< Previousthat this would have been an interesting topic to spend more time on but alas we couldn’t. Notes: 240311institute.comNotes: 241311institute.comMATTHEW GRIFFIN 311INSTITUTE.com TODAY INDIVIDUALS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD AT A SPEED AND SCALE UNIMAGINABLE JUST TWENTY YEARS AGO BUT MOST OF US AREN’T TAUGHT HOW TO UNLOCK THIS POTENTIAL .as we see titanic technological shifts and global business disruption, they will need to be armed with the critical thinking and skills to navigate it all and thrive. At its core this these are the skills this course teaches. LESSON OBSERVATIONS You can find the course and lesson plans we used for this course later on in this codex. These observations, from the first run of this course, include observations from both myself and the teaching staff involved. In this case these lessons were taken by myself alongside Andrew R. the schools Year 6 science teacher who had no prior experience of this topic or lesson format. LESSON 1 Startup Workshop and Pitch Preparation In this lesson we recapped the different ways that food production is changing and discussed how new technologies and the rise of an increasingly digital and connected society can help the children change the world and impact the lives of billions of people faster than ever before. EXPONENTIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP . FIRST RUN . T HIS SHORT two week course, which was back to back with the Future of Food course, and where students had to start their own Future Food startups, was run with Year 6 students with an average age of 11. Aligned to the United Nations Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, the content of this course teaches students the entrepreneurial skills used by some of the world’s most prolific and successful entrepreneurs and doesn’t hold back. In short it is not a course that has been watered down to be age appropriate, and this was intentional because we wanted to see just how capable the children were when literally put in at the deep end. The purpose of this course was to give the children the opportunity to create their own Exponential Startups then seek Seed Funding from an expert panel. Today, not only do we live in a world where our children can create and scale businesses that sell to and impact billions of people faster than ever before,but 243311institute.comNext, in groups, we left them to ideate their new companies, coached them on the information they needed to include in their investor decks, and gave them the pitch templates they needed to complete - based on the real pitch decks used by many of the worlds most successful companies such as Uber to raise hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment. The students then worked in groups to develop their startups and pitch decks with oversight from myself and Andrew R. the teacher. They then continued working on them after school in their groups over the course of the week with assistance from anyone they wanted to be involved because, after all, that’s precisely how it works in the real world - no barriers and no holds barred as they say. LESSON 2 Pitch Session In this second and ironically finally session the children got to present their startups and pitch decks to a panel of investors and trade equity and other tangible assets in return for Seed Funding. It is important to say that at every step of the way through this course none of the children were given allowances, byes, or free passes because of their age. Giving them as authentic an experience as possible and treating them in the same way entrepreneurs more than twice their age are treated, both in terms of behaviours and lines of questioning, was done on purpose to see how they would cope and fare, and as daunting as that might sound this is our experience: 1. Creative Freedom . Having a standard pitch template to that students can follow, and use if necessary, is a must. But, that said, they should also be given full creative freedom to create their own if they wish to do so. 2. Variable Quality but Good . As expected the quality of the pitches, in terms of presenting styles as well as their branding and design, varied greatly. However, despite these variances all the pitches contained all of the necessary and vital information required by seasoned investors. 3. Levelled Up Job Almost Done . Despite some doubts it was clear that the children had in fact grasped and taken on board all the key learnings from both courses - this and the Future of Food course - as well as many of the subtler ones and Notes: 244311institute.combeen able to successfully combine them. The evidence of this was everywhere. In their pitches they included comprehensive information about everything from the competitive landscapes and their unique value propositions, all the way through to details about new business models and their impact on people and the environment. They also showed amazingly high levels of lateral thinking. Overall the quality of their pitches and presentation styles would have put many real entrepreneurs to shame, and I speak from first hand experience. Bearing in mind that both courses were new, rushed, and were built in flight as they say, this was perhaps our most staggering observation. 4. Competitors Beware . When it came to listing their competitors almost all of the children were not only well informed, but they also displayed a very high degree of lateral thinking and ambition. In short they had almost everyone who’s involved in today’s food industry in their sights - and this was surprising. Sure, they saw traditional food providers such as Asda, Marks and Spencers, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco’s in their sights, but they also had KFC and McDonalds in their sights as well. They even included Cargill, Deliveroo, Just Eat, and others as competitors they could take out, and I don’t mean take out for lunch. Furthermore, their value propositions against these companies were well thought out and almost every business model they sighted was Direct to Consumer (D2C) - the investors favourite kind of business model in today’s environment. What was perhaps most interesting though was that none of them had thought about partnering with said giants and instead decided in all cases to take them head on. Bold? 5. Social Good . It was interesting, and heartening, to see that every pitch had philanthropic elements whether it was giving free food to the homeless, or providing food at a discount to the 810 Million hungry people on the planet. 6. Variable Pricing Models . We also saw numerous examples of different pricing strategies for developed and developing nations which was interesting and showed a maturity of thinking that even some adult entrepreneurs gloss over or ignore. 7. Too Quick to Take the £££ . When the Notes: 245311institute.cominvestors were making their offers only a handful of students asked what value those investors would bring to the table. Not only was this a missed opportunity but also a future coaching point. 8. Great Imaginary Skills . When the pitching teams described their leadership teams it was encouraging to see they all chose the right mix of skills and leadership qualities to develop their companies, with many of the world’s top companies and universities being regularly cited. 9. Money to Buy Assets . Quite a number of students planned on using the investments they secured to buy assets and assets, such as factories and warehouses, rather than leasing these assets. This could be a future coaching point because as all business executives know Return on Capital Employed (RCOE) is a key performance metric for businesses, and it’s generally yet another topic that’s not taught in schools but is nonetheless vital to understand. 10. Child’s Play . When asked complex questions about equity stakes, profit margins, pricing strategies, product development, sales to date, target markets, and other topics the great majority of students were able to think on their feet and could answer questions that many adults might have struggled with quickly and competently. While they were obviously very impressive the big lesson here for both parents and teachers alike is that in many respects many students have skills far beyond their years. Notes: 246311institute.comMYTH “YOU NEED TO TEACH CHILDREN LIKE CHILDREN . “ OBSERVATION THEY PICK UP FUTURES CONCEPTS FASTER THAN ADULTS . EVEN ENTREPRENEURSHIPEFC COURSE PLANS AND RESOURCESI N THIS section you will find all the guides, resources, templates, and course plans that you need to begin running your very own Exponential Futures Curriculum (EFC) program, and hopefully while trying to envision and forecast the future is complex by using the resources in this section you’ll find that running your program isn’t. 249311institute.comNext >