"Show me the money!"

All 11 teams have now been briefed and they're currently taking a tour of the building so they know where the emergency exits are (in case of crazed team members pursuing with sharp objects). The briefing was done by Prof. N. Venkatraman and Dean Chalykoff with Dean Lawson sitting in. The teams were given flash drives that contained white papers, videos and other materials to give them a head start on the research required. Prof. Venkat wrote the case (as he did last year) and spoke to the teams about what the problem was that they were expected to solve.

The case is about the business behind Motorola's vision of seamless mobility. Given Motorola's recent initiative of Goodbye Disconnected - mobility that works on any network, any device, anywhere - today's case is about what initiatives Motorola can take in the media and entertainment space to succeed.

Entertain Me. Across domains. With changing architecture. A global perspective.

In the words of Prof. Venkatraman -

Motorola has launched some very cool new products for which they have won a number of awards. They have no problem asserting their leadership in the product development domain but they need to go beyond products and awards. The company's financial performance needs to impove to demonstrate value to their various constituenties. It's time to go from vision to execution. From cool products to cool experiences. Or from hot products to hot experiences, depending on what you think is cool is hot or hot is cool.

He went on to say that Motorola's new initiative takes them beyond just being your mobile phone. They want to be your television, radio, diary, MP3 player, contacts, camera... everything. The one stop for all your entertainment needs. The case today with its focus on entertainment showcases Motorola's network DVR, the Follow Me television home media solution. Prof. V. spoke about some of the potential competitiors in this field, about Google, Apple and Microsoft and some of their initiatives and with the 'Make Cool Experiences' video from CES defined the problem for today -

What is the best way for Motorola to win in seamless delivery of media and entertainment?

How best to translate the vision of 'cool experiences' to compelling business models?

Show me the money.

The teams have to think 12-24 months into the future and suggest to Motorola how they can go from what they have done so far, in terms of cool products and market leadership, to make money in this space. The teams are allowed to access any information in the public domain but not permitted to access private consulting reports on this problem.

As Prof. V. said, "the problem statement is clear, the answer is not clear", I'm sure the teams will have a very enjoyable time over the next 24 hours to come up with their vision of the future.

An interesting piece of news - all the presentations will be sent to Motorola so I'm sure this is additional incentive for the students to really bring their best to the table.

A picnic lunch has been laid out for the students. Stay tuned for lots of pictures!