2008 Woodie Awards
Sy Syms Conducts 2005 Student Business Plan Competition
Shmaryohu Rodman
Issue date: 3/29/05 Section: News
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Over two hundred students from the Sy Syms School of Business gathered on Wednesday, March 16, for the second annual Dr. William Schwartz Business Plan Competition. The event, held in Belfer Hall, was co-sponsored by the Sy Syms School of Business and the Rennert Entrepreneurial Institute, which is headed by Dr. Lawrence Bellman. The competition's winner will be presented with $5,000 in grant money at the annual Sy Syms Dinner, and the second and third place finishers will be awarded $3,000 and $2,000, respectively.
The presentation portion of the competition was only the final step for the contestants, who worked for months developing their business plans. After narrowing down the contestants in a two stage process, five of the nearly fifty business plans submitted were presented to the final judges. The plans were first reviewed by Sy Syms Dean Charles Snow, and Professors Dr. Lawrence Bellman and Dr. Fred Palumbo. They were then forwarded to business leaders outside of the university, and finally presented before the competition judges.
The evening began with a short speech from Gideon Schiffman, the winner of last year's competition, who emphasized the importance of the event for the student contestants, who gain the real world experience of presenting a business plan to high-ranking industry leaders. His introduction was followed by the presentations themselves, a summary of which appears below.
Leon Fischman and Stuart Gasner : Promotion N' Motion
Promotion N' Motion is a mobile advertising company, utilizing delivery trucks to display mobile ads. The business plan cited three main factors that would ensure the company's success: traffic volume (the sheer number of trucks on the road), the amount of blank trucks, and an increase in average amount of time spent commuting in target markets. Truck owners would be compensated to the tune of 20% of revenues, and advertisers would be able to track their ads using GPS. This would allow ads to be placed only on trucks frequenting specific areas, tailoring the ad to the needs of the target market. The ads themselves would be printed on adhesive vinyl, similar to the material used for ads on New York City buses. Another advantage of advertising on trucks is the comparatively large amount of average viewing time, fifty nine seconds, as apposed to billboard advertisements which average only six seconds of viewing time. The gigantic difference in exposure means lower cost per minute of viewing time, which along with the tailored demographics, make trucks a perfect medium for advertising. Most of the questions presented by the judges were on projected expenses and amount of start-up capital required ($31,000).
The presentation portion of the competition was only the final step for the contestants, who worked for months developing their business plans. After narrowing down the contestants in a two stage process, five of the nearly fifty business plans submitted were presented to the final judges. The plans were first reviewed by Sy Syms Dean Charles Snow, and Professors Dr. Lawrence Bellman and Dr. Fred Palumbo. They were then forwarded to business leaders outside of the university, and finally presented before the competition judges.
The evening began with a short speech from Gideon Schiffman, the winner of last year's competition, who emphasized the importance of the event for the student contestants, who gain the real world experience of presenting a business plan to high-ranking industry leaders. His introduction was followed by the presentations themselves, a summary of which appears below.
Leon Fischman and Stuart Gasner : Promotion N' Motion
Promotion N' Motion is a mobile advertising company, utilizing delivery trucks to display mobile ads. The business plan cited three main factors that would ensure the company's success: traffic volume (the sheer number of trucks on the road), the amount of blank trucks, and an increase in average amount of time spent commuting in target markets. Truck owners would be compensated to the tune of 20% of revenues, and advertisers would be able to track their ads using GPS. This would allow ads to be placed only on trucks frequenting specific areas, tailoring the ad to the needs of the target market. The ads themselves would be printed on adhesive vinyl, similar to the material used for ads on New York City buses. Another advantage of advertising on trucks is the comparatively large amount of average viewing time, fifty nine seconds, as apposed to billboard advertisements which average only six seconds of viewing time. The gigantic difference in exposure means lower cost per minute of viewing time, which along with the tailored demographics, make trucks a perfect medium for advertising. Most of the questions presented by the judges were on projected expenses and amount of start-up capital required ($31,000).