Entrepreneurial Ventures Syllabus



Entrepreneurial Ventures2 CreditsBU.152.710.XX [NOTE: Each section must have a separate syllabus.][Day & Time / ex: Monday, 6pm-9pm][Start & End Dates / ex: 8/20/18–10/15/18][Semester / ex: Fall 2018][Location / ex: Washington, DC]Instructor[Full Name]Contact Information[Email Address][Phone Number, ###- ###-#### (Optional)]Office Hours[Specify the day and time of the 2 hours that will be dedicated to office hours each week. For evening classes, faculty may wish to hold their office hours by phone or email. While faculty are permitted to state “and by appointment,” office hours should not be held exclusively by appointment.]Required Texts & Learning MaterialsThere are required readings and some optional materials. Read the lists and instructions carefully.Harvard Business School Cases Used in the CourseTitle: Cork'd: Building a Social Network for Wine LoversProduct number: 911-026Coles, P.Title: Sirtris PharmaceuticalsProduct number 808112-PDF-ENGStuart, T., & Kiron, D.Title: Zipcar: Refining the Business Model Product number: 9-803-096Hart, M. M., Roberts, M. J., & Stevens, J.Harvard Business School Articles Used in the CourseStevenson, H. H., & Spence, S. M. (2007). Identifying and Exploiting the Right Opportunity…for You. 808043-PDF-ENG.Wasserman, N. (2012). Assembling the Startup Team. Harvard Business School Background Note 812-122.Hamermesh, R. G., Marshall, P. W., & Pirmohamed, T. (2002). Note on Business Model Analysis for the Entrepreneur. 802048-PDF-ENG.Roberts, M. J., & Barley, L. (2004). How Venture Capitalists Evaluate Potential Venture Opportunities. 9-805-019.Stevenson, H. H., & Roberts, M. J. (2002). New Venture Financing. 802131-PDF-ENG.Required Readings Available from the Library Data Base Day, G. (2007). Is It Real??Can We Win??Is It Worth Doing?: Managing Risk and Reward in an Innovation Portfolio. Harvard Business Review.Porter, M. E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review.Elsbach, K. D. (2003). How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea. Harvard Business Review. #R0309J.Sahlman, W. A. (1997). How to Write a Great Business Plan. Harvard Business Review. #97409.Supplementary (Optional) MaterialsKuratko, D. F. (2014). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice (9th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning. ISBN: 978-1285051758.Course DescriptionThis course focuses on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable entrepreneurs to pursue opportunities in business development. Students form teams to experience each step of the entrepreneurial process. The end result is an opportunity assessment of a business idea. Emphasis is placed on a hands-on approach with learning supplemented by cases appropriate to each phase of the course. Students are exposed to real entrepreneurial operations and businesses, via final project and presentations.Course OverviewEntrepreneurial Ventures provides students with an experiential and in-depth examination of the challenges involved in identifying and assessing an opportunity for an entrepreneurial venture, whether in business-to-business or business-to-consumer settings. By entrepreneurial, we refer to those ventures that are opportunity focused, whether their setting is a start-up, a small early-stage firm, a social enterprise, or a larger well-established company. The course’s focus on the entrepreneurial domain complements other courses in the MBA whose principal foci deal with the analytical and administrative domains of managerial behavior. The course also serves to apply and bring together, in an entrepreneurial context, tools and frameworks introduced in other core courses. Prerequisite(s)NoneLearning ObjectivesThe learning objectives for this course are:You should be familiar with the ideation process and be able to come up with ideas for products and services.You should be able to assess ideas to determine their economic viability.You should understand the different ways entrepreneurs can finance their venture. You should be able to do a market analysis of the potential demand for your product/service idea.You should be able to succinctly and convincingly convey your idea and the opportunity to a potential investor, business partner, or employee—both orally and in writing. You should understand the challenges that an entrepreneur faces in starting a business and forming a team and gain insights into whether this is something you may want to pursue one day. To view the complete list of the Carey Business School’s general learning goals and objectives, visit the Carey website.Attendance Attendance and participation are part of your course grade. Full attendance and active participation are required for you to succeed in this course. One class, both excused and unexcused, may be missed without penalty. Beyond this one absence, participation grades will be deducted from your participation grades for each absence. Six absences, whether excused or not, result in a failing grade for the course. For an absence to be excused, you must have contacted the instructor prior to the class meeting, and you must provide a valid, legitimate, substantiated excuse at the next class session. Class ParticipationStudents will be