Business Management - Unit 1
Area of Study 1: Movie Response Activity – ‘Joy’
The following activity is based on the American movie Joy, which documents the life
of Joy Mangano, an entrepreneur who invented over 100 inventions. One of these
inventions inspired her to establish a company that led to annual sales of $150
million. The activity requires students to watch the movie and respond to it by
completing the questions in the following movie response worksheet. The activity
relates primarily to Area of Study 1 in VCE Business Management Unit 1, focusing
on how and why business ideas are created and developed.
ABOUT JOY MANGANO
New York resident Joy Mangano, a financially struggling divorced mother of three,
invented a unique mop in 1990 that led her to heading up a billion dollar company
called Ingenious Designs. To develop her invention, Joy borrowed money against
her house, developed a prototype and initially manufactured the mop in her father’s
automotive body repair workshop. At a later date, Joy entered a contract with a
Californian company to manufacture the mop’s parts.
Joy had little initial success in selling the mop locally at stores and trade shows until
she started promoting her invention on QVC, an American home shopping television
channel. In less than a half hour following the first presentation on air she sold 18
000 mops.
Joy Mangano starting inventing products as a teenager, including a flea collar for
dogs that illuminated at night. She is responsible for inventing over 100 other
inventions, including light, slim, space-saving and non-slip Huggable Hangers (of
which she has sold more than 800 million units) and the travel-size My Little
Steamer, which smooths wrinkles and creases out of suits, dresses, curtains,
tablecloths and other fabrics. All her inventions are based on problems Joy felt
needed to be solved.
Joy’s products are sold in stores such as Macy’s, Target and Bath & Beyond, and
the American online and television home shopping network HSN, which sells a range
of products, including home products. Joy sold Ingenious Designs to HSN in 1999.
Joy’s daughter, Miranne, says that her mother has the gift of seeing the world
through products. As well as being an inventor, Joy has the ability to relate to her
customers. She regularly appeared on HSN and it was not uncommon that sales for
the particular product she was promoting at the time would top one million within an
hour.
Her daughter says that her fans ‘feel like Joy is their best friend’. Joy continued to
be one of HSN’s most successful sellers, with annual sales of her products topping
US$150 million, until her departure in 2018 due to a change of ownership of HSN.
She has received many business awards and has a net worth of around US$70
million.
Joy Mangano attending the premiere of the movie
Joy at the Ziegfeld Theatre on 13 December 2015
in New York.
MOVIE RESPONSE WORKSHEET
The following movie response worksheet is divided into four parts. Watch the movie Joy (2015,
2 hours, 4 minutes) in half-hour parts and answer the question set corresponding to each part.
Use the expandable textboxes to key in your response to each question.
Part 1
1 a. Name and describe the mop Joy Mangano invented.
b. Explain how innovation and technological development were sources of business
opportunity for Joy.
c. Why was entrepreneurship a source of business opportunity for Joy?
2 Explain two contributions that Joy’s business has made to the US economy.
3 State some characteristics of Joy Mangano that have contributed towards her being a
successful entrepreneur and businessperson.
Part 2
4 Describe Joy’s personal motivations for starting her business.
5 Recognising and taking advantage of market opportunities is also a source of business
opportunity.
Describe the market opportunity that Joy identified and pursued.
6 a. Outline the meaning of the term ‘business concept development’ and explain how it applies
to the development of Joy’s main product.
b. Why was business concept development an important part of the process of developing
Joy’s unique mop?
c. In relation to Joy’s business, explain the relationship between business opportunities and
business concept development.
7 Define the term ‘market research’ and describe how Joy conducted market research for her
mop.
Part 3
8 a. What is a prototype?
b. Joy developed a prototype of her invention. Why was this useful?
c. A prototype is an example of research and development as a source of business
opportunity. Explain this statement.
9 Explain how Joy’s business has contributed to the social wellbeing of the nation.
Part 4
10 Using examples from the movie, explain how Joy could have or did protect her inventions from
being copied by competitors.
11 a. Successful entrepreneurship involves risk-taking. What does this statement mean?
b. Explain how Joy took risks to bring her product to market.