xpme.tv used by La Trobe University – case study

Assignment 2

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Milan Pintar

94568830

2016-BUO5ENP(OL-TS4)

La Trobe Business School

La Trobe University

3 July 2016

Words

3000

 

 

 

 

Part A: Introduction to the business venture

Explanation of the business venture La Trobe University could enter into

Maximum mark7

This is an exciting new combination of programs used to combining education, streaming and investments to help support sustainable business ventures.

Idea is made up of the following programs:

• La Trobe Angels
• Crowd funding using Paypal micro investments
• La Trobe Incubator Program
• strawpoll.me survey
• xpme.tv streaming service

The combination is an angel investment and crowd funding program supported by La Trobe University, La Trobe’s industry partners and the students all enabled by xpme.tv

According to (Ratten 2016), “A business model articulates the logic and provides data and other evidence that demonstrates how a business creates and delivers value to customers. It also outlines the architecture of revenues, costs, and profits associated with the business enterprise delivering that value. Companies can adopt business models pioneered in one space into another.” This is essentially saying you don’t need to reinvent the wheel just apply its success to other areas.

 

According to Ratten (2016) lecture notes a business idea should have the following details considered in figure 1.

 

Figure 1 Business idea modelling in lecture notes in week 4 (Ratten 2016)

 

The Value proposition is a product and a service that will be offered by La Trobe University to its stakeholders. The university has the following stakeholders; students, potential students, teachers, the public and industry partners. The proposed business idea is to offer all stakeholders access to a service called “La Trobe Angels”. This service would give industry partners and students’ the opportunities to assess entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ideas that both stakeholders can gain from. The idea would also allow investors from anywhere around the world to invest. To support this service La Trobe will create mandatory requirements for entrepreneurs participate in short classes as part of the “La Trobe incubator” service. This service should be opened to all so that potential students and teachers can also take part and present to La Trobe Angels and global community watching and ready to crowd fund. The key uniqueness to this idea is to broadcast the angels service over an interactive streaming service called xpme.tv, which stands for “experience me tv”. Xpme.tv service has a business model based on the success of twitch.tv which has made the e-sport industry the success what it is today. The models elements that made twitch.tv successful can have been applied to xpme.tv and can be used for La Trobe Angels. An important element of the model is to survey the viewers watching the stream using a service like http://www.strawpoll.me/. Investors can be Angels or they can also be the viewers watching the stream using paypal for payment as a crowd funding support of any of the ideas presenting in the program.

With xpme.tv and surveys to help the angels and crowd, the target beneficiaries can reach anywhere there is internet connection that supports at least 140kbps to 4K internet speeds which can be provided handled by 2G, 3G and wifi wireless networks giving access to third world countries. This aligns to La Trobe’s 2013 to 2017 strategic plan to increase students from 26000 to 33000 and to expand into regional Victoria and Asia-Pacific, the service gives the university reach across the whole world, something that has never been done before by a university.

To support the students the university can offer mandatory lectures delivered via LMS and xpme.tv with tests provided to subscribers to that channel while the channel is in a subscriber only mode.

Potential partnership with the government via https://www.business.gov.au/assistance can also help students and potential students gain funding support for this ideas. Revenue can be raise from sponsors, investors, government and student applications. To generate further revenue, the streaming service can play advertising from sponsors either provided by the university or by xpme.tv. This helps build the sponsors as well and La Trobe Universities brand name.

La Trobe can run a front office that coordinates applications and makes sure students and potential students complete mandatory programs during the incubator sessions, the front office sets up the channels and groups the students with investors that might be interested in their ideas. The back office follows up with preparing session times for the xpme.tv show, sets up incubator classes both in person and over xpme.tv so that the teachers and students can meet and learn. The back office offers the support networks to students from partners and the government and assesses and approved candidates that will be allowed to present to the La Trobe Angels. The back office setups up all the on the program dates. Broadcasting xpme.tv is responsible for providing the streaming user experience, it takes revenue from ads and subscriptions but only to cover costs plus 9%.

Below in figure 2 is an example of the broadcaster view and functionality using an iphone.

 

Figure 2 xpme.tv broadcaster functionality

 

 

Here is the interface for strawpoll.me where questions can be asked to the viewers of the La Trobe Angels channel on xpme.tv

Figure 3 Survey using strawpoll.me

 

 

 

Part B: Business venture analysis

Discussion of how La Trobe can leverage its assets to link with community and existing businesses in Melbourne

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La Trobe university can leverage its assets both internally and with the external community. The following tutorial classes can be run in an incubator held by the university in preparation for presenting to the La Trobe Angels;

• Intellectual property protection copyright and patents,
• Business plan tutorial class,
• PESTEL analysis (http://pestleanalysis.com/what-is-pestle-analysis/),
• Finance and triple bottom line accounting using GRI standards,
• Understanding sustainability and United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development, (http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E) ,
• How to get government grants and support via https://www.business.gov.au/assistance,
• Understanding how to sell your idea by aligning your innovation to community and business partner strategic plans.

