C563 Capstone Course for the Kelley Direct
H 702/C563 syllabus
Capstone Course for the Kelley Direct
Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation
Winter 2004-2005
November 29 through February 26 (Winter break 12/22-12/28)
Instructor: Marc J. Dollinger, Glaubinger Professor of Business Administration, Chairman of the Undergraduate Program, Kelley School of Business.
Physical Location: Room 242 Kelley School of Business, Bloomington
Personal Website:
Phone: 812-855-4474 (Undergraduate Office)
Fax: 812-855-0212 (Undergraduate Office)
Overview
A capstone course is understood to be one in which the student gets to complete his or her degree program with a series of integrative exercises. In order to accomplish this, we have chosen the field of entrepreneurship as a vehicle. Entrepreneurship is multi-disciplinary and therefore will allow you to use all of the skills you developed in your separate functional courses. Entrepreneurship is strategic and will enable you to take the big picture view of the firm in its nascent stage and during its creation. Lastly, entrepreneurship is a creative process and this will allow you to use your non-analytical, more intuitive skills that were developed over the course of your degree program. We hope you will find the class both a challenge to your newly developed skills and an opportunity to explore your own creative business motivations.
The capstone is also about solving a set of problems. The overarching problem is “How do my team and I create a successful and sustainable business?” There are numerous sub-problems that need to be solved in order to attain the main goal.
Entrepreneurs must be able to solve the problem of idea generation. This means they must be able to create business enterprise ideas. Some people are very good at this and I am sure you have met them (or maybe have this knack yourself). These people are literally idea machines---they can constantly create new combinations of old ideas or new applications for existing ideas, or simply invent whole new forms of economic activity. Ideas come from within the individual or team’s own experience, from the external operating or competitive industry environment, or from completely accidental and serendipitous events.
Entrepreneurs and their teams need to be able to solve the matching problem. This means they must understand themselves and their own motivations, skills, capabilities, limitations and the like in order to determine whether or not they are a good match for the tasks at hand in general---and then specifically for a particular kind of enterprise. Bill Gates might have been good at managing a restaurant (although I doubt it) but he would not have been happy. Li Ka Shing might have done well as a sports entrepreneur, but he would have been constraining his skill set to do this. As they say, “Different folks for different ventures.”
But an idea is not a business. The entrepreneurial team must next meet the strategic challenge of how to craft a business idea into a business model and how to evaluate the feasibility of this model. Markets must be analysed, marketing plans developed. Operations must be designed and costs calculated. How will the entrepreneur actually operate the business? Addressing the strategic problem requires as much creativity as generating ideas because there is no formula or “one best way” to do this. The same idea in the hands of different entrepreneurs can result in vastly different businesses because they will create different visions and models for these businesses.
If we consider this problem-solving we are doing to be sequential (and often it is not), then the next task to accomplish is how to communicate the business idea, vision, model and strategy to others. One important vehicle for communicating is the business plan. Then our next challenge is to write a business plan and that indeed will be the ultimate focus of this subject. The business plan is the primary document for establishing a new business enterprise, whether in a corporate environment or in a standalone business venture.
When the business plan is written, the entrepreneur and the rest of the top management team face two additional and distinct efforts. One of these is to find financing for the business. In a corporate setting the larger corporation serves as the financial marketplace and will make the decisions based on risk, return and strategic considerations. In a standalone enterprise, the financial community---bankers, angel investors, venture capitalists and others---are the sources of funding. The entrepreneurs must be able to develop financial plans and projections, a valuation model and a deal structure to entice investors to their business.
The second challenge is creating, building and sustaining an organization. Most new ventures are created by teams of individuals who band together to complement each other’s resources, capabilities, connections and preferences. Sometimes groups of organizations are the initiative-takers for building a separate organization too. But it is increasingly rare for a single individual to be able to do it all him or herself. So the entrepreneur or top management team must produce incentives for others to join them.
Undertaking these challenges, solving these problems and completing these tasks are not easy. The test of the solution is not to be found in a classroom or textbook, but in the marketplace of economic reality. But a class can offer tools, a chance to experiment, an opportunity to practice, and the venue to get input and feedback. Those are the purposes of the study of entrepreneurship in the capstone course.
Learning Objectives
The primary learning objectives of the course are:
Upon completion of this subject, students should be able to:
• generate multiple business enterprise ideas, either in the context of an existing corporation or organization or for independent ventures
• select the one(s) that are the best fit between the person, the business and the environment for creating and developing new business enterprises
• design, develop and craft the strategy and business model for a new enterprise
• communicate both the essence of the business and elaboration of its success through a written business plan
• demonstrate the operational and financial feasibility of the venture and develop a financial structure for the enterprise create, build and sustain the organizational capabilities to make the venture a success
Course Materials
Text and Cases: Dollinger, M.J. Entrepreneurship: Strategies and Resources. 2003. Third Edition, Prentice-Hall, Saddle River New Jersey.
Simulation: Launching a High-Risk Business. 1999. High Performance Systems, Inc. & Harvard Business School Publishing, Cambridge Massachusetts.
Deliverables and Grades
The final due date for all deliverables is Sunday (except for the final project which will be due Wednesday February 23rd. The weekly class begins on Monday and ends Sunday night. Our Winter Holiday break starts December 22 and continues through December 28. Deliverables are accepted throughout Sunday night and even into the wee hours of Monday morning, but I usually start grading Monday morning and that is when I need your assignments. The distribution of grades will follow the recommended distribution for the KD program.
|Category Designation |Reported Grade |Target Distribution |
|Distinguished |A |10-15% |
|Excellent |A- |25-35% |
|High Pass |B+ |0-50% |
|Pass |B |0-50% |
|Marginal Performance |B- or C+ |0-20% |
|Poor Performance |C through D- |As Needed |
|Failure |F |As Needed |
|Incomplete |I |As Needed |
Participation in Message Boards (Discussion Forums) happens continuously all week, but if you want credit for a weekly forum, you must post no later than Sunday night.
The primary deliverables for the class are:
Entrepreneurial Resume (individual) 10%
Idea Generation exercise (individual) 10%
Idea Treatment (individual) 10%
Built to Last exercise (individual or group) 10%
Final Project (individual or group) 30%
Launching a High Risk Business (individual) 10%
Participation and Citizenship (individual) 20%
The Entrepreneurial Resume is a 1-2 page resume that describes and details your entrepreneurial aspirations, and entrepreneurial (intrapreneurial) experiences and skills. This is a Week 1 assignment and will help me get to know you better.
The Idea Generation exercise is a list of your five best business ideas with a short (one page for each idea) description. Evaluation criteria include: creativity, feasibility, congruence with your skills, profitability, and sustainability. This is a Week 2 assignment and will start you thinking about the business for the final project.
The Idea Treatment is a short (1-2 pages) deliverable that will be your commitment to your integrative project. A description of this assignment is an attachment to Class 3 on the Schedule. From this assignment, your final projects will emerge.
The Built to Last exercise (also called “Mission, Goals and Objectives”) is a series of forms to complete about your final project business plan. These will be provided. The forms cover your Core Ideology, your goals (BHAG) and Envisioned Future. This assignment forms the basis of your firm’s mission statement.
Final Project. To meet the fourth learning object, you will need to put together your own information and analysis and do a modified business plan or develop and write and entrepreneurial case study. You will need to make a commitment to an option by the end of the fifth week the latest. Earlier is better.
The format for the business plan is in Chapter 5 of the text. You may work alone and write a relatively short business plan (15 pages plus exhibits and appendices). You may work with a small group of people (four people maximum) and write a regular length business plan (25 pages plus exhibits and appendices).
Page limits will be enforced. Be a good editor.
Participation and Citizenship. We will have Discussion Forums (Message Boards) most weeks. Your participation in Message Boards will comprise your participation grade. Message Board grades will be based on quality of contribution, insights, connectedness, and quantity. There are five Message Boards scheduled, plus a discussion of the simulation (6 opportunities total). Please participate in at least five in order to assure a respectable grade (B+).
The citizenship component comes from any group work you might engage in and your general conduct in the class. The Honor Code of the Kelley School of Business is the applicable code of conduct for students in this class. It can be found at:
Students also have rights and responsibilities under Indiana University’s policies. These can be found at:
All policies and procedures as outlined in the Kelley Direct Student Handbook are applicable.
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