PROJECT WORK:
1. Think of the key uncertainties that your venture faces. Can you design
experiments to test them in some limited way?
2. Design small experiments to test out the key uncertainties. You are
encouraged to develop a prototype of your product and service offering,
ideally a functional prototype; but at the very least a prototype that
enables testing. It is compulsory to get your hands dirty at this stage. This
means you need some real prototyping and data. Arm chair analysis can
lead to disqualification from the tournament.
3. Email to ideatournaments@gmail.com a 1 page summary of your
proposed experiment design no later than end of the day 3 rd Feb.
4. Over the next week, you are required to run some of these experiments
and report on the results of these to convince your classmates of the
viability of your business.
5. Useful Resources
1. Mechanical Turk: Human Intelligence Tasks
2. Google Adwords: Use for evaluating costs of acquiring customers
3. Google Analytics: Use for analyzing customer behavior on websites
4. Rent-a-coder : Outsource software development. Warning: may take more time
than the course permits
5. 99designs.com: Outsource design/branding tasks.


12. PROTOTYPING AND EXPERIMENTATION PRESENTATION
PROJECT WORK
1. Prototype Development: Prepare a proof-of-concept prototype of your
product or service. A prototype could be a webpage, a physical device, or even
a powerpoint presentation. However, it must be developed enough so that
you can do a real-life test of the key uncertainties. For instance if the key
uncertainty arises from the market potential of the product, you must design a
prototype that can enable market testing, i.e. it should give the customer a
"near life experience" with the product or service.
2. Experimentation and Limiting Risk: Use your prototype to obtain some real-life data on the key uncertainties in your business. For
instance- if you think the key innovation/uncertainty is in the market addressed, then you may do a rigorous market analysis. Key
questions to answer with rigorous data would be
a) How big is the market for this product?
b) What are the costs of acquiring customers for this market?
c) What is the average revenue per user from this market?
Note: The uncertainty in your business may be in the technology or the business model, instead of the market. In which case, you will
need to do a different kind of prototype..
3. Prepare a 7-minute presentation highlighting the key uncertainties, then provide a demo for your classmates of your prototype and
finally show us the results from your experimentation.

STUFF TO HAND IN:
1. Email by 5 PM, 7th February, 2009: Any Powerpoint slides you wish to use in class for your prototype presentation (.ppt/.pptx format
only). We will integrate these into a single deck for use in class. (Please make sure to include your names on the slides and your team
name in the file name.) You need not use Powerpoint if, for example, you will do a demo of website, physical prototype, etc. Please
make sure that any weblinks, files, etc. that you may need for your presentation are easily accessible within seconds on the Amphi
computers. You should arrive well in advance of class to set this up. After class starts you will have a maximum of 60 seconds of setup
time and 420 seconds of presentation time.

2. Note that after the prototype presentations, each of you will be able to provide comments to other teams in the session. We will use a
form for that purpose and then cut and distribute them immediately after class. For reference, here is the form I have used
before.... Proto-Feedback-2008.doc

14. PRIORITIZATION AND PLANNING

FUN READING:
1. Vanity Fair article on Segway. 14-segway-vanityfair.pdf
2. Steve jobs talk at Stanford. 14-JobsTalk-Stanford-2005.pdf

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. What did the Segway team do well in creating the Segway
Human Transporter?
2. What concerns do you have about the Segway approach to
innovation?


15. BUSINESS CASE PRESENTATIONS
PROJECT ASSIGNMENT (COMPLETED IN TEAMS OF 4 BEFORE START OF CLASS):
1. Prepare a presentation communicating the results of your team’s work and seeking angel financing for the next phase of
development. (If you don’t expect to need funding, then just pitch the business more generally.) Your presentation must be less
than 10 minutes long to allow for 3 minutes of Q&A.
2. Recommended deliverables for your team (not all of which need to be covered in your 7-minute presentation).
1. market analysis
2. prototype/demo of product/service offering
3. competitive analysis
4. branding and identity
5. articulation of business model
6. plan for next steps
7. valuation (i.e., how much of the venture would be owned by an investor giving you seed capital).