La Trobe Angel program is public and can be viewed but both investors and the public over xpme.tv. Xpme.tv can be viewed over mobile smart phones or the internet and streamed to a TV. Viewers can watch and interact via chat, they can participate in surveys that are linked but the moderator. Only moderators and broadcasters can post links. Businesses and audiences can watch and participate globally and xpme.tv analytics can break down geographic locations of the audience and strawpoll.me can breakdown geographic locations of survey results.

On the xpme.tv channel page these details can be listed:

• Industry angels and their backgrounds including advertising their current businesses
• La Trobe Industry partners can be found here: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/business/about/services-to-business/industry-partners and to contact the partners the contacts can be connected with your business via http://www.latrobe.edu.au/business/about/services-to-business/contact-us
• La Trobe university has a program called work integrated learning (WIL) http://www.latrobe.edu.au/partnerships/wil, quote regarding success:

Any organisation would benefit from participating in WIL, with the introduction of fresh ideas, enthusiasm and talent. We had a project waiting and WIL was the impetus to get it started. Our student has grabbed the project and run with it… she has been an absolute delight with her positivity and ideas.

Gail Baker, Director of Studies, ALTEC

Management discipline

• Links to La Trobe incubator classes
• Links to Register and idea for the next La Trobe Angels sessions

 

Description of market opportunities for this entrepreneurial based venture

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The market opportunity for La Trobe having La Trobe Angels, La Trobe incubator, xpme.tv streaming and surveys can be modelled using Chesbrough (2010) nine point decomposition of a business model.

Figure 4 Chesbrough (2010) shows the 9 point decomposition of a business model

 

From this the market idea starts at the partner network. Students needs to assess their idea with the help of the incubator and see what partner networks that can get support from including but not exclusive to understanding the Angels they will be presenting to. The audience of xpme.tv means that there might be hidden angels willing to partner. The experience gained by La Trobe students both on campus and remote should be on building a sustainable business. For the partner assessment the students need to understand the strategic plan of possible partners in the industry they are trying to get support from. They also should try to align to the government grant programs and try to get funding and finally they should try to align to the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development below:

Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations 2015)

Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*

Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

 

The university should create a forum in LMS and in person to help the students with the key activities; assessment of key resources example, marketing, developers, finance officer with forecasts and break even analysis, business law, media communication and planning, science agriculture and engineering, information technology and health provided by the La Trobe WIL partner program. The value proposition should then be made to the angels.

In regards to this idea, the university would have to prepare classes for the incubator program and setup student presentations then approach their partners in the industry to attend the La Trobe Angels sessions after getting them to sign agreements on advertising, revenue sharing or finder fees. The broadcast will be run as a service by xpme.tv but advertising should be partnered with La Trobe and its partners.

Analysis of relationship between business venture and La Trobe University’s mission and values

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La Trobe has the following strategic plan in figure 5.

Figure 5 Future Ready: Strategic Plan 2013–2017 for La Trobe University

 

• Research Focus Areas
  • Before presenting to investors La Trobe has an opportunity to support the students by providing an incubator program. A requirement for students and potential students top present to investors is to attend the incubator sessions where the university and other students can suggest support networks provided by the university and its WIL partner networks http://www.latrobe.edu.au/partnerships/wil. The university can support the entrepreneur with how to protect intellectual property, use the universities research and development to support the entrepreneur’s idea.
• La Trobe Framework
  • The university has five strategies in its framework; Hallmark Program, Essentials, Learning Enrichment, Design for Learning and Radical Learning Project.  The focus is on innovative sustainable thinking and being a good global citizen. These ideas have been covered by La Trobe Angels and xpme.tv by properly educating students in during the incubator program before they present. This reimagines the way students learn and evolves the education system so that anyone has the opportunity have access to learn to start a sustainable business and investors have a way for paying for the idea.
• Communities and Partners Strategy:
  • The xpme.tv solution allows La Trobe to reach all communities listed in the strategic plan. This includes Asia-Pacific. Some of La Trobe’s current partners are http://www.latrobe.edu.au/business/about/services-to-business/industry-partners but this will be sure to grow as audiences grow when watching xpme.tv
• Future Ready Staff:
  • The La Trobe Angels program and streaming service will bring in revenue and attention and will likely attract the best teachers and researchers so they can contribute to changing the world for a better place
• La Trobe values are:
  • Take a world view; pursue ideas and excellence with energy; treat people with respect and work together; are open, friendly and honest; hold ourselves accountable for making great things happen.

The La Trobe incubator program, La Trobe Angels program, paypal accessibility and micro payments for crowd funding, use of an online polling service (example strawpoll.me) and use of xpme.tv broadcasting service to create a great experience for everyone can support La Trobe’s strategic plan and the universities values.

 

Part C: Resource Analysis

Identifies the resources needed for the business venture

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Figure 4 Sosna et al. Learning and Business Model Innovation Process (2010)

 

Sosna et al. (2010) explains the four stage process of developing a successful business model through sustainable value creation. This model helps us understand what resources are needed for this business venture.

