At one school session using a real-life case study about a teenage virtual world, the business challenge for the students was to define an engaging product feature that the company should work on next.
One bright spark said, “Hang on a minute. I just gave you a good idea. If they decide to do my idea, then I should get paid for that.” I asked him whether he would rather do a case study about carpet manufacturing (the previous year’s exercise in which I was not involved) or do this year’s study on a product that they were really interested in? After processing, he nodded indicating he knew he got a much better deal this year.
There is no doubt that bringing a real-life case study on the cutting edge of digital innovation plays a large part toward engaging a group of teens. You should have seen the students’ fascination when talking through the business model at the start!