Final final final!!!!!

24
Company Project BINNJ ON THE APPLE IPAD Instructor: Jasmin Majetic Group Members: Samy Alaoui Hassini Francois Xavier Garaud Robin Duchateau Burcu Atman Chiting Chang

Transcript of Final final final!!!!!

Page 1: Final final final!!!!!

Company Project

BINNJ ON THE APPLE IPAD

Instructor: Jasmin Majetic

Group Members:

Samy Alaoui Hassini

Francois Xavier Garaud

Robin Duchateau

Burcu Atman

Chiting Chang

Page 2: Final final final!!!!!

SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1

PART I ......................................................................................................................... 2

A. Livemenu............................................................................................................. 2

1) How did the idea appear? ........................................................................... 2

2) Who does the team constitute of? ......................................................... 3

B. Trough these keys enablers other ideas appeared to shape the

project ..................................................................................................................... 6

1) Lunch with Hosafros .................................................................................... 6

2) Skype call with Philip .................................................................................. 6

3) Drinks with Hayes ........................................................................................ 6

4) Coffee with Corscadden ............................................................................. 7

5) Ad vendors boardroom with the team .................................................... 9

C. What’s the final project?..............................................................................10

1 ) Advantages for customers: .....................................................................10

2) Advantages for restaurants: ................................................................... 11

PART II ......................................................................................................................12

A. Case analysis ....................................................................................................12

For the costumers; ..........................................................................................12

For the company;..............................................................................................14

For the restaurants; .......................................................................................15

B. How do they manage the time? ....................................................................17

C. Should they apply Agile or Waterfall principle? .....................................17

Waterfall ...........................................................................................................18

Agile ....................................................................................................................19

D. Should they speed up or slowdown for this project ............................. 20

1. To speed up .................................................................................................. 20

2. Slow down the project .............................................................................. 20

3. Quit the project ..........................................................................................21

CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 22

Page 3: Final final final!!!!!

1

INTRODUCTION

On one hand, we have chosen this topic because Apple

products and its way to innovate interest us. Apple is today the

company the most liked by young people. Moreover, this story is about

the construction of a start-up and it is the dream of each student from

a business school to build and realize a similar project. That is why all

members of the team immediately agreed regarding this case.

On the other hand, Apple Store, through iPad, iPhone, is a

way to create applications for all sectors and the number of creation is

unlimited. This is a huge business that Apple allows to lots of innovative

and connected people. This case shows exactly how “easy” it is to

create something useful and totally new. What was also interesting for

us was the fact that we can follow the construction of a team, a way to

manage it, these different steps that make an application viable and of

course, a final product.

Page 4: Final final final!!!!!

2

PART I

A. Livemenu

1) How did the idea appear?

The idea about Binnj came from Clay Hutcherson and was established step by

step.

In the first place, Clay Hutcherson noticed the new Apple

product: the iPad! When he was waiting for his flight, Clay Hutcherson

saw Steve Jobs’ speech about iPad. The presentation of his speech

impressed Hutcherson because he immediately knew that this new

Apple product would turn technological world upside down. As a matter

of fact, with its light form factor, full-screen touch-based navigation

system, wi-fi and 3G network connectivity, popular productivity and

lifestyle applications, access to hundreds of thousands of additional

applications from the iTunes App Store, the iPad was going to

fundamentally change electronic content consumption! There obviously

were big opportunities according to Clay Hutcherson.

From this moment Clay Hutcherson was thinking about an

idea using the iPad. A new venture began for him! With good judgment

he said, “I could create content, purchase content, license content, or

steal content.” For weeks he searched for a really good idea, but he

found nothing, until this moment…

Clay Hutcherson was in his car with his son driving to a

hockey practice. He was still thinking about an idea for the iPad. In the

car, his son was looking for a new motocross helmet on the iPhone. In

the exact same time, Hutcherson was thinking about a place to go out

for dinner that evening. And his great idea appeared: an Ipad-based real-time electronic restaurant menu platform!

Page 5: Final final final!!!!!

3

Afterwards Hutcherson spent the next six weeks analyzing

the core idea, considering how it might work, and quite literally trying

to “talk himself out of” the idea.

