Department Marketing and

Entrepreneurship
Fundamentals of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (GEIE-222)

PROJECT II: OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS PROJECT (OAP) - (20%)

Deadline for Submission: Friday, April 11, 2025 @ 11:59pm

SUMMARY

The Opportunity Analysis Project (OAP) allows students to leverage the many
tools that they have learned so far in the course. By end of week 13 each team
will submit a report regarding the OAP. Each team should pick an idea and
determine whether or not their idea is a true opportunity that can be turned
into a scalable enterprise. Students will use the study questions to guide this
project.

Study Questions
 Identify potential opportunities. Combine your own personal experiences
and creativity with external forecasts and trend analysis. How is the world
changing with respect to new technologies? What is the impact of
globalization on current solutions? What new requirements will those
changes produce? Recent media articles on trends are often a good place
to start.
 Define your purpose and objectives. Identify your most promising
opportunity, being careful to discriminate between an interesting
technological idea and a viable market opportunity. Prepare an outline
which will help you to determine what types of data and information you
need to demonstrate the attractiveness of your chosen opportunity.
 Gather data from primary sources. It is crucial for you to obtain data from
primary sources. Potential investors will place more trust in well
conducted primary research than in stacks of data from secondary

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 sources. There is simply no substitute for talking to potential customers
from the target market in order to validate the opportunity you have
identified. Consequently, we prefer that you spend time gathering data
from primary, not just secondary, sources.
 Gather data from secondary sources. Countless secondary sources exist
on the web and in your college’s various library resources. Try not to get
too bogged down in financial and accounting data.
 Analyze and interpret the results. Persuasively summarize your results.

ASSIGNMENT
In your report, you will tell the "story" of your proposed venture by addressing
as much of the following as possible:
A. Concept and Vision. Where did your idea come from (e.g. a university
lab)? Explain what the market opportunity is and how your solution
addresses this. What makes your solution particularly compelling? How
does it make the world a better place? Do you have personal experiences
with this market? Is there existing intellectual property that you must
license or new intellectual property you must develop in order to pursue
this opportunity? Has anyone tried something like this before? If so, why
did they fail or succeed, and why is the opportunity still attractive?
B. Market Analysis. What industry or sector of the economy are you
addressing? Why is this market attractive? What segment of the overall
market are you pursuing? What market research can be done to describe
this market need? What are the total industry or category sales over the
past three years? What is the anticipated growth for this industry? If this is
a new market, what is the best analogous market data that illustrates the
opportunity? Project the potential market size and growth for your
opportunity.
C. Customers and Customer Development. This is extremely important. You
need to have a clear idea of who your target customer is. The only way for
you to be able to do this is to "get out of the building" and speak with your
potential customers. You will need to answer questions such as: What
does the customer need? Why does the customer need it? What is the
customer using today? What is the customer willing to pay for your
solution? Why? How will you reach this customer? You should include
both primary (or first-hand) research and secondary research, emphasizing
primary over secondary.
D. Competition and Positioning. Who else serves this customer need? Who
might attempt to serve this market in the future? What advantages and
weaknesses do these competitors and would-be competitors have? What
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 share of the market do specific competitors serve? Are the major
competitors' sales growing, declining, or steady? What are the barriers to
entry for you? What are the barriers to entry for additional competitors?
How could partners and allies best help you overcome competition from
established enterprises or other startups?
E. Business Model. Now that you have discovered an opportunity and talked
to potential customers, how will you turn it into a business? How will you
make money and when do you expect your venture to be profitable? What
is the major risk to address right away (e.g., market or technical)? In other
words, which hypothesis regarding product or market strategies need to
be tested right away?
F. Learning and Adaptation. What did you learn? And how between the time
you chose the idea and producing the final presentation in Week 14? Is
this idea a true opportunity or not?

The items above have no implied order. Some entrepreneurs start with a well-
defined concept and then try to identify a market for their idea; others start by
studying a market and then stumble upon an idea. Also, please keep in mind that
the specific data and information you provide will vary according to the type of
opportunity you choose to analyze. A key success factor for a successful project is
the depth of your analysis and what you learned from it.

If after careful research you have determined that your business idea is not as
promising as you originally thought, it is completely acceptable to present an OAP
that describes why your idea will not make sense now rather than why it is the
next big thing. An honest and rigorous analysis of an idea that did not survive
further scrutiny is preferable to either (a) a half-baked presentation of an idea
your team is unsure of, or (b) an enthusiastic job of over selling for your current
idea, even though you know it is problematic.

 Test your (OAP) idea by talking to at least ten potential users, customers,
and partners, document these discussions, and share what you learned.

