82172 - Business Plan Laboratory

Learning outcomes

The business plan lab aims at creating a setting for students to experience the entrepreneurial process. Students will be provided with tools and technique to develop a business plan and will be exposed to stimuli and inspirational moments coming from real entrepreneurs who will be asked to coach students all along a work project that will be assigned by the instructor. By the end of the course students will develop awareness of what an entrepreneurial process is and will acquire knowledge, tools and enthusiasm for getting involved in a new venture.

Course contents

This experiential hands-on laboratory course is intended to help you acquire and practice the key tools, methods, skills and attitudes required to be an entrepreneur, intrapreneur and/or changemaker. Students will form teams of 4-6 and either work on their own startup opportunity or work within an entrepreneurial organization. Students will apply entrepreneurial tools and methods such as design thinking, lean startup and disciplined entrepreneurship to test and evaluate the products/services, markets, strategies, technologies, business models and financial performance of an entrepreneurial organization.

Readings/Bibliography

Required: Gedeon “Entrepreneurial Career and Life Design (ECLD)” Workbook

Required: Gedeon video series “Entrepreneurial Career and Life Design (ECLD)”

ECLD video Modules #1-9 and Tools #6A and 6B

Suggested: Ostwerwalder, A., et al. (2014) “Value Proposition Design”, Wiley.

Suggested: Osterwalder , A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010) “Business Model Generation”, Wiley.

Suggested: Liedtka, J. and Ogilvie T. (2011) Designing for Growth – A design thinking tool kit for managers. Columbia Business School Publishing ISBN 978-0-231-15838-1

Suggested: Maurya, A. (2012). Running lean: Iterate from plan A to a plan that works. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Suggested: Aulet, Bill (2013) “Disciplined Entrepreneurship”, (24 Steps to a Successful Startup) MIT Press or Wiley [also see disciplinedentrepreneurship.com or the MIT edX course: Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?]

Teaching methods

Students will form groups of 4-6 to work on their own startup opportunity or work within an existing entrepreneurial organization. Students can work with a ReActor startup company being incubated through Fondazione Golinelli. Alternatively, students can work on their own startup or propose an alternative intrapreneurial opportunity through their own networks.

https://www.fondazionegolinelli.it/en/area-ricerca-alta-formazione/reactor

Students are expected to form their own groups, select a ReActor company or find their own ventures, and receive approval of the instructor by the start of Class 3.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

· Tools & Methods: Students will implement Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Disciplined Entrepreneurship to analyze, experiment and validate opportunities for new value creation. Students will learn search-based effectuation principles for how to plan new ventures under conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability.

· Adaptability: Students will learn from iteration, experimentation, lean methodologies, rapid prototyping, minimum viable products, design thinking and customer development to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty and develop resiliency and grit.

· Self-management: Students will learn time management, goal-setting, self-directed life-long learning, habit formation, and self-reflection.

· Communication: Students will be able to express ideas and information effectively and accurately using a range of media commonly used in business environments. Communication skills will include professional behavior, executive presentation techniques, reporting and meaningful email correspondence.

· Group and Individual Dynamics: Students will be able to effectively self-manage and perform within heterogeneous teams. Teamwork skills will include managing a complex project, task and goal management, running meetings and ensuring accountability.

Assessment methods

The % grade for this course is calculated based on the points earned, as follows:

Method

Weekly In-Class Reports and Participation (25%)

Final Group Report (50%)

Individual Self-Reflective Assignment (ECLD Tool #11) (25%)

The team project involves working in teams of 4-6 students to develop and implement entrepreneurial opportunities that create new value within your own startup or an existing entrepreneurial organization such as ReActor. The Final Group Report will consist of the company assessment, selection of opportunities to implement and the final deliverables for the opportunity implemented during the term. These reports should be no more than 25 pages long (excluding appendices summarizing the various analysis tools or results). You may want to wait for the instructor’s evaluation and commentary, and then provide your site company with a revised/improved version.

The individual self-reflective assignment is described in Tool #11 in the “Entrepreneurial Career and Life Design (ECLD)” Workbook

Teaching tools

Please see Course Outline on Virtuale - the Virtual Learning Environment.

Office hours

See the website of Steven Gedeon