2) Who does the team constitute of?

Hutcherson wanted to do a great application as possible as he could, and

he knew it was a lot of work to do. That is the reason why he chose the

best people to carry out this work.

Here is Hutcherson ‘s team constitution:

Clay Hutcherson is the founder and CEO/President of Binnj.

Prior to Binnj, Clay was a management consultant at Intellectual

Ventures providing business, organizational and technical consulting

to senior leadership in the Intellectual Property Licensing business

unit that manages a US $5B invention-capital fund. He lives in London,

Ontario.

Nancy Philip is a Chartered Accountant and the CFO and

COO of Binnj. Nancy was Director of HR and CFO of CIRA in Ottawa,

Ontario. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Scott Corscadden is the CIO at Binnj. He also led the

Internet Application Group for FiLogix where he developed scalable

mission-critical enterprise web applications for Canada’s top banking

institutions. He lives in London, Ontario.

James Hayes is the Director, Sales and Marketing and leads

the sales effort at Binnj. Previously he pioneered the successful

Canadian Poker Exposition (the CPE Canada’s only poker centric

consumer show for global leaders in the gaming industry). James

Hayes lives in London, Ontario.

Page 6: Final final final!!!!!

4

Jen Hosafros is Creative and User Experience Lead for

Binnj. Jen is a freelance graphic design consultant and holds a

provisional RGD. Jen has 10 years of digital creative experience and

holds a BFA in visual arts and graphic design from Lake Superior

State University in Michigan. Jen lives in London, Ontario.

Michael Kernahan is Senior Engineer at Binnj. Michael has

experience designing, developing and releasing iPhones applications.

He worked for the very famous National Research Council (NRC) of

Canada (really big organization). He lives in London, Ontario.

Sam Maloney is Lead Software Engineer at Binnj. He is an

expert in open source technologies and enterprise Java

architectures. He lives in London, Ontario.

Page 7: Final final final!!!!!

5

Clay HUTCHERSON

CEO

Nancy PHILIP

CFO/COO

Scott CORSCADDEN

CIO

James HAYES

Sales and Marketing Director

Jen HOSAFROS

Creative and User Experience

Lead

Michael KERNAHAN

Senior Engineer

Sam MALONEY

Lead Software Engineer

Page 8: Final final final!!!!!

6

B. Trough these keys enablers other ideas

appeared to shape the project

1) Lunch with Hosafros Hutcherson learned about the big news: Ipad was released for sale in

USA on April 3, 2010. He called his friend Hosafros whom he previously

worked with immediately. Hosafros was a talented graphic designer and

Hutcherson invited her to go to a restaurant and asked her what was

wrong in the menu. The designer said that she didn’t see anything wrong

in the laminated menu. Hutcherson explained to his friend that the design

of restaurant menus has not changed since the earliest handwritten days.

Then the designer understood his point and showed her interest on this

matter and imagined a menu on the Ipad with rich colorful images, hyper-

linked pages, video, audio…etc. The project would be a kind of revolution

in the functioning of a restaurant. Hosafros agreed to participate very

soon after Hutcherson’s pitch.

2) Skype call with Philip Hutcherson sent several email to his network to discuss and have some

advice about his idea. Among these friends, Nancy Philip called him back a

few minutes later by Skype. They spoke about the project and they

realized that the costs of a restaurant would be decreased thanks to the

Ipad menu because restaurants generally spent around $12,500 per year

to print a batch of menus. Moreover, a small error caused by incorrect

prediction and bad assumption for prices would then lead to re-print of

menus. An electronic menu is helpful if restaurants want to develop new

recipes, prices fluctuations or special promotions and everything in a

multi-language dimension.

Hutcherson already came up with the name of this platform: LiveMenu. Philip was really captivated by the project and added that it is necessary

to test the application very quickly in a restaurant as a prototype. In

addition, she suggested that they had to increase their knowledge in

restaurant processing and business.

3) Drinks with Hayes Hutcherson sent a text to James Hays about his idea and received an

answer some hours later. Hutcherson and Hays were in the same class

from their MBA days, five years earlier. Hutcherson explained the entire

project to his friend with all the advantages for the restaurants and

Page 9: Final final final!!!!!

