Messy Contributions.... recipe for success?

Today has been a super warm day…. which brought to mind a cooling down activity for teaching breakeven and the concept of contribution…

Ingredients:
• A large container (tupperware box)
• A ice cream tub (smaller than container)
• A (plastic) jug of water
• At least two water bottles (full)
• Towels to dry up mess!

Instructions:
• Put the container in the middle of a desk in the front of room
• Get 4 volunteers….
• One volunteer must hold the ice cream tub above the container on the desk!
• One gets a jug of water (cash cow): they must slowly pour water in continuously
• The 2 water bottle volunteers – one to drip water in very slowly and the other to poor water in ‘at a fastish rate’

Guidance:
• The tub is FC… the water is contributions (P-VC) … as the water gets close to covering the FC…. Get them to stop… as a business should they stop selling products?
• What happens to the contributions once FC are ‘covered’…. Where does it go?
• What would happen if the cash cow becomes a problem child?
• What happen if the star really does take off?
• What if the problem child… needs more investment? Where can the source of finance come from???

• Paper towels essential to clear up the mess!

It doesn’t matter whether students are aware of Boston Matrix concepts at the moment, I often ‘describe’ these and later add in the ‘correct’ terminology… warning them of a future topic. When you teach Boston Matrix - they nearly always remember the terms & contribution speed that each can make towards profits!

Hope this activity can cool you & your students down over this late heatwave!