Business Presentation

[ajb]

Is it mandatory that we assume (for the business presentation) that we will manufacture the cars in the same way that we did in reality? The reason I ask is that we had some parts laser cut for us, and we’d rather not include the cost of a laser cutter in our business plan. I suppose we could outsource the work, but it’d be nice to just say that we’d do it on the CNC. Thanks for the help.

[ajb]

Is it mandatory that we assume (for the business presentation) that we will manufacture the cars in the same way that we did in reality? The reason I ask is that we had some parts laser cut for us, and we’d rather not include the cost of a laser cutter in our business plan. I suppose we could outsource the work, but it’d be nice to just say that we’d do it on the CNC. Thanks for the help.

[Thomas MuWe]

"Is it mandatory that we assume (for the business presentation) that we will..........."

First:
Read the rules!

[ajb]

I apologize for my word choice! I have read the rules. They are relatively vague on the specifics of the event. C4.1.5 states, "The presentation must relate to the car entered into the competition although the actual quality of the prototype itself will not be considered as part of the presentation judging." This would lead me to believe that we do have to assume that we will manufacture the cars as a business in the exact same way that we manufactured the "prototype". I just wanted to see of others interpret the rules the same way. Thanks.

[moose]

Read the score sheet buried farther into the appendix. With that info you can take a gamble/decide for yourself what the best way is to proceed, otherwise email the rules committee.

[Lutter]

I am curious why the majority of the members on this site get very defensive if someone asks a question. I remember last year we hadn't ever done a business presentation before, and the rules were VERY vague. So needless to say, we bombed it, but we now have a better idea as to what they want.

I would say, as long as you are using the same parts, who cares how it got there. You could say you had someone cutting each one on a band saw, but you would sure have alot of hours, drop in material, and a low quality.

[Thomas MuWe]

@Lutter:
I think you can get a of information but you have to ask the right questions - not quantity but quality.
How is the real world? If you want to build your car in reality, how many information you would have before you present it to the investors? Nothing!!!! In your job life it is like this! Everything is vague. You will come to a customer and present your product and you will never know whats his expectations are!

Back to your questions ajb:
You have thought about your topic already and in your case I would not say a single word about the brake disc of the car during my presentation. I would say we need this, this and this machine to manufacture the car and if the brake disc expert is in your judging group, he will recognise that you need a laser cutter for your brake disc that you have on the car. But: This machine is not in your Business plan and so you may have a problem and you can try to explain. How serious is this threat?
Next case:
What if there was not a brake disc expert in your judging group. Will somebody notice the "small" difference? I do not think so. Do not include the laser cutter in your business (use the CNC-machine, which you probably use for some other parts).

[moose]

I wasn't trying to be curt, just a bit cryptic - but I see that didn't work. My advice here is to give some thought to the scoring (what is scored and how) plus the timing of the event (10 min presentation + 5 min for Q&A). That will help you decide what level of detail you need to share, and how explicitly precise/accurate it needs to be.
Pretend that you were presenting to your Uni President for 10 minutes on why the school needs to fund your project- would you be telling him/her if a specific part was laser cut or CNC'd? How much would he/she care in the context?

This isn't exactly the same situation, but its a good first filter of how much detail you might want to get into. Now when it comes to the actual cost that you're saying it requires to build the car, there should be details behind it in case a judge questions it during the q&a. BUT, the event has been held in the luxery boxes the past couple of years, so odds of your car being up in the room for the presentation are 0% (nor has it been part of it / expected ever to my knowledge..they used to hold it off-site when the event was at the silverdome).

[Big Bird]

Moose, nice answer. No harm in trying to be cryptic or provocative, but a shame when the point gets missed.

Thomas, one of the best lessons I learnt from my time in FSAE was how to deal with vagueness. Poorly defined problems are a fact of life, and an opportunity for creativity. If FSAE was simply a step by step "how to build cars" tutorial, no-one would care.

AJB, I wrote a bit of a thesis on this topic under a thread called "Help with Presentation Event" a few years back. You'll find it under Static Events. Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Geoff

[ajb]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I get the idea that the most important thing is that you are able to justify whatever assumptions or decisions you make. Thomas I think you make a good point that the real world is vague, and so perhaps the rules are intentionally vague. Big Bird, I ahve read your "thesis" and found it to be very helpful.

Thanks again everyone, you've really helped me to think this through.