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2014/2015  KAN-CCMVV1674U  From good idea to venture: How high-potential start-up companies overcome strategic issues

English Title
From good idea to venture: How high-potential start-up companies overcome strategic issues

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Course period Autumn, Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Michael Thing - MPP
Teachers: Michael Thing (mt.mpp@cbs.dk) and Nicolaj Højer Nielsen (nni.marktg@cbs.dk).

Administrative contact: Karina Ravn Nielsen - electives.mpp@cbs.dk or direct phone 3815 3782
Main academic disciplines
  • Innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Corporate and Business Strategy
Last updated on 10-04-2014
Learning objectives
To be awarded the highest mark (12), the student, with no or just a few insignificant shortcomings, must fulfill the following learning objectives:
  • The student should be able to understand and critically reflect on the theories, concepts, tools and cases covered in the course.
  • The student should be able to understand and critically reflect on the theories, concepts, tools and cases covered in the course.
  • The student should be able to understand and critically reflect on the theories, concepts, tools and cases covered in the course.
  • The student should be able to identify key points in a commercialisation process
  • The student should be able to understand and critically reflect on the theories, concepts, tools and cases covered in the course.
  • The student should be able to discuss the strength and weakness in theories of the course.
Examination
From good idea to venture: How high-potential start-up companies overcome strategic issues:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Individual or group exam Group exam, max. 4 students in the group
Group project with individual oral exam.
Size of written product Max. 15 pages
Assignment type Project
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period December/January and May/June
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content and structure

This course is about how high-potential ventures can overcome the strategic issues they are facing. The course is not about writing a business plan. Most experts agree that the true challenge for entrepreneurs does not lie in writing the initial business plan but in the processes related to the conversion of the “good idea” into a successful company.
The course is on the strategy and action of how you are going from idea to opportunity to approach the network to sell the idea and get the business started.
 
More specifically, the course will deal with strategic issues related to:


  • Networks.How start-up companies can acquire resources via external organizations to grow/survive. Theories and application of those on real-life cases. Reflections on how to build and use networks of complementary competence.
  • Customers/users.How to understand the customers/users. What is the pain ? Which problem are going to be solved ? Are the customers/users willing to pay for solving the problem ? These questions are essential.
  • Funding.Capital is often one of the needed resources entrepreneurs have the hardest time securing during the initial faces. We discuss how to involve and persuade different sources of capital (venture capital, business angels, customer-funded etc.) and strategies for acquiring them (incl. how to pitch the business opportunity to these investors). The relationship is about both the complexity of practice and theoretical models.
  • Innovation.  R&D and innovation is very different in smaller organisations compared to multi-nationals. We discuss theories and strategies for doing disruptive innovation in small companies, and how many theories are challenged under these conditions of uncertainty.
  • Role of the Business Plan. Almost all entrepreneurs will experience that the “Plan A”, as described in the initial business plan, will have to be amended or abandoned. We discuss the real role of the business plan and what to do when the first plan must be changed.
 
The theoretic foundation of the course will be articles from leading journals and books on entrepreneurship. This will be combined with written- and real-life cases from several Danish and international start-up companies.  We will have high-profile guest-speakers (venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs, business angels) to present such cases.
 
The course will combine lectures, in-class discussions, and project work.  The course includes a group-project where you will apply the frameworks learned on a real-life case.
 
The course’s development of personal competences:
This course prepares students for realizing their entrepreneurial potential, either as entrepreneurs or as key-employees in smaller organizations.
 
During the course students are expected to develop the ability to critically analyze and discuss theory, approaches and concepts in connection with entrepreneurship and innovation in small companies – and how to apply the theoretical knowledge on real-life cases.
Teaching methods
The theoretic foundation of the course will be articles from leading journals and books on entrepreneurship. This will be combined with written- and real-life cases from several Danish and international start-up companies. We will have high-profile guest-speakers (venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs, business angels) to present such cases.
The course will combine lectures, in-class discussions, and project work. The course includes a group-project where you will apply the frameworks learned on a real-life case.
Further Information
Changes in course schedule may occur
Friday 08.00-10.35, week 36-41, 43-47
Expected literature

Mullins, J. & Komisar, R. (2009) Getting to Plan B., Harvard Business Press
 
Blank, Steven, (2006) Four Steps to the Epiphany, Cafepress.com
 
Ries, Eric (2011, The Lean Startup, Penguin Books Ltd
 
 
Mette Mønsted
Networking for innovation - managing through networks. Published in: Strategic Networking in Small High Tech Firms, Samfundslitteratur, 2003
 
Paul Miller
Marketing Technological innovations- the challenges of creating markets. Published in: Strategic Networking in Small High Tech Firms, Samfundslitteratur, 2003
 
Noam Wasserman
The Founder's Dilemma
Harward Business Review, Feb 01 2008
 
Colin Mason and Matthew Stark
What do Investors Look for in a Business Plan? A Comparison of the Investment Criteria of Bankers, Venture Capitalists and Business Angels International Small Business Journal, 2004
 
Andrew Wong, Mihir Bhatia, Zachary Freeman Angel finance: The other venture capital Strategic Change Volume 18, Issue 7-8, pages 221–230, November 2009
 
Henry Chesbrough, Adrienne Kardon Crowther Beyond high tech: Early adopters of open innovation in other industries. R&D Management, Volume 36, Issue 3, pages 229–236, June 2006
 
Marc Gruber and Joachim Henke
New ventures based on open innovation – an empirical analysis of start-up firms in embedded Linuxl International Journal of Technology Management
Volume 33, Number 4 / 2006, Pages:  356 - 372
 
Henry W. Chesbrough
Why Companies Should Have Open Business Models MIT Sloan Management Review, Jan 2007
 
Christopher T. Street, Ann-Frances Cameron External Relationships and the Small Business: A Review of Small Business Alliance and Network Research Journal of Small Business Management, Volume 45, Issue 2, pages 239–266, April 2007
Last updated on 10-04-2014