FS2012 Presentation Event

Business Presentation
2012 Feedback

Craig Powers
Head Presentation Judge

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 Agenda

 How to approach the Formula Student Event

 Objectives
 How to Prepare ~ what to read
 Choice of Role Play

Common Mistakes and Problems

Selecting Content

This year’s experiences

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 Objectives

 What is the Presentation Event?

 A business presentation, a role play, an act…

 Objective
 To convince the judges to invest in your race car proposal

 Convince the judges that…..

 You have a car that is ready for manufacture
 you have a sound business case
 you have minimised commercial and technical risk
 there is profit potential

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 Rules & Source Material

Source Material

o Rules
FSAE Rules
FS UK Supplementary Rules

o Presentation Advice
IMechE website ~ ‘Advice to Students’
FS Judges Blog

o Learn to Win seminars

• Annual event at IMechE London, October

o FS Question Database
Resolve any queries in advance

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 Role Play

• Identify who your Audience is

2 common scenarios
o To Executive of a Manufacturing Company
o To Investors

Make sure that the judges are aware of the role

play and their role
Make sure all topics are addressed no matter what
role play you choose

A presentation which is
Objective Focussed & Precise
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 FSAE Rules

ARTICLE 4: PRESENTATION EVENT

C4.1 Presentation Event Objective – Business Case

C4.1.1 The objective of the presentation event is to evaluate the

team’s ability to develop and deliver a comprehensive business case
that will convince the executives of a corporation that the team’s
design best meets the demands of the amateur, weekend competition
market, including Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Solo, and that it
can be profitably manufactured and marketed. (See also A.1.2)

C4.1.3 Teams should assume that the “executives” represent different

areas of a corporate organization, including engineering, production,
marketing and finance, and thus may not all be engineers.

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 Common Mistakes (1a)
Mistakes relating to choice of Role Play

Investor Role
 Concentrate on Finance and neglect the following:
 Technical details and development of the car
 Design for Manufacture
 Manufacturing, equipment, skills & staffing
 Neglect to say how the investment will be spent

Manufacturing Role
 Omit to mention Manufacturing because the manufacturing
company are ‘experts’. The manufacturers will want to
know:
 Equipment
 Manufacturing processes / skills
 Staffing levels

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 Common Mistakes (1b)
Mistakes relating to choice of Role Play

Other overly-complex role plays

 Role plays not centred on the production of a racing car
 Too much time spent explaining the complex scenario
 Hard to score in all Presentation scoring categories

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 Common Mistakes (2)
Poor business case

Failure to identify the customer and the market

 Weak market research
 No customer requirements
 How much is customer prepared to spend ~ lack of target
price (or cost price!)
 Competitors / rival vehicles not identified, including prices
 Market volume not explained

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 Common Mistakes (3)
Poor business case

 Unrealistic business case, arising from...

 Excessive market volume ~ not tied to market research
 Excessive market share (100% ~no rivals !)
 Excessive start up costs
 Labour costs too high ~ too many managers, not enough
technical manufacturing staff
 Excessive marketing budgets
 Insufficient profit per car

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 Common Mistakes (4)
Incorrect balance

Too much time spent on one topic

 You have just 10 minutes to cover all topics including

introduction, agenda, summary.
 Spread your time equally between topics, ensure a good
balance.
 Make sure that you use the full 10 minutes

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 Structure
Completing the logical flow,
…. Concept to Prototype, then Production and Profit

Design &
Design Goals /
Development
Targets
Processes

The
Market /Customer
Prototype
Requirements
Car

Business
Proposal
Production
Finance &
Compromises /
Commercial
Manufacturability

Marketing,
Sales, Manufacturing
Support

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 Minimising Risk (1)

Commercial Risk
 Know the market, identify the customer, identify rivals /
competitors
 Customer Requirements
 Set design goals (weight, performance, cost, etc)
 Ensure design meets the goals and can be manufactured
 Minimise start-up costs & operating costs
 Achieve target cost and selling price
 Can be manufactured at a rate / volume to suit the market

A CAR THAT MEETS THE REQUIREMENTS AND CAN BE

SOLD AT A PROFIT
…. SOUND BUSINESS CASE

Not necessarily a comprehensive list

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 Minimising Risk (2)

Technical Risk
 Design Processes (CAD, FEA, CFD, Simulations, etc)
 Validation & Testing of Prototype
 Designed to aid manufacture / production compromises
 Testing Quality & Inspection
 Improving through experience

Objective : A CAR THAT

... WILL PERFORM WELL
... CAN BE EASILY MANUFACTURED
... WILL BE RELIABLE

Not necessarily a comprehensive list

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 This year’s mistakes

Avoiding common mistakes from 2012

 Providing Business and Technical handouts but not

referring to them in the Presentation
 Not stating ‘the deal’ at the start of the presentation
~ include in your opening remarks
 Some overly-complex role plays that are not centred
on the production of racing car. Keep it simple
 Not including Sustainability ~ This is the
environmental sustainability of the car/project rather
than the sustainability of the business.
 No-shows ~ zero points scored

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 Next Year

In 2013 ...

Next year’s scoring may include the Business Logic Plan

(BLP)

Watch for rules changes and new advice on BLPs

Read the FS Blog

Use the FS Question Database to resolve any queries.

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 See you next year!

Thank you for your

hard work

Hope to see you at

Formula Student next
year

Good luck!

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