MM392-Entrepreneurial Management Venture Project

Module Provider: Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites: Information to be gathered from an industrial placement or from a case study company about the organisations capabilities and challenges prior to Autumn term.
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2019/0

Email: lebene.soga@henley.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

In rapidly changing times, entrepreneurship is a vital ingredient of business sustainability and profitable growth. 

This module enables final year students to use the information and impressions they have gained during their experiences of a company placement (full year, short placement) to analyse and make an innovative proposal to the ‘organisation’ based upon the placement experience. Where a student does not take a placement, the student will undertake a study of a company that is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange or the LSE Alternative Investment Market exchange.

It is distinct from modules that focus on business start-up. Instead it concentrates on understanding the capabilities that already exist within an organisation and channelling these to create innovations to capture new business opportunities. 

The module content will make more sense to students after they have experienced the placement, and become familiar with some of the business terminology used within organisations. The Entrepreneurial Management Venture Project (EMVP) discusses the key differences between ‘management’ of ongoing business, and the need for organisations to ‘entrepreneurially’ seek opportunities for new/future business. 

New ventures may involve new product development for existing customers in existing markets, or it may involve adapting existing products for different markets or a combination. 

Good decision making requires the availability and understanding of good information. Students will be introduced to this process, prior to their placement or prior to their own study of a company. This will be communicated by the programme director and will require students to access instructions in Blackboard, or attend a special workshop.

From the placement or from the study of the company, each student will gather information, probably quite randomly at that moment, in order to then create a portfolio/scrapbook of information. Analysis of this portfolio will then enable students to convert the raw data into a case study which provides management insights. The case study will explain the capabilities and challenges of the placement host. 

Lectures will provide instruction and theoretical concepts to enable students to gain an understanding of the information gathered. The case study provides the foundation of ‘understanding’ for the development of entrepreneurial venture propositions, presented in spring term.

It is the responsibility of each student to actively engage and learn from the experiences of other students and develop a collaborative working style that will be of value to future employers.

Aims:

To provide an understanding of how organisations utilise core capabilities and entrepreneurial approaches to deliver innovations for future profit: 

To enable students to learn from their information-gathering process, as a consultancy capability, which will be of benefit in their future organisational roles: 

To develop entrepreneurial thinking.

Assessable learning outcomes:

The module intends to build in students an entrepreneurial skillset that enables them to engage with available data about an organisation and then transform that data into a case study from which a new business venture is proposed to the organisation. 

Assessable learning outcomes:

A portfolio of information from the placement or information from the study of a company:

The conversion of gathered information into a critical case study, which provides evidence of good information gathering and sense making: 

A demonstrated understanding of organisational concepts of strategy, markets, stakeholders, and entrepreneurial orientation/capability as presented within the case study: 

A demonstrated understanding of key organisational capabilities and an external opportunity presented in a viable innovative proposition based upon evidence from the case study.

Additional outcomes:

Demonstrated competence in gathering and presenting concise information:

Demonstrated understanding of how and where to look for opportunities for future business:

A recognition that opportunities are seen differently by different people, and so are uncertain and involve a degree of risk taking in the exploitation of them:

An understanding of how businesses devise innovations:

Experience of the social reality of how networking (in your informal groups and formal teams) is essential for accessing new knowledge particularly for identifying new sources of opportunities and resources:

Demonstration of the creation of a powerful story or ‘pitch’ (to gain the support from stakeholders/investors who hold important resources not directly under the control of the entrepreneurial manager).

The generation of a case study will also provide students with the skills to conduct consultancy research for future business employers and develop the confidence to communicate proactively with placement and other companies during and after this module.

Outline content:

Business organisational objectives

Consulting techniques for making sense of the information gathered

The external business environment

The internal environment of processes and capabilities

The direction and strategy of a business

Sources of opportunities

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour 

External inhibitors and enablers of business

Innovation in product/service and process development 

Marketing 

Articulating information into the format of a case study

Communicating (pitching) ideas 

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

The lecture style simulates organisational working styles with brief lectures or briefings followed by active participation in mini-team working, informal presentations and open discussion and tutor summary. Where a placement company has indicated there are ‘confidential issues’ then these will not be discussed in class.

Summative assessment- Examinations:

No written exam.

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Assessment Task 1: (10%): 

Portfolio of information gathered from placement host/public company:

Submit during Week 6 Autumn Term-mixed media up to 5000 words. 

This will be ‘visually and orally assessed’ with minimal written feedback provided. 

It is an entry requirement for this module.

Assessment Task 2: (50%): 

Written Case Study of the ‘current situation’ of the organisation:

Submit during Week 6 Spring Term - 2500 words 

Assessment Task 3: (40%): 

New Venture Proposal - Video or personal presentation:

To be developed independently during spring term (no lecture time). Submit during Week 10 of Spring Term plus a peer and tutor assessment of all videos/personal presentations in final 2 weeks of Spring Term – approx. 5 minutes per presentations (video + personal elaboration also has max 5 minutes).

Formative assessment methods:

Students have an opportunity to provide short presentations to their peers and reflect upon the experience and receive feedback from peers and tutors. There is also the opportunity to use either campus pack or wiki in Blackboard to obtain feedback from tutors. 

Penalties for late submission:

The Module Convenor will apply the following penalties for work submitted late, in accordance with the University policy. 

·  where the piece of work is submitted up to one calendar week after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for the piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;

·  where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/qualitysupport/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:
40% overall

Reassessment arrangements:

By individual resubmission of failed component(s).

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

Last updated: 13 September 2019