ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN DIGITALIZATION

Read the following mini-case and answer the questions.

In recent years, the entrepreneurial educator and author Steve Blank began applying lean startup principles to various US governmental agencies. Through a Hacking for Diplomacy course, students at Stanford University began tackling problems for the Department of State. A former US ambassador to the United Nations, a State Department representative to Silicon Valley and senior advisor for technology and innovation, a retired US Army colonel, and other entrepreneurial educators joined Blank in applying lean startup methods to State Department issues. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry even visited the Stanford students and said he was looking forward to the solutions students develop during the ten weeks. One project that emerged was from a group calling themselves Team Space Evaders. The team was tasked with working on the problem of satellite collision. Members charted satellite positioning data and explored how information about potential collision was shared by commercial operators and governmental entities ranging from the Federal Aviation Administration to the Department of Defense.

A. Apply the lean startup methodology to identify potential customer segments and problems and solutions that students such as yourself could identify for the State Department on the issue of satellite collision.

B. What would a unique value proposition for a State Department solution to this issue be? How could a high-level concept pitch work when selling the concept within the State Department?

Formalities:

  •  Wordcount: 800 words
  •  Cover, Table of Contents, References and Appendix are excluded of the total wordcount.
  •  Font: Arial 12,5 pts.
  •  Text alignment: Justified.
  •  The in-text References and the Bibliography must be in Harvard’s citation style.

Submission: TBD

Weight:

It assesses the following learning outcomes:

  •  Gain a deep understanding the role of new digital technologies to shift from the traditional way of doing business into the digital era.
  •  Explain & analyze the elements that define Digital Entrepreneurship.
  •  Analyze the innovation and design-thinking process to choose and develop a digital business idea.
  •  Critically evaluate the financing aspects of digital entrepreneurship and its management.