evaluated after each class on their contributions to discussions. Contributions are defined as: observations that advance the discussion or change the direction of the class discussion; insightful commentaries that raise learning points; probing questions that challenge the extant discussion and yield new directions; and analyses that clarify and amplify case facts. Class attendance is a prerequisite for class contribution; therefore, students will earn a 0 on days they do not attend class. The first six classes are worth 1 point and last two are worth two points. If you miss one class among the last two classes and it is your first absence, then the class 6 will be worth 2 points and missed class will be worth 1 point. A minimal grade is assigned for attendance without active participation. Class contribution will be graded 0–5 according to the following subjective criteria: 5 = able to answer or ask questions with good examples from the readings and makes several excellent points that reveals deep thought about the issue(s), and understanding of the readings and cases. Raises the level of discourse. This score is rare.4 = raises a number of good points from the cases and readings, less inspired than a 5, but reveals a clear understanding of the material, with the ability to apply it.3 = raises one or two good points, and shows a rudimentary grasp of the readings and cases. Essentially, attempts to draw some linkage with the concepts used in the class.2 = makes one or two points but does not attempt to apply what is learned in the readings or lectures, i.e., superficial common sense-type answers to questions that required more insight.1 = shows up for class but does not participate0 = did not attend classAssignments All assignments have to be submitted on Blackboard, unless explicitly mentioned. Students are responsible to ensure that the cases are uploaded on to Blackboard before deadline for the assignments to be graded. No exceptions will be made and missing a deadline will lead to a score of zero. AssignmentLearning ObjectivesWeightAttendance, participation in class discussion (Individual)1, 415%Cases analyses (2*20%) (Individual)2, 3, 440%Idea Pitches (Team)1,210%Performance (Team)1, 2, 3, 4, 55%Final Oral presentation (Team)1, 2, 3, 4, 510%Business Plan (Team)1, 2, 3, 4, 520%Total100%Case Analyses (Individual)Entrepreneurial thinking and analysis are best learned through practice. The cases we will study concern real-world situations related to technology entrepreneurship. These cases are designed to provide you with information on real-life problems, and case analysis is useful as a simulation of actual events. These integrative cases provide an opportunity to both apply the concepts that we discuss in class as well as to further develop our ability to think about entrepreneurship.Criteria used for the evaluation of case analyses:The objective of the analysis is to respond to the case questions in a logical and structured manner. All arguments should be logically sound and supported by evidence from the case whenever possible. The typical length should be 1,000–1,500 words. Case analysis should not only repeat facts from the case without your analysis! Respond to the specific case questions when analyzing each case!The case analysis will be graded based on the following criteria:Problem statement: Did you define the scope of the problem? What are the different aspects of this problem? What is the relevant information from the case? Analysis: Does you analysis remain focused on addressing the question raised? Did you indicate the key factors and mechanisms that are important for answering your question? You may also discuss different perspectives and approaches to the problem.Recommendations: Did you suggest recommendations that follow logically from analysis? Be sure to discuss implementation issues.Important Notes about Case Analysis Submission:You need to submit a minimum of two cases. Zipcar case is required. You can choose to complete one of the remaining two cases: Sirtris or Cork’d. If you choose to submit both Sirtris and Cork’d, then best score between the two cases will be assigned.Evaluation of Final Class Project (Team)There are four key deliverables for this section:Idea Pitch (Class 2): 5-minute pitch (10%)The class will evaluate each team’s idea. The evaluation will be done through an online survey. This will also determine your seed funding that will be given to you in class 3. Note that this grade is based on peer evaluation and will be part of your project grade.The pitch should typically contains information about:What problem are you solving?Who are these individuals that benefit (customer)?What is the product?What is the competition?How you are going to make money?What resources do investor/customer have that you want?Howe do you create value that you capture?Performance (Class 7): (5%)Return the envelope with receipts of sale or proof of sale along with the earningsKeep detailed receipt of your investments if any. If you are able to earn back your investment, it will be returned to you.Earning will be calculated as final revenue after deducting the seed fund and other investments. Evaluation criteria: Highest earner receives 100% of the grade. For