Ingenia – Annette as EVA
My evaluation of the Ingenia pitch is organized in a chart, which I hope will be legible. As you will see, I was not impressed with Ramona’s pitch. Not least for her complete disregard for the difficulties involved in brining Canadian intellectual talent up to speed with regards to the language and culture of another country. This pitch focused too much on the personal experience of the presenter, and not on the capabilities of the company.
| Criteria | Ingenia – Ramona |
| CEO Credibility | Shows personal capability, but does not connect with me on a personal level, too focused on her pitch as opposed to her audience – makes me wonder if she would be able to connect with clients across cultural lines in Vietnam |
| Management Team | Other than degrees held (and not even in what field) no information about the team – especially problematic in a consulting/services firm |
| Business Model | Market exists among the multinationals for eLearning. Not sure what the role of government would be – Ramona says they will not be working with them but then mentions connections with government several times. Model is not clear. |
| Competitive Products | If the service Ingenia provides is good, then they could be competitive in this emerging market. The inability to develop a clientele at home makes me suspicious, but they do seem to have an extensive client list. Testimonials would have been helpful. |
| Market Readiness | Ingenia says they would need extensive market development time and money. There is no timetable for when projects or partnerships would start producing. There is no time given for how long it would take for Ramona’s team to become familiar with Vietnam, or if they would rely on local experts –all of which would take extensive time to get in place |
| Technical Innovation | Ingenia is not the only eLearning consultancy/service firm in the market. The edge would come from the team, but we have not been given much information on them. |
| Exit Strategy | They seem to still be in the exploratory phase of this project – hence the market development money, so I don’t think they really know what success is going to look like |
| Overall Investment Status? | There are too many unexplained or unexplored factors here for me to risk my money. The idea of tapping into an emerging market like education in Vietnam is a good one, but I would need to know more about the team and the strategy to make the company Vietnam-ready beyond paying Canadians to translate everything. |
2 comments
1 Cari Wilson { 09.19.09 at 9:21 pm }
Good point on being Vietnam ready and dealing with a foreign market. I would not invest in them either.
2 Liz Hood { 09.20.09 at 2:38 pm }
I like your point about her pitch being based on her personal experiences there. Great articulation.
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