Innovative ideas from Day 1: First year students presented their business plans
April 22, 2021
Although COVID-19 has taken a big toll on how higher
education is done worldwide, the freshmen generation at the RIT Croatia’s HTM
program in Dubrovnik had a full face-to-face class experience this semester. As
part of the Business 2: Business Planning & Professional Development course delivered by Mr. Domagoj Nikolić, a faculty member teaching HTM courses,
students were working throughout the semester to develop a full plan of their
own innovative business ideas including the Business Description, Marketing
Mix, Porter's 5 Forces Analysis, SWOT, Operations and Management Plan, Budget
and Budget Narrative, all supported by their own secondary and primary
research.
And what innovations have we seen! From One Stop App - an
integrated online platform for service purchases, QR App for customer reviews
with integrity, to MonteVision - innovative wedding planning in Montenegro, La
Noches Uniqas - a Spanish restaurant in Dubrovnik to TraDGeeks heritege hotel,
DuNoctis drive in focused on quality F&B and BeLocal personalized luxury
tours and many, many more.
One of the exclusivities of the course is that final project
presentations evaluations are conducted by an external expert. This time it was
Dario Ševelj, a trailblazer in the craft beer industry in the Dalmatian far
south with over 13 years of experience in banking in the sector of supporting
small, medium-sized and large business projects. Dario gave the following
statement at the end: "What we saw here was pretty incredible for the freshmen
generation and it would be pretty incredible even for the seniors. At least
five business ideas could be easily flipped to reality with just a bit of
refinement, which shows that investors should pay more attention to the young
generations and institutions nurturing the future business cadre in a hands-on,
applied way."
Another interesting detail was that the by and large
students planned for remote working options in their businesses and opted for
Zoom instead of in-class presentations, which is yet another proof that
technology for the young generations is just a bicycle of the mind, just like
Steve Jobs predicted in would be. Their minds, provided with the right
knowledge and tools, move faster, and so be prepared to be overtaken soon...
New generations coming!
