The Sloan Foundation, the Coleman Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation, Inc. magazine, and a consortium of business schools committed funds to produce a new type of business education called the Real-Time Case (RTC).

Here is the course description that students found at four universities last year:

As you read this, the managers of a new high-tech company, Optasite Inc., are striving to achieve the entrepreneurial dream. On a special website you will follow that company, and see their progress week by week. But you will do more than just watch. You will be actively engaged with the company, analyzing its problems, and making input. You will be participating in the world's first in-depth, real-time case study.

Unlike traditional case studies, this real-time case will dig deeply into one company during an entire semester. At this moment, a case writer is stationed full-time at the case company. Each week the writer will provide us with the information we need to analyze a particular problem or question about the company. But our goal is not analysis for its own sake. Instead, we want to go beyond critiquing, and make valuable recommendations to the company. The company is counting on us to perform, and we want to deliver.

Survey data from students indicated that the real-time case appealing: two-thirds of the students rated it equal to or better than any course they had taken previously. Satisfaction scores were the highest ever recorded at two universities. Steps are being taken now to make the make a new real-time case each year, and to use it for teaching business subjects in addition to entrepreneurship.

The business plan and business plan presentations are key tools, used by both entrepreneurial educators and collegiate entrepreneurs. This presentation demonstrates an experiential teaching-learning technique applied in undergraduate courses for both entrepreneurial majors and for liberal arts undergraduates with interests in entrepreneurship. As a modified version of the "one pager" new venture summary plan submitted by entrepreneurs to angel investors and at venture capital funding source presentations, this teaching technique shows students how to answer five critical questions asked of all new ventures: What are you building? Why does this business exist? How will you build the business? What is the work to be done? What results will you measure?

The One Page Business Plan (OPBP) is a very straightforward, versatile, consistent, flexible tool and can be used for a variety of purposes. There is no room for fluff or filler in this exercise. The use of key words and short phrases tells the reader or audience that only the essence of the "business concept" is being presented for review. The fact that the business model is only one page communicates that the investment in reading and listening is limited. The OPBP can be used by students to develop a plan for a small company, or as a summarization exercise of a traditional business plan. The OPBP purposes extend to profit centers, departments, program or projects. As a document that summarizes the ideas for a new business, the OPBP is also a presentation tool or a personal or professional planning device.

At Sierra Nevada College, we have adopted this technique in entrepreneurship courses taught across the curriculum to liberal arts students. In two 45 minute sessions, with the support of a workbook, students follow templates, complete worksheets, and review their new venture proposals collaboratively first with a learning partner and them within small groups. For larger classes, a OPBP poster session is appropriate. Future entrepreneurs learn the power of strategic words and short phrases. Students learn the process of integrating all of their inter-disciplinary studies, both in academia and real-life to create a compelling story of how they are going to build a successful business. Students learn that everyone sells through out their careers even if their profession is not sales. Finally students learn to tell the "story" of their business with just enough facts and details to convince the audience that the business is viable, but leave the audience wanting to schedule a meeting to learn more.

By the end of the exercise, students learn the value of stating the vision, mission, strategies, objective and plans for their new ventures. At the conclusion of the Sierra Nevada College entrepreneurship course required of all liberal art students, all students are required to stand and deliver a ten minute presentation of their new venture. The OPBP is the foundation for that public presentation delivered to faculty, students, college and university staff and invited member of the business and entrepreneurial community.

As you move through this course we will provide you with the opportunity to "do" or engage in many learning activities to advance your knowledge and entrepreneurship understanding. You will be gathering information form a variety of sources, to test the value and benefit of your observations.

Reflective Observation your discernment of the learning outcome
In analyzing the entrepreneurial activity:

• What did you notice or learn that you want to remember?
• In what way did this experience challenge my assumption(s) about Entrepreneurship?
• I identified correctly the following (entrepreneurial concept, problem, facts, timeliness, issues, importance, causes). That was because of ?
• My classmates helped to identify the following (entrepreneurial concept, problem, facts, timeliness, issues, importance, causes). That was because of ?
• Which of my values was affirmed by this experience?
• What have I learned about myself in this experiential situation?
• The most successful part of this entrepreneurship activity for me was? Why?
• The new skill or "piece" of knowledge I can to see in this situation was?
• I liked/disliked about this experience I contributed
• If I could do any part of this experience over, it would be? Why?
• What I learned in other experiential activities in this course that helps me better understand this most recent experience is?

Abstract Generalization your conclusions from the outcome
In developing insightful instincts:

• What hypothesis, conclusion, principles, or guidelines can I draw from this most recent experience reflecting on the Entrepreneurship?
• From this experience I developed the following hunch(es) about entrepreneurship
• From this experience I learned the following principle(s) about entrepreneurship
• From this experience I can see the value of the following guideline(s) for entrepreneurship
• From this experience what can I do to affect the greatest potential for improvement in my understanding of entrepreneurship

Active Experimentation your decision of what to do next as a result/outcome
In assessing what to do next:

What do you need next in order to have confidence (the feeling that you will perform well) in your own entrepreneurial abilities, in your won readiness to use what you have learned in this course? What do you need to create an opportunity to test your hunches or conclusions in another situation? Who or when can you gain an opportunity to practice certain entrepreneurship skills?

• Of the items that I noticed in the reflective process of the entrepreneurial activity, I want to practice
• The one or two new "pieces" of new knowledge" that I experienced and I want to try out is
• I can go to for an opportunity to practice and gain a new entrepreneurial skill?
• In my current situation, the people who are in my expanded network practicing these skills are
• As I think about entrepreneurship and extra-curricular activities, I might select to practice the skills or abilities (conduct a trial) and increase my competence are
• Of the thing(s) I saw in this situation, I am eager and excited to attempt
• The opportunity for learning that I want to pursue as a result of this experience is

The Network Referral Stories (NRS) file is a highly effective teaching strategy that has proven itself over 11 years to be a valuable link for students, between the regular schedule of course reading assignments and an on-going interactive dialogue regarding the realities of entrepreneurial perseverance. The NRS file creates a critical mass of self-selected mentoring resources during the semester for the course "Entrepreneurship and New Venture Development". This 15-week cumulative project augments the start-up business plans developed by the student new venture teams, and has proven to be extremely valuable to students on four-key fronts:

1) initiates an on-going dialogue,
2) builds new venture vision and perspective,
3) forges high-level advisory relationships, and
4) secures extraordinary internships.

The NRS file requires each student to bring in one standard manila folder. They each mark the tab "CURRENT" and I then explain that this 9"x12" space will become their most valuable resource during the next 15 weeks as they are introduced to entrepreneurship and the new venture development process. I open my briefcase and pull out my own "CURRENT" folder and in just 10 minutes, I present them with my most recent NRS entries from my personal consulting projects over the last month or so.

NRS entries include: someone's business card, a clipped article about an intriguing entrepreneur, a phone number for a great referral, a web URL or email address for a related product or service, maybe a brochure picked up at a trade fair or exhibit. Other areas from which to draw NRS material include: a) firm owners cited in the Pacific Coast Business Times (a local weekly covering new businesses, venture capital, entrepreneur profiles), b) personal introductions made at the monthly Central Coast MIT Enterprise Forum, c) the individual chosen by each student for the EIE (entrepreneur interview editorial) assignment, and d) cold call referrals secured during the research of the student teams' start-up business plan.

There is just one rule for the NRS folder: Only put something in that has value-added potential. It must be followed-up within two weeks or it gets dropped from the folder. I can ask any student on any day (with no prior notice) to open the folder, and in five minutes, relay a compelling "story" to the class from the student's growing list of professional contacts. And they can also ask me to do the same. This creates a heightened awareness in class as students work very hard to have great contacts, so they are able to add value to the semester's on-going dialogue about entrepreneurial success and new venture development issues. The NRS file can be tailored to fit with all course readings, topics covered by outside speakers, all phases of researching new venture ideas, and in meeting all milestones for the start-up business plan semester project.

One of the difficulties in most entrepreneurial courses is what to give for a final examination. This past semester I had the opportunity to develop and teach a course entitled "Financing the Emerging Enterprise". In this course we examined all of the possibilities for financing a new venture including bank debt, private investors, venture capital and IPO's. As we progressed toward the end of the semester I was searching for a perfect final that would test what the students learned, but more importantly give them some hands on experience with the problems facing entrepreneurs.

