Business Idea by Prashast and Kunal

Medical ATM

The idea

Rural areas and some urban areas have a poor medical coverage. This has given rise to superstitious practices for even common medical problems like mild fever or common cold. If easily accessible medicines are provided, the prevalence of such practices can be contained. The idea is to develop machines which are capable of reading debit cards and dispensing medicines. So for common cold, there will be a picture signifying the same. Selection of the icon would dispense a medicine, say D-Cold total. With UID coming, the accounts can be linked and specific drugs (prescribed ones) can be integrated.

Why would it work?

1.       Precedent: ATM(money) have almost rendered withdrawal from banks almost extinct. IF medical ATMs are present in vicinity, need for medical stores would be limited to providing prescribed drugs only.

2.       Need: Many rural areas do not have any medical stores. Even with medical stores, they do not have trained personnel and hence, dispense of incorrect medication is a continuous risk. Technology could remove, or at least reduce this risk.

3.       Low Cost: Setting up a medical ATM would involve lesser space and man-power, thereby, saving cost of operations.

4.       Outreach: From government’s perspective, it’s easier to set up a medical ATM than a medical store. While medical store would still be relevant for specialized operations, medical ATMs can support operations.

5.       Availability: Most medical stores close late night. Medical ATMs can be used to cater to the demand late night.

What are the risks?

1.       Security: Security would be a concern. Therefore, only relatively inexpensive medicines and specially packaged medicines should be used to disincentivize resale.

2.       Possible misuse: Expired medicines and inappropriate drugs need to be takne care of. This can be done by creating awareness about which medicines to be used for what symptoms and monitoring expiry dates for all relevant medicines.

An idea by –

1.       Kunal Khilar

2.       Prashast Srivastava

Project Synopsis-Connect Smart

Team members: Alix Fanneau, Sumit Saurav, Amit Bhasin, Dushvanth Kumar, Nafis Ahsan, Nupur Gupta

Business Concept

The idea is to provide quick connectivity and advertising/ promotion solutions to various retailers and corporate professionals through QR codes technology. The aim is to revolutionize the print advertisement- landscape by drastically increasing customer engagement by providing a unique and easy purchasing environment to every mobile phone user.

Target Customers

The target customers include:

·         Retailers who advertise about their products and brands in the print media (newspapers, magazines, flyers, billboards etc)

·         Corporate Professionals who frequently share Business Contact Cards

Market Opportunity

The print advertising contributes almost 50% in revenues to the advertising industry[1]. However, the newspapers and other print media are facing a great threat from the rise of Internet, falling circulation and readership, and a long term decline in the advertising revenues in the developed countries where the internet usage is high. With internet penetration still in its nascent, yet growing phase in India, there is a lot of potential for the print media to move from their characteristic ‘offline mode’ to ‘online mode’ before it starts losing its advertising revenue to the online advertising.

Presently the retailers in India use the following mass media advertising options:

1. Print advertising including newspapers and magazines          : 48%

2. Television advertising                                                          : 41%

3. Radio advertising                                                                : 3.2%

4. Out-of-home advertising                                                      : 6.4%

5. Online advertising                                                               : 1.4%*

*The % share refers to the percentage share in the advertising revenues in 2007 of the particular option.

Additionally, the paper visiting cards available in the market allow only manual sharing of information on paper with no integration with mobile phones at all. Corporate Professionals who share their business cards frequently require hassle free sharing, storage and editing of contact information.

Technology Used

Quick Response (QR) codes: QR code is a matrix code that contains coded information like binary or alphanumeric symbols. QR codes are scanable by smart phones and can be used for tracking, entertainment or accessing websites and making purchases. QR codes are preferred due to its readability and large storage capacity. The technology is currently popular in Korea, Japan & the UK.

Solution

Retailers

Unique QR codes will be placed in each advertisement in newspapers, magazines and other print advertisements like in transport infrastructure- bus, train, metro etc. When a customer sees the advertisement, (s)he can quickly scan the QR code with the help of the mobile phone camera and a free application, and (s)he will be directed to the link containing additional information about the product/ brand including payment options for quick purchase using mobile web browser.

Corporate Professionals

Visiting cards will contain personal information as in the traditional way. In addition, the card will have a QR code which when scanned  will convert itself into a fully fledged contact page on the smart phone replete with Photograph, Phone no., Email address, website,  Facebook, company profile etc. These details will be stored on dedicated servers and the data will be pulled by freely available QR code reader smart phone applications. The storage on the server will allow the user to change his contact details only on the website which will be reflected across all smart phones that have prior read the QR code.

Competitive Advantage

Retailers:

1. Retailers/ advertisers can track which advertisement and/or medium of advertisement is giving them the highest ROI (Return on Advertising Investment)
2. Customers have the option of instantly checking out the product without the need to physically go to the store or search on the internet lowering the search cost to a minimum
3. Increase the customer royalty by drastically improving engagement by providing the option of purchasing in a mobile environment

Corporate Professionals:

1. Allows professionals to conveniently customize their visiting cards through online medium
2. Allows formation of multiple profiles eg. Personal, Professional, Hybrid
3. Ease of dissemination with single scan
4. No hassles in case of change in phone no. and/ or address

Additionally, the first mover advantage will play an important role as if a retail chain has invested in the technology from our firm and integrated the same with its online advertising portal, it would not like to switch to a competitor even at a lower cost.

