JA Business Week 2014- An Innovative Entrepreneurial Challenge

June 26, 2014

What do you get when you challenge 170 high school students to dream up an amazing new OtterBox product?!?!?  Lots of great ideas!

Business Week Tour June2014 015This year, OtterBox and the OtterCares Foundation participated in Junior Achievement’s annual Business Week event. This week-long camp brings high school students from all over Colorado together for a crash course in innovation, entrepreneurship, and business skills. The students participate in interactive workshops and are also given a challenge to work on as a group. This year’s challenge… dream up a brand new OtterBox case for the iPhone 5s that appeals to the teenage market and then create a marketing plan to sell it.

JA Biz Week 1To kick off the week, students heard from representatives from the OtterBox “Global Engineering and Technology Development” department about the OtterBox product design and manufacturing process. This helped ensure that students’ ideas were not only creative, but also manufacturable and profitable. During the week, OtterBox employee volunteers served as “life lines” that the students could email with questions about their project. Each team got only three life lines, so they had to use them carefully! Then on Friday, students presented their ideas in a “Shark Tank” style panel and judges from OtterBox and other Colorado companies scored each team and provided feedback.

Junior Achievement Business Week helps inspire future entrepreneurs by giving students a real business-world opportunity to learn and apply skills that will help them in their future careers. OtterBox and the OtterCares Foundation are proud to support this unique, hands-on program! For more information about Junior Achievement Business Week and how you or a student you know can get involved in future years, visit http://www.jacolorado.org/junior-achievement-business-week/.