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 ADDITIONAL HINTS AND GUIDELINES ON THE CONTENT AND
STRUCTURE OF THE PROJECT AND REPORT

 1st page - Title page (Name of the University, the Project, Group No.
Presenters’ Names and ID numbers, etc)
 2nd page - Table of contents

1. Background Information

1.1Concept (points to include under this) – present/write each in a

separate line using bullets

 Clarify and describe the concept – the venture you plan

to establish
 Where did your idea come from (e.g. a university lab)?
 Explain what the market opportunity is and how your
solution addresses this.
 What makes your solution particularly compelling?
 How does it make the world a better place?
 Do you have personal experiences with this market?
 Is there existing intellectual property that you must
license or new intellectual property you must develop in
order to pursue this opportunity? Has anyone tried
something like this before?
 If so, why did they fail or succeed, and why is the
opportunity still attractive?

1.2Vision – state the vision of your planned venture

 Vision is a mental image of a possible and desirable future state

of the organization. It refers to the category of intentions that
are broad, all-inclusive and forward-thinking.

 Example – The vision statement of Emirates Airlines is:

o “Maintain international recognition as one of the

leading aviation and security services business in the
world, and set a benchmark within the industry.”

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 1.3Mission – It defines what the company does, who it serves, and
how it serves its clients to realize the vision. It provides clarity
of focus and direction for those in the company and answers the
questions of who the company serves and how.

Example – The mission statement of Emirates Airlines is:

“Commit to safeguarding all customers, staff and

assets against acts of unlawful interference through
continuous reviews, training and education.
Implement internationally established industry
standards and practices, to ensure a safe and secure
environment while facilitating business growth.

1.4Values - Corporate values are a company’s ethical and moral

compass and decision-making foundation. Values are the ideals
and ethics that management holds dear. They tell those in the
company how things are done and those outside the company
why they want to be associated with this company. Corporate
values are high in meaning and lived daily.

Example – Core values of Emirates Airline are

 Excellence
 Agility
 Innovation.
 Leadership.
 Reliability

2. SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A

SWOT analysis is a framework to help assess and understand the internal
and external forces that may create opportunities or risks for an
organization.

2.1Strength - What are your internal strengths that enable you to run your
business well,
2.2Weakness - what are the internal weaknesses you have on which you
need to work on.

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 2.3 Opportunity - What opportunities exist out there/ conducive
environment that you need to utilize to make your business
prosper/succeed?

2.4Threat is something you are afraid of—it can be competition,

Government regulation, culture, etc. or anything unfriendly and what
would be your coping mechanisms or strategies to overcome them

o Watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-NWhwskTO4 – for

more infn.

o For example: SWOT Analysis of Emirates Airlines – refer it

using this link: https://swotandpestleanalysis.com/swot-
analysis-of-emirates-airlines/

3. Market Analysis, Market Size and Type

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3.1Market Analysis – it studies the attractiveness and the dynamics
of a special market within a special industry. It provides
information about industries, customers, competitors, and other
market variables.

o A market analysis is a thorough assessment of a market within a

specific industry:
o Who are my potential customers?
o What are my customers’ buying habits?
o How large is my target market?
o How much are customers willing to pay for my product?
o Who are my main competitors?
o What are my competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?

o Market Analysis - What industry or sector of the economy are

you addressing? Why is this market attractive? What segment
of the overall market are you pursuing? What market research
can be done to describe this market need? What are the total
industry or category sales over the past three years? What is the
anticipated growth for this industry? If this is a new market,
what is the best analogous market data that illustrates the
opportunity? Project the potential market size and growth for
your opportunity.

3.2 Market size refers to the total number of potential customers who
could buy your product or use your service. This number of potential
customers is usually measured over a set period, often over a year.
o It is beneficial to know how many sales you're likely to make
before you launch a new product or service since that can
determine how profitable your business is likely to be.
o It can help you find out whether it's a worthwhile investment or
not. It's useful to use these three quantifiable standards:

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  Units: The total quantity of products and clients in the market (TAM)
 Value: The total value of products or clients in the market
 Market share: The percentage of products sold and clients gained by a
specific organisation

In short, how big is the market (TAM) and what will be your expected
share?

o Opportunity recognition (market analysis)

• Identify a Market Need
• Examine the Competitive Dynamics of the Industry
• Determine the Growth Potential

4. Customer Development

o Customer development is an approach to understand who your

customers are and whether or not the product you create satisfies their
needs.

o It is a four-step framework, originally identified by Steve Blank, to

discover and validate that you have identified a need(s) that
customers have, built the right product to satisfy that customer’s
need(s), tested the correct methods for acquiring and converting
customers, and deployed the right resources in the organization to
meet the demand for the product.

o The framework provides a way to use a scientific approach to

validate assumptions about your product and business. The four steps
are:

4.1Customer discovery first captures the founders’ vision and turns it

into a series of business model hypotheses. Then it develops a plan
to test customer reactions to those hypotheses and turn them into
facts.

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 4.2Customer validation tests whether the resulting business model is
repeatable and scalable. If not, the team returns to customer
discovery.

4.3Customer creation is the beginning of execution. It builds end-user

demand and drives it into the sales channel to scale the business.