7

customers. He highlighted the advertisement and marketing perspective

with help from Internet on computer, smartphone and also explained that

the age of marketing with radio, television and newspaper is gone.

With a new electronic menu, restaurants could customize their menu as

they wish. Furthermore, customers can pay quickly when they want to

order without waiting for the server, which was the argument of

Hutcherson. The dimension and the usefulness of this project fascinated

Hayes. For Hutcherson, Hayes was exactly the proper man to supervise

the marketing dimension of the project.

As a conclusion, Hayes said their lack of industry knowledge for

restaurant could help them to reorganize all the system and exclude some

of traditional ideas that they couldn’t change if they would be already in

the restaurant field.

4) Coffee with Corscadden Some days later, Hutcherson had an appointment with his friend

Corscadden. He wanted to talk to him about his new idea. Corscadden was

a cracherjack with whom Hutcherson has worked in the past. During this

meeting, Hutcherson explained to his guest what consisted his project

and showed him two Ipads. One of them was for Corscadden if he

accepted to be a member of the team without any wage at the beginning.

Thanked to one of Hutcherson’s old friends who lived in the U.S, he

received these devices before they were released in Canada.

So Corscadden accepted to be a part of the team and mentioned two guys

who were capable of providing useful helps to build the new concept:

Samy Maloney and Michael Kernahan. The first one was an expert at

developing server-based web applications using open source technology

and the other one is a gifted application developer. Moreover, these guys

also had a big network so it could help more in Hutcherson project.

Hutcherson specified to his friend that information technology would be

the main instrumental of database and infrastructure of the LiveMenu.

The main problem regarding the construction of the project was the

absence of money. Nevertheless, Hutcherson wished that his idea would

be realized in 100 days. Corscadden said to his friend that it is an

impossible mission in a time that’s as short as 100 days. He continued to

explain the entire task to do first and mentioned in 18 months the

project would probably just be in beta testing. Hutcherson nodded and

agreed the explanation of Corscadden. They thought it would be better

not to spend too much time in the time planning and begin by doing

quickly. For Corscadden, the first work to do is to write the code. Then

they had to evaluate the requirements of customers. On one side,

Page 10: Final final final!!!!!

8

Hutcherson must manage his team in order to spend time in the learning

about restaurant industry. On the other side, Corscadden must develop

code with his team.

Moreover, it should also be useful to develop this application through

software so as not to be stuck in Appstore and be able to expend their

application to other platforms such as Android or RIM as these platforms

were not mature enough for now. But so as to concurrence Apple in that

wide market, they would improve their own platform.

As soon as Android or RIM platforms become be mature, the company will

be able to set up immediately in this market and only for “a couple of

hundred dollars a month and probably even less than that”. It will be a

new opportunity for Binnj.

Moreover, Hutcherson wanted to have an easy and effectiveness

communication between members of the team. He also hoped that

members of the team were always busy.

Tools for connecting the team and working in effectiveness,

transparency and efficiency

Page 11: Final final final!!!!!

9

5) Ad vendors boardroom with the team Firstly, Hayes had been working on restaurant market and divided it in

two categories: Enterprise Restaurant Groups (ERGs) and Small & Medium

Enterprise Restaurant Groups (SMERGs). ERGs are restaurants from

restaurant groups. There are very representative on the restaurant

market and could generate massive sales for Hutcherson. But they were

very bureaucratic and it would be difficult to get face-to-face with the

right person. Then, SMRGs were more accessible and easy to meet in

order to propose a new type of support menu. Nevertheless, it could take

more time than the big restaurant groups.

Secondly, Philip talked to Hayes about the price they can charge for the

LiveMenu and if competitors are numerous. Hayes answered to her that

he didn’t know about the price they could propose to restaurant

customers but many restaurants were already interested in the project.

About competitors, Hayes said some major software operating in the US

restaurant place did exist but no one focused on the menu and operations.

Corscadden responded by saying that everything sounded good and they

had to be encouraged and continue their efforts. He also said that all

members of the team must work hardly even if each one had some

priority tasks. The team must use a lot of Reminders in order to know

perfectly the list of tasks each one had to do.

