THE
FLUX
HANDBOOK
CAREERS & EMPLOYABILITY WITH PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY
WHAT IS FLUX AND XING? FLUX is a business competition which enables students to launch themselves into the world of business, coming to terms with the key areas of Strategy, HR, Finance and Marketing and developing a business plan based on the scenario provided. Regardless of what degree students are undertaking, all employers look for commercial awareness in an employee and this is a great way for students to develop their business skills and boost their confidence with business terminology and key business elements. To develop the business plans, students use the FLUX business tool called XING. XING was developed in collaboration with Cambridge University and focuses
on more than just academic theory – it focuses on true gritty, edgy commercial reality! The XING board and cards enables the user to build sophisticated strategies to grow a business, where the team become the “management team� and identify and prioritise key decisions that have been identified as the essential elements that affect business success. XING creates a dynamic environment where business strategy and team values are learned in an animated and focused way. The student journey through this fast paced simulation is supported by employers who are professionals in different business areas and facilitators on hand to guide the teams to ensure they are on track.
The Key Areas of Learning 1. Proposition and goal setting 2. Defining roles and responsibilities 3. The language of business 4. Commercial awareness 5. The importance of building a team of mixed skills and personalities and engendering good team spirit Key Outcomes 1. To inspire the spirit of enterprise within all members of a university 2. To introduce students and staff to the skills required to start and run a business, to identify skills shortages and to evaluate or consolidate what is already known 3. To raise the profile of entrepreneurship amongst students and the wider public 4. To establish and improve links between the business community and students
THE KEY STAGES OF THE FLUX DAY
1
Generate the business idea and goal
2 3 4
Business meetings with professionals Teams refine their business plan, ready for pitching
5 6 7
Develop the business plan, using the XING cards and board
Teams pitch their business plan to professionals The top scoring team from each stream compete head-to-head, to determine the overall competition winners Networking, with celebration drinks and canapĂŠs
GENERATING THE BUSINESS IDEA AND GOAL
IDEA Teams will receive the scenario the night before, to have time to develop an idea. To help focus the idea, it is encouraged that the idea can be summarised in 10 words or less. This snappy statement helps teams to describe the idea and have a solid focus throughout strategy development.
GOAL AND TIME FRAME Teams will need to set a quantifiable and time-bound goal. Some scenarios will provide the goal and the time frame and teams will develop their plan in line with this. The goal will be written on the XING board and you will notice the board is shaded in 3 different strands. This is the time frame. Teams need to decide the length of time each strand represents of their business plan (i.e. a 3-year plan could be split as 1st, 2nd and 3rd year or the first 6 months, 2 years and then the final 6 months). This is entirely down to each team to decide.
USING THE XING CARDS – DEVELOPING YOUR BUSINESS PLAN Teams will spend the morning using the XING cards to develop their business plan. There are 5 categories of cards: ACTIONS, FINANCE, MARKETING, PEOPLE and STRATEGY. The cards help students to develop their route from idea through to achieving the goal. To use the cards teams will: • Place all cards face down, so there are 5 piles of colour coded cards (1 pile for each category). • One team member picks up a card and reads the term out. The same person reads the glossary definition of this card. The team decide whether the card will play a part in the strategy and if so when – at the early stages of the business, in the middle of the time frame or towards achieving the goal? The card is fixed on the board and discarded cards are fixed alongside the board. • This process is repeated until each card from each category has been discussed.
• Cards will be considered in relation to the other cards and if the card links to other cards already on the board then they will be placed together so they touch. • As cards are placed next to each other clusters will begin to form. These clusters will help teams to identify the broader areas of their strategy and separate out distinct elements or phases of activity. Teams will annotate each cluster with post it notes to explain the focus of each cluster and determine how the tasks/phases will be allocated amongst the team. • As teams work through the board they will need to take time to reflect on the financial aspect of the business, working from the idea to the goal to identify income and expenditure across the business plan. They will need to consider the main points when equity will change (i.e. when money is invested, when people become employees, when others provide services, when ownership changes etc.)
BUSINESS MEETINGS The business meetings will take place at each teams’ office space and each team will have a marketing, finance, strategy and HR meeting*. Each meeting will last 10 minutes and will be the teams’ only opportunity to ask the professionals for their advice and top tips. Teams need to ensure that prior to the meetings they have considered their specific questions and have cleared and tidied their office space so they can conduct professional business meetings. Teams need to discuss their strategy for each meeting to ensure they are focused and get the most out of them. The meetings are marked and this forms half of the overall score for each teams’ performance across the day. Business meetings will be assessed on the following: • Business meeting conduct (professionalism) – does each team member introduce themselves, does each team member contribute and are all members engaged, does the team close the meeting appropriately? • Business meeting structure – is there a meeting chair, is someone timing and managing the meeting, is there a note taker? • Business meeting content – is the idea, goal and time frame clearly explained and easy to grasp, are the questions relevant to the business meeting area, are there plenty of questions or does the meeting finish early? *Some FLUX competitions also include a technical category and therefore would have an additional technical meeting. You will be advised if your competition includes this.
PREPARING THE PITCH & PITCHING Once the business meetings have concluded, teams will use the feedback from the business meetings to finalise their business plan and prepare their 6-minute pitch. The pitches are marked by the professionals who the teams met during the business meetings. The marks from the pitch form the second half of the overall score for each teams’ performance across the day. As well as a sound pitch and a feasible, well considered business strategy, professionals will be looking for how their advice has been incorporated into the final business plan. Each team member should be involved in the pitch and each team member should be prepared to answer questions from the professionals and the audience. The pitch is marked on various aspects and should cover: • Who the team is and name and role of each person • What the business idea is (can you summarise this in 10 words or less?) • The goal and timeframe for the business • The marketing, finance, operations and people strategies • The overall business strategy • What is in it for investors and customers
As well as the above content professionals will also be looking for a: • Concise and logical pitch • Creative, energetic and professional pitch • Clear concept and benefits that customers would receive • Compelling market opportunity for potential investors • Credible team and idea Professionals will also be considering the importance of body language, eye contact, communication, support of colleagues and good team work and confidence of business plan with convincing arguments. Teams can only use flip chart paper to present. The use of computers or tablets is not allowed. Teams will also not have their boards with them. All information from their boards will have been transferred into their pitch. The winning team from each stream will be announced at the final and the stream winners will pitch again to determine the overall champions for the day.
CAREERS & EMPLOYABILITY WITH PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY CONTACT US www.plymouth.ac.uk/employability PlymUniEmp @plymuniemp Plymouth University Careers & Employability Service
This publication went to print September 2017. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication. However, as our courses and services are regularly reviewed and updated, some details may change.
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