Analyzing Business Ventures: Ingenia & Recombo2005
Based on my rookie role as an EVA, I summarized my perceptions of Ingenia and Recombo2005:
|
Ingenia |
Recombo 2005 |
|
| CEO Credibility | Ramona Materi appears confident and knowledgable. She is very clear and concise in her presentation. Materi presents her credentials as an emerging “guru” in this field. She does not have a rapport with the camera and comes across as detached rather than charismatic. | Brad McPhee’s credibility is affirmed by his introduction as the CEO of a company which has grown in the three years ETEC522 has been following Recombo. McPhee has a good rapport with the camera and comes across as knowledgeable, confident and charismatic. |
| Management Team | Materi concisely summarizes the structure of the company and the management team. Her explanation is clear and in layman’s terms. | While no details are given on the specific members of the management team, McPhee mentions the guiding principles of the team and the strategies |
| Business Model | The business model is feasible. Materi ensures that potential investors are aware of the political and financial security as well as the challenges of the chosen marketplace (SE Asia). | The business model appears to be feasible. It is evident the company has researched and as a result of that research has transitioned the company to be a service company in response to the current market trends. |
| Competitive Products | Elearning is an emerging field, particularly in Asian companies. While Materi does not specify ONE product as a focus of Ingenia, it is clear that Ingenia will be developing elearning services. | According to McPhee, a critical and missing piece of the IT market is the content integration router which provides a platform for customers to use their existing components to stream data. |
| Market Readiness | The focus of Vietnam on establishing private sector businesses indicates there is a market for Ingenia. Materi’s comprehensive presentation emphasizes a gap in the elearning sector in Vietnam. | The Recombo connector is attractive to both IT managers and product managers. As long as there is a gap in the data streams from existing LMS and performance evaluation systems, Recombo is well situated to achieve their goal of being a $100 million business |
| Technical Innovation | Ingenia appears to be positioned to meet their goal of becoming a major learning services provider in Vietnam. | Recombo appears to be uniquely positioned in this emerging market. |
| Exit Strategy | While Materi presents a solid timeline of the business development (15 months) and an expected rate of return, it is not clear when the expected rate of return will occur. | McPhee is quite clear on the business focus of the company and even alludes to a possible merger with companies such as IBM as a possible outcome. |
| Overall Investment Status | I like the assurances of payment in a well-known and dependable world currency. I am reassured by the presence of financially and politically stable banking institutions in the target market place. The gaps in the timeline and the vagueness of what the “product” is make me wary of investing based on this pitch. I would want a Q&A session before investing. | Based on the information presented by McPhee, I would invest and recommend investment with Recombo. |
As a side note (not sure if it is appropriate here or not) I found the differences in the Recombo presentations fascinating. The 2005 presentation was (in my opinion) more polished and engaging than the 2004 pitch, with the same CEO presenting.
I was web browsing for ideas and stumbled across this chapter of a book which I found helpful. As a business “rookie” I am not able (yet) to judge it for merit.
www.eoni.com/sbdc/BookChapters/chapt2.doc
1 comment
1 Cindy Leach { 09.24.09 at 5:43 pm }
Hi Liz,
I also found it very interesting how different the pitch from 2004 and 2005 were. It was evident that Brad had learned a lot in the past year in regards to how to ‘pitch’
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