Moreover, Hutcherson emphasized the importance of not going too fast

and sell software that would be not yet enough developed. Though the

team had to move faster so wouldn’t be overtaken by LiveMenu

competitors. Corsadden reassured his friend by saying that the real

competitors were not really numerous because they were presenting a

PDF menu but didn’t offered the same level of functionality such as

LiveMenu was going to offer.

Skype Free calls between Skype users

DropBox To share large files online with collaborators

SubversioN 100% open source software

Basecamp For overall project scheduling task management

Redmine Feature development tasks and bug tracking

Page 12: Final final final!!!!!

10

Hosafros thought that to build a two-page teaser brochure would be

useful to begin the advertisement campaign. Philip added that LiveMenu

must be able to be tested by restaurant that wanted to try. However,

LiveMenu had to be protected against copy and observation of potential

competitors.

Likewise, Corscadden spoke about news he had heard some days ago.

Ontario Private Members Bill 90 was discussing about “healthy decisions

for healthy eating act”. If the bill passed the law, it would be a big

success for LiveMenu because restaurants would be required to give the

nutritional information on all their menus. With LiveMenu, to put this

information would be very easy for restaurant.

Concluding, all team realized that the future of Binnj would be a big

success and could create a real value. Hutcherson was more realistic and

explained that now Binnj had no revenue, no product and customer. He

wasn’t certain yet that it could really please the customers and they

would be ready to pay for this service. Hutcherson finished the meeting

saying to his team that they had to continue to build the project seriously

and with efficiency.

C. What’s the final project?

As we have said before (Part A), this project concerns a LiveMenuR that

can be used by the restaurants’ customers but also by restaurants

themselves. This part is going to show you a whole summary of this

project (that’s why, sometimes, it could be redundant).

1 ) Advantages for customers: A digital menu is certainly like a great revolution for clients., for that it

allows them the possibility to check different menus of different

restaurants so as to choose where they will better enjoy their meals. We

can easily refer it to the text when Hutcherson (C.E.O. of Binnj) was

sitting in his car meanwhile driving his son to his hockey match. That is, as

we have said in the first paragraph, right at this moment he got the idea

to create a live menu –he was asking himself to know where he would go to

eat that night, and in which restaurant.

Page 13: Final final final!!!!!

11

This idea was a valid one for him because it avoided the waste of time in

the consumers’ point of view, and also allowed the customers to know

“exactly” what he/she will eat without losing his/her money in a meal they

don’t like (non-specified ingredients…).

2) Advantages for restaurants: Binnj would not only be interested in customers but also the restaurants,

which is also the most important part in this case study. As we’ve just

said before (part B), this topic is lengthily developed. This advantage was

the main point that helped Hutcherson to make people believe in his

project. When he said that it could help a lots of restaurants by reducing

their costs or help huge restaurant groups to keep an eye on each

individual restaurant they have and so on. After his pitch, everyone said

“what a great idea”, “you could earn lots of money”, “what are you waiting

for”, “I’m in”…

His network’s reaction showed that this idea was more than vague, it was

a new concept, a new idea from a man who knew nothing about this kind of

market, which made him strong for his future start-up (no idea avoids

barriers, it is like starting from scratch and improve creativity).

This live menu, as we have said before, would be based on an iPad

application. That means that it was going to be a new kind of menu. Paper-

based menus were not used to attract people and it was not based on a

marketing approach either. In each restaurant you can find the same

“boring menu” that is absolutely not interesting for customers. So, what

is highlighted in this case study is the fact that restaurants will be able

to design their own menu in their own way, and also help them to be

different from other competitors.

It is a cost reduction in a long-term plan. According to the text, a typical

North American restaurant spends around $12,500 per year for printing

paper-based menu. The main problem for restaurants and also for

Hutcherson’s friend/(future) colleagues was the iPad cost. As the iPad

was not released yet in Canada in this case study, they didn’t know how

much a restaurant would have to pay for such a high technological product

(Hutcherson bought his own iPad in the United States for around $800).

Moreover, the other problem was that Apple doesn’t offer any

opportunities to get cheaper if you buy lots of their products, even if it is

a company. This is the main doubt that his friend/colleagues had for his

application project.