At our University sponsored Entrepreneurship conference, I met Fred Nelson who is the CEO of a company called Accounting Computers Inc. He has been very successful in the past, with a turn-key computer system for distributors, but is now caught in a change of technology. Fred told me how he had put together a business plan and was wrestling with whether or not to bring in partners, private investors or venture capitalist. I invited him to present the question to our class, and he enthusiastically agreed. What followed was a live final exam, based on an actual company presented by the CEO and majority shareholder.

Fred came to the class in the second last week and presented his business plan, which was also on his web site so that the students could access it at any time. This was complete with a full set of financial statements and current operating results. After a half-hour presentation, the students were able to ask questions and get as much background as they needed. During the week that followed they not only had access to the information but could also contact Fred by e-mail. Their assignment was to come up with the best financial and business strategy for the company. They were to hand in a written presentation complete with any attendant analysis. Then the following week Fred returned and each member of the class presented their strategy in person to him. The results were spectacular. The exchange between the students and the owner was direct and pointed. Fred was impressed with the "freshness of ideas" that the students brought. The students responded with gusto to a rare opportunity to analyze a real privately held, entrepreneurial driven company. They gained an experience that I'm sure will stay with them the rest of their lives.

I realize that this was a unique opportunity, and duplicating it will be difficult. However, the point is that the closer we can get our students to the reality of the problems facing entrepreneurial firms, and give them some practice at developing solutions, the more successful we will be as educators.

The student group consisted of 23 part-time students who were working engineering management professionals working mostly in the wireless communications industry. All held undergraduate degrees in an engineering field. The primary objective of the course was to provide each student with a realistic experience the nature of entrepreneurial management.

Description of the Teaching Practice
The vehicle for the course pedagogy the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) developed by Kaplan & Norton. The beginning of the first class session was devoted to explaining the course objectives including a detailed discussion the course structure. The teacher ended the first class session by leading the class through a training session in BSC methodology using training materials provided by the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative.

At the beginning of the second class session, the teacher established a live or real time case study. The teacher began playing the role of the Chair and CEO of a global wireless telecommunications provider addressing a group of senior and mid-level executives. The key points in his remarks to the management team were:

Staying in role, the Chair/CEO responded to clarification questions, insisting that everyone stay in the role they chose to play. The Chair/CEO then reminded that his office was located directly across the hallway from the conference room, and that he would available only the same evening each week for limited face-to-face consultations. At other times, the Chair/CEO could be reached via email. The Chair/CEO then walk out of the conference room (classroom) and did not return until the 10th week of the course to participate in the task force's presentation of their final report with the exception of an unscheduled 15 minute observation visit.

Observations and Conclusions

The course took on a life of its own between the 4th and 5th class sessions or three weeks into the task force project. The students had taken control of the project and entrepreneurial leadership began to emerge at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. The final report was a masterpiece.

Bob and Carol want to quit their jobs and work for the new business full time. Ted is planning to stay with the CPA firm for the time being but will handle the accounting for the business. Alice is looking to put her money in something she is passionate about which this business is. Bob, Carol and Ted have little money to invest. All parties expect that the business may lose money for the first year or two but are confident that in the long run it is a viable business venture.

One item the business will obviously need is an old biplane. Bob has found one that is in good shape but needs about $10,000 worth of repairs. The plane could be bought for $150,000. Eventually, the business will want several such planes. The plan is to eventually acquire the planes and hire a few pilots and travel the country conducting air shows and doing barnstorming demonstrations. They will also take people on rides for a fee. For now, Bob and Carol will have to do all the traveling and flying. Carol will also handle the marketing and advertising for the business.

The parties have approached you as a new business consultant and asked for your recommendations regarding the start up of the business. Specifically, they want your recommendation as to the form of business in which they should operate (along with the reasons for recommending that form) as well as preparation of the necessary documents to accompany that form of business, i.e. a partnership agreement, articles of organization, an operating agreement, articles of incorporation, bylaws, etc. You will need to create a name for the business, last names for the owners, and any other information needed for the start up documents. Identify any assumptions you made or information that would be helpful in making your recommendation that was not furnished. Consider ancillary items like stock options, repurchase agreements, tax elections, etc. The more aspects of the start up you consider, the better your project.

Your recommendations and accompanying documents should be typed. While you may (and should) consult resources outside your textbook, you may not share documents with each other. Each student is expected to do their own work and come up with their own recommendations. You will be asked to briefly present and defend your recommendations to the class. The assignment is due September 25 at class time.

A few years ago, I had the idea that the standard "business plan" approach to entrepreneurship education reflected neither the reality of the process of entrepreneurship, nor the ideal approach to helping students find good business ideas. In most entrepreneurship courses, students "brainstorm" an idea and then write a feasibility or business plan to evaluate the viability of that idea. In reality, most entrepreneurs begin with an idea that is generated from substantial industry, product, or technology experience. While some students bring such experience to the table and have already generated what may be a high quality idea, many have not, and the resultant business plans suffer. Furthermore, the process does little to teach students how to apply business school tools to identify opportunities.

I argue that the best approach to entrepreneurship education may not be to start with the idea and move to analysis (the business plan model), but to start with analysis and, through the creative process, move to idea generation (and later more extensive evaluation). Thus, I propose the concept of a Sector Opportunity Study wherein we start with a given sector (broadly defined vertically), analyze the sector through various strategic/analytical frameworks, and thereby identify opportunities within the sector. Thus, we start with an industry and search for an opportunity. Similarly, we begin with analysis and move to creativity, rather than starting with creativity and moving to analysis. The final outcome should be a list and description of potential opportunities. From there, the second entrepreneurship course can be utilized to translate the idea into a business plan.

The Sector Opportunity Study can be seen as an intelligent, flexible, and narrowing search process. While searching various information sources and applying analytical tools students' should be alert to indications of potential opportunities, as the identification of an opportunity will likely result from attentiveness. Quite naturally, the direction of search may

change over time to reflect the evidence brought to light.

The following is the related process I have proposed to my students. I'm certain that it could be enhanced, but it is a start:

1. Define the boundaries of the sector. This will be a critical step, as it will help insure that we can complete the project within the scope of the semester. The sector can represent an entire industry, a strategic group within an industry or a technology that is likely to impact an industry or a number of industries. If you choose the latter, I encourage you to focus either on the technology itself rather than the impact on a specific industry, or select and analyze one sector the technology will impact
2. Analyze the structure and value chain of the industry. In performing this task, it is appropriate to think in terms of the entire value chain of the industry. Many opportunities for improving the efficiency or customer value created by an industry reside in the linkages between various stages in the production of the good or service.
3. Analyze the major players at each stage of the industry.
4. Identify potential opportunities.

Rationale: To help "Introduction to Entrepreneurship" students to look for opportunity in what they read and hear, and to help them to develop a creative approach to new business development.

Required Activity: To bring to class two of the coolest products, ideas, concepts, technologies, information items or whatever grabs your interest/captures your imagination that you can find during the week.

Each week you are required to document "two cool" items and their sources (forms provided by instructor). For each class, be prepared to present one of the two items when they are being shared. The class will then select one item from those presented, and will brainstorm (either in teams or with the entire class we may alternate) about different ways to commercialize the concept, and discuss some of the barriers and opportunities inherent in the idea.

Possible Sources of Cool Items: World Wide Web, journals (trade, industry, scientific), magazines, newspapers, other media, other entrepreneurs

Note: This is an activity that counts toward the student's class participation grade. The exercise will take about 35-45 minutes, usually at the beginning of the class period, unless there is a guest speaker.

EEE 370-Spring 2002 Mondays 7:00-9:45 p.m.

Name: _________________________________________________________
Date of Class session): _____________________________________________

Cool Item # 1
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Source of Information for Cool Item #1 ( e.g., journal and issue date, source and date of news broadcast, etc.):
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Cool Item # 2
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Source of Information for Cool Item #2 ( e.g., journal and issue date, source and date of news broadcast, etc.):
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Comments:___________________________________________________________________

Objectives:

1) To create awareness of innovation in our surroundings; to help EEE 370 students to look for opportunity in what they read and hear, and to help them to develop a creative approach to new business development.

2) To give students practice scanning their environment for new ideas.

3) Used early in the semester to help students to get acquainted with each other as a group and in newly-formed teams.

4) To introduce business concepts in short, experiential bursts.

5) To be a vehicle for discussion about whether the concepts are just cool ideas or real opportunities.

Preparation:

One week before the assignment is due, give the students the following instructions with the form on the other side:

Group Instructions:

"Bring to class two of the coolest products, ideas, concepts, technologies, information items or whatever is truly innovative and grabs your interest/captures your imagination that you can find during the week. This should be a concept that is totally new to you.

