In order to reinforce the lessons taught in Chris Walker’s lectures, we competed in a group task whereby we had to create a business based in biology and make an accompanying promotional video and presentation to pitch the concept.
Our concept
My group consisted of me, Alex Kenney, Daisy Sherrat, Luke O’Sullivan, Amy Hall and Fran Mckenzie-orr and our product was to be a straw which contained at its tip several bands of chemical receptors capable of detecting the presence of different ‘date-rape’ drugs in the user’s drink.
We aimed at the bulk buying method of distribution as it was the best way we felt to confirm sales without it looking suspicious to the person administering the drug.
We had the customer’s safety at heart therefore, as it is far less abnormal or suspicious to use the straws distributed by the establishment in question rather than bringing your own personal straws on nights out.
A secondary consideration was that of the welfare of the environment, and as such, we wanted to make our straws out of paper.
Paper is the best choice of a product such as this as it is biodegradable and other materials like metal would not be able suitable due to the single-use nature of the chemical detectors at the straw’s tip.
Ideally these chemical detectors would produce strong colours that contrast well against the white of the straw and thus be more clearly visible in the darkness of the club/bar.
Another potential sector to be targeted is that of the drink awareness companies like drinkaware.com, who would want to be able to supply our products and then distribute them either privately or again in bulk via their own pre-existing relationships with other businesses.
Thoughts
This task was a good idea in theory, as it got us to get into a business mindset and begin to consider all the assorted relationships and the nitty gritty of business operations.
In practice however, it was not executed very well.
Having a sum total of 3 hours in which to create a concept, a presentation, a promotional video and practice the pitch was simply not long enough.
So, in my opinion there should have been some instruction or requirement to come in with some progress having been made.
Or alternatively, having a full day in which to produce these pieces of work would have been more reasonable a prospect.
Lastly, the option to choose our groups beforehand would have also made the process far more streamlined, as we wasted a lot of time at the beginning of the session just finding seats.
The Future
The specific task was good to get practice to work in groups, but I think the quick-fire business pitch was a bit useless.
There is never a time when it would be so quick and so rushed to get a business out there though so I don’t think this provided any useful experience for my future.
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