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6th Form Dragons

The staff Conference Room was turned into a “Dragons Den” this week.  Y10 Business Studies students split into 5 groups to design a product, consider marketing and target audience and then present their proposal to the 6th Form Business Studies group.

The Y13 Dragons took their role seriously as an ominous panel of potential investors.  The Y10s had the difficult task of presenting their idea to the older students and trying to convince the Dragons to part with their monopoly money.

The first group came up with a children’s toothpaste that glowed.  The group had researched other toothpaste companies to test the competition and estimated a reasonable profit of £90,000.   The Dragons were longing to criticise and some hard questioning about sales figures began before they offered some advice on copyright.

The second group designed a mobile toaster running from batteries.  The Dragons queried the group on rrp and profit return and the Y10s followed this up with some negotiation on the share of the profits.

Group three put forward a state of the art combined TV and PS3.  They had considered incentive marketing, manufacturing costs and estimated projected profits.  The Dragons advised the Y10s on price per unit and how to work out long term profits.  Despite some hard questioning all 6 Dragons decided this was worth investment.

Group four set themselves up as an established golf equipment company wanting to expand their line with neon golf balls.  They had optimistically predicted profit in the millions to which the Dragons asked why they would need any funding.  The Y10s quickly replied that although their existing manufacturing was based in China they needed funding to set up facilities in this country.  Three Dragons felt this was worth the risk.

Finally Group five presented Curtain Magic, a remote control curtain rail aimed at care homes and private hospitals.  They had prepared information on material, durability, finish, production, profit, machinery, manufacturing, advertising, pre sale research, future development, environmental impact, turnover and demographic.  Despite this Y13 still managed to suggest some improvements and advised looking at the pricing to increase the margins.  By this time the Dragons had begun to negotiate their own profit margins and added conditions to their investments.  An excellent presentation received 5 investment offers.

Y10s have only been learning the subject since September and managed to display a confident knowledge of terminology and the areas that need to be considered when creating a new product.  Despite some nervous laughter and hesitation all 5 groups worked as a team in their preparation and presentation and gave the Dragons a good run for their money.