Financials- Cost/ Revenue Model

Sources of Cost	-Customer Acquisition cost (Retail Stores like Reliance, Shoppers Stop, Spencers, Lifestyle) -Setting up of Central Web Server Cost -Database Management Cost -Web Portal Development and related team -Printing costs associated with Business Contact Cards
Sources of Revenues	-Revenues in proportion to the conversion rates from print to online media and further proportional to the final purchase -Customer service cost charges to the retailers -Revenues from Corporate Professionals for customized contact cards

Roll Out Plan

The business solution will be rolled out in tier1 cities initially with aggressive B2B marketing to the retail chain owners through mass media advertising like Television and newspapers and direct marketing to catch attention. The retail chain owners will also be suggested to offer QR code advertisements in tier 1 cities and monitor results on a pilot basis. Once we gain their confidence in the business solution, then it will be easier to gain more customers.

Contingency Plan

To ensure sustainability of the business in the long run and differentiation from the players entering with similar value proposition, we would like to offer new innovative solutions to the companies and professionals to stay ahead in the league. As the business will expand, we can offer new solutions to our existing customers and additionally add new ones to the customer base.

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[1] FICCI and PWC (2008); The Indian Entertainment  and Media Industry: Sustaining Growth’.

Making a knowledge and innovation based operational model for “India ka Idea Pvt. Ltd"

For our business plan/project, we plan to work on ‘India ka Idea Pvt. Ltd.’ which is a JV between NIF and Future Group. This new company aims to generate knowledge and innovation based model for exploiting global and domestic opportunities for green grassroots innovations sourced through Honey Bee Network for improving quality of life, generating extremely affordable solutions and sustaining the creative spirit among the masses.

Since one team member, Kitty, has already gone through the stages of making the company draft and meeting the senior executives in order to obtain their insights and opinions, we want to take the company forward by now figuring out how the working can be based on a model that defines creativity, innovation and flexibility at each stage of the value chain and in every activity undertaken. At the same time, the model would also reflect how unique yet convincing contracts can be created with various stakeholders through upholding our values that each step must reinforce the synchrony amongst vichar( ideas), vyavahar( practice) and sanskar( norms and values).

Hence our business ideas/project will be firmly grounded in reality and if implemented, will give form to the operational model of the company. For this, we would ensure that there is creative tension between performance-based profit and purpose-based passion. Our endeavour would also require us to study the value chains and business models of various creative and innovative organisations around the world to see whether we can adapt any activity to the company’s context.




By: Gaurav Singhal & Kitty Agarwal

SMART CONNECT SOLUTIONS

Business Concept

The idea is to provide quick connectivity and advertising/ promotion solutions to various retailers and corporate professionals through QR codes technology. The aim is to revolutionize the print advertisement- landscape by drastically increasing customer engagement by providing a unique and easy purchasing environment to every mobile phone user.

Target Customers

The target customers include:

1. Retailers who advertise about their products and brands in the print media (newspapers, magazines, flyers, billboards etc)
2. Corporate Professionals who frequently share Business Contact Cards

Market Opportunity
The print advertising contributes almost 50% in revenues to the advertising industry. However, the newspapers and other print media are facing a great threat from the rise of Internet, falling circulation and readership, and a long term decline in the advertising revenues in the developed countries where the internet usage is high. With internet penetration still in its nascent, yet growing phase in India, there is a lot of potential for the print media to move from their characteristic ‘offline mode’ to ‘online mode’ before it starts losing its advertising revenue to the online advertising.

Presently the retailers in India use the following mass media advertising options:
1. Print advertising including newspapers and magazines    : 48%

2. Television advertising                                                            : 41%

3. Radio advertising                                                                   : 3.2%

4. Out-of-home advertising                                                        : 6.4%
5. Online advertising                                                                  : 1.4

Additionally, the paper visiting cards available in the market allow only manual sharing of information on paper with no integration with mobile phones at all. Corporate Professionals who share their business cards frequently require hassle free sharing, storage and editing of contact information.

Technology Used

Quick Response (QR) codes: QR code is a matrix code that contains coded information like binary or alphanumeric symbols. QR codes are scanable by smart phones and can be used for tracking, entertainment or accessing websites and making purchases. QR codes are preferred due to its readability and large storage capacity. The technology is currently popular in Korea, Japan & the UK.

Solution

Retailers

Unique QR codes will be placed in each advertisement in newspapers, magazines and other print advertisements like in transport infrastructure- bus, train, metro etc. When a customer sees the advertisement, (s)he can quickly scan the QR code with the help of the mobile phone camera and a free application, and (s)he will be directed to the link containing additional information about the product/ brand including payment options for quick purchase using mobile web browser.