Each week that I announce we will have "Two Cool" the following week, you are required to document two "cool" items and their sources (forms provided by instructor). For each class, be prepared to present one of the two items when they are being shared. (If someone else has an item similar to yours, you have the second item as a back-up.)

Possible Sources of Cool Items: Internet (sites for patents, inventions, new products, MIT Media Lab, etc.), journals (trade, industry, scientific), magazines, newspapers, other media, other entrepreneurs"

Class activity/Process: After generating a group list of Two Cool items with the entire class (recorded on an overhead projector or someplace where all can see them), the class will then select one item from those presented, and will brainstorm (either in teams with each team selecting a different concept, or with the entire class on the same concept we may alternate) about different ways to commercialize the concept, and discuss some of the barriers and opportunities inherent in the idea.

Student Presentation: Select a spokesperson (or two) to present the team findings. Professor either comments after each team, or debriefs at the end of the discussion, summarizing the important points that were made in the discussion.

Supplies: Markers and large pads of paper for teams to record their responses; tape to put up the large sheets around the room so all can see them.

Alternative discussion topics:

1) Team: elevator speech You are the management team for this company. You are to prepare an elevator speech which captures the interest of a potential investor in two or at the most, three sentences. Then select a spokesperson to present the elevator speech. (One other team member may assist by holding the paper for the class to read the important points which the spokesperson presents. I usually ask someone from another team to role play the investor in the elevator.)

Preparation: Prior to this Two Cool discussion session, I spend about 5 minutes explaining what is an elevator speech and asking the class what they think are some examples of important points.

2) Team: business model concepts "Think about your team's Two Cool concept and what it would take to start a business around this concept. Provide five statements about what is needed. (Examples:What is the size of the business? What specifically is your product, if not obvious? Who is your market? What special expertise is needed to start this business?)"

After the team presents their item, as a group we discuss (in rapid-fire response from the tops of their heads) how much (capital) might be needed to start this business. Some respond with very high amounts and some with low amounts. I ask why it would cost so much or so little and by the end of the discussion, we usually have a couple of alternative models that could be used to develop a business around the concept. (Examples of alternatives: National versus regional market, bootstrapping versus investor capital, borrowed resources and outsourcing versus buying everything and setting up own operations, etc.)

Hints:

1) I generally take between 15 and 25 items depending on the number of students in the class and the amount of time I have allocated to the discussion. Early in the semester I use this as a way to generate discussion and get students comfortable speaking in the class group. I also get them used to my calling on them randomly when no one volunteers. The risk is low in this exercise and they learn that I expect them to be prepared to participate.)

2) This is an effective exercise if done twice in a semester, and early in the semester, using different discussion topics. More than twice, it loses its impact and spontaneity.

3) I count this activity toward the student's class participation grade. The exercise takes about 5 minutes to generate the list, 10 minutes for team discussion, 15-20 minutes for presentations with instructor comments, and another 5 for the wrap-up (total 40-45 minutes).

Originator of exercise:

Marcene Sonneborn
President of Innovation Management Consulting, Inc.
Adjunct, Syracuse University
School of Management
EEE Program

Phone: 315-425-5144
Fax: 315-233-1259
Email: mssonneb@eznet.net or msonneborn@tdo.org

Exercise Description:
On the first evening of class, I like to start the semester by getting students to think about who is an entrepreneur. The two big questions I pose are: 1) do traits common to all entrepreneurs exist and 2) are there specific behaviors required of all entrepreneurs? To answer these questions, I use an exercise with three separate components.

First, without having read anything, I ask them these two questions and record their responses in a list on the board.

Second, I expose them to 2 entrepreneurs with seemingly very different approaches. You can do this with articles, cases, and the like but I have found that I can engage them effectively by using short videos. The Greif Entrepreneur Center (USC Marshall School of Business) produces videos of speeches by their "Entrepreneurs of the Year" which are well done. Last semester, the students watched a 20 minute or so speech by Sky Dayton (founder of EarthLink) and another one by Angelo Mozilo (founder of Countrywide Credit Industries).

After watching/reading about one of the entrepreneurs, I ask the students to revisit their list and amend it based on how the speech by the entrepreneur changed their perceptions.

I then have the students watch the second video and again come back to their list, think about how the traits or behaviors might have changed, and make additions or refinements to the list.

Third, we compare and contrast the entrepreneurs and try to reconcile the differences between the entrepreneurs and develop a distilled list of traits/behaviors.

Objectives:
To identify/expose stereotypes students may have about entrepreneurs and the skills required to be an entrepreneur. Help students clarify the essence of entrepreneurship and understand the common thread on the multiple paths to successful entrepreneurship.

Preparation:
No preparation is required from the student's perspective. The instructor needs to familiarize him/herself with the entrepreneurs.

Resource materials:
Cases, articles, or videotapes.

Set-up:
VCR, whiteboard or chalkboard

Process:
The three steps of the exercise take some time. I usually allot at least 1/1/2 hours for it. Since my class is usually at night and are scheduled for 2 hour blocks, I spend a little time going over the syllabus and course expectations and then devote the rest of the class to this discussion. If you have a shorter class session, you could do this on the second day of class. Another option is to only use one entrepreneur in identifying and discussing relevant traits/behaviors. You might choose one that will be very different than common perceptions of an entrepreneur.

Key Lecture Points:
Entrepreneurs have many different characteristics. While it is hard to come up with a definitive set of traits that describes all entrepreneurs, there are some critical behaviors essential to the success of a new venture. For example: an entrepreneur must be able to identify a clear underserved need, exhibit passion about that opportunity, demonstrate flexibility and resourcefulness in the pursuit of that opportunity and assemble a good team/delegate. (In contrast, for example, you can discuss how the age of the entrepreneur, the experience of the entrepreneur in that industry and the experience of the entrepreneur in starting a business may vary a great deal from firm to firm). Most entrepreneurs are calculated risk takers rather than gamblers but are able to tolerate ambiguity well. Regardless of the industry, innovation is essential. Industries may define what constitutes innovation differently but some new combination must exist. The entrepreneurial venture is typically growth oriented.

1. Experience how a product gets from R&D to market.
2. Explore the different perspectives of the inventors and marketing professionals.
3. Learn the difference between product features and customer benefits.

Preparation and resource materials:

1. This exercise requires an assortment of parts that can be used to create new productswhich can be a variety of things one could find in an office, kitchen, workshop or toy box including plastic wheels, wooden dowels, paper towel tubes, clay, giant paper clips, empty pen tubes, spatula, small boxes, etc. Four to six of these pieces are put into a paper lunch bag. A bag is prepared for each team of four students. All bags are placed on a table at the front of the room.
2. One roll of masking tape is needed for each team. This is the "product adaptation material."
3. A clock or watch to time exercise segments.
4. One slip of notepaper is needed for each student. This is the "secret ballot."
5. Four each of the following or similar are needed as prizes: Gold medal winners receive a small bag of gold foil covered, chocolate coins; second place winners receive a "cool grand" (frozen Hundred Thousand Grand chocolate bars).

Set-up:
No special room arrangement is required. Assign students to teams of four. Two students will be the inventors; two students will be the marketing consultants. They may self-select their roles. Students will move to sit with their team mates.

Group instructions and process:
Our goal is to get a glimpse at the invention-to-market process from two perspectives--the inventor and marketing department.

1. The inventors will have 5 minutes to create a product from the company's invention laboratory (the table with the lunch bags). They will select a bag, bring it back to their group's table, empty the bag, create a product using only the contents of the bag and a limited amount of "product adaptation material" (masking tape). During this time, the market consultants may observe and take notes but may not speak. Invention is the purview of the R&D team. The inventors must also define:
   • What is the product? (i.e., this is an automatic side-mirror cleaning device for trucks)
   • What are the important product features? (it is solar-powered, with independent controls, etc.)
2. At the end of the inventors' time, the marketing consultants will have 5 minutes to draft an initial marketing strategy including:
   1. Define most profitable initial target market
      Is this B2B? or B2C? Describe primary characteristics of the most likely target market (i.e., long-haul truckers in the East)
   2. Design the 4Ps
      • Product: Name of product and what unique benefits it provides (what does it do for the customer).
      • Price: All raw materials and production costs total $5/piece for the initial quantity. Determine your pricing strategy (sold by each, any quantity discounts, packaged with other products) and the sales price per unit.
      • Place: Determine if there are any unique packaging requirements or special shipping requirements. Will they be sold to distributors, over the Internet, directly through retail, etc.? Describe the fundamentals of your distribution strategy.
      • Promotion: Tell how your target market will discover and purchase your invention. Describe how you'll get their attention, demonstrate benefits, and convert curiosity into orders.
3. The teams then make a 4-minute presentation to the Board of Directors (remainder of the students). The Board will vote on the top two inventions to be marketed this year using a secret ballot. Each Board member will indicate their 1st and 2nd choices. The President (course instructor) will tabulate votes to select the winners. If your team is selected, you get a fabulous bonus.