Page 14: Final final final!!!!!

12

PART II

A. Case analysis

After the Livemenu was published on the market, it cannot be the same as

before because this idea is pretty unique so that we should look from 3

perspectives of this idea; costumers, company and restaurants. In addition we

should consider that there are advantages, disadvantages as well as

opportunities and threat in each circumstance. The best way to analyze with

the case is SWOT.

For the costumers;

Strengths

Clients are kings so they have the power to choose whatever

they want. They are concerned about service, quality, sanitation of

the environment etc. So that the Livemenu should take the

customers’ requests into account.

Weaknesses

iPad was just presented to market therefore clients can

easily think that device is hard be familiar with for the elderly, also

the people who do not use iPhone or similar devices before.

Usage of iPad is really different from other mobiles or

tablets, which is also like a revolution for the users.

Page 15: Final final final!!!!!

13

The Livemenu is also marginal even the CEO does not know

how to use and how to look like because of these ideas are all new to

us.

Opportunities

The application is really approachable because at the same

time clients can see the pictures and videos of the meal also calories

are already calculated. According to calculation they can easily decide

what they eat and which meal is healthier or what the ingredients are

in.

The layout design colors videos will be different from the

traditional menu.

The Livemenu with tablet are never invented before so it is

really new experience for clients. By this we mean clients will be more

curious about using it.

According to calculation they can easily decide what they eat

and which meal is healthier or what the ingredients are in.

Languages are really problems when you go to different

country even if you don’t go anywhere only you want to try new

cuisine, it can be a problem for choosing meals. In addition paper-

based menu cannot include language options more than 4 so that is

absolutely efficient for clients.

Almost everyone has the experience of waiting for the

waiter/waitress to order the meals and people sometimes get

inpatient about it. However, when you use your tablet for order you

don’t need to wait anymore.

Threats

This device is really hi-tech and also these days it is not so

common as iPad hasn’t published in Canada. That’s why customers can

be afraid to adopt this new concept

They can order wrongly and as the order goes directly to the

kitchen the customers might need to wait even longer time

Customers like good services and concern which are related

to face to face communication. Accordingly they can avoid using

technological devices.

Page 16: Final final final!!!!!

14

For the company;

Strengths

The idea is unique, unattempted and provides service, which

means the Livemenu responds to customers’ requirements.

Good network always makes you more powerful, so that a

good organization will be a plus for the team’s future.

Weakness

CEO set a time limit and it is pretty hard to finish on time.

They have a lack of time management because everyone has

full time job. They only have e-based communication tools. When the

issue happens they cannot easily react on it.

They don’t know how to sell their products also were

uncertain about the product price. They have to see the feasibility of

their sales and marketing strategy but they can’t forget the markets

and their needs.

Oppotunities

When Binnj’s competitors enter the market and they try to

share market, the team might improve their version so that Livemenu

will still be unique. Besides that the team establish the new market,

which means the power is on them.

The team has different backgrounds. That means it is a real

opportunity because variable experiences provide variable visions.

Threats

As we see this market is kind of new so that many

entrepreneurs want to enter the market, it is possible that the

others can alter software program and launch the market.

Page 17: Final final final!!!!!

15

There is a long distance between team members. It would be

difficult to connect each other.

Sales and marketing director and CEO cannot reach directly

to SMERG because there is many SMERG in the market. We can say

that it would be waste of time beginning to marketing process.

PIPEDA

For the restaurants;

Strengths

Market share and also restaurant chains provide power

towards Binnj. Sooner or later restaurant owners will decide to sign

an agreement with Binnj.

Weakness

Restaurant owners find the application very odd. The other

possibility is that the restaurant owners would think that is not worth

to try.

The other weakness is about cost for that they might not be

able to afford the device. We know that Apple doesn’t provide

discount even you want to buy more than 50 tablets.

Opportunities

The application will attract new clients because many people

want to experience using it. Even if they don’t come to have a dinner

once, news are really good advertise for marketing. The restaurants

will make a name instantly.

Page 18: Final final final!!!!!

16

Another opportunity is about appendable new

application/gadget, the restaurant owners don’t need to pay huge

amount of money every time they only need to pay for iPad once and

then the application will be synchronized by time. By this we mean the

owners will not waste their money twice.