After class today, we will conduct an investor survey. Potential investors include
your classmates and other investors (who may not be physically present). For
reference purposes, here is the raw survey form, that I have used
before: InvestmentSurvey-Fall2008.doc . (Note to SEC Lawayers: This form does
“What a puny plan.”
not represent any binding offer for sale or purchase of securities.) The top 4
businesses based on committed investments will be publicly announced over the - The Humungus in Mad Max: The Road Warrior
next few weeks.

STUFF TO HAND IN:
► Email your final presentation to ideatournaments@gmail.com. Please make sure to include your names on the first slide and your
team name in the file name.


Used with permission from copyright holder, Jessica Hagy, http://indexed.blogspot.com, 2008.


APPENDIX I

INFORMATION DESIGN

INFORMATION DESIGN
HELPFUL READINGS:
1. Chapters 4-6, from the Visual Display
of Quantitative Information by
Edward Tufte (I do recognize the
irony of giving you a bloated, lousy
B&W scan of these pages. You really
should buy the Tufte book.)
2. WIRED_Essays_On_Powerpoint.pdf
Tufte on Minard: Napoleon’s March to Moscow

FURTHER READINGS:
1. Interview with NYT graphics editor, for those really interested in information design.
2. Wikipedia article on Edward R. Tufte: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte
3. Stanford alumni magazine article on Tufte: http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/features/tufte.html
4. The Cognitive style of Powerpoint, Edward Tufte. Download here

STUFF TO CHECK OUT:
1. Pecha-Kucha ("puh-cotcha") ppt format
2. Dick Hardt's OSCON keynote in the "Lessig Style" (several hundred ppt slides...really)
3. Malcolm Gladwell's TED talk (excellent talk, but without a single ppt slide and lots of "ums")
4. Steve and Bill presentation style comparison.
5. Hans Rosling's interesting TED talk using data graphics.
6. Rosling's software now on web as Google Gapminder.
7. Richard Trumka (Secretary-Treasurer of the U.S. labor union AFL/CIO) talk on Obama and race.
(Trumka's talk is an archetypal political speech. Putting aside the specifics of the politics, the speech is undeniably powerful and
unquestionably moved the audience. What are the key elements of his approach? Could this approach be used in a business
presentation?)

INFORMATION DESIGN (CONTD.)

SLIDES FROM OLD CLASS
03-Information Design.pdf

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DESIGN RESOURCES:
1. An excellent example of visual representation of time-events: http://www.askdrmike.com/bestgrf.jpg More info on this
graphic: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters
2. Some examples of competently done graphics:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/02/29/multimedia/PRESENTATION_GRAPHIC001.html
2. http://www.nytimes.com/ref/sports/20070731_BONDS_GRAPHIC.html
3. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/2005_NEWORLEANS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html
4. http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/weekinreview/20070225_MARKEL_GRAPHIC.pdf
5. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/06/opinion/06opchart.large.gif
3. Graphic designers often use different kinds of Graph papers to ideate and brainstorm about their graphics. I am also
trying to use graph paper for all my writing needs. It keeps writing neat and thoughts coherent. You can print custom
graph papers here: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/
4. Check out the graphic of the day section on Edward Tufte’s website http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/newet
5. www.gimp.org : A freeware substitute for Photoshop. When I have to do a data graphic, I typically create some basic
charts from excel (with Tufte principles), and then use them as sub-components of my data-graphic. Gimp is a good
software to put together the different elements: charts from excel, relational diagrams from a drawing software, (I use
PowerPoint’s rudimentary drawing abilities), maps/backgrounds and other visual elements. Also, excel 2007 provides
some cool new charting tools.


The Renaissance Innovation Method: MBA Class

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