Discussion questions:

1. To inventors: What was the most important thing you were thinking about when you designed the product?
2. To marketers: What do you wish you could have said to the inventors as they developed their product? What were some of the key pieces of information about the market that you were missing in developing your initial marketing strategy?
3. What is similar/different about the perspectives of the investors versus that of the marketing consultants?

Key lecture points:
Those who create products often focus more on improving design, enhancing technical qualities, etc. which may or may not be important or even perceptible to the target marketthey are product feature focused. Successful product introduction matches product attributes to the benefits desired by the market. "Marketeers" are benefits focused; they design the 4 Ps to garner customer acceptance (and sales). The more intimately they know their target market, the better the match and the steeper the sales curve.

Originator of exercise:

LoAnn Ayers
Washington State University
2710 University Drive
Richland, WA 99352

Phone: 509-372-7252
E-mail: ayers@tricity.wsu.edu

Objectives:

• To appreciate the importance of brainstorming
• To learn where entrepreneurs may find ideas for new ventures
• To integrate personal interests and preferences to an opportunity
• To overcome some myths and emphasize that an idea may not translate into an opportunity
• To appreciate the trends, such as aging population and elder care, that may enhance small business start-ups
• To exchange ideas with a partner via email, and then the entire class
• And, to start the team process for writing a small business plan

Set-up:

1. Each student in the class is given a two page typewritten homework assignment:
   1. list their brainstorming ideas for a new business
   2. outline their interests, preferences, and expectations
   3. list relevant trends in society and
   4. a short paragraph on how one of their ideas matches their personal preferences.
      (To save time, everything is in outline form except for "d").
2. After typing this assignment they must email it (as an attachment) to a partner to get feedback. They then cut and paste their partner's response on the bottom of their own paper.
3. At the start of the next class, I play the Broadway tune "The Impossible Dream" and place the papers around the classroom
4. The class then has 30 minutes to walk around and read section "a" of as many papers as possible. They take informal notes on different ideas that they have read.
5. After 30 minutes, I ask the class to orally state which ideas they like the best and if these ideas have a high probability of success. I then have a fifteen-minute wrap-up on key points.

What Happens:
The class realizes that there are so many ideas to explore. Yet, many of them may not really be a viable opportunity in the marketplace. Students also appreciate the importance of integrating ideas with their own preferences and interests. And, unlike Don Quixote, they realize that successful entrepreneurs are more than dreamers and idealists.

Discussion Questions:

1. How does the song tie-in with the assignment and entrepreneurship?
2. Where do ideas for small business start-ups come from? Which sources are the most popular? What are some common methods, such as checklists, to encourage brainstorming?
3. What are some of the myths that exist about entrepreneurship?
4. How do we know if an idea is a good opportunity? What impact do the trends in society have on creating new ventures?
5. Why is it so important to make sure that your idea for a new venture ties-in with your personal lifestyle wishes?

Key Summary Lecture Points:

1. Match your personal lifestyle preferences with the type of business you might start. Don't pick a venture that might make you miserable as an entrepreneur. Also, know the difference between lifestyle and high growth businesses.
2. Recognize common brainstorming techniques, but know that an idea is not always a good opportunity. A successful entrepreneur is more than a dreamer and idealist.
3. It takes time to search for a good opportunity
4. Recognize where entrepreneurs frequently obtain ideas for a start-up
5. Integrate the trends and societal needs with your own ideas. You must begin the process of seeing if your best idea has merit for actually becoming a small business venture. You now have a beginning process in starting your team project for writing a small business plan.

Objective of First LessonStudents will develop a Mind Map that will provide an insightful look into their own personal strengths and weaknesses. In the second lesson students will create another Mind Map looking at themselves as potential entrepreneurs.

A Mind Map is a powerful graphic technique, which provides a universal key to unlock the potential of the brain using both sides (leftlogic, analysis, sequence, etc. and rightimagination, daydreaming, color, etc.) plus Gestalt (seeing the whole picture). It was created by Tony Buzan in the late 1960's and is used in many businesses today.

Depending upon the level of the student, a Mind Map could be simply explained as a tool similar to a road map that uses right brain logic and left brain creativitya fun and unique way to examine themselves, a topic or a problem.

Resource materialsattached Mind Maps.
Instructions or rules of Mind Mapping:
(Normally the person building the Mind Map creates the central idea and the key words. These have been provided in the prepared Mind Map in order to have consistency in thinking in order to make comparisons from the first lesson to the second. As much color should be used as possible. A completed sample Mind Map is also included in order for the student to view the finished product.

1. The more branches created from the key words, the more effective the Mind Map.
2. Use images, words, symbols, codes and dimensions throughout.
3. Print in upper and lower case letters.
4. Use outlines to embrace all branches from each key word.
5. Look at the sample Mind Map for direction.
6. Work as fast as you can.
7. Let your thoughts go.
8. Do not dwell on any idea.
9. Write down each word on its own line and connect it to another.

Discussion: Describe the experience. Were you honest about yourself? How would you compare to any successful entrepreneur you might know? Did you learn any new about yourself?

Lecture Points: What do you think are the characteristics that make for a successful entrepreneur? Is there a "perfect background" to be an entrepreneur? What are the most common problems areas? How can weaknesses be corrected? Can anyone be an entrepreneur? (The first and second lessons go together. The students should leave with questions and ideas that are answered in the next lesson.)

Sources:
Make the Most of Your Mind, Tony Buzan
Use Both Sides of Your Brain, Tony Buzan
The Mind Map Book, Tony Buzan
Starting Your Own Business, Jan Norman
No B.S., No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners, and Make Tons of Money Business Success Book, Dan Kennedy
Entrepreneurship, Hisrich and Peters
http://www.mapyourmind.com/
http://www.imindmap.com/

Objectives:
Students will have an entrepreneurial experience. They learn how to look for and find a client for their marketing plan. They learn how to plan for, design and conduct a presentation to convince a potential client (to market themselves). This represents a useful way to start the class, to develop team bonds, and to get good quality marketing plans. Students have the opportunity to talk to a variety of business owners, entrepreneurs and have a better understanding on how to approach them.

Description:
This exercise takes place in the first two weeks of the Marketing Management class I teach (case class). The class meets for three hours, once per week. Students have to prepare a marketing plan for a client they have to find. The marketing plan will be orally defended in the last class meetings.

First class meeting:
Rules of the game are presented to the students:

1. Students form teams. Teams of two students work best. If the class is big --> teams of three.
2. Each team will have to work for a client, a local business, and develop a marketing plan. Students have to look for prospects and convince them of the usefulness of their work (students have to show creativity and entrepreneurial sprit to convince).
3. Teams have two weeks to find clients that will accept them as "consultants."
4. In the 3rd class meeting each team will make a short presentation (less than 4 minutes) and share with the class their trials and lessons learned.
5. Students will work with the client and develop the marketing plan.
6. Students will defend their marketing plan by the end of the semester. They have to turn in the plan to the client (first copy + cover letter) and the instructor (second copy + cover letter). The final grading is based on the client's feedback, the class and the instructor's grading.

During the two weeks (between the first class meeting and the third one) the instructor is available for advice, coaching, etc. The second class meeting is not related to client hunting.

Third class meeting:
Each team will present (short presentation of less than 4 min) their findings. They share with the other teams the lessons learned while "client hunting:"

What did they do to find a client? How did they approach the client? How painful it was? How many refusals and what was the reason for each refusal? What did they learn from refusals? Did they have a plan or did they improvise? What approaches are working? What can you tell about future cooperation during the elaboration of the marketing plan? How interesting the marketing plan will be? This will trigger an interesting class debate on how to find and work for a client:

• How demanding "clients" are;
• How busy clients are (you have their attention for several minutes only);
• How hard it is to "sell"

Notes:

1. If a team cannot find a client in time the instructor calls the SBDC to assist the students.
2. The exercise is not difficult to implement. The exercise was used to start the class for several years. The instructor has to have a back-up plan for teams that are unable to find a client (in this case the on-campus SBDC). However, it did not happen frequently.
3. The exercise can be used in any case class (such as entrepreneurship strategy or business plan development).
4. I am giving the students two weeks to hunt. I tried one week too. It was not enough for many teams to find clients.

