The current group of Global Campus students in Limkokwing London attended the RBS and NatWest Workshop for the RSA Student Design Awards competition at FabLab London on 5 November 2014.

The latest project for the current group of Limkokwing University Global Campus students is a live competition run by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), the RSA Student Design Awards. The brief for the competition that the students had follow is “to design & develop a vision and a business case for an environment or situation that prompts and fosters creative thinking.”

To assist students in their understanding and development of the project brief, Limkokwing University had invited Ms. Sevra Davis, Manager of the RSA Student Design Awards at the RSA, for a briefing session with the Global Campus students at the University’s London Campus.

Ms. Davis detailed the history of the RSA, and presented several impressive and successful entries for previous RSA Student Design Awards projects. Details of Davis’presentation can be found on the previous RSA Presentation article here.

At the end of Ms. Davis’ presentation, she invited the students to attend a Project Workshop held at FabLab, London, on Wednesday 5 November 2014. The facilitators of this workshop were Russ Camplin, Design Manager of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), and John Carter, Customer Experience Coach for NatWest Bank.

During this workshop, the importance of the commercial awareness aspect of the brief was outlined and emphasised, noting that it is one of the key judging criteria, and that it “could be anything depending on which perspective you are looking from.” Commercial awareness is a key skill relevant for every career, but one that many people lack, and which encompasses customer care and knowledge of the market.

Students were taught that one important factor in commercial awareness is the identification of different sectors within the market (commercial, public, charity, and social enterprise sectors), and the targeting of the right sector for the product.

The facilitators also outlined how a business plan should be developed, stating that “a business case is a document that captures the essence of your project and the resources you would need to bring it to market.” They also taught that the business plan should be “a fundamental means to secure investments and funding, through presentation to potential investors”. Students were also asked to note the importance of working out production costs.

The facilitators also mentioned that “a flexible structure for the business case is perfectly acceptable as long as your structure can deliver the specific information which is required for future investors to make their decision, and convince them to invest their money in your project.”

Students were told of the areas affecting the project which the business plan must include: the target market, the prototype, the five W’s (What, Why, Where, When, Who), insurance (which kind, if needed), the workforce, the benefits, key risks and issues, timescale, the implementation costs, the investor’s perspective, and a summary. The sequence of these issues within the business plan was also outlined.

The workshop was concluded by presenting a ‘recipe’ of useful tips to enhance the business plan: conciseness and readability (bullet points and graphics are helpful for this), a SWOT Analysis (strength, weaknesses, opportunity, threats), financial projections, and appendices for any further relevant information. Students were reminded that the plan should focus on positivity, though negative aspects should always be considered.

Students were also reminded that the RSA’s Creative Conditions Toolkit would be available for download from the RSA website starting from Monday 10 November.

Find us on Facebook or Twitter.