Innovative ideas from Day 1: First year students presented their business plans

April 22, 2021

Although COVID-19 has taken a big toll on how higher education is done worldwide, the freshmen generation at the RIT Croatia's HTM program in Dubrovnik had a full face-to-face class experience this semester. As part of the Business 2: Business Planning & Professional Development course delivered by Mr. Domagoj Nikolić, a faculty member teaching HTM courses, students were working throughout the semester to develop a full plan of their own innovative business ideas including the Business Description, Marketing Mix, Porter's 5 Forces Analysis, SWOT, Operations and Management Plan, Budget and Budget Narrative, all supported by their own secondary and primary research.

And what innovations have we seen! From One Stop App - an integrated online platform for service purchases, QR App for customer reviews with integrity, to MonteVision - innovative wedding planning in Montenegro, La Noches Uniqas - a Spanish restaurant in Dubrovnik to TraDGeeks heritege hotel, DuNoctis drive in focused on quality F&B and BeLocal personalized luxury tours and many, many more.

One of the exclusivities of the course is that final project presentations evaluations are conducted by an external expert. This time it was Dario Ševelj, a trailblazer in the craft beer industry in the Dalmatian far south with over 13 years of experience in banking in the sector of supporting small, medium-sized and large business projects. Dario gave the following statement at the end: "What we saw here was pretty incredible for the freshmen generation and it would be pretty incredible even for the seniors. At least five business ideas could be easily flipped to reality with just a bit of refinement, which shows that investors should pay more attention to the young generations and institutions nurturing the future business cadre in a hands-on, applied way."

Another interesting detail was that the by and large students planned for remote working options in their businesses and opted for Zoom instead of in-class presentations, which is yet another proof that technology for the young generations is just a bicycle of the mind, just like Steve Jobs predicted in would be. Their minds, provided with the right knowledge and tools, move faster, and so be prepared to be overtaken soon... New generations coming!