MMM075-Entrepreneurship Project

Module Provider: Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour
Number of credits: 40 [20 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring / Summer module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2021/2

Module Convenor: Mr Keith Heron
Email: keith.heron@henley.reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

Aims:

Provide real experiences for students to learn from the experience of putting theory into practice. Entrepreneurship requires the foundation of good theory to direct where action will be most rewarded. This module will ‘challenge students by placing them in situations of cognitive and experiential complexity’ (Lombardi, 2007, p2-3), where they will need to make decisions regarding how to interact and what expertise to bring to the interaction, for the benefit of the client.

Provide methods and processes for engaging successfully with real clients and understand how to elicit information from a real client, and not just from databases and academic searches.

Provide the context for the development and awareness of soft skills, such as team-building and team-work, communication with diverse audiences, both verbally and written.

Provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate their creative thinking to produce innovations that will benefit the client.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to: 

• understand the challenges that start-up and early stage entrepreneurs face 

• understand and demonstrate competence in acting as a consultant in the mode of Process Consultation 

• evidence critical self-awareness, interpersonal skills, and time management

• evidence sensitivity to diversity in people and different situations and build and maintain empathy with your hosts and fellow team members

• evidence effective team working

• evidence familiarity with and effectiveness in the use of consultancy tools

• generate and organise large amounts of primary data into meaningful clusters (coding) for the production of the case study

• demonstrate how proposals are supported through using authoritative evidence from existing kno wledge (secondary research) of similar situations (i.e., there must be some support for the claims that are being made by the student)

• produce original thinking for the project host

• demonstrate convening and contributing to effective management meetings to communicate information and receive and clarify information received

• demonstrate effectiveness in setting personal targets and adherence to a strict project timel ine

• evidence how to manage client confidentiality

Additional outcomes:

Producing work of a stipulated content, based on self-directed research and large amounts of data within set periods of time, will help you hone your ability to work in a highly systematic and collaborative manner under intense pressure.



With full participation and use of Schein's Process Consultation-Humble Inquiry philosophy, you will improve your research inquiry methods, observation and, listening skills, personal interaction skills, classifying and analysis skills, data visualisation skills, and report-writing skills.

Outline content:

1) Survival and growth challenges of start-ups and early-stage small firms (this may use content from other modules);

2) Founder and small firm owner motivations;

3) Nature and philosophy of Process Consultation;

4) Personal competencies for effective consultation: your personal styles and team working;

5) Communication skills for direct and indirect discussions

6) Consultancy business too ls and data visualisation mapping (the Tapestry) for sense making and analysis;

7) Tools for assisting entrepreneurs in the development of their businesses;

8) Practice consultancy opportunities with guest entrepreneurs, and/or entrepreneurs in business incubators/enterprise centres;

9) Study visit to work with entrepreneurs and business coaches in a 4 day programme after examination period (or at the end of spring term); 

10) Capstone consultancy engagement with project hosts. This includes establishing trust, gathering information identifying key themes, conducting self-directed secondary research, communicating in various formats to expert (university) and non-expert (the project host) audiences; 

11) Communication skills workshops (verbal and written) in support of assessment Tasks and consultancy visits

Global context:

This module has a global context in that cross-cultural biases are highlighted in the practical elements, with regards to the team building processes as well as the consultancy of the entrepreneurs. 

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

The core theoretical content of the module will be taught in lessons and workshops, conducted by the module convenor and external experts.



In addition, you will be required to read a range of relevant journal articles and books.



The practical, immersive element is taught in the form of supervised and independent consultancy sessions with entrepreneurs, most of which require some travelling to their premises, or connection by virtual meeting te chnologies. These sessions will be supported through team and individual meetings with the module convenor for feedback and guidance.



In addition, you will have to perform self-directed primary and secondary research and creative thinking to develop pertinent and innovative suggestions for your capstone consultancy project.



With regards to the team building and teamwork aspect of the module, a gradually increasing level of initiative and sel f-reflection will be required of you.



Whilst the module convenor will provide support to you in finding your suitable team role, the more experienced students are encouraged to pro-actively hone and develop their leadership skills which include encouraging (providing a scaffold/supporting effect) less confident team members to be more participative.



There are only one or two classes in autumn term to introduce you to the challenge of self-awarene ss and your role in team-based master’s learning.



In Spring term there will be classes on what is expected to achieve the learning goals of Henley at Level 7 learning, and how to create high performing teams. This will be beneficial for all modules where this is a team-based assessment. 

During Spring term you will work in informal teams to experience diverse perspectives and team dynamics, where you will start to develop an understanding o f the consultancy skills required for the project, plus your own personal skill expertise in Process Consultation/Humble Inquiry.

Summer term involves the consultancy team directly interacting, including via email/skype/blackboard collaborate with their project host from mid-June to mid-July, displaying competency in consultancy tools, data gathering and mapping, in order to build trust that will lead to information being willingly divulged by the host.

Te ams will be established by the module convenor with a distribution of cultures and capabilities. Teams will then be expected to develop a team charter to enable effective performance. The teams will have an opportunity to pitch for one of the projects that are being offered though it may not be feasible to match every team to their preferred project. The module convenor has an obligation to deliver good value to the project hosts who support this ‘live project’ and has a responsibili ty to ensure each team is particularly strong in spoken and listening capabilities, since the information will be gathered in real meetings at the pace of the project host. 



Whilst all students enrolled on this programme have attained the minimum language requirements, many previous international students have found it beneficial to continually develop their English-speaking skills in order to make a strong contribution during the consultancy meetings, which also de velops their confidence. Additional classes will be made available for such students.

In Summer term the practical application will commence. This consists of a combination of classes, weekly visits to the project hosts, and small group supervision meetings for discussion of progress either in class or using remote technologies.

The module convenor will strictly monitor attendance at scheduled classes and team supervision meetings in June and July and at t he project host to ensure adherence to the project timeline to ensure student progression.

It is essential that no holidays or absences from the University occur from the end of the examination period up to the submission of team Task 4 at towards the end of July.



 

Summative assessment- Examinations:

No final exam.

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Task 1: Reflections on interactions with entrepreneurs: log/portfolio 

Task 2: Individual self-assessment of practical consultancy capabilities and development plan: 1000 words 

Task 3: Team Consultancy Analysis and Proposal: 20 minute presentation

Task 4: Team report: 4000 words

Task 5: Individual Project Evaluation report with additional insights for project host; (4-5000 words)