Assignment 1: Earning Rs. 100/-

The assignment was interesting. At least until we had gone through all the ideas we could ever come up with. Making Rs. 100 in a couple of hours (without the use of contacts and in all honesty, without revealing our true objective being a college project) seems pretty easy. But then again, here comes, the keyword: 'innovation'. The idea had to be as innovative yet money-making.

So , we started working our heads towards the development of an 'innovative' business . We mind boggled for around 6 hours, that took us from the origin of a business to its success . We dissectedthe type of businesses into the creation & provision of a product to customers, and the provision of a service . We tried to think of a need for a service (or a product) that there was a need for but lacking availability. Some of the ideas that came about were:

1. helping coconut vendors make their business profitable by creating graphics on the coconut shells that would attract more customers

2. helping tourists by setting up a mobile information centre at a popular tourist location in Bangalore.
3. setting up a fun personality quiz booth
4. tapping into and using a current trend or hot topic as a base to make a product more attractive for selling, for instance MichaelJackson souvenirs.

5. Providing seating arrangements for elderly and other enthusiasts for a particular time limit in crowded commercial zones.

6. In case of rain, escorting stranded people to autos or nearby shelters with an umbrella.

7. Offering verbal and persuasive skills to lure more customers for pedlers and immobile sellers.

8. Collecting second-hand unwanted objects from door to door, and hosting a jumble sale.

We turned our focus towards children as an audience. A lot of brands nowadays aim at children as valuable customers. Some of the ideas that were thrown up with children in mind were:

1. Cheap storybooks to promote basic reading skills among children in low income areas. This was to be accompanied by story-telling sessions.

2. Having henna tatoo, body-painting and such entertainment booths.

We finally zeroed onto hosting puppet show performances for children in kindergarten and playschools. It serves as an educative entertainment thereby providing them with a break from their regular curriculum. It would be followed by a special origami workshop for teachers as well as students.

this was a very fun-filled yet embarressing experience. After deciding to host the puppet show for children we decided to go from one playschool to another, hoping that someone would allow us to perform for the children and earn some money. but this was a task that proved to be too difficult.

some schools told us that we have to have a more organised and official upproach, some told us that our reqest would take time to accept and some were already closed.

When we approached CRN Scool in Yelehanka, we were told that we could perform for the kids, but had we told them a day earlier they would have sent a request to the parents allowing their children to watch the 5 rupee puppet show. Since we had just that day to perform, we agreed to do it for free.

But performing infront of 75 nursery and kindergarten kids who knew little english and hardly any hindi was no easy job. But somehow we pulled through, singing "Ba Ba Black Sheep", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Lakdi ki Kathi". the children enthusiastically joined us for "If You're Happy and You Know It". the children's reaction and joy was definitely more rewarding than the money