4.4Company building transitions the organization from a startup to a

company focused on executing a validated model.
 What your company does at an Early Stage
 And what at its Scalability

NB: What did you actually do to discover, validate, and create your customers and to
build your company?

5. Competition and Positioning

o Competitive positioning is what sets you, your business, product, or

service, apart from the competition. It requires that you identify what
differentiates your business from others and how that provides value
to customers and clients. This information is used to formulate
marketing and branding plans. Essentially, it’s the reason that
potential customers will choose your business over others.
o Positioning – It is the act of designing the product offering and
image to occupy a distinctive place in the target customer's mind,
with a product-market-team fit. Positioning Statement - A written
statement that helps to define the positing of a product by stating the
target customer, need, product category and benefit.

o Template to be used for Positioning Statement:

5.1 Sentence #1 : X Axis : Value to the Customer

For (target customer)
Who (statement of need or opportunity)
The (product of service name) is a (product category)
That (statement of benefit)

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 5.2 Sentence #2 : Y Axis : Uniqueness
Unlike (primary competitive alternative)
Our Product (statement of primary differentiation)
6. Business Model Canvas

o The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a strategic management tool

to quickly and easily define and communicate a business idea or
concept. It is a business tool used to visualise all the building
blocks when you want to start a business, including customers,
route to market, value proposition and finance.

 You have to first use the canvas to precisely address each content of
the pillar.

 Then, you have to explain the BMC blocks in detail using a separate
sub section:

6.1Customer Segments: Who are the customers? What do they

think? See? Feel? Do?

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 6.2Value Propositions: What’s compelling about the proposition?
Why do customers buy, use?

6.3Channels: How are these propositions promoted, sold and

delivered? Why? Is it working?

6.4Customer Relationships: How do you interact with the customer

through their ‘journey’?

6.5Revenue Streams: How does the business earn revenue from the
value propositions?

6.6Key Activities: What uniquely strategic things does the business

do to deliver its proposition?

6.7Key Resources: What unique strategic assets must the business

have to compete?

6.8Key Partnerships: What can the company not do so it can focus

on its Key Activities?

6.9Cost Structure: What are the business’ major cost drivers? How
are they linked to revenue?

7. Risk Analysis and Mitigating Strategies

o When you focus on a company, where can you identify the greatest
risk? Is it around the market, the product, team, or the financing?
7.1Market Risk
7.2Product Risk
7.3Team Risk
7.4Finance/Capital Risk

o In any company, there is a range of issues at play, but what is the

greatest risk and how do you solve it?
o What are your mitigating strategies to minimize the effects of these
risks to your organizational performance?

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 NB: What Product, Market, Capital, and Team risk do you expect to face
and what are your mitigating strategies.
8. Learning and Adaptation

o What did you learn?

o From the time you chose the idea and producing the final
presentation
o Is this idea a true opportunity or not?

9. Individual Pitching

o An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech that you use to spark

interest in what your organization does. This description typically
explains who the thing is for, what it does, why it is needed, and
how it will get done.

o It should include introduction, description of opportunity,

potential benefit of your venture
o You tell the story your startup venture in a concise manner.
o Speak in terms the listeners can understand.
o Focus on one simple message.
o Use concrete images and examples.
o Generate interest and curiosity by exposing gaps in current
solutions and then filling in these gaps thought the new
proposed venture.
o Illicit emotional response from the listeners.

10.References

Report Format
Write the report using Times New Roman font style, 12 font size, double
spacing.

File Name of the Document

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 Use your Group Number followed by your Project Topic. For
Example:
 Section, Group No, Project Title (S51-G1-Project Title)

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 Project Presentation Outline

1. Background Information of the Startup Venture (name it)

1.1Concept
1.2Vision
1.3Mission
1.4Values

2. SWOT Analysis of the Startup Venture (name it)

2.1 Strength
2.2 Weakness
2.3 Opportunity
2.4. Threat

3. Market Analysis, Market Size and Type of the Startup Venture

(name it)
3.1 Market Analysis
3.2 Market Size
3.3 Market Type

4. Customer Development of the Startup Venture (name it)

4.1 Customer discovery
4.2 Customer validation
4.2 Customer creation
4.4 Company building

5. Competition and Positioning of the Startup Venture (name it)

5.1 Sentence #1 : X Axis : Value to the Customer
5.2 Sentence #2 : Y Axis : Uniqueness

6. Business Model Canvas

6.1Customer Segment
6.2Value Propositions
6.3Channels
6.4Customer Relationships
6.5Revenue Streams
6.6Key Activities
6.7Key Resources

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 6.8Key Partnerships
6.9Cost Structure

7. Risk Analysis
7.1Market Risk
7.2Product Risk
7.3Team Risk
7.4Finance/Capital Risk

8. Learning and Adaptation

8.1What we Learned while Working on this Project
8.2Our Evaluation of the Idea with Justification

9. Individual Pitching

10. References

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