other teams, their earnings will be calculated as percentage of the highest earning team. This percentage earning will be their grade for the total points. For example, if your percentage earning is 80%, then your grade is 4 points. Business plan evaluation criteria (Class 8):Executive summary(2%)Concept (value proposition/competitive advantage)(4%)Industry/product/market analysis(4%)Implementation analysis (marketing, operations, risks, and team)(4%)Financial analysis(5%)Conclusion(1%)Evaluation criteria for the presentation are the following (Class 8):Substance of presentation(4%)Covered topic well(2%)Clarity and organization and time(2%)Persuasiveness and style(1%)Ability to answer questions, think on feet(1%)The Group ProcessFirst and foremost, take your role within the team seriously. You should aim to integrate the various viewpoints and simultaneously make the best possible use of the different analytical skills of the group members. A creative group process builds upon resolving diverse views in arriving at a synthesized whole. One method for achieving this result is to first have each group member work individually, then meet as a group and verbally decide on the group's collective judgments. You should decide on a specific group process for drafting, writing, and editing the final document. An important part of this process may involve giving one or two group members the authority to edit and pull the final document together, in the interests of generating a cohesive document.Final Project: Entrepreneurial VentureAs a part of class project, you will be generating ideas, forming teams and operating an entrepreneurial venture. Any additional money generated by this class will be donated to a charitable organization. Forming Teams (Session 1): Forming a team is more than just putting people together who like each other but ensuring you have the competencies to make your venture successful. Often new ventures award stock to founders who end up making insubstantial contributions to the eventual success of the company so it is important to be careful in making equity splits. Each student will give a max 60-second introduction with no audio visual aids. During the class each student will select the team they want to be in. Each team will have their first team meeting during the class so that work can begin work on idea pitches due in the next session. Pitching Idea (Session 2): Each team will have 5 minutes to pitch their ideas to the class and 5 minutes to answer questions by the audience. After all the presentations, each student will fill an online survey rating the ideas of all teams except their own. These ratings will be used to evaluate and grade ideas as well as to determine seed funding. Collecting seed fund envelope (Session 3): Each team will collect their envelope containing the seed fund from the instructor. Submitting the final earnings in an envelope (Session 7): Please submit all your earnings in an envelope. Include receipts or evidence of making sales, receipts for costs incurred or investments made by team. Your investments (costs incurred) will be returned to you in session 8. The final revenue (minus the costs) will be donated to a charitable organization.Final presentation (Session 8): Each team will make a 10-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes to answer questions from the audience. Submit the presentation and business plan on blackboard. Ethical Guidelines for the Entrepreneurial ProjectEntrepreneurs are managing teams while trying to navigate a competitive market to establish their product. In the advent of social media, they are able to get the information faster to their consumers. However, this also raises the bar for ethical behaviour on part of these start-ups. A reputation that took years to build could be demolished within a few hours. Hence, following a code of ethics related to social responsibility is of paramount importance. In that light, we will have few simple guidelines to navigate the class project. Please read the ethical guidelines and sign it before handing it back to the instructor. In sum, we live in an era where even startups are bound by ethical and social responsibility. Hence, we need to ensure that we maintain a few ethical guidelines. Violation of these codes will lead to an automatic zero in all the team assignments. Here are three simple guidelines to follow for your class project.No illegal activities associated with operating the entrepreneurial business. No sales to family membersCustomers must have the option to unsubscribe if you choose to market through any electronic media or through telephone. GradingThe grade of A is reserved for those who demonstrate extraordinarily excellent performance as determined by the instructor. The grade of A- is awarded only for excellent performance. The grades of B+, B, and B- are awarded for good performance. The grades of C+, C, and C- are awarded for adequate but substandard performance.?The grades of D+, D, and D- are not awarded at the graduate level (undergraduate only). The grade of F indicates the student’s failure to satisfactorily complete the course work.Please note that for Core and Foundation courses, a maximum of 25% of students may be awarded an