Appendix

Summary of students' findings:

Ideas for selling themselves as a team of consultants:

Plan the activity: several teams acted systematically. They conducted secondary research (for example yellow pages), elaborated lists with desired industries/businesses, established criteria, and ranked them, systematically approached the prospects, made presentation, etc. (however, very few less than 20 percent did so)

Elaborate a list of preferences (the majority had established a short list)

Call friends, relatives and ask for help (more than 75 percent used this)

Visit the SBDC on-campus and ask for clients that need help (less than 50 percent thought to use the SBDC. Conclusion: the SBDC does not market itself efficiently, or at least, is not visible enough)

Call prospects to set appointments (is it wise to call? It seems it's better to go and speak to the manager/owner see the whites of his/her eyes)

Plan the selling presentation (what to tell, how to behave during the 5-10 minutes they can hope get the manager's attention)

Interesting approaches:

You get professional help for free (the majority used this approach)

Help us: the instructor is mean and will skin us alive if we do not come up with a client to work for (it seemed to work in several instances)

A combination of the above

This represents an interesting exercise in preparing a "sales presentation" and a warm-up for what will happen in class for the rest of the semester. Students work hard to find a client. It turns out to be a sort of competition between teams (though it was not designed to be one).

One student put it best: This is entrepreneurship in action. Other findings:

• It is hard
• Very often they were refused (even by relatives and/or friends).
• Each failure represents a learning experience: They learn how to better sell themselves and what changes to make in the next presentation

Research Project: Analysis of a Fast Growing Company

Your (consulting) "team" has just met with a new client the CEO of one of the 2001 Fortune Small Business 100 Fastest-Growing Companies. After the meeting, you receive the following email: To recap the discussion we had today:I am thrilled with the growth our company has experienced so far, but am concerned about its continued growth prospects as we move forward. I am particularly interested in understanding more clearly the key elements underlying our success, and what could threaten our future competitiveness.

Finally, I would welcome your "team's" recommendations for "Action Steps" for our company, based on your research and analysis. As agreed I will arrange a meeting on 10/16/01 at 1:45p.m. with members of our senior management and board of directors. I am looking forward to your presentation at this meeting. Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to obtain all information from whatever sources you feel can provide you with the facts necessary to arrive at the best solution.

The Project

1.Your team's job is to apply your resourcefulness and ambition to make recommendations to the company. Merely going to the company's website won't cut it!

2.Once your team analyzes what you've found, prepare a report for the CEO. Accompany the report with a cover letter to the CEO, summarizing the most significant information detailed in your report, as well as your recommendations. Remember, entrepreneurs usually do not read more than a few pages of data, so your report should be concise (max. 6 pages double-spaced) yet reflective of your extensive research and thorough analysis.

3. Your presentation will be accompanied by an interactive discussion between members of your team and the panel (representing the board and senior managers of the "company").

4. The "company" may challenge anyone on your team, so be prepared! Each team will be graded on their thoroughness, ingenuity, outside the box thinking and creativity.

5.The team with the most thoroughly and creatively researched and analyzed report will enjoy a chauffeur-driven limousine ride around campus for team members and their friends as well as the just reward of "being the best".

I have my entrepreneurship major students invite their parents who own businesses to campus. The parents address the UD Entrepreneurship Club the night before class. The presentations to the Club are about their family businesses and the dynamics that occur in a family business. The following morning, the parents have read the attached case, as have the students, and each parent takes one of the proposed questions and answers it the best they can.

Then the entire class expresses opinions on each question. After all five questions have been answered, transfer of company ownership is looked at in an entirely new light.Temporary Inc. of Rockville (TIR) is a locally owned franchise, started and owned by Martin Edwards since 1965. TIR is part of the global Temporary employment system. TIR pays a fee to Temporary, just like other independent' franchises, and receive benefits such as national marketing, software systems, some legal advise, and seminars for employee development.

Martin, now 60 years old, wants to turn over management control to two sons who are active in the business. Older son Bill is a natural people person', and most agree would be the logical next President. Mike, the current CFO, would logically stay as CFO when Martin steps down as the current President. Martin's intention is to promote Bill from VP of Sales to President and leave Mike as CFO.

Besides these two sons, Martin has another son and daughter not active in the business. Both live in Rockville, have successful careers, and do not participate in the company in any way, other than listening to the normal war' stories at family events.

TIR operates profitably and has no debt. There are no major issues with current management other than the routine struggle for market share and trying to stay with or ahead of competition.

Martin and his wife feel that the only fair way to divide-up the current common stock owned solely by Martin is to give 25% of the stock to each child. Martin believes that since the children are mature enough to handle the responsibility of business ownership, and with the history and respect for the family' company, each child will place the best interests of the company before each individual's self interest.

Martin has come to you. As a highly respected friend and fellow family business owner, he is looking for advice, sensing that there may be potential trouble spots he may be overlooking.

(Please disregard any tax issues for sake of simplicity. Other issues like compensation, contracts, control, risk, and liability are fair game!)

1. Before Martin gives any promotions or stock to the children, what general advice would you give him?
2. Would you agree to simply divide the stock equally among the four children, or should Martin consider other methods of stock or equity distribution, while still keeping the distribution fair'?
3. Assuming for discussion purposes that Martin does make an equal stock distribution, what kinds of trouble may surface in the future among the four siblings?
4. Would you recommend to Martin that he not interfere in any way once the transition is accomplished, or would you suggest he find some way of staying involved with company management? If he should stay involved somehow, what methods of involvement might be appropriate?
5. Since each child has been given a good education and has no unusual financial or physical needs, share your thoughts with Martin about whether simply selling TIR for the highest price, and giving each child an equal monetary distribution, might be a legitimate alternative.

I use this exercise in an Innovation and Entrepreneurship class, but it could also be used in an innovation or creativity module in a conventional entrepreneurship class. It is an excellent ice breaker for the first day of class where students don't know each other.

Objectives:

• Encourage students to think out-of-the-box
• Introduce students to the new product development process
• Appreciate different problem solving skills
• Use rapid prototyping (fail fast to succeed sooner)
• Understand functionality versus features versus the managerial challenge
• Learn to build on the ideas of others

Preparation:
No advanced preparation required

Resource Materials:

1. Stack of newspapers and 3 rolls of scotch tape
2. Spaghetti and pack of small marshmallows
3. A prize for the winning team (something fun; something inexpensive one for each member in the group).

Set-up:
Move all the tables and chairs out of the way to create large open spaces for groups to construct their product. Divide class into 5 teams of 4-6 students.

Group instructions:

1. Choose one of the 2 sets of construction materials i.e. either the tape and newspaper or the spaghetti and marshmallows.
2. Build a structure that reaches as high as possible.
3. The structure you build must have an "identity", e.g. a rocket or a church steeple.
4. The group with the tallest structure wins a prize. However in order to win the prize, you have to know each of the group member's name and something special about them.
5. You have 10 minutes to complete the exercise.
   
   No other instructions are provided besides the above i.e. the execution is completely open for interpretation to allow for creative solutions. Beyond these instructions answer every question with a question.

Process:

1. Materials are selected (1 min)
2. Students typically brainstorm to decide what to build and then do a quick division of labor (3-5 min)
3. Building (and rebuilding failed attempts) (7-10 min)
4. Review each group's structure and ask them to report the process they followed (10-15 minutes)
5. Link exercise to innovation (5 10 minutes)

Discussion questions:

• What do you think exercise was about?
• What do you think about the materials you decided to use? Would you choose the other materials if you were asked again? Why?
• What assumptions did you make? Did this limit your creativity?
• Can you identify the different problem solving skills of individuals in your group or between the groups?

AcceleratorOnline, (http://www.acceleratoronline.com/) was created by the University Business Center at Fresno State, targeting entrepreneurs who are unable to attend live classroom training, but who are motivated to start their own business. AO was based on the entrepreneurs' training program offered through the Central Valley Business Incubator.

Through AcceleratorOnline, Web-based, online courses have been developed for training in business plan development. These Blackboard courses are accessible from the project's Web site. Customers apply online and receive notification within 48 hours of application. If accepted, they receive a login and password that gives them access to the curriculum. The curriculum has six components. Trainees have two months to complete a business plan. Usage and access are closely monitored.

The unique aspect of AcceleratorOnline, however, is the delivery of services. Trainees communicate using discussion boards and e-mail. E-mails can be sent from the instructor to the group or from the instructor to an individual. Similarly, trainees can communicate with one and other or hold group discussions. In addition, a consultant is available on an anytime, anywhere basis to provide assistance and answer questions. Trainees are required to submit their homework online. Coursework and homework assignments are geared toward constructing the final business plan.

