23716 - BUSINESS PLAN

Anno Accademico 2020/2021

  • Docente: Daniela Bolzani
  • Crediti formativi: 6
  • SSD: SECS-P/08
  • Lingua di insegnamento: Italiano
  • Modalità didattica: Convenzionale - Lezioni in presenza
  • Campus: Forli
  • Corso: Laurea Magistrale in Economia e management (cod. 9203)

    Valido anche per Laurea Magistrale in Economia e management (cod. 9203)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The aim of the course is to understand and be able to structure a business plan. The course provides elements of decision-making as well as methods and techniques to analyze different scenarios and plan strategic decisions. At the end of the course students will be able to: - Evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities; - Understand the functions of the business plan; - Analyze the competition, define the value proposition and the marketing plan.

Contenuti

Course aims

Building on entrepreneurship, strategic management and innovation literature, this course aims at providing a broad and critical understanding of the main issues related to conceptualizing, developing and managing business plans to exploit potential market opportunities, either within a start-up or a corporate context.

The course is set up as to provide both theoretical and practical insights on effective business planning, both regarding its qualitative (e.g., value proposition) and quantitative aspects (e.g., financial and economic planning).

At the end of the course, students are expected to have gained the following achievements and abilities:

  1. Knowledge and understanding
    • Know the contents for an excellent business plan;
    • Understand the functions of different types of business planning activities and tools;
    • Describe the conceptual frameworks and analytical tools for strategic planning.
  2. Applying knowledge and understanding
    • Structure and write a business plan;
    • Analyze the market and the competition;
    • Define the value proposition;
    • Define the organizational and supply chain configuration;
    • Draw up financial and economic statements.
  3. Making judgements
    • Evaluate the completeness of a business plan;
    • Compare and evaluate different possible value propositions;
    • Compare and evaluate different organizational and supply chain configurations;
    • Evaluate the financial and economic sustainability of a project.
  4. Communication
    • Presenting own evaluation and analysis of ideas and projects, orally and in writing;
    • Pitching a business idea effectively.
  5. Lifelong learning skills
  • Developing competences in retrieving data about firm-level financial, economic, innovation performances, or regional statistics;
  • Improving competencies in the use of informatic tools, such as presentation, writing and calculation electronic tools;
  • Presenting own contribution and participate to the work of a diverse team.
 

Contents

The course will cover the following key contents:
- The entrepreneurial journey
- The lean start-up approach

- Analysis of the market

- Analysis of competition

- The creation of value

- Defining the organizational and supply chain configuration

- The entrepreneurial team
- Evaluating revenues, costs, and profitability

- Evaluating financial structure and viability

- Pitching a business idea

The detailed overview of contents will be provided to students in the syllabus of the course.

Testi/Bibliografia

Teaching materials

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students can choose among one of the following books:

  • C. Parolini, Business Planning. Dall’idea al progetto imprenditoriale, Pearson Education, 2020 (3rd edition)
  • B.R. Barringer, Preparing Effective Business Plans, Pearson Education, 2014

    In addition, students are required to study the additional compulsory teaching materials uploaded on the course online platform (see syllabus for details)

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students can choose among one of the following books:

  • C. Parolini, Business Planning. Dall’idea al progetto imprenditoriale, Pearson Education, 2020 (3rd edition)
  • B.R. Barringer, Preparing Effective Business Plans, Pearson Education, 2014

In addition, students are required to study slides and additional compulsory and optional teaching materials uploaded on the course online platform (see syllabus for details)

Metodi didattici

The course includes different teaching and learning methodologies:

  • Frontal lectures
  • Flipped classroom
  • Case studies
  • Guest speakers’ talks
  • Exercises
  • Group assignment

Effective teaching during this course requires attending students’ active participation during the classes and requiring practical activities to be carried out partially in the classroom, partially outside the classroom (e.g., group assignment). For all the activities, students can benefit of the teacher’s or the teaching assistant’s supervision.

For group work, students are required to form teams composed by max 5 students. It is compulsory to form teams maximizing diversity (e.g., gender, nationality, background).

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The assessment methods are differentiated for attending and non-attending students. Note that these assessment methods are provisional (July 2020) and might change depending on the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic, and according to the University of Bologna’s regulations.

ATTENDING STUDENTS

In line with the aims of the course, different assessment methods are used to evaluate the students’ achievement of different competences:

  • Group assignment: students’ teams will develop a business plan during the course (up to 15 points);
  • Group presentation: a pitch of the business plan will be carried out at the end of the course and presented by the team during a “pitch competition” (only three best teams voted by students present at the pitch competition will get 0.5, 1, or 1.5 points);
  • Individual participation to group work: each student will deliver an individual diary (based on an electronic template provided by the teacher) at the end of the course. The diary includes the following elements: an account of group meetings and activities, detailing how the work was organized and distributed amongst members; and individual and motivated assessment of the contribution given by each student to the group work. This individual diary allows to carry out a peer assessment of the contribution given by each individual student to the group work. Each student will receive a final individual participation mark (up to 1.5 points) based on the average of group members’ assessments. Students who have reasonable (e.g. continuous or recurrent ill-health, as evidenced by medical certificates; or travels abroad, as evidenced by travel documents) should be only evaluated on the base of their actual participation to the group work. Each student in the group should receive a motivated assessment, and it is not possible to give the same mark to each component of the group.
  • Written individual exam: a written test including open questions about the teaching materials will be carried out at the end of the course (up to 13.5 points);

    The date/venue for the exams and the list of participants are managed through Almaesami.

 

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

In line with the aims of the course, different assessment methods are used to evaluate the students’ achievement of different competences:

  • Written and oral individual exam: a final exam will be carried out at the end of the course including two parts:
  1. a written test including open questions about the teaching materials (up to 25 points);
  2. an oral presentation: the student will be provided a real company’s business plan and will be required to deliver an oral presentation of it in front of the other students and the teacher (up to 5 points).

The date/venue for the exams and the list of participants are managed through Almaesami.

 

 

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Tools supporting teaching and learning

  • Slides used during classes
  • Journal and magazine articles, business plans, exercises, case studies
  • Interaction with the teaching assistant (tutor)

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Daniela Bolzani

SDGs

Lavoro dignitoso e crescita economica Imprese innovazione e infrastrutture

L'insegnamento contribuisce al perseguimento degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile dell'Agenda 2030 dell'ONU.