Course   overview

This course focused on developing skill and understanding into what entrepreneurship consists of. Being an entrepreneur doesn't mean you start a small business or a local store-- it means you're willing to innovate, try new things, and make the existing world better through the solutions you bring to the table. Entrepreneurship is creative displacement, and inherently involves uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk. Entrepreneurship consists of innovation and creativity to work, but that also depends on not only who you have at the table and what ideas they can come up with, but also the execution ability of any of the members of your team.  This class showed you don't have to be a startup founder to be entrepreneurial-- entrepreneurial thinking shows up in both established companies (when firms are trying to develop new products or services) and new ventures.

Our class project involved applying the skills we learned to a unique group we were all familiar with: travelers. Our task was to come up with a product or service that answered a need we found. More details about this project are below.

I-Mod   development

The first 6 weeks of the class, we were sent into the world to go and observe travelers in their natural habitat, and then develop product ideas based off those insights.

We realized quickly from our 69 observations while in airports that traveling with children, particularly those from the ages of 2-7, was especially difficult.

So, we prototyped with the kids we had access to (as some of our teammates had children or nieces/nephews) and saw how they responded to some of our ideas for games/activities/seat hacks to make it more comfortable. The idea we decided on after the prototype phase was to create a service to tire children out pre-flight so that they're ready to sleep onboard the plane. A happier child means happier passengers.

We then mapped out a design story and realized that creating a supervised play space in an airport terminal is something that no one else has created, and creates value as it allows for parents to relax while children play in a safe environment.

E-Mod   Development

Porter's Five Forces Analysis:
Our analysis process showed that despite an attractive market, our concept had a fairly unattractive industry. We knew going in that our team would have skill gaps, and so we set out to hypothetically fix them. Additionally, there was a lack of unique intellectual property, which wasn't clear if that would help or hinder our business advantage.

Micro-Market Assessment: 
  • ​Enter the market at Atlanta International (ATL) to test assumptions
  • ATL sees the most travelers in the US and is the 10th worst for layovers
  • Value proposition: Entertain your kids while waiting for your flight with a unique experience that will continue through the rest of your family's journey.
  • Alternatives to our concept: small unsupervised play areas, activity kits from other retailers, passengers may bring their own set of activity kits from home
  • $15.3M target market ($20/visit/family if 50% of families use service)
Macro-Market Assessment:
  • Top 20 airports in the US account for 53% of all passengers
  • 4% of all travelers through these airports satisfy our criteria
  • $255M in revenue across the US
  • Good outlooks for both short term and long term growth
  • Top factors that influence market: living standards, population and demographics around the airport, and the cost of air travel
    • Factor that may be especially important: 80% of millenials in 2015, which, either have kids or may have kids in our interested age range, spent on experiences rather than material goods-- so our service might be able to capitalize on this trend
Macro-Industry Assessment:
  • Retail Services Industry is highly competitive
  • However airport retail caters to a captive audience
  • Customer drives bargaining power through disposable income and demand
  • Fairly easy to substitute our value through play structures, JetBlue's free Soar with Reading program, and various goods and food available in terminal
Micro-Industry Assessment:
  • Not many proprietary elements (may have opportunities in cleaning methodology, communication features, or layout organization)
  • Competitive advantage would be to develop reputation and trust with parents
  • Could leverage partnerships with open communication and membership programs
Team Assessment:
  • Team is fairly weak in the airport business regulation side and the retail management side, we would need to hire additional folks to fill that gap
Overall Assessment:
  • Attractive market, unattractive industry, skills gap
  • Not going to pursue opportunity at this moment
Feedback from the class (of ideas we could pursue):
  • Have Mattel/Hasbro sponsor a supervised play area in the airport
  • Tie in our concept with existing airport perks, such as mileage perks or lounges