We want villagers in villages worldwide to understand the economics of their villages, efficiently use their resources for economic growth, and connect socially.

Hello Chris,

Welcome to the 2008 GSBI application process, and thank you for submission of Exercise 1. I am happy to be the GSBI Task Force member who will provide you comments on each of the exercises.

Your Target Market statement contains a lot of good information. To refine it further, I’d like to make the following few suggestions:

1. You have thoroughly identified the total addressable market for your organization. What is missing, however, is your estimate of the total available market. Your reference to “Geographically-based micro-based communities … all over the world …that fail to live up to their potential” implies that the total available market for VillageManager.net would be global.
 
2. Your statement would be stronger if you were to follow the example format shown as numbers 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 at http://www.socialedge.org/features/gsbi/gsbi/exercise-1-target-market-statement. A second example can be seen at http://www.socialedge.org/features/gsbi/gsbi/gsbi-application-exercises-example-bushproof. Following the format will help you avoid omitting important information.

3. Your Business Model mentions “...several competing sites that provide property management data warehousing, real estate and business analysis, and demographic profiles.” Identifying these alternatives to your service and their positioning as well as VillageManager.net’s own positioning in the marketplace would help illustrate where your enterprise fits into the competitive landscape.

4. Including the “Compelling Reason for Adoption” column in your Market Segmentation Table will emphasize the value that VillageManager.net is creating for its beneficiaries.

If you would like to revise your Target Market Statement, I would be happy to review it again.

Regards,
Susan Mandle
2008 GSBI Task Force

Susan,

Can we still make changes now that it's past the deadline?

Chris

Hi Chris,

Yes, you can post updates to any of the exercises any time during the entire application period. However, submissions posted before an exercise’s published deadline have priority for receiving feedback, so you are likely to receive a less detailed response to anything posted later.

Regards,

Susan