SB313 – Experiential Entrepreneurship

Academic Year 2005-2006

Marc Compeau                                                            Office Hours (& by appointment)

369 Snell Hall; 268-3840                                                  Tuesday           9:00-12:00

email; compeaum@clarkson.edu                                   Wednesday      1:00-3:00

Course Web Site: http://www.clarkson.edu/~compeaum/sb313homepage.htm

Course Description & Objectives

This course involves the strategic and tactical planning of an actual business enterprise.   Students will be introduced to entrepreneurship, the planning process, and frameworks for strategic and financial planning in addition to other topics.   By exposing students to a unique living / learning environment, this course will challenge students to confront more advanced issues faced by today’s entrepreneurs.  A strong emphasis on teamwork, leadership and risk versus reward will be explored.   Students will be challenged to start and manage a venture from the residence hall as practical, hands on learning experience.

This course will also expose the students to issues relating to analytical and lateral thinking, behavioral flexibility, decision making, leadership, team building, oral and written communication, personal selling, stress management and acceptance of uncertainty.

The course asks students to make the assumption that teamwork skills and competencies can be learned.  In order to succeed students must be committed and willing to take risks.   Working in teams involves attitudes  and behaviors such as trust, cooperation and open communication.  

OBJECTIVES:

            It is the goal of this course to assist students in developing the ability to define, apply, analyze, synthesize and solve:

• The teamwork process –  moving  a group of individuals in a common direction to achieve a common goal is challenging, perhaps sometimes even impossible.  An awareness of the skills and competencies involved in succeeding will be explored.

• The important elements of a business plan - how it is developed, justified and presented.
• The principles of small business management – Small business management involves the application of many skills.  Interpersonal skills, financial analysis, marketing concepts, human resource management issues, accounting principles, an awareness of customer demands, balancing risk with reward, the complexities of stress and the challenges of the unknown are all issues that participants will be confronted with.
• The dynamics of cross functional thinking and group decision-making – By challenging students to work as a team on this project, group dynamics will be explored in real time.   Conflict resolution, interdependency, ethics and diversity will be confronted with regularity.
• The tools of strong leadership – Students will be given an opportunity to build leadership self-awareness and practice leading others.  Additionally students will be challenged to assess themselves prior to beginning the experience, set goals for self development and assess their growth, specific to their abilities to lead others.
• Lateral and creative thinking skills – Strong entrepreneurs are aware of the diversity of potential problem solutions.   Lateral thinking will be emphasized as students face new and unique challenges and search for distinctive solutions.  
• Written and oral presentation skills – Throughout the experience students will present their progress in both written and oral formats.  Students should strengthen their abilities to present clear, concise arguments based on fact.  In  addition students should be able to reflect on personal development experiences and demonstrate an ability to connect these issues to company outcomes.

OUTCOMES:

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Prepare and present a complete business plan.
• Understand the framework of business startup that will assist the student to comprehend future business education subject matter.
• Comprehend and describe many of the complexities faced by today’s entrepreneurs.
• Offer an understanding of group dynamics and the impact of teamwork on outcomes.
• Be a better team member and team leader
• Understand their own strengths and development needs as leaders and be able to determine and pursue opportunities for personal growth.
• Think analytically as well as creatively when challenged with a complex business issue.

Grading:  

Company Business Plan (15% shared grade): a complete and thorough business plan will be due no later than November 23rd.   The instructor’s evaluation of the plan will result in a group grade; all members of the team will share this grade.  The document will be graded on completeness, the quality of its presentation and the outcomes of the group’s presentation of the document to the Venture advisory board.   The group’s response to any questions or concerns expressed by the board will also have an impact on this grade.

Participation (15%):

The format of this class encourages participation, which, at the very least, requires attendance.  Just like in your future career, attendance counts and absence from class will affect your grade.  Please give me the courtesy of letting me know if you will be unable to attend a particular group meeting. 

Critical Incident Reports (15%): Once per month a critical incident report will be assigned.   The reports need to detail the background of the event, the important and relevant details of the event, the outcomes and implications of the event as well as the lessons learned from the occurrence.   As always, any grammar or spelling errors will result in grade deductions.

Peer Evaluation (15%):  A performance evaluation system to measure individual contributions to company performance will be designed by the class at the end of the first semester and will be administered during the second semester.  The class will design the specific criteria that will be used by the students in the Venture program to assess individual performance .

Individual Business Plan (20%): Developing an innovative approach to venture creation is critical for small business success. Each student will be asked to develop a business plan that presents an innovative idea, or an innovative process to deliver an existing idea to an identified target audience.

External Company Analysis (20%):  A small business consultant should be able to quickly assess the competitive position of a business in several key areas.   Students will choose a local small business and, once approved by the course instructor, create a proposal for the small business owner to do an independent analysis of the businesses competitive position.  Once the owner has authorized the project the analysis will assess the company by doing a complete SWOT analysis, an analysis of the firms direct and indirect competitors, a gap analysis and finally a list of recommendations based on the identified gaps.

Grade Reporting:

Policies: 

• Attendance at weekly class meetings is MANDATORY.  Excuses will be accepted only from The Dean of Students Office.   The instructor reserves the right to reduce the final grade by one full letter grade if the student has any unexcused absences.  

• Given the unique nature of the course, additional policies included.  In order to stress the professional setting and real life practices that you will be exposed to throughout the year, business casual attire is expected at all meetings.  The first violation of this policy results in a verbal and written warning.  Each subsequent violation of this policy results in the deduction of one point from the student’s final grade.

• Students are expected to be on time and prepared for each meeting, the first violation of this policy results in a written and verbal warning.  Each subsequent violation results in the deduction of one point from the student’s final grade.

• Disrespect of the University, the instructor, the graduate advisor or your peers will not be tolerated. Examples of disrespect include harassment, public display of a negative nature, violation of rules set by the University or set and agreed to by your company.  Disrespect may not be limited to these examples. A first offense will result in a written warning from the course instructor; any subsequent offense will result in the student’s immediate removal from and failure of the course according to University guidelines.

• Plagiarism is the attempt at crediting someone else’s work or idea as your own.  Academic dishonesty also includes a failure on your part to keep your current and past assignments out of the hands of other students who may misrepresent their origins.  It is suggested that you keep a record and/or rough draft of written or other work until you have received your final grade.   Plagiarism will result in your failure of the assignment on the first offense.  Any second offense will result in your failure of the course.  Any plagiarism offense becomes a part of your student record for the duration of your time as a student at Clarkson.

All writing assignments should follow the CUSB format standards for written reports.