The unit is divided into its two parts:
1. Intensive introductory lectures – week 1 (w/c 298/6/15*, 21/9/15‡ ) and week 3 (w/c
13/7/15*, 5/10/15‡) - * summer term, ‡ autumn term (see section 5 for more details).
2. The Project – week 2 (w/c 6/7/15*, 28/9/15 ‡) and weeks 4 to 7 (20/7/15 to 14/8/15*,
12/10/15 to 6/11/15 ‡) - * summer term, ‡ autumn term.
The project phase of the course, the students working in teams and supported by the learning from the more directed activities in weeks 1 and 3 undertake a process of creative problem- solving in order to develop and validate a business model and implementation roadmap that will create, deliver and capture value.
The project phase of the course has no fixed agenda, but will heavily focus on the lean start-up methodology of build, measure and learn. Students will be directed to visualise scenarios, develop hypotheses and to attempt to validate the underpinning critical assumptions underpinning and should these prove incorrect, to pivot the business model and / or modify
39 | P a g e strategies in light of the insights gained.
This ‘getting out of the building’ approach that lies at the heart of learn start-up methodology very much parallels the Manchester Method that underpins MBS’s MBA programme. Students need to become informed practitioners that can balance researching the literature with an ability to apply theory into practice and to then use reflection to learn from their practice.
Specifically students will be expected to be proactive in seeking to understand context and customer; to build scenarios that visualise objectives and end-points that can then be tested, validated and progressed in a structured way; and to continuously learn through reflection from working on practical problems both within teams and individually. Undertaking the project in this way should make participants more comfortable with formulating questions, uncertainty and gaps in their own knowledge, making sense of and acting on incomplete information, critically
evaluating knowledge and data, discovering patterns in analysis of rich data, and finally to lead, be led and to manage groups in complex, unstructured and uncertain situations.
As equally important as the methodology and processes are the thinking modes and a key focus for this unit is to nurture design thinking. A broader, more diverse form of collaboration customer-centric/empathetic way of thinking that is integrative and interactive in terms of concept development. Abductive thinking (what might be) rather than inductive (what is) and deductive (what should be). The latter forms of thinking mode as valuable as they are seek to fit everything into existing templates rather than equipping individuals to deal with the unknowns and uncertainties of a more complex, rapidly changing world. In other words to develop a more entrepreneurial way of thinking.
The entrepreneurial process can be thought of in simplified terms as the bringing together of an opportunity and an entrepreneur with the latter than putting together and resourcing the organisation needed to create and capture value for themselves and their stakeholders.
The unit looks in details at one of the principal steps in that process which is the identification of the opportunity and the subsequent development of the business model. Rae defines an
opportunity as the ‘potential for change, improvement or advantage arising from our action in the circumstances’. This definition is used in this unit as it allows for a much broader range of
opportunities to be considered, i.e. commercial, societal or environmental. To be effective in this process requires a broad range of information from many different sources, some secondary and some primary. A key characteristic of the entrepreneur is the way they seem to process and link information so enabling opportunities to be spotted that perhaps others wouldn’t see. In the supporting workshops and lectures, students will learn about the various methods for obtaining market intelligence, how to analyse and to make sense of that research in order to identify, evaluate and refine valuable opportunities. The ultimate aim is to be able to develop a viable business model indicating how value is to be created and for whom; how it will be delivered and how value will be captured by the various stakeholders.
From here, the teams will explore and evaluate the options open to an entrepreneur wishing to create and develop a new venture be it a standard commercial business, a social enterprise or a spin-out (whether from a University or from an existing business). They will develop an
understanding of the typical strategic issues faced in this situation as well as researching in depth those felt to be of critical importance to the client business they are working on. Within their teams, the course participants they will develop and validate a business model and
40 | P a g e Assessment will be through two group presentations, the first to pitch the proposal and how the group plan to validate it and the second, to pitch the validated proposal and implementation plan. The students will complete an individual report at the end of the unit which will reflect on the process, the product as well as their own personal development. Early and regular opportunities for formative feedback will be provided through the unit.