Employee and menu costs are decreased enormously. The

owners need only few waiters/waitresses for service.

Procurement updates and stock updates provide to check

your list online and easily.

Customizable and configurable applications such as prices

description, items add more flexibility and save money.

Threats

Restaurants should bid a law and these days because of new

law, ingredients and calories should be shown on their menu so when

the owners use Livemenu the content should be more transparent.

Some clients would be more conservative and they prefer to

use paper-based menu.

Software mistakes can lead to unavoidable negative effects

and will affect the clients.

When you prefer to use Livemenu, that means communication

with clients is going down. In addition many clients give importance to

service and service process. They want to ask and take advice about

the menu and meal so that it is real threat for the owners.

As we see the SWOT analysis, it is obviously efficient for 3

sides.

Page 19: Final final final!!!!!

17

B. How do they manage the time?

They should adhere to contract. Rules and clauses aren’t mentioned in

the case so that we would see that it is a right way to start criticizing.

Firstly, all substances especially meeting time and process should be

written down clearly. For instance, specifying dates, complying with

basecamp, considering the risks etc. However, before the contract, CEO

shouldn’t have put the time limit. It is acceptable that “100-days” is like a

physiological limit but this project needs real feasibility report. That

means they will arrange the meeting time. The team should select simple,

efficient and effective tools during the process and they have to divide

their job step by step. By this way they might not have bottleneck which

is the real problem for every project and also CEO wants to enter the

market as soon as possible because he is driving the company in dark

during this time they already had meeting 3 potential clients. Because of

that he wants to publish their “unique” project as soon as possible. They

should not waste their time doing routine works. This project is their

second job so that they aren’t available when something happens. At that

point, the team has to appoint someone as an assistant who only deals with

the project and how the process goes on.

From the other perspectives they can use Apache Subversion as a source,

however; as we know, CEO doesn’t want to steal content, purchase

content or license content but they can use some software program what

they need so this process can be shorten so they have more tıme to test

their software program. In other words, projects saves time by modifying

by the way the notable thing is that project software would be unique;

they will just collect and arrange same tools and similar software.

C. Should they apply Agile or Waterfall

principle?

Now it comes down to the question of whether Binnj should apply the

principle of Agile or Waterfall to their live@menu project. We’ve

compared these two principles and there are pros and cons in both of

them.

Page 20: Final final final!!!!!

18

Waterfall

Advantage

Structural

The stages of waterfall is basically going step by step, so it’s very

structural and detailed, which can avoid making further mistakes. First

comes defining the project, then goes to planning, implementation then

leads to the closure. These steps make the company clear and aware of

what they are dealing with.

Disadvantage

Less flexible and time consuming

As a project management methodology, Waterfall has been criticized for

not being able to cope with constant changes in software projects, and

with the inability of customers to specify adequate requirements before

they have tried prototypes. Also, the huge overhead of specifying

requirements before starting the actual development may cause long

delays of a project. The iterative nature of agile makes it an excellent

alternative when it comes to managing development projects, especially

software projects

Page 21: Final final final!!!!!

19

Agile

a. Advantage:

More flexible

People don’t have to stick to the stages and can make alterations

depending on the situation. For instance, as Binnj was worried about being

late for their original schedule, they couldn’t afford to waste any more

time on going through the stages step by step. They need to know what

they need to do to make adjustments on the system of their application.

Therefore, if they apply the principle of agile, they would be able to

change something as soon as they find a problem.

Individual oriented

In Agile principle, iterations are short time frames (timeboxes) that

typically last from one to four weeks. Each iteration involves a cross

functional team working in all functions: planning, requirements analysis,

design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing. However, Team

composition in an agile project is usually cross-functional and self-

organizing, without consideration for any existing corporate hierarchy or

the corporate roles of team members. Team members normally take

responsibility for tasks that deliver the functionality an iteration

requires. They decide individually how to meet iteration’s requirements.

Focus on time to market

Agile principle puts a lot of concern in putting a product to the market in

a short period of time, like four weeks. Since Binnj needs to show their

Page 22: Final final final!!!!!

