Pitching

Pitching Case Studies: The course plan

A supplementary course that picks up where we stopped with Pitching for Startups. In just under 55 minutes and change we walk through all the right notes hit by seven (7) different real life Exec. MBA and GMBA business plan pitches covering sectors ranging from Entertainment, Petrochemicals, Demographics, Fashion Accessories, Consumables and Transportation.

The pitching case studies were made in the entrepreneurship course that Jawwad Farid has run at the SP Jain campus in Dubai since May 2007.  The selected presentations form a select group shortlisted from over 500 pitches pitched. Target markets for most of these pitches were the Indian and Middle Eastern markets.

By reviewing this portfolio of 7 pitches we expect to teach you to do a few things:

1) How to introduce your primary product concept and pitch it in under 30 seconds? While the pitches are not exactly elevator pitches since they represent complete business plan presentations, almost all of them incorporate a short elevator pitch as part of their introduction

2) Going back to the list of questions that we focused on in the Pitching for startup training course what is the best of way of answering questions that allow you to make your pitch real and if you are not sure about the questions, what are the questions you need to answer?

I review the basic premise, product and service idea and the reason why the pitch remained memorable in my mind over the years and what the group got right and how does that fit in what entrepreneurs generally tend to get wrong. The examples that we highlight and dissect that we touch include:

  1. Presenting Financials and Business Model effectively
  2. Presenting Customer Profiles
  3. Visualizing the pain of the customer
  4. Increasing the perceived value of your product by the right sequencing
  5. Combining visual slides and passion to pitch your concept in under 30 seconds

Please see the following posts for the original pitching for startup course and additional free resources.

Pitching for Startups Case Studies – Lessons learnt:

Here are some of the core lessons that we highlight during our dissection and analysis of the seven selected business plan pitches:

1) Presenting a complex concepts and products with simplified visuals and graphics in your business plan pitch?

2) Presenting financial data in a pitch – Balance sheet and P&L in an easy to understand format?

3) How to make back of the envelope calculations easy for your investors?

4) Presenting Financials – What I need and want to see as an investor?

5) Simplifying and presenting your revenue model in your business plan pitch?

6) The best way to visualize customer pain in a pitch

7) Sequencing slides correctly to create much more impact and acceptance for your sales pitch

8 )  How to showcase the underlying magic and process behind your value chain in your business plan presentation?

9) How to get past the “I don’t think this is real” or “I don’t think these guys can do it” mindset of investors, clients and partners?

10) How to use target market surveys and incorporate them in your presentation and pitch? What questions to ask your target customers in your target surveys?

11) How to use more than 5 slides in under 30 seconds to create impact and introduce your idea to your audience without getting bogged down in the details

12) What is credibility? How do you go about building it in a business plan presentation or elevator pitch?

Course: Instructor

Facilitator profile

Jawwad Ahmed Farid is a Fellow Society of Actuaries (Chicago), a MBA from Columbia Business School (New York City) and a computer science graduate.  During the last 19 years, he has worked as a consultant in North America, Pakistan and the United Kingdom with a number of blue chip clients including Hartford Life, Aegon, American General, Goldman Sachs, ING, Manu Life, Merrill Lynch, Met Life, Sun America, Nationwide, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Sun Life of Canada, Pacific Life, AllState, Fidelity Investments, Transamerica, Skandia, GE Financial Assurance, AXA Equitable and Washington Mutual Bank.

Jawwad’s core areas of expertise include Asset/Risk Management, Investments, Product Development & the Financial Services Back Office.  Jawwad blends a rare combination of risk management, information systems, international standards, business and product development skill set side by side with his actuarial expertise.

He is the author of three books on Entrepreneurship (Reboot), Commodity Markets (Understanding Commodities Risk) and Risk Management (Risk Application and Frameworks).

As an investment advisor Jawwad has advised a 3 billion US$ dollar life insurance fund in Pakistan on allocation and bid patterns for 10, 20 and 30 year bonds, a 30 million dollar Middle East fund on their ALM mismatch and fixed income strategy, a 10 million dollar fund on asset allocation and equity market timing in Pakistan. He has also worked with the securities regulator on assessing the state of the corporate bond market as well as issued valuation opinions on cross currency swaps, interest rate swaps, caps, floors, participating forwards and contingent liabilities for Exchange Guarantee Funds in the region.

Jawwad has worked directly as a founder, founding team member, mentor and advisor at multiple startups including two green field life insurance companies, multiple technology product businesses, financial services consulting operations, risk and investment advisory businesses, product focused distribution as well as micro insurance, micro pensions and micro finance startups.

In addition to being a PASHA CEC member and Treasurer he has also served as a judge at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards in Macau, Singapore, Kula Lumpur and Jakarta as well as at PASHA ICT Award in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. He currently serves as member of the oversight board for the PASHA Social Innovation Fund.

His regional client list includes First Gulf Bank, Riyad Bank, Ministry of Finance Malaysia, May Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Noor Islamic Bank, Dubai Bonds, Deutsche Bank, SP Jain, Marcus Evans, LSW International, State Bank of Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistan, Muslim Commercial Bank, Crescent Commercial, MyBank, Dawood Islamic Bank, KASB Bank, United Bank Limited, Pak-Kuwait Investment, Saudi Pak Commercial Bank, ABN AMRO, State Life Insurance, Dawood Family Takaful, Asia Health Care, Adamjee Insurance, Shell Pakistan, and International General Insurance.

The Alchemy / LCF Stress Testing  Workshop can be delivered in live instructor led sessions as well as a cost effective online formats for treasury managers, risk professionals, senior leadership teams  as well high value clients and customers.

Please feel free to drop us a line at [email protected] or [email protected] to get a customized proposal for your training needs.

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