Stage 1: Initial business model design and test

Xpme.tv streaming model is new but is taken from the already successful twitch.tv streaming service. It has been assessed intrapreneurially within large telecoms companies but for the solution to be realised without the overhead of political and delegation authority of a large company it was taken back as an entrepreneurial venture with partnerships in New York City and Mumbai to build the cloud based solution. Cloud has meant that most of the development and recruitment to build the service has been handled by the partner. La Trobe would need to organise subjects and a time table then approach industry partners and then advertise to students. A test of the critical to success xpme.tv streaming service would need to be conducted.

Stage 2: Business model development

After the Angels and incubator subjects have been created but La Trobe, the streaming channel page would need to be created and a demonstration made to La Trobe sponsoring stakeholder(s). After approval of the format and agenda a final time line would need to be set. The time lines would have to take into account preparing students, advertising, approaching and organising angels.

Stage 3: Scale up with suitable business model

Execute the first event and learn lessons afterward. The event can be run any time and from experience from twitch.tv the more often the higher the channel following.

Stage 4: Sustained growth through org wide learning

For sustainable growth promotion is key including advertising and word of mouth. Staff, students, viewers and angels can all register via xpme.tv and sessions can be announced notifying all followers of the channel. Bank accounts would need to be setup and a revenue contract signed between all parties.

Identifies advantages and disadvantages of the entrepreneurial based venture

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Advantage:

Other services have tried to copy twitch.tv and compete with them in the gaming industry space, this includes a youtube gaming failed attempt late 2015. The first move maker has the advantage because of two factors, firstly having the right combinations of features in the service and secondly the community being accustomed to your services features and therefore not wanting to move to another service. This is similar to customers not wanting to change between apples and googles phone ecosystems. There is no example of a successful streaming broadcast service similar to twitch.tv and there are currently no options other than periscope and meerkat but these services only stream and chat at a basic level and are not suitable for supporting La Trobe Angels.

Disadvantages:

PESTLE Risks:

• Political
  • There is no influence from government needed to help sustain this business venture. Revenue from industry sponsorship, advertising, enrolment fees, subscription to vote, crowd funding micro investment and success from a finder’s fee agreement will support the idea financially.
• Economic
  • Economy change is a risk that is mitigated by the size of the audience when broadcasting over xpme.tv. The economy can impact confidence from angels in some industries but that is mitigated but other growing industries and crowd funded micro investments.
• Social
  • This is the highest risk. People watching La Trobe Angels must not take get a negative impression or the service and the Universities values.
• Technological
  • tv is internet based and has servers all over the world but unpredicted growth can cause congestion on the bandwidth or the servers themselves. Mitigation but limiting numbers of viewers to not impact the viewers that get on might need to be applied. Further investment in expanding the infrastructure would be needed but this is a good problem to have and quick to solve.
• Legal
  • Legal intellectual property (IP) and international protection will require expert legal advice in some cases. At the extreme some countries consumer laws or IP protection laws may be insufficient and La Trobe may have to limit access to those countries to protect students and investors.
• Environmental
  • There is no impact on the environment from streaming, voting and investing in ideas. There might be entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial innovations that have negative environmental impacts but that would need to be assessed on a per case bases.

There is always a risk of losing key resources.

These are the key resources below:

• tv service
  • Page setup team
  • Contract management
• La Trobe staff
  • Lecturers in core subjects’ students require to present at xpme.tv session
  • Front office staff and core competence to organise and contact stakeholders
  • Back office staff and core competence required to prepare the program made up for angels, students and staff.
  • Presenter to run the La Trobe Angels show
  • Event management
  • Accounting
  • Human resource management
  • Marketing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Teece, D.J (2010) Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation. Long Range Planning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pages 172–194,

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S002463010900051X

Sosna Marc, Rosa Nelly T., S Ramakrishna Velamuri (2010) Business Model Innovation through Trial-and-Error Learning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pp 383- 407 http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0024630110000099

Christoph Zott, Raphael Amit (2010), Business Model Design: An Activity System Perspective, Long Range Planning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pages 216–226,

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0024630109000533

Chesbrough Henry (2010), Business Model Innovation: Opportunities and Barriers, Long Range Planning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pages 354–363, http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0024630109000569

 

Ratten, Dr Vanessa 2016, ‘Module 4 – eBook 3 What’s Your Business Recipe?’,  lecture note, viewed 27 June 2016, https://lms.latrobe.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=2013491&chapterid=129465

United Nations, 25 September 2015, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly,” Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E

Future Ready: Strategic Plan 2013–2017, La Trobe University, viewed 1^st July 2017, http://www.latrobe.edu.au/about/downloads/LaTrobe-FutureReadyStrategicPlan-A1poster.pdf

Global Reporting Initiative 2015, Global Reporting Guidelines G4, viewed on 31 January 2016, < https://www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx>