MMM123-New Venture Start-Up

Module Provider: Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4

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

Type of module:

Summary module description:

New venture start-up involves more than generating a creative idea…it involves starting-up or taking action.  

In this module we expect a student to have done something to test out their start-up hypothesis, in order to build their own and potential investor confidence, prior to venture launch. 

A start-up business plan is not a measure of entrepreneurial capacity. This module will not require a Business Plan as one of the task assessments but it will require students to design their Value Proposition thinking and explain its feasibility.

Aims:

Aims:

"The success of [a module] can be captured by the extent to which "it enables participants to behave like an entrepreneur, think like an entrepreneur, feel like an entrepreneur, communicate like an entrepreneur, organise like an entrepreneur and learn like an entrepreneur (Gibb, 2008). 

This module will provide the knowledge, encouragement, and support for students to: 

• discover an opportunity for a business idea and generate their creative idea


• package that idea into a ‘value proposition’ and then  


• take some ‘risk’ in testing out their value proposition hypothesis to receive feedback and reactions from fellow students as well as the tutor 

The module aims to simulate the experience of entrepreneurs in start-up incubators who receive support from fellow start-ups alongside more formal coaching and mentoring.  

LIMITATIONS: 

The limitations of this module are that we are not permitting you to develop a new App. In real life the time for developing an App is extensive as it requires many cycles of ‘build-test-learn’ before it is effective, and the budget required is beyond the reach of almost every start up.

Instead, you are encouraged to be ‘entrepreneurially alert (Kirzner) and focus on identifying existing technology (including digital technologies) that can be adapted and combined into innovative combinations of existing technology/product/service. 

These are brought to life by you the ‘human middleware’ to provide new value to customers.

The expression derives from the MC reflecting how new software connects to important legacy software inside organisations through special software called ‘middleware’.  

In this module we are challenging you to be the ‘human middleware’. 

Assessable learning outcomes:

Assessable Learning Outcomes:

Theoretical Knowledge:

By the end of the module students should:

• Be able to understand and use concepts in entrepreneurship to describe, discuss and appraise a customer problem and the business opportunity it provides


• Be able to create the innovative idea matched to the opportunity 


• Understand what is a Value Proposition, with its component part

Application of Theory:

By the end of the module students should:

• Have demonstrated the application of theory into a testable Value Proposition 


• Have analysed and understood the results of the crowdfund test


• Have demonstrated an understanding of the feasibility factors that support the VP- usually represented within a model known as the Business Model Canvas


• Have created and then refined their original idea – modified by reflecting on feedback received- to produce a Value Proposition that they have more confidence in for Task 3 customer engagement test, and for possible start-up, post degree

Personal development:

By the end of the module students should:

• Have acquired (in a portfolio) demonstrable evidence for potential partners and investors and enhanced their employability.


• Have experienced risk taking in front of their peers.

International Awareness: 

By the end of the module students should: 

• Have interacted with students of different nationalities and exchanged and learned from cultural and market intelligence. 

Additional outcomes:

• Enhanced personal confidence and competence for ‘start-up’.


• Organisation, competence and confidence in presenting to a large classroom cohort.


• Demonstrated enhanced reflection capabilities which are essential at Masters (Level 7) learning.

Outline content:

Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship, sources of opportunity, personal alertness, creativity and idea generation, marketing, selling, team building and team dynamics, social capital, business model analysis, crowdfunding as a source of customer interest. 

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

This course is highly interactive and reliant upon personal initiative and action taking. Lecture classes are not traditional lectures as they are comprised of a combination of mini-lectures and interactive group work.  

The 2*Autumn preliminary classes (online) will provide the route map for your search for a business opportunity.

Spring term will commence with a formative assessment start up test where you engage in random groups to explain the business opportunity you have spotted and wish to solve, alongside your initial idea for how to solve it.

Your feedback from your peers and your own enhanced learning will then enable you to  incubate your initial idea into a more formal ‘value proposition’, which is to be presented in Task 2 as your individual business hypotheses- or version 1 Value Proposition. 

Subsequently in Spring, students are encouraged to form into small ‘incubator teams’ to enhance and present their VP hypothesis to the entire cohort, in a crowdfund campaign where you will be risking your personal intelligence in order to receive feedback that will help you take the idea to a real start-up (after the module).

The majority of the learning will be self-guided in response to the particular needs of the chosen project under the guidance and mentoring of your lecturer/module convenor.

Summative assessment- Examinations:

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Entrepreneurs have limited resources and this module aims to replicate the experience of limited resources.  

To repeat:  

We are challenging you to be the ‘human middleware’ to create a novel concept that can be tested with your intended target customer audience within the financial limits that are provided for your Task 3 customer engagement test (£3000).  

It is recognised that more than £3000 will usually be required to fund the actual launch, but this module is intended to build confidence, through demonstrated tests, to go on and launch the idea post-module completion.  

Hence £3000 is the budget for ‘conceptually’ creating a prototype and designing a customer engagement test of your product/service/experience.  

In real life a successful customer engagement test, showing your risk of £3000, should produce confidence for investors to multiply your risk capital by 3x for the next (beyond this module) test. 

3 assessment tasks: 

Task 1 (0 %). Formative-Peer to peer feedback.

It involves the testing of your initial business idea (value proposition).

At this early stage of development, receiving feedback from fellow module members helps you gain different perspectives for you to refine this into a Task 2 Value Proposition.

This is an individual task.

In Class in Spring Week 2.

Task 2 (60 %) is an Individual report.

You must design a specification hypothesis for your Value Proposition within an imaginary budget of £3000. You do not actually test the design hypothesis.

Submission in Week 6 of Spring term.

Task 3 (40 %) is an ‘offline’ crowdfund campaign.

This can be completed as an Individual or in teams of up to 5 people.

Task 3 involves 10% of the marks based upon a ranking from other students’ allocation of funds and 90% from tutor evaluation of the campaign. The VP that you showcase in the crowdfund campaign must be testable within a £3000 budget.

Submission Spring term Week 9 for viewing in small seminar groups in week 10 and 11.

Formative assessment methods:

Lecturer and peer observation and comments from informal presentations made in classes. 

In addition there are self-reflection learning opportunities: 

1. Reflecting on the words you used in your presentation of Task 1 and your Task 3 campaign and your immediate and delayed responses to those words- this is actually the most important of your feedback. You need to practice your words until your confidence grows and you are authentic in your communication- when under pressure. 


2. Reaction from your peers is the second type of feedback which indicates if your Value Proposition was understood. Unless they understand it, they can't support it, or buy it, or invest in it. 


3. There is feedback based on the ranking order from the votes of other students. 


4. There is feedback from the tutor in the form of summative marks and formative comments. 

Penalties for late submission:

Assessment requirements for a pass:

A weighted average mark of 50%.

Reassessment arrangements:

By individual submission of a new task, by September of the same year.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

Specialist equipment or materials -  under £100. For video editing software, but usually a free version can be obtained.

Last updated: 22 June 2023