Snapshot Brief:

Researchers, Spinout Founders, KE Professionals, and Technology Transfer Staffs can learn how to 'Conduct Customer/Market Identification Analysis' or/and 'Draft a Business Plan for Spinout/Startup idea by attending this Self-Study course at own self-pace learning. This course contains 'easy to understand case scenario examples' and 'intro to basic management frameworks' which will help creating the deliverable outputs as if done by an Expert/Consultant on an innovation consultancy project.

Trainee's Expected Prior Background:

[Essentials]

• Good online search skills or experience (e.g. Google, LinkedIn, and others) to collect relevant info and data for drafting a report or conducting a problem solving exercise.

• Good documentation skills (e.g. MS Word, Excel, PPT) to create a report and presentation chart. 

[Desirables]

• Knowledge of using Management frameworks (e.g. Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition, Value Chain Mapping, SWOT). 

• Experience in conducting LinkedIn search to identity contacts (e.g. person or company or network) 

• Experience of attending industry trade shows 

• Online research to explore market trends and business news. 

• Basic knowledge of preparing the three primary financial statements of a company (i.e. Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement) and Preparing financial statements of a startup company proposal 

Anyone intending to ‘draft a business plan of a spinout/startup idea’ or ‘evaluate the appropriate customer/market segment of an innovative technology/product’ would often miss to conduct appropriate due-diligence exercises on ‘how to identify which specific customer value is of most relevance to the chosen market segment or customer profile’ and ‘how to crosscheck business viability of the proposed commercial product/service based on a realistic estimated number of possible unit sales within a timeframe’. This course will be mainly useful to Innovators/Researchers and Prospective Spinout/Startup Founders who wish to conduct a mock self-exercise of preparing a business plan or business model to introduce an innovative product/service (based on a newly created technology/IP). 

An innovator/founder ought to have the skills and knowledge to identify the relevant market/customer segments (through an early exploratory exercise by self) and to prepare the draft business plan of a future startup/spinout venture by self (if the opportunity of the invention/innovation is found to be huge and new entrants are welcome by the relevant industry segment). By having such skills, they can effectively bridge the 'technology-to-product development' plan onto the next step of the 'product-to-market launch' plan without loosing precious time and effort through 'more re-work or trial & error approach'. Such skills are preferably acquired and adopted by the researcher/founder prior to 'attending any incubator/accelerator programme on the research project or spinout/startup idea', or 'availing support of an external expert/consultant to obtain an independent market research report or a spinout business plan document'. Such an approach is recommended, because the journey of a spinout/startup company or the identification of appropriate customer/market choice for a research/innovative project idea is better started with 'a techno-commercial view and a long-term vision' of the innovator/founder to set the direction of travel right from the beginning. 

A researcher aiming to apply for a large budget grant application or currently undertaking a funded research project often needs to plan the whereabouts of market opportunity and route to impact (incl. commercialisation pathways) on the upcoming research outputs. By possessing the skills to explore 'which market/customer segment may be most appropriate for the expected research outputs' and 'ways of how the end-product to be built based on the expected research outputs may be adopted by the end-users/clients in the future', a researcher can increase the research impact factor from the research work. If a researcher already knows the most appropriate direction of travel for their upcoming research outputs, they can improve the product-customer matching evaluation while they are still undergoing the funded research works.  Moreover, the researcher would be able to align their 'non-technical' project delivery activities conducted during the funded research grant tenure (e.g. 'attending trade shows, conducting research outputs dissemination events, engaging clients/customers, partnering with funders and collaborators') to the ongoing relevant industrial trends.

Also, this course would be found useful to 'KE Professionals, Research Support and Technology Transfer Staffs', if they are responsible for drafting a business plan or prepare a market analysis report. 

What You’ll Learn From This Course

• Exploring relevant market landscape and understanding customer values – Context

• Identifying a workable business model and drafting a business plan – Implementation

Certification

All attendees will be provided an acknowledgement certificate (PDF copy) of having completed the training course.