Requirements and marksheets
The due dates are shown below and are also on these links - GEE-Free, GEE-Plus, GEE Leadership Coach
Common issues with the Business Concept Proposals are:
Can you do it! If you wanted to make your team proposal happen, could you do it? Can you confidently feel your first steps? If not, make the start of the project very small or just a pilot to a tightly defined market. If that succeeds then you can grow the project later.
Profitability! If a report talks about donations, government grants, buy-one: gift-one, or how NGOs should spend their money, then it will not be a winning report. The project must be able to stand on its own income without constant injections. You can sell to Government or NGOs as a client if you have a more cost-effective way of solving a problem.
Pricing Is the price realistic? Does it cover your full costs? Who will pay enough to get your product or service started? Most proposals that claim it will be cheap, are just wishful thinking. Some do clever thinking to make the product or service genuinely cheap.
Sales revenue. High sales in the first year are unlikely. Choose a realistic rate for the venture to grow.
Clear target market. Suggesting a target market is all age groups across several countries is not a market at all. One useful discipline is to describe the person who is most likely to buy your product or service – their age, gender, mindset, why they want to buy it, who influences them, what they read, where they shop, why they would choose this over another alternative, who they influence – indeed write a story about them. And then decide the cheapest and most effective way to get that person to buy. Now you can think about others like them. This adds discipline to your thinking, and also opens doors to low-cost strategies to reach the market. The 2018 winning project did this exceptionally well.
Financing. Banks are a great source of low-cost money. They are best for established businesses with assets, but may also invest with a good business plan and limited risk. The first source of risk money is usually family and friends, followed by cash flow (a risky strategy but often used), suppliers, cash in advance from some key customers, joint ventures with others who can benefit from the project, high net worth individuals, crowd financing, and venture capitalists. Venture capitalists generally run with about 1% to 3% of projects offered to them, expect a 50-90% annual return on their investment, favour large projects, and are most interested in how they will get their money out.
Capital is not income. The money you borrow (or get from savings) to put into a new venture is not income.
Loan repayment is not part of the profit calculation. Leave it out, unless you want to discuss cash flow issues.
Having no economics is not a strategy to get around presenting the profitability of the project. You cannot have accurate figures in this short time, but you can have figures that are reasonable with some basis to them.
Talking to the potential market always goes down well with judges – for the proposal, reflection, and commitment awards. Getting a real understanding of the market is very impressive.
Executive summary. This is a short section at the start which enables the reader to get the key facts without having to read the report – what is the project idea, why is it a great idea, who is it aimed at, what will it cost to set up, what profit will it generate by when, and any other key elements of the project. It is not an introduction. It is crafting it to make sure every word is working hard to capture your reader.
Length of the report. Keep to the six-page limit. We will turn a blind eye to a couple of paragraphs over the limit, but we cannot ignore going well over the limit. Our judges include people like the Rt Hon Helen Clark who was head of the UNDP and prime minister of New Zealand. Her time is precious, so make every word count.
The reflection is expected to be one-page long. It can exceed this length, but must be under 1000 words.
Click the link for the criteria used to judge the Global Leader Awards or read below:
Below is the guidance on completing your 360° feedback on the peer-leadership performance of yourself and your team members. It provides guidance on how to complete it, how data about you is used, and how you are assessed for the quality of your feedback of your team colleagues. Click this link or read it below:
