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Academic Year: 2022-2023
Course Name: Entrepreneurship & Modern Business Decision Making
Course Description
The goal of this course is to introduce you to the wonderful and exciting world of new
venture creation. In addition, new venture creation approached the right way can
bring new value to customers and thus the firm.
Thus, in this hands-on course, students will learn how to concisely articulate for
example: what their business is all about, what segments they will serve, how they will
create value for customers, why customers should even care? how they will get
traction in the marketplace, achieve scale, and ultimately that will provide a risk
adjusted return for investors.
This course will provide a methodology as well as a set frameworks, models, tools, and
techniques that will help students to structurally analyze, vet and commercialize their
business ideas.
Further, students will develop the essential parts of a business model in which they
will strategize, discuss, test, receive feedback and pivot their business models as
appropriate with the objective to design a workable and fundable business.
This hands-on course teaches a rigorous framework as well as provides a valuable
experience to students so that they, upon completion, can be more successful in
starting their own ventures.
Course Content
Major Highlights…
• Understanding & Vetting the Opportunity
• Understanding & Analyzing the Customer Segment Targeted
• Competitive Analysis
• Crystalizing the Value Proposition
• Designing the Business Model
• Designing Innovation Directed Enterprises
• Strategies for Managing for Cash
• Financial Statements in a Nutshell
• Approaches to Assessing New Venture Value
• Metrics & Gauging New Venture Success
• Strategic Management of Partnerships & Alliances
• Strategies to Enter New Markets
Learning
Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student should be better positioned to:
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1. Appreciate the “entrepreneurial mindset” and behavior.
2. Analyze the entrepreneurial process.
o To think systematically about complex business issues to disentangle
and evaluate business symptoms of distress from “root causes.”
o Understand how to apply various types of frameworks, models, tools
and techniques to analyze and evaluate new venture opportunities.
o Know the limitations / assumptions of the various frameworks,
models, tools and techniques so that they may be used in analysis
more appropriately.
o Analyze and evaluate opportunities for driving sustainable customer
and competitive advantage.
o Design sustainable strategies that drive competitive advantage.
3. Be able to recognize and properly analyze opportunities.
4. Be able to analyze and create new venture strategies.
o Be able to develop “go to market” business plans.
o Design strategies to target and market to new customers.
Topic Outline Assignment
Week # 1
First Class:
Course Kickoff- Course Introduction,
Objectives & Class Flow.
• Overview & Flow, Expectations,
Deliverables & Grading
• Macro/Environmental Context
• Entrepreneurship Today
• Types of Entrepreneurship
• Common Myths
Readings:
Chapter 1 and 2
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• The Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Risks / Benefits of Entrepreneurship
• Science or Art?
Philosophies & Approaches To
Entrepreneurship
• Philosophies & Approaches to
Entrepreneurship.
• Entrepreneurship & the Entrepreneurial
process.
• Building your Toolbox
Week # 2
How to Start –First Steps in Entrepreneurship
• Keys to Improve Success
• What you Need
1. Opportunity Recognition &
Qualification
• Sources of New Ideas
• Identifying Key Value Drivers for
Stakeholders
2. Understanding the Customer
• Marketing Fundamentals
o Segmentation
o Targeting
o Differentiation
o Positioning
• Selecting a Beachhead Market
• Building an End-User Profile
• Profiling the Persona for the Beachhead
Market.
• Identifying your Next Customers.
Readings:
Chapter 2, 3
Due:
Deliverable 1: Reflection # 1
Week # 3
• Understanding Competitors Competitive
Analysis
Readings:
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• Approach & Methodology
• Understanding Competitors
• Learning from Competitors
Crystalizing the Value Position
• Understanding the Subjective Nature of
Value.
• Approaches to Assessing Value
• Quantifying the Value Proposition for
Customers.
• Understanding How Value Chains Drive
Customer & Firm Value
• Our Approach to Value Chain Analysis
• Developing Rapid Response Capabilities in
Value Chains
• Upstream VS Downstream Competitive
Advantage
• Re- aligning Investments to Drive
Downstream Competitive Advantage
• Developing a High-Level Specification of
the Product
• Defining Your Core
• Establishing Your Competitive Position
Bain Consulting Pyramid
• Using the Bain Consulting Pyramid to
Assess and Understand Drivers of
Customer Value.
Mapping the Customer Journey
• Mapping the Customer’s Journey
• Mapping how the Customer makes the
Purchase Decision.
Chapter 5, 6
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• Mapping the Process to Acquire a
Paying Customer
Week # 4
Designing Business Models to Support Firm
Strategy & Innovation
• Business Planning Past & Present
• Important Elements to a Business Model
• Business Modeling
o Lean Canvas
o Business Model Canvas
• Classical Business Planning – Benefits &
Weaknesses.
