Business Feasibility for Banana Peduncle Fiberboards

OVERVIEW:

The motivation for this project was to properly define a potential business idea that I had pitched before for a competition (shoutout to Lanz and Rom!). Under an engineering perspective and new set of eyes, I wanted to know more how we can make this business idea feasible and what sort of tools can we use to make it more tangible and achieve a sustainable business.

The business idea was to repurpose banana peduncle fiber waste into a composite fiberboard that can be used as an alternative to wall panelling like that of a hardieflex (local brand). This comes the idea that despite the excellent mechanical properties of banana peduncle fibers as a construction material, it is not utilized properly and is burned in local banana farms after harvesting.

LEARNINGS:

We were able to do a market summary of the current state of the construction industry where in summary is shifting to more sustainable alternatives which is good for the business as of writing.

We provided a simple business model canvas, our go-to-market strategy, cost structure calculation and the innovative ecosystem that is needed to drive our product for B2B consumer use.

Bonus points for me was to utilize the cost structure calculations I did before, and I apply it here in my current business idea where I saw significant profits assuming a 1.5x breakeven of units, but that also assumes that we can sell all the initial 1,000 products under a 300 pesos selling price.

Overall, I can confidently say that this business is feasible, but startup cost can run high and there may not be a direct sales immediately after manufacturing of our product despite the ecosystem 🥲. Despite this, It was really insightful to see how new perspectives tackle the business idea and how we can improve it! Below is a summary of the documents my group and I made for this business feasiblity.

P.S. Thank you for Zia, Aldrich, Tin (CIV majors) and Abby (ChE major) for being such cool co-leads for this project! it was fun doing this with them. You guys rock :))