Team:CCU Taiwan/Entrepreneurship
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Foreword
In entrepreneurship, we made a market segmentation and positioned LIGGREEN's value in the market to find a niche market. Then we compared with the similar products and built a SWOT model to prove that it is competitive in the market. Finally, we designed the business model to imagine how we operate if we establish our company. We also set up a cost analysis of the production line so that we could grasp the cost of LIGGREEN and the possible price range in the future.
In addition, we got in touch with the entrepreneur who just started his own business. From him, we know a lot of patent-applied channels and detailed procedures. Believe that we can pass the patent applications smoothly in the future. We also discussed with many Taiwanese entrepreneurs about our possible future directions, and hope to expand the application of LIGGREEN.
STP Analysis
Segmentation:
Targeting:
- The size of the market: large
In terms of Taiwan, the current market for paper cup laminated is large. Since beverage shops, coffee shops, and convenience stores have a considerable demand for laminated paper cups, in Taiwan, we can determine that the demand for laminated paper cups is large. The huge potential in customers cause a large purchasing power of the laminated paper cups and the total amount of paper cup purchases, further inferred that the separation is enormous. - Competitive intensity of market: strong
Even though Polyethylene and Polypropylene are still used as the bulk of the paper cup laminated market, there are many ecofriendly laminating materials that are still produced in the market. Therefore, under such circumstances, I think the competition intensity is still strong, once our LIGGREEN are more close to the ideal one that the company or the manufacturer demands, you can attract them to buy our products as raw materials for laminating. - Organizational resources and advantages: small
As LIGGREEN just enter the market, unlike other vendors that have already established a solid foundation in the market, our organization still need to adjust. Being a startup company, the resources will be less than the mass-produced manufacturers. As the results, our organizational resources and advantages are small, which make us difficult compete with large factories currently. - Cost of exposure to market: large
LIGGREEN is new for the market, we must build our own advantages from scratch. From the perspective of raw materials, our price is higher than others, which will affect the purchase intention of the laminating paper cups factory. Therefore, the cost of contact the market will be quite high in the case of high prices. - Future growth of market: large
Due to the influence of environmental protection and the government's policy of restricting plastics, our products have little advantage in the current market, but as time goes by, in the case that mainstream raw materials are gradually eliminated, the development space we own is enormous. Therefore, the future growth is quite high.
Positioning:
- Seeking possible positioning:
Attributes: The difference between LIGGREEN and other raw materials is that LIGGREEN mainly appeal to be naturally decomposed and not harmful to the environment.
Functions: LIGGREEN is used as a paper cup laminating material. As it can be decomposed by the environment, it will bring a fresh and green corporate image to the paper cup laminating factory.
Main Customers: It will be a manufacturer that pays attention to the corporate image and can accept higher raw material prices.
Competitors: Factories that produce Polyethylene, Polypropylene and PLA will be our competitors.
- Communicating the positioning concept:
With the above evaluation, we can see the essence of LIGGREEN's product and then get the concept of product positioning. LIGGREEN's main positioning concept is that it can bring an environmentally friendly image without affecting the current recycling habits and the production process of the paper cup laminating factory, by using LIGGREEN as a raw material for the laminated paper cup. When the terminal consumers use the products, they will know that the entire production chain is the main corporate image of green positives, which will add a lot to the public.
Business Model
The business model we built was mainly for the paper container industries. Since we are a manufacturer of new material called “LIGGREEN”, it is logical that the paper container industries will be our first customers. We hope that LIGGREEN will have a wider application in other industries in future.
Value Proposition:
We know that people now care more about environmental protection issues. Why? Because the earth faces problems with energy depletion and environmental pollution, both of these are big issues for us. There are many new energy sources to solve the former, but what about the latter? So many countries are trying to find a new way to solve environmental pollution, it seems that the best place to start is with our daily life.
Recycling is one of the ways for now to solve the pollution problem, so entrepreneurs producing new packaging materials are popping up, and we are one of those.
Since there is intensive competition, a product which is ecofriendly is a common value in the container industry, so it seems that a new product which is only ecofriendly is not special at all. The value we created is not only that it is ecofriendly, but also uses new technologies to produce our material. This new material, “LIGGREEN”, allows us to keep our current recycling habits but still achieve an environmental goal. With new policies limiting the use of plastic, having a new product to replace plastic will allow an uninterrupted supply without creating a sharp rise in demand for limited products from the container industries.
Customer Segments:
As the demand will reflect consumers’ willingness and desires, our customers will not only be the paper containers coating industries, but also the beverage stores who buy the laminated products and interact directly with the consumers.
Channels:
We believe that the paper container industries and beverage stores are mutually influential, so we will visit both of them in person.