20

prototype to their clients as soon as possible, it’s better to apply agile

principle so that they can be ahead of others.

b. Disadvantage:

It does not scale well.

Many people still believe that Agile doesn’t scale well so lots of large

projects still apply waterfall as their main principle. Additionally, since

the strength and usefulness of agile are both exhibited in projects with

frequent changes, it does not offer any advantage over waterfall when it

comes to classical projects where requirements are nearly always

constant and unknowns are rare.

D. Should they speed up or slowdown for this

project

Next we’ll analyze what Binnj should do with their project from three

perspectives-to speed up, slow down or quit the project

1. To speed up First we’ve discussed why we think Binnj should speed up their project,

which is mainly because the world of technology is constantly changing

and moving forward, thus if one wants to get better business

opportunities, he or she needs to always be ahead of the other

competitors. From the text of the case, we know that there are other

companies that are doing the similar projects. Although they have

different aims from Binnj, it’s still some kind of threats because they

might change their directions and will possibly go with the similar ideas.

Furthermore, it’s hard to predict if they are really the only company

who’s working on this idea and project. In the consideration of the point

above, Binnj needs to speed up their project in order to avoid the risk of

having their ideas stolen by the others.

2. Slow down the project We also talked about the reasons of why Binnj should slow down their

project. First of all, we think the biggest issue is time limitation. Up till

the moment, no one has done the same project before, and there are

many technical issues to be resolved, which require more time to deal

with. If they rush their project, there might be more potential problems

to their system and will then cause claim from their customers. In order

Page 23: Final final final!!!!!

21

to stabilize their system, it will be better to do it step by step instead of

putting it in a rush. Secondly, lack of manpower is also one of the issues

Binnj was facing. From the article we can tell that almost every one of

them has a full time job to do other than this project. They were all

working extra hours to make this project possible, and they can hardly

squeeze more time on it. Thirdly, they didn’t even have any customers at

all and it’s better for them to build up a relationship with some customers

first, so they do not need to worry about whether they were just doing

something for nothing. If they can find some customers first, it will also

be a support and drive for them to keep moving forward, instead of

feeling lost. Due to the points mentioned above, we consider Binnj should

slow down their project.

3. Quit the project

Finally it comes to if Binnj should just quit doing this project. We feel

that this application will somehow get in the way of humanity, and will

further make people drift from each other. We all know how high

technology has dominated people’s lives nowadays, and we’ve been already

occupied by all these equipment almost twenty-four seven. Being in the

restaurant and having interactions with the waiters/waitress is an old

fashioned way, but is also more emotionally interactive Also, some of us

feel that there might be people who are resistant to these kind of new

ideas. There are still a lot of customers who are more familiar with

reading the menu from the actual paper instead of an electronic device.

In addition to that, we feel there are risks about this project because

there are no customers yet and they didn’t do enough marketing research.

There is not sufficient information on if the restaurants would be as

enthusiastic about this new device as Binnj. There are a lot of

assumptions from Binnj, but without the actual proof to support this idea.

In this case, there is great possibility that this project might fail.

Page 24: Final final final!!!!!

22

CONCLUSION

We have following points to conclude this case.

1 ) Hutcherson found a good team

We feel that Hutcherson had a good start by finding himself a great

team with bunch of qualified people by using his own network. This also

shows us that our peers we know during our study years are important

and we can start building up our social network from school.

2 ) Register for Copyright

We suggest that after the idea was sold to the other team members, and

as soon as the project is established, Hutcherson should register for the

copyright, which by the Canadian article Bill C32 June 2nd, 2010 we know

it’s allowed to register for the copyright even before one has an actual

product. In this case, Binnj would not have to worry so much about

whether or not their competitors will be ahead of them.

3 ) Team management

We feel that Hutcherson, as the head of this project managed his team

very well by listening to everyone’s needs and opinions. However, we’d

suggest him to apply for the Agile principle so that they can move faster

with their application. Also, he could ask the marketing to dig in deeper

for the marketing research and to look for more potential clients and

further build up relationships with them so that they wouldn’t feel like

they are doing something that lead to an unknown future.

4 ) Deadline

As a conclusion, we feel that 100 days is sufficient for Binnj to complete

their prototype.