Originally funded through state and federal grants, AO is now a fee-based service. About 50% of our trainees have launched a business.

We also run parallel classes addressing the needs of very low-income areas, which, in addition to access online, also provide hands-on classroom training and assistance. Computer banks and high-speed Internet access are offered as well.

Presbyterian College is building the Student/Faculty Entrepreneurial Research Fund to enable students and faculty to engage in a variety of entrepreneurial projects both now and in the future. Fund-raising started in January 2003 with a goal of at least $312,000, and already the college has raised 80% of the total. The first project on the college's list is to create an upscale restaurant in the downtown area. (PC sits in the middle of a small town, and the college is an integral part of the community.) Last fall, as part of the business plan competition in my Small Business Management course, two students worked with a local restaurateur to build a business plan for this upscale restaurant. The college has created a unique partnership with a local building owner, the restaurateur, local investors, students, and faculty to create a limited liability company that will serve as the source of capital for this restaurant project. Once the restaurant is established, students will have the opportunity to explore a variety of real-world management issues in the field. Future projects will involve faculty and students working to develop other businesses in the community.

Plan A: Offer them a very brief business scenario, preferably in an industry they know little about (say, airlines or trucking) - and ask them to identify as many "very good" opportunities as they can in, say, 10 minutes). You also ask them to assess their own competence in this setting. The quantity - and especialy the quality of the opportunities tends to correlate with the perceived competence. (I've also used your scale as a covariate as well.)

Plan B: Split the class in half and give one group some really basic creativity training - for example the dreaded 'pencil' exercise in divergent thinking. (How many uses can you think up for a pencil that doesn't involve writing or as a weapon [lol]??) Guess what - even after a silly little exercise like that, that group also does better (again with self-efficacy as a covariate).

Plan C: This happened by accident - I forgot to tell them this was an individual exercise, so they did it as a team. All teams came up with multiple excellent ideas, regardless of self-efficacy, etc. I've repeated this with horrendous scenarios where I'd defy Pollyanna to find an opportunity, but they do.

This is just plain fun to do (e.g., as an icebreaker) and introduces them to the reality that we ALL have skills at divergent thinking, that our sense of competence at divergent thinking is important, and that teamwork pays off!

One study at Harvard found that only 3% of the students there had written life plans. Twenty years later that same 3% were both happier and worth more financially than the other 97% combined. That statistic seems to be an indicator of the approximate rate of U.S. adults that plan.

The benefits of the Development Plan are that the students develop the ability to understand their role in their families and their career (inside or outside their family's business). Not only are they taking a proactive approach to their futures, but developing a skill set that enables them to take ownership for it as well.

We, at Stetson University's Family Business Center, believe that not only is the skill of being able to do this type of life planning essential, but that it addresses the unique risks of students from so many families that own businesses. If a student comes from a family business the perceived opportunity to be entitled to a job upon graduation merely because she is a family member then this risks undermining their motivation. Whereas other students realize they have to be marketable and feel positive pressure to achieve this goal, the family business student risks not reaching her potential in terms of skills, credentials, or work experience. Not only can this opportunity corrupt their motivation to be marketable, but also that in turn can undermine the accomplishments that cultivate a student's sense of self-confidence. Thus the DP is a means of confronting and managing that risk.

The Development Plan, which has been used for the last 4 years (eight semesters) at Stetson University, is the main part of their first family business course. The project that involves at least two drafts has three parts. Part I is an assessment of the student, her family, and her family business. The MBTI is utilized for the student. Also the values ranking tool is used. The student can talk about such things as their major, their career goals, their birth order, and their role in their family. Then the student is asked to assess what stage their family is at using work by a noted set or experts in the field. A precursor to this is an interview with their family. Similarly the student is asked to look at the same work for a plotting of what stage their family business is at. (Bork, Jaffe, Dashew, Lane, & Heisler, 1996)

Part II of the D Plan is a definition of success. This is personal but causes the students to link the three systems (self, family, & family business) together. It begins to ask the student to think and reflect on what is it they want from their career and really their life. It helps with the students not merely accepting their parents view of what their future ought to be, but gives them the tools to create and begin to navigate their own vision.

Part III asks the student to look at Parts I and II and say Ok now in the next five or so years where do you want to be in your family, your family business, and the ownership structure. They then are not only given feedback from the instructor, but encouraged to seek feedback elsewhere. This includes using the plan throughout the 5 course FB Minor.

This type of planning is beneficial not only in the classroom. We also incorporate Development Plans into my work as a consultant to family businesses through my firm, McCann & Associates.

Reference: Bork, D., Jaffe, D., Dashew, L., Lane, S., & Heisler, Q. G. (1996) Navigating the Dynamics of the Family. Working with Family Businesses: A Guide for Professionals. San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.

Students in a course on family business or entrepreneurship are being asked to think and answer questions about themselves, their family, and their business they have not previously processed. Over the 100 hours in the course the students begin to gain an understanding of family business dynamics, new terminology, and the "roadmap" of typical issues family owned businesses go through. They experience over the course, what some refer to as an intervention. An intervention could be defined as a significant increase in one's awareness. Dennis Jaffe wrote in his Family Business Gathering 2000 article that, "developing individual capabilities, awareness, and skills in family members to develop their business and their family is a powerful learning intervention". Through the course this type of awareness and development takes place.

Students will go back to their families with this new knowledge. Since the family has not been involved in the learning process they may feel confronted or ill fit to speak with their child. Given that the family is an independent system that is impacted by the student's knowledge, it is the University's responsibility to play a support role.

Thus at Stetson University we have developed numerous ways to include the families of the students in the coursework. The ease of implementation varies depending on how integrated the family's are.

The value of including the family begins with the premise that the student and the family (business) have the same level of understanding of family business topics. Going beyond the general education, by including the parents, the family is on the "same page" as regarding the following:

• Their family and business values
• The planned future of the business
• Entry policies for next generation and their interest and level of involvement upon graduation
• Their understanding of the operating procedures of their individual business

The risks of not including the family are that decisions are being made by both the student and the family (business) that affect each other with no dialogue. The tragedy is the student that thinks they have a guaranteed job at their family's business after college and does not work to their fullest potential in college, only to find out at graduation the family plans to sell the business. Or even if the student has great insight and a wise career plan, if the family is not skillfully involved, all may be for nothing.

Having used this model of family involvement over the past 2 years at Stetson we have received very positive feedback from the stakeholder groups. One caveat needs to be mentioned, the students are the gatekeepers for access to their families. Not only can they, without need for justification, decide not to use their family with the course, but there are assurances that such a choice will not impact their course grade. Students are generally glad to have their family's involved with their experience. Families are overwhelming pleased to be involved and often explain how beneficial it was to discuss topics now when their child is 2 years from graduating. The University also benefits from this integration of the family because having satisfied parents who feel included in their child's life creates goodwill for the University.

Overview

Students are placed into teams for the purposes of conducting an entrepreneurial audit of an established company. The purpose is to assess how entrepreneurial a company is, the ways in which entrepreneurship manifests itself, and the organizational elements (systems, structures, rewards, etc.) that constrain or facilitate entrepreneurial behavior. The exercise involves extensive time spent by the team in the company interviewing a range of managers, and typically conducting one or more surveys. It can be done in rapid growth firms, mid-sized companies, or large corporations. It requires the entire semester and is an excellent project within a Corporate Entrepreneurship class or a Managing Small Business Growth class.

Instructions to the Students

With this assignment, you are asked to identify an established company and provide a thorough critique of their operations from an entrepreneurial perspective. My suggestion would be that you use the model of the entrepreneurial process presented in class as your basic framework, and that you tie in as many concepts, issues and ideas from the course as you find appropriate. Your critique should begin with a brief history of the enterprise including its founding, owners and ownership structure, structural form, locations, expansion (both in terms of facilities/locations and in terms of products/markets), and so forth. This history should be two pages or less. The body of the paper should follow, and this should be the actual critique. You should then close with a section of no more than five pages of specific, tangible recommendations for change (the level of specificity should include cost estimates and timetables for implementation of any suggestions).

So, the operative question becomes what should be included in the critique section. Key issues include:

• Characterize the opportunity that this business was created to capitalize upon. To what extent did they clearly define the opportunity? To what extent did they quantify the opportunity? What were the underlying sources of the opportunity? Were the barriers to entry high or low? What do you think is the window of opportunity, and did they get in too early, too late, at a good time, or what? What assumptions did they appear to make about the opportunity? Use the evaluative criteria handed out in class to evaluate this opportunity. Draw conclusions about how good an opportunity it is.
• Describe and critique the company's core business model. What are its key components? Is it well-conceptualized? Is it sufficiently comprehensive (addressing all of the strategically relevant variables)? Is it internally consistent? How original or innovative is it?
• How innovative, risk-taking, and proactive is this venture? Position the company in the entrepreneurial grid. Characterize its entrepreneurial intensity, and discuss whether you think this is an appropriate level of entrepreneurial intensity.
• Does the company set innovation goals? Do these cover product and process innovation?
• How market-driven is this enterprise? Draw implications.
• What are the critical resources that they require, in your opinion, to effectively capitalize on the key opportunities confronting them today.
• Has their strategy for identifying and obtaining resources changed over time? Do they attempt to own or to leverage resources? Do any of these resources provide a sustained source of competitive advantage? How well have they managed this? Are they now more resource-driven than opportunity-driven or vice versa?
• Is their cost structure more fixed-cost-based or variable-cost-based? Characterize the venture in terms of operating leverage and draw implications in terms of how appropriately they are run from an operating leverage vantage point.
• At the present time, what are the core competencies of the venture? How do these relate to the original business concept?
• Apply the traits or characteristics associated with the entrepreneurial personality to the senior executives of this organization and draw conclusions.
• What is the dominant management style in the company? How much does delegation feature in the management style of upper management? Middle management? Can you site prominent examples of "giving up control to gain control"?
• Critique the structure of the company. In what ways does it support or constrain entrepreneurship? Is it flat. How does the organizational structure encourage or discourage innovation by employees?
• How many functional areas or departments get involved in the creation of new products, services and processes?
• How tight or loose are the organizational controls? Is there "slack" to support entrepreneurial initiative? Provide examples of controls that support or hinder entrepreneurship.
• Look at the way in which the company evaluates and rewards employees. Are the appraisal and reward systems encouraging entrepreneurial behavior? Explain why or why not.
• In addition to rewards, what sort of awards does the company provide employees?
• What kind of culture does the company have? What are the key values? How are these reinforced? How strong is the culture? Is it supportive of entrepreneurship?
• What is the most entrepreneurial department or area in the company? What is the least entrepreneurial? In both cases, why?
• Identify 2 innovation champions in the company. Why do you think they are champions?
• How bureaucratic is this company in terms of policies and procedures, approval cycles, and speed in decision-making?
• Describe how open communication is in the company. Can anybody communicate with anybody? How efficiently?
• How do people in the company feel about change?
• Is failure tolerated in this company? In what ways? How do they learn from failures?
• What is the most entrepreneurial thing the company has done in the past two years?
• Of the above, what do you see as the major problem area in this venture today?

Students working in teams of two must put together a set of five marketing inventions. Each invention must be for a particular real-world business. The inventions do not all have to be for different businesses, but at least two different businesses must be represented among the five inventions each student team comes up with. An invention will be defined as a truly unique and innovative approach to one element of the marketing mix. Thus, it could be a totally new (radical) approach to pricing or a completely different method for distribution. Each team must come up with inventions for at least three of the four elements of the marketing mix. A detailed explanation, justification and implementation plan must be put together for each invention. It should include costs and the estimated impact of the invention. I grade these by placing 50% of the weight on how truly innovative and out of the box is the idea, and how doable or practical is the idea in terms of the student's ability to convey how it would be implemented and how it would work.

Here are some specifics for student use in writing up each Marketing Invention. The first one must be done alone. The other four can be done alone or in a team of two.

• Name of company, what they sell and to whom
• The opportunity that you have identified (and which element of the marketing mix it concerns)
• What the company currently does in this area
• Your concept for change
• What is innovative about it and why it represents a better way
• Justification or rationale
• How exactly it would work---how it would be implemented
• Estimated timetable and costs
• Potential downside, drawbacks, things that could go wrong
• Support drawings, diagrams, illustrations (e.g., a new price list or a sample promotional piece)

Keep in mind that a marketing invention is a highly creative and alternative approach to one of the marketing mix variables in a real company. Each will be graded based on two criteria:

1) How truly out of the box or innovative it is (more radical the better)

2) How realistic it is in terms of your approach to overcoming resistance and implementing it. Detail on implementation is critical.

Remember that across your five inventions you must cover at least three elements of the marketing mix, and must do them for at least two different companies.

In the attempt to get students to stretch in terms of new idea generation, this assignment asks them to take a week and identify a large number of things that bother or "bug" them in their own lives. The actual student assignment is below. Once each student has produced this list of seventy things in life that bug them, they can then be encouraged to identify five of them that might represent an opportunity for a new product or service around which a venture could be built.

Bug Report

Student Name ________________________________________________________________________

The most successful products are responses to problems or needs that someone has. Many entrepreneurs get ideas for new products from needs that they have themselves, or that they identify when speaking with someone. This assignment asks you to list 70 or more things that really bug you. You must reflect on your own life, your personal needs, activities in which you are involved, things you like to do, relationships that you have, things that you observe in your everyday world, and so forth. Then make a laundry list of particular things that bug you. Be creative and innovative in presenting your report.

I give the quiz below in an early session of my Principles of Entrepreneurship class. The students first complete the quiz, turn it in, keep a copy for themselves, and must be prepared to justify their answers to each of the questions. I tally the findings and in the next class present the percentages giving each answer on each item. I highlight the items about which there is the most disagreement. We then have a class discussion around these differences and why people feel a given person is or is not an entrepreneur.

Which One is the Entrepreneur?

At Simmons School of Management (SOM), we felt that something was missing in the educational journey that aspiring entrepreneurs travel prior to launching their own venture. In fact, we wanted to create a cutting-edge program that would rival even the most popular Entrepreneurship programs. The idea, like many entrepreneurial ideas, seeks to satisfy an unmet need. Aspiring entrepreneurs seek to meet entrepreneurs, hear their stories and ask them questions that range from risk to company culture to financing, work/life balance and everything in between. They want to hear and feel the good, bad and ugly aspects of running a business in the US economy. And, they want proof positive that entrepreneurs are people just like them; people who have a dream and the passion to tirelessly pursue their idea. As a result, SOMs Entrepreneurship Certificate Program was designed to bring the entrepreneur to the classroom for an invigorating and in-depth discussion.

Classes are divided into teams and are assigned an entrepreneur with whom they will be working with in preparation for the class discussion. The team is expected to prepare and lead the class discussion when the entrepreneur visits the classroom including assembling and distributing background on the entrepreneur and their company as well as an assignment to the class.

Preparation materials include:
Company Overview
The main issue(s) of the new venture
Industry trends
The company and its founder(s): overall strengths and weaknesses
Recent company performance2-3 key problems

Strategic Recommendations
Identification of activities
Timing of activities

Entrepreneurial Analysis
The Competitive Arena
Major Changes in the Market
Significant Socio/economic trends
Changes in production and marketing technologies
The financial posture of the firm
Result of past marketing strategies
Production capabilities
Planning and control systems
Organizational and leadership style
TOWS analysis

To supplement the class discussion, entrepreneurs are asked to provide two to three issues that they are currently facing or have faced in the past. The team, based on these issues, will develop and distribute an assignment to the class to prepare for class discussion. The purpose of this design is two-fold; first, it enables the student to have a stake in the game in the risk-less atmosphere of a classroom and it requires analysis, diagnosis and recommendation for issues faced by many entrepreneurs. What sets this design in case analysis apart from the traditional static case analysis is the entrepreneurs honesty, candor and willingness to assist students as they pursue their new venture. In many cases, our live case entrepreneurs have offered their time outside the classroom and have provided invaluable contacts to students.

The Discussant Group is expected to lead the discussion so that the following questions can be flushed out, analyzed and discussed: (1) The characteristic(s) of the founder(s)what kind of entrepreneurial personalities do they possess? (2) The idea (product/service concept)what do you think of their overall business idea? How can they add value to their existing product/service line? (3) Financing used in this start-upwhat type of financing do they use? Why? How do you believe they were able to attract the amount of capital they did? Would you invest in this type of business? (4) The market opportunityis this a true market opportunity, or just a fad? How can the business position itself so that they always have the ability to seize the opportunities in the marketplace? (5) Other issues that the discussants feel are relevant to entrepreneurship and new venture management (e.g., the risks and rewards of the start-up).