• Lean & Agile Business Practices
• The Approach of Business Modeling
• Building Scalable Business Models to
Support Faster Market Penetration of
Technology Products
• Utilizing the Open Stage-Gate NPD
Focused Business Model.
• Understanding and Applying Closed-Loop
Value Chains and Open Business Models
to Product Life Cycles
Readings:
Chapters 7,8
Due:
Deliverable 3: Case Analysis /
Individual Effort
Week # 5
Innovation Directed Entrepreneurial Enterprises
• Value of Innovation for New Ventures
• Innovation VS Invention
• Understanding NPD Failure and Risks
• Common NPD Myths
• Major Changes & Trends in NPD
• Our Approach to Innovation “Getting NPD
Right”
Types of Innovation
Readings:
Chapter: 9, 10 & 11
Due:
Deliverable 2: Reflection # 2
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• Understanding Sustaining Innovation
• Understanding Disruptive Innovation
• Patterns in Disruptive Innovation
• Why “Best Management Practices” often
Lead to Failure.
• Innovation & Competitive Positioning.
Designing Innovation Focused Value Chains
• Understanding, Shaping and Improving
the Innovation Value Chain to Drive
Customer & Competitive Advantage.
Week # 6
Designing Service-Logic Innovation Based
Enterprises
• Strategies for Innovating Customers, Not
Products
• Applying the Framework for Classifying
Service-Logic Innovations
IoT Developing Analytics Based Data Products
• Trends & Implications
• Patterns in data-based products
Strategies for Assessing & Manager Customer
Value
• Utilizing Customer Cohort Analysis to
understand Customer Performance
metrics.
Due:
Deliverable # 4 / Application &
Presentation / Team Effort
Week # 7
Strategies for Assessing & Managing Cash
• Approaches to Assessing Cash
Generation.
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• Strategies to improve working capital.
Financial Statements in a Nutshell
• The genesis of assessing financial
performance.
• Income Statement
• Balance Sheet
• Cash Flow Statement
• GAP/ IFRS Metrics VS Non-GAP
“Customer” Metrics
Approaches to Assessing New Venture Value
• New approaches to assessing firm value
based on network effects, intangibles,
and expected growth in assets.
Metrics & Gauging New Venture Success
• Approach & Methodology
• Tracking Performance through Strategic
KPIs
• GAP Analysis
• Making Structured Recommendations
Platform Strategy - Managing Multisided
Customer Markets
• Understanding Multisided platforms
• Critical Issues that Multisided platforms
must address
• Strategies to Secure Critical Mass
• Determining Pricing Strategies in
Multisided platforms
• Key Questions to Address for a Pioneer
Multisided Platform.
• Strategic Options to Defend Against the
Subsidized Side of a Multisided Platform
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Week # 8
Strategic Management of Partnerships &
Alliances
• Partner Selection
• Defining the Terms of the Partnership
• Executing the Partnership
• Triggers for Dissolution
• Partnership Portfolio Management
Strategy for New Markets
• Launching Products in New Markets
• Common Causes of Internationalization
Failure.
• Approaches to Assessing New Markets for
New Products
o CPA Approach
o Ghemawat CAGE Framework
o CAT / RAT Model
• Cost & Benefits of Shared Control in
International Operations
• Understanding & Applying the Ghemawat
AAA Framework to Better Manage
International R&D and Key Value Chain
Activities.
Deliverable # 5 Final
Deliverable: New Venture
Business Plan / Individual Effort
Topic Outline
Estimated
contact hours
Readings from Book
and Other Materials
60
Lectures “in the
classroom”
24
Deliverables # 1 & 2 8
Deliverable # 3 7
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Deliverable # 4 12
Final Deliverable # 5 14
Total Estimated Contact Hours 125
Method of Assessment
• 10%: Deliverable 1: Reflection Memo # 1
• 10%: Deliverable 2: Reflection Memo # 2
• 20%: Deliverable 3: Application & Presentation / Team Effort
• 30%: Deliverable 4: Application & Presentation / Team Effort
• 30%: Deliverable 5: Final Deliverable:TBD
Books and Readings
Entrepreneurship and Effective Small Business Management, Global
Edition, 11th, Norman M Scarborough.
Introduction to Entrepreneurship, International Edition Kuratko, Donald F
Recommended Readings
• Knowledge @ Wharton
• Kellogg Insight
• MIT Sloan Management Review
• Wall Street Journal
• Financial Times
• The Economist
• Der Spiegel
Other Notes
ECTS= European Credit Transfer System, 1 ECTS Credit = 25-30h workload