AD3BME: Business Management and Entrepreneurship

Module code: AD3BME

Module provider: School of Agriculture, Policy and Development

Credits: 20

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you'll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Professor Peter Dorward, email: p.t.dorward@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 20 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

The main aim of this module is to learn how to work with real client businesses and entrepreneurs to develop successful management proposals and solve challenges. You will develop skills required to prepare and assess business proposal and plans by working with clients. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Business planning – demonstrate the ability to apply management tools to decision making and business development e.g. identification of opportunities, threats etc. in the wider environment, labour and machinery management, financial planning including enterprise and partial budgets, sensitivity analysis. 
2. Business strategy – demonstrate the ability to develop alternative strategies for a business. This will include understanding how to develop appropriate plans for the introduction of new enterprises / major changes to a rural business and presenting a coherent proposal for investment to a potential lender (i.e. a bank). 
3. Business analysis and evaluation – understand how to appraise businesses and evaluate problems. This may include demonstrating understanding of resource use, comparative analysis and benchmarking (financial and other). 
4. People management and engagement skills – demonstrate appropriate skills in meeting and advising business clients including clear and tactfully written and verbal presentation of findings and criticisms of a third-party business. 

Module content

The module consists of a series of management exercises, based on farms and other rural enterprises, which students undertake individually or in groups. Written and verbal reports will be presented and discussed, usually in the presence of the manager of the business studied. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

A range of teaching and learning methods will be used including: lectures (including on how to develop business proposals), engagement with businesses and their staff who act as ‘clients’, small group seminars to discuss, share and gain feedback on preliminary ideas, production of plans and proposals that are then presented to and discussed and evaluated (and reflected on) by and with ‘clients’.  Students collaborate with each other as well as work independently to produce plans and proposals. In doing so they also practice the use of methods and approaches for planning and appraisal, and undertake enquiry. 

Study hours

At least 44 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/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.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

1. Prior to submission of the first report, students will give a formative group presentation to the client, the feedback will be incorporated into the business report and into the following summative presentation 
2. Students share verbally their preliminary ideas for each of the three business proposals and receive verbal feedback 
3. An anonymised business proposal from a previous year is read, ‘evaluated’ and discussed by students with the lecturer to identify and reflect on how to produce a high quality proposal 

Reassessment

Additional costs