Assignment - Assessing the Ruby Cup Business Plan
Please read the business plan of Ruby Cup. What do you feel are its strengths? What do you perceive as its weaknesses?
My answer:
The Ruby Cup team prepared their business plan which had some weaknesses and strengths, but they learned a lot and corrected themselves along the way to take their plan from paper to practice. And, they seem to be successful so far. According to me, following were the strengths and weaknesses in their business plan:
Strengths:
1. Dual market approach - Targeting low-income and high-income markets with different strategies.
2. Donations - They decided not to donate their cups in order to protect their brand and so that women don't feel that it is 'poor people' product.
3. They considered Prahalad's Bottom of Pyramid Theory.
Weaknesses:
1. The team did not consider challenges that they might have to face like Kenyan bureaucracy etc.
2. It might have been more beneficial for them if they had considered working separately on different aspects of the project instead of three working together.
(Note: They later decided to work differently and come together to take major decisions.)
3. They could have planned to keep track of their finances from the beginning.
Peer feedback:
Peer 1 → good job
Peer 2 → Good, but the weaknesses you pointed out do not have much to do with the business plan. More what they did in the past.
Peer 3 → good business planning
Peer 4 → nice answer
Peer 5 → [This area was left blank by the evaluator.]
Effective grade is 3/3.
The Ruby Cup team prepared their business plan which had some weaknesses and strengths, but they learned a lot and corrected themselves along the way to take their plan from paper to practice. And, they seem to be successful so far. According to me, following were the strengths and weaknesses in their business plan:
Strengths:
1. Dual market approach - Targeting low-income and high-income markets with different strategies.
2. Donations - They decided not to donate their cups in order to protect their brand and so that women don't feel that it is 'poor people' product.
3. They considered Prahalad's Bottom of Pyramid Theory.
Weaknesses:
1. The team did not consider challenges that they might have to face like Kenyan bureaucracy etc.
2. It might have been more beneficial for them if they had considered working separately on different aspects of the project instead of three working together.
(Note: They later decided to work differently and come together to take major decisions.)
3. They could have planned to keep track of their finances from the beginning.
Peer feedback:
Peer 1 → good job
Peer 2 → Good, but the weaknesses you pointed out do not have much to do with the business plan. More what they did in the past.
Peer 3 → good business planning
Peer 4 → nice answer
Peer 5 → [This area was left blank by the evaluator.]
Effective grade is 3/3.
This blog post is based on my learnings from the course on ‘social entrepreneurship’ offered by Copenhagen Business School through Coursera (2014).
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