Poole College Showcase Judge Affirms Value of the Competitive Experience

It was Peters’ first time judging for this program, and he agreed to provide a few perceptions via an email interview for Poole College’s communications office.

Q: What are your perceptions of the value of this kind of problem-solving experience for the students? and for their future employers?

The value is critical thinking around practical business issues.

Q: A few of the students have said they intend to develop their projects into companies. Any words of advice for our future entrepreneurs?

The students who won were really were good at understanding their target market, the business problem and need of their target market, the competitive landscape and their product/solution’s competitive advantage. They won because they were able to communicate and present these items well to the judges.

As for advice for those going to the next stage with their projects, they will really need to take a close look at how big their market size is and whether they can capture a big enough share to make it worthwhile to pursue. Furthermore, they will need to consider/refine their “go-to-market” strategy. They need to think about how they grab market share and how the competition will react to their success.

Q: Additional comments?

I loved the energy and passion of the students. This really did showcase some very talented students and reinforces why our firm recruits students from NC State’s Poole College of Management.

Photo

Steve Peters, right, reviews documentation for an MBA team’s Product Design and Development Lab project, in which the students created a prototype of an LED headlamp for surgeons, which one of the team members is holding.

Related

Read about the 2011 Leadership and Innovation Showcase winning projects.