Following an engaging and lively discussion, students are encouraged to ask the entrepreneur questions that either complement the discussion or assist the student with issues that have arisen as they write their own business plans. At the conclusion of the Live Case, students are expected to offer the visiting entrepreneur ideas and suggestions that can be considered to solve the issues previously presented by the entrepreneur. To capture the experience and enable the student to reflect on the case discussion, students are asked to write a management brief aptly called So What? This brief identifies two or three major findings that emerged from the case discussion and illustrates why these findings are important to aspiring entrepreneurs.

A new innovation for the Certificate Program will be introduced in the upcoming year that seeks to extend a students analysis & diagnosis of the issues an entrepreneur is facing as well as serving as a precursor to the work necessary in a students upcoming Practicum. Students will be assigned guest entrepreneurs for a four-week period and will be expected to visit the entrepreneur in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of the business, fill in the missing gaps undisclosed during the class visit and enable the students to provide a more in-depth analysis and diagnosis than provided in their So What paper. The culmination of this experience will entail a final paper & presentation to the entrepreneur and class that details the students analysis, diagnosis and recommendations.

One of the most promising advantages of the classroom experience in the teaching of entrepreneurial skills is that the price for failure is relatively low. The university system has always emphasized the parsing of information into discrete units leading to the impression that the sum of the parts is equal to the whole. Indeed this allows information to be split into self-contained classes according to semester, quarter or academic year. It is at once a reflection of the modern scientific method and an administrative tool. Unfortunately the whole or gestalt of entrepreneurship is greater than the mere sum of the parts. It is experiential and must, at some point, be taught as an experiential whole.

Entrepreneurship in practice is more than a collection of independent skills and classes. As well, entrepreneurship is the major portion of the creative arts. Risks, innovation, business sense, courage, etc. are all parts of the making of a fine artist Or an excellent teacher.

This abstract describes the creation of a class created in an entrepreneurial way which, by happenchance, turned out to become a class which not only models entrepreneurship but allows in within the classroom/studio by allowing the students in concert with the instructor to actually create the course and teaching methods. In essence the inmates are creating the class.

Using that as a spring point, the instructor (presenter) was able to create, in essence, a popular curriculum with one class making an extremely efficient vehicle in terms of dollars, time, and mobility. The curriculum is able to continue to evolve to meet demand, market, personnel, interest. Again at virtually no extra cost to the departmental or college administration. What actually happened was a class/studio, which taught entrepreneurship as the major portion of the class alongside the intended subject matter.

ArtIS 409/509 Computer Game Development and Design began with the following ideas:

• To put together a new curriculum without the cumbersome administrative overhead and political gateways usually present at a research I institution.
• It must be repeatable for credit to allow for long range projects to be created without regard for or constraint by the semester system or the academic year.
• The faculty and students needed to enjoy the coursework. 
• It was to take advantage of the wide range of talents already present across campus. 
• It had to start with NO additional funds. It was to be a safe haven for ideas of any sort. 
• It was to be created as a sandbox for uninhibited play. 
• For the past 3 years there has been a rapid rise in the demand for game design by students. 
• For the past 8 years the instructor really wanted to teach computer game design and be able to call his habit research.

It was reasoned that at Iowa State University we do our teaching very well. The faculty have prepared the students subject and skill wise via the normal selection of classes. The various subject skill sets are already being taught in various classes across the campus. It is not, therefore, necessary to reinvent parts that work so well simply to orient them more specifically toward game design and development.

It is more important to allow the students to generalize and learn how to take unrelated skills and people and apply them to a seemingly unrelated task. Even better if they are interested in it. Innovation thrives on synthesis from seemingly unrelated parts.

There was never any intention of teaching Entrepreneurship per se in this class. But, as the presenter will discuss, it became the major thrust of the class in a clandestine manner, which was recognized by the Papajohn Center for Entrepreneurship on Campus.

The students immediately took co-ownership of the class and its outcome. The instructor and the students became partners rather than parent and child. The presentation will outline the steps by which this happened and the results as they and the class have evolved over the past two years.

Briefly the paradigm for the class is as follows:

Remove the normal teacher/student cast system and replace it with a senior partner and cofounder relationship.

Allow the teacher the freedom to fail and not know answers. Simultaneously one does the same with the students.

The students are made responsible for the complete creation of the startup independent game development studio. Since the students came from majors ranging from art, design, computer engineering, human computer interaction, music, creative writing, literature, history, computer science, business, psychology, and others it was possible to assign task according to not only skill set but also according to interest. The students rely on the instructors experience and that of their peers to teach them skills they never tried. Tasks included specifying computers to be built from scratch, web design and visibility, name search, etc. in addition to the normal skills used in the creation of software, art, and game play.

The most important outcome was two fold: 1. This was the first time these students had to work on a team comprised of people from totally different fields with a common goal, 2. They began to realize that creating their own independent business was a viable option.

After the second year we have spawned a small company of fresh alums who have gone through raising funds and started their own independent studio. Another is in the process of forming.

An outside faculty member from engineering recently related to the instructor that two of his graduated and immediately employed students had stated that of all their classes this class had put it all together for them and was one of the most valuable classes they had taken

Michael D. Meeks
San Francisco State University
Phone:
meeks@sfsu.edu

Experience and substantial empirical evidence has shown that the single most important antecedent to learning is student engagement in the subject matter. The best teachers are those who find ways to enthusiastically engage their students. Classroom engagement is achieved through a variety of pedagogical approaches, such as lectures, case analysis, problem-based learning, team projects, student presentations, Socratic questioning, and simulations. Unfortunately, faced with students who are time-constrained by over-commitments; attention-challenged by natural cognitive limitations; often physically and mentally exhausted from daily demands of life, work, and school; and bombarded by a technologically-advanced army of marketing professionals vying for their time and attention; engagement in the classroom is difficult sometimes seemingly impossible.

The dynamic and non-traditional knowledge set necessary to adequately understand the complex nature of entrepreneurship exacerbates the engagement challenge in the entrepreneurship classroom. Concepts such as opportunity recognition, innovation, creativity, risk versus uncertainty, and the process of new venture creation, are inescapably difficult for students to fully grasp and understand. Critical thinking skills are quintessential to this requisite understanding of entrepreneurship in a rapidly-changing, high-velocity, hyper-competitive global business landscape. The following set of Socratic Integration Exercises (SIE) was developed to simultaneously promote student engagement and critical thinking.

TIMING
This exercise was designed for a 75-minute class period; however, it has been successfully adapted to 50-minute and 3-hour class formats. The actual exercise requires 25-40 minutes.

PHILOSOPHY AND DESCRIPTION
To encourage initial engagement with the subject matter and to evoke critical thinking, students answer Socratic questions prior to arriving in the classroom (i.e. homework). Students then arrive in class and are provided, typically via lecture, a framework for the topic du jour. This lecture is not intended to provide a complete or specific theory of the topic, but rather a general overview and to offer relevant concepts or facts. After a 10-30 minute lecture, student teams (typically 6-10 students) are asked to graphically depict the subject matter on the chalk- or white-board. Instructions include Graphically represent the topic of the day. Be sure it tells thorough, accurate, and compelling story of the topic. Be sure it captures and informs the audience. One representative from each team then presents their teams masterpiece. Students then take 10-minutes to repeat the exercise individually, based on their own knowledge and experience, as well as the information provided by the team presenters, as an in-class extension of their homework assignment. A closing discussion, often engaging and informative, provides the instructor with immediate feedback of student understanding and engagement.

1. Pre-class Socratic questions related to the topic

2. Brief lecture of the topic (students are asked for input) [10-30 minutes]

3. Student teams graphically depict topic on the blackboard [15-30 minutes]

4. Teams present/explain their masterpiece [10-30 minutes]

5. Students individually depict the topic [10-20 minutes]

6. Class discussion [5-30minutes]

Initial set of key concepts necessary to the understanding of entrepreneurship:

1. Idea versus Market Opportunity

2. The Economic Game of Business and the Roles of Market Actors

3. The Nature of People (Debunking the Myth of the Economic Man)

4. The Nature of Technology and Innovation

5. The True Cost of Business; the Essence of Firm Performance; Lifelong Value of the Customer

6. The Lifecycle of a Business and the Changing Role of the Entrepreneur

7. Current Trends and the Future of Business: Opportunities for the Future

8. Harvest: The Intersection of Career and Entrepreneurship

BENEFITS OF EXERCISE
1. The primary benefit of the SIE exercise is the promotion of student engagement. Energy levels of the class rise when students swarm the blackboard, all vying for an opportunity to share their thoughts or creative ideas on how to represent or synthesize relevant concepts. Even exhausted students participate and learn. The energy level remains high as team representatives proudly present their teams