Corporate Professionals

Visiting cards will contain personal information as in the traditional way. In addition, the card will have a QR code which when scanned  will convert itself into a fully fledged contact page on the smart phone replete with Photograph, Phone no., Email address, website,  Facebook, company profile etc. These details will be stored on dedicated servers and the data will be pulled by freely available QR code reader smart phone applications. The storage on the server will allow the user to change his contact details only on the website which will be reflected across all smart phones that have prior read the QR code.

Competitive Advantage

Retailers:

1. Retailers/ advertisers can track which advertisement and/or medium of advertisement is giving them the highest ROI (Return on Advertising Investment)
2. Customers have the option of instantly checking out the product without the need to physically go to the store or search on the internet lowering the search cost to a minimum
3. Increase the customer royalty by drastically improving engagement by providing the option of purchasing in a mobile environment

Corporate Professionals:

1. Allows professionals to conveniently customize their visiting cards through online medium
2. Allows formation of multiple profiles eg. Personal, Professional, Hybrid
3. Ease of dissemination with single scan
4. No hassles in case of change in phone no. and/ or address

Additionally, the first mover advantage will play an important role as if a retail chain has invested in the technology from our firm and integrated the same with its online advertising portal, it would not like to switch to a competitor even at a lower cost.

Customized Energy Powder

Customized Energy Powder

Germany is one of the biggest energy drink markets. Energy drinks are consumed for various reasons, e.g. as a brain booster for studying or before sports in order to increase performance. The market leader is Red Bull. However, not everybody likes its taste. Furthermore, most of Red Bull’s content is drinking water. In Germany, tab water is perfectly drinkable.

Our idea is to let customers create their own energy powder via our website. Combined with tab water this provides a drinkable energy drink. With our idea we overcome the mentioned drawbacks of taste and health. Customers can create an individualized energy powder based on the following three pillars:

- Energy booster (e.g. bio guarana)
- Vitamin booster
- Flavor booster (e.g. bio effervescent powder)

Additionally it is more convenient because the powder contains all desirable ingredients of an energy drink without water. This is an advantage because the customer does not have to carry as much and it saves warehousing and logistics costs due to its comparably lower volume and weight.
Our intention is to place this as a healthy and convenient lifestyle alternative to established energy drinks. Thereby we respond to the following mega trends in our society: convenience and individualization. A quick market check has shown that this service does not exist so far.

Exciting Dining Experience with lots of surprises

Business Idea:

Setting up a exciting dining experience for fun-loving people which will have a lot of surprises in store for our customers

Synopsis:

·         The idea is to generate excitement among the people so that people look forward to the whole process of eating out with renewed excitement and vigour and make their waiting time fun and thrilling by bringing in puzzles, games, quizzes based on themes/general knowledge/occasions (e.g. Republic Day, a Festival, A quiz about Ahmedabad etc.).

·         Our main aim is to keep the audience guessing at each level as we plan to have different activities on different days so the novel factor and curiosity about the events of the day is maintained.

·         As we are planning it for only a dinner-time event, this can also be catered at providing a relaxation tool for the people to wind off after a long day at work – be it in the office or at home or elsewhere.

·         This is being mainly targeted in the big cities where we can be able to garner the affluent customers as our idea is to provide good quality and variety of food with lots of entertainment thrown in.

·         The element of surprise for the customers would come at multiple levels based on the customers themselves. We do not want to implement a ‘no-surprise at any level’ scheme as ultimately, our USP is going to be the surprise we offer to the customer.

·         The first level of surprise can be in the food segment a customer would like to eat in (e.g. – Veg Chinese, Non-Veg Chinese, South Indian etc.) which can be decided on how a customer fares on the different puzzles/games/quizzes posed in front of him.

·         For example, a customer can be asked to list his preferences and based on how he fares (e.g. - Number of questions answered correctly decides whether he gets his first preference or second or third preference or time required to solve a puzzle determines which preference of his will be selected for his final meals), he gets the food segment from which he can order/receive the dishes. However, the surprise remains as he would not be told the segment he would be getting the meal from i.e. the results are not declared to him

·         What this takes care of is if a person has limited choices/preferences and wants to play around with them. The surprise is lower, but that element of surprise would still be present.

·         Alternately, this can be based on rolling a dice/roulette or by just choosing a number, in which case the preference will be on our choice. This can be done for those specific customers that are completely indifferent to the choice of food but are only looking at the surprise factor in the choice of a good, tasty meal that they expect.

·         For customers who have come with only a specific preference in mind, we have only one level of surprise in the specific dish that a person gets within that preference. For those who had a preference earlier, this is a multiple level of surprise that can be ascertained by a new, different activity.

·         The price differential between items in different food segments will not be much and will be comparable to high-end restaurants so that a customer ultimately expects a given price range. The difference may only be in the Vegetarian and Non-vegetarian options, not in the different segments that constitute the preference of an individual.

·         Finally, there can be also a surprise in the final price of the food as a customer may get a discount if he/she has done exceedingly well in the activities that were given to the person.