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How might we restore vibrancy in cities and regions facing economic decline? Read the challenge brief

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Battle of the Franchises

1. Community Posting: Hand out post-its asking community members to share their passions, find a place to display them all 2. Business Idea Teams: gather weeks later to form teams around business ideas 3. Battle: present in front of VCs and others
Boosting Business Ideas

What resources (money, time, people, technology, etc) will your concept need to be successful?

1. Community Posting
Hand out a post-it that says “what are you passionate about” on the back, and have a person write or tell you their answer to have on the front. Do this for everyone you know and give more post-its for them to do the same. Find a place in your community to display the post-its for everyone to see.

2. Business Idea Teams
Two weeks later get together as many people as you can to look at the post-it display and brainstorm ideas for businesses around the community passions. Have people form groups by the business idea they like the most. Have the groups come up with a team name and a one to three page summary of the idea. Encourage the use of visuals and scenarios.

3. The Battle
Have the teams battle it out in a one day event where you invite franchising consultants and microlenders to come listen to what your community could do with a little bit of advice and support.

How can your idea be scaled so that it's implemented in cities around the world?

It is Replicable

Comments

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Bryan Lee

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December 07, 2011, 08:01AM
I like this!

I am imagining a community-sourced and industry supported business plan competition. Each year a different sponsor offers up a set of prizes that would include seed funding, fast-tracked enrollment at a local entrepreneurial accelerator/incubator. Each community could form together however many teams they want. On day of competition, it would pit community versus community (or some other way to make it still competitive but less adversarial) presenting their ideas.

One could imagine an environment of annual ideation, followed by community pride and support for whichever business sprung up out of the competition. Plus even for those that don't win, this is still a benefit in getting them thinking about entrepreneurship and potentially re-entering the next year.
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Andy Aguiluz's reply to Bryan Lee's comment

Andy Aguiluz

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December 11, 2011, 11:47PM
Hi Brian,

Thanks! I like your idea of bringing in sponsors and having prizes! Friendly competition would definitely create great energy! I was thinking about a quick visual of the business model vs the boring 30+ page business plan. But do you think we could come up with a new creative method for the presentations (like a simulation)? Let me know what you think!

For consitency and the use of quick visuals,
Here´s one way IDEO represents business models:
http://bit.ly/vLJ9yM
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Bryan Lee's reply to Bryan Lee's comment

Bryan Lee

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January 14, 2012, 06:05AM
Yes definitely, perhaps some sort of Lean Startup Concept where the teams need to have a very basic pilot concept that they could launch. Simulations/Role Plays would work well too!
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Ali Gibran

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December 10, 2011, 03:56AM
It would be easier for people to communicate through facebook or some other online networking tool to brainstorm collectively by forming community groups. Plus it will enable the venture capitalists, business professionals to monitor and mold the ideas for profitability.
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Andy Aguiluz's reply to Bryan Lee's comment

Andy Aguiluz

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December 12, 2011, 12:10AM
Hi Ali,

Thanks for the comment! I agree networking online would be easier, but part of having these gatherings is to get people to talk to each other in person away from their computers. Also, we should think about keeping the model simple in terms of scalabilty in case there are communities lacking computers.

However, you make a great point that VCs and professionals should be allowed to engage in the preparation before the showcase! That´s true open innovation! Let me know if you think of a way to incorporate that!

Please feel free to use the "build on this" tool above!
Thanks!
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OpenIDEO

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December 06, 2011, 07:59PM
Hi Andy, interesting post! Any chance you could find an image to go along with it? Images help grab attention and tell a story with higher impact. We know occasionally people have issues uploading images so let us know if you face any problems. You should be able to use the 'Update entry' button on the right of your post and follow the instructions to add images from there. Looking forward to seeing more of your inspiring ideas on OpenIDEO.
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OpenIDEO 's reply to Bryan Lee's comment

OpenIDEO

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December 06, 2011, 08:06PM
Would be great if you could send us a bug report by hitting the Support button on the right of this page. Give us some details about what's happening and we'll try and help you out.
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OpenIDEO 's reply to Bryan Lee's comment

OpenIDEO

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December 06, 2011, 08:10PM
As mentioned – would be good if you can use the Support button on the right to discuss this further.
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Create Connections Amplify Citizen Voices Enable Entrepreneurship Foster Local Identity
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