Costumer relationship:
We adopt the method of “personal assistance”, in which dedicated personnel have exclusive communication with each customer. This allows for a trusting relationship to develop, so they will be willing to share their concerns about the product or suggestions for improvement.
Key Activity:
We mainly produce LIGGREEN for the paper container coating industries. Moreover, we will continue to research new materials which can substitute for plastic. The sales department will try to find new customers and contact paper container coating industries.
Key resource:
The key resource is our intellectual resources, which includes our technology and new research.
The human resources are divided into two parts, research members, and sales members who will develop and fulfill the demand.
Key partner:
Our main partners are members who work for the Industrial Technology Research Institute, since they can sponsor technique conferences, and they are a government organization that communicates with the industry about new technology.
Revenue:
Our revenue comes from selling the materials we produce.
Cost:
The assets of the construction plant, the salary of the manpower and the cost of the research material such as monolignols and yeast, etc.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| High Temperature Resistant Compared with PP/PE, LIGGREEN has a higher temperature resistance. Ability of Mass Production By using synthetic biology, we could mass produce LIGGREEN. Ecofriendly LIGGREEN is decomposable, or it can be recycled like normal paper. |
High Cost Due to the synthetic biology and new technology, our cost must be higher than petrochemical materials. Hard to Get Coniferyl Alcohol Coniferyl alcohol (G), the material of LIGGREEN, is hard to get from commercial market. The seller cannot offer a large number of it. Lack of Certification LIGGREEN is lack of many certification such as SGS package and container tests which can increase confidence of consumers. |
| Opportunities | Threats |
| Social Trend hrough the survey, we found that more and more people care about environment protection. This could help us convince paper container laminating industries to buy LIGGREEN. Policy As more and more countries decide to limit the use of plastic products, we will have the opportunity to become a substitute in the future. |
Consumer Acceptance Some people and non-governmental group are still skeptical of synthetic biology. LIGGREEN, which is produced by synthetic biology, will also be suspect by those people. Market Saturation As people care more about environmental protection, many new material suppliers want to enter the market and most of them are earlier than us. |
Cost of production
This is our production line. As a startup entrepreneur, we asked the relevant instrument manufacturer to know each equipment we need to purchase for our production line.
Fundraising session
During this summer vacation, we held a fundraising session and invited many Taiwanese paper cup laminating factories to attend the conference with the assistance of our university. In the session, we mainly explain our motivation to design LIGGREEN and the outlook for the future of the market. After that, we were honored to have the favor of Bobsen. They were willing to assist us, in addition to the factory visit, to give us technical assistance. Besides, there were several invited but unable to come to the meeting, such as Chung Hwa Pulp Corporation, and later through the letter to answer our doubts about paper cup laminating and paper production. We are very grateful to those who came to the conference!
We knew the market expected price of LIGGREEN form the survey. Our products need to use enzymes and Coniferyl alcohol to formulate polymer we need. However, the price of Coniferyl alcohol is very high, so we found the literature in which use ρ-coumaryl alcohol to formulate Coniferyl alcohol and we make it as basis for calculating our possible costs. The current estimated cost is 5.481 NTD, and we will commit to produce bacteria which can tranform ρ-coumaryl alcohol to Coniferyl alcohol and reduce the cost.
Consulting Seniors
In the lecture from Jia-gang Cao. He had point out what will confront while operating the company. And first mentioned the advantages of operating companies: 1. Outsiders will see you as a group, make you easier to contact with companies 2. Will have easier chance to get subsidies from the government. On the other hand, disadvantages are: 1. We have to give fixed tax such as labor insurance, property tax, etc. 2. The percentages of properties for every team member has to start to be clear. This at first will be very complicated, and would likely to have arguments, even splits.
Second, we have to make sure that whether we want to make it a permanent company or just wait for buyers to buy our company.
Then, he begins to explain different kinds of company, such as private company limited by guarantee, private company limited by shares and public limited company.
Most importantly, he told us resources to gain finance support by participating in different competitions or applications, such as U-start, FITI, governments, private institutions. This is really important for us not only now, when we’re lack of finance support, but also in the future when we need more money to invent new materials.
In the end, he talked about how to apply patents. In his career, he was responsible for dealing with patent in his company. The application of patents not only happens in Taiwan, but also has to pay attention to patents abroad.
This lecture made our team members to have more concept in what should we take more attention while building a company. And has warned us that the road of building a company won’t be easy. We have to think twice in the future when start to discuss building the company.
Reference
Chen, Z., Sun, X., Li, Y., Yan, Y., & Yuan, Q. (2017). Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for microbial synthesis of monolignols. Metabolic engineering, 39, 102-109.