A or A-; the grade point average of the class should not exceed 3.3. For Elective courses, a maximum of 35% of students may be awarded an A or A-; the grade point average of the class should not exceed 3.4. (For classes with 15 students or fewer, the class GPA cap is waived.)Tentative Course CalendarThe instructors reserve the right to alter course content and/or adjust the pace to accommodate class progress. Students are responsible for keeping up with all adjustments to the course calendar.Week TopicReadingIn-Class ActivityHand-in Assignment(Before class)1Entrepreneurship, and Idea GenerationIdentifying and Exploiting the Right Opportunity Forming teams (Description in Final Project)2Evaluating OpportunitiesIs it real? Can we win? Is it worth doing?How to pitch a brilliant ideaIdea pitches (Description in Final Project)Sirtris Pharmaceuticals HBS Case (Only BB Submission. Submit this case analysis or one for Cork’d)3Founding Team, and Entrepreneurial NetworksAssembling the startup teamCollect seed fund (Description in Final Project)Cork’d HBS Case (Only BB Submission. Submit this case analysis or one for Sirtris listed above)4Business Plan How to Write a Great Business Plan (POCD framework)Note on the Business Model Analysis for the EntrepreneurDiscuss business plan templateZipcar HBS Case (Only BB Submission)5Funding New Venture Financing How Venture Capitalists Evaluate Potential Venture OpportunitiesUpdates: 120-second presentation each team6Industry AnalysisThe five competitive forces that shape strategyIndustry analysis of your business7Wrap-UpA Note on Managing the Growing VentureOpportunity for teams to work on your business plan, and final presentationHand In the Envelope (In class, & Description in Final Project)8Final PresentationPresentations: 10 minutes each team, with 5 minutes of Q&A (Description in Final Project)Final Presentation, and Business Plan(Only BB Submission)Carey Business School Policies and General InformationBlackboard SiteA Blackboard course site is set up for this course. Each student is expected to check the site throughout the semester as Blackboard will be the primary venue for outside classroom communications between the instructors and the students. Students can access the course site at . Support for Blackboard is available at 1-866-669-6138.Disability Support ServicesAll students with disabilities who require accommodations for this course should contact Disability Support Services at their earliest convenience to discuss their specific needs. If you have a documented disability, you must be registered with Disability Support Services (carey.disability@jhu.edu or 410-234-9243) to receive accommodations. For more information, please visit the Disability Support Services webpage.Academic Ethics PolicyCarey expects graduates to be innovative business leaders and exemplary global citizens. The Carey community believes that honesty, integrity, and community responsibility are qualities inherent in an exemplary citizen. The objective of the Academic Ethics Policy (AEP) is to create an environment of trust and respect among all members of the Carey academic community and hold Carey students accountable to the highest standards of academic integrity and excellence.It is the responsibility of every Carey student, faculty member, and staff member to familiarize themselves with the AEP and its procedures. Failure to become acquainted with this information will not excuse any student, faculty, or staff from the responsibility to abide by the AEP. Please contact the Student Services office if you have any questions. For the full policy, please visit the Academic Ethics Policy webpage.Student Conduct CodeThe fundamental purpose of the Johns Hopkins University’s regulation of student conduct is to promote and to protect the health, safety, welfare, property, and rights of all members of the University community as well as to promote the orderly operation of the University and to safeguard its property and facilities. As members of the University community, students accept certain responsibilities which support the educational mission and create an environment in which all students are afforded the same opportunity to succeed academically. Please contact the Student Services office if you have any questions. For the full policy, please visit the Student Conduct Code webpage.Student Success CenterThe Student Success Center offers free online and in-person one-on-one and group coaching in writing, presenting, and quantitative courses. For more information on these services and others, or to book an appointment, please visit the Student Success Center website.Other Important Policies and ServicesStudents are encouraged to consult the Student Handbook and Academic Catalog and Student Services and Resources for information regarding other policies and services.Copyright StatementUnless explicitly allowed by the instructor, course materials, class discussions, and examinations are created for and expected to be used by class participants only.?The recording and rebroadcasting of such material, by any means, is forbidden. Violations are subject to sanctions under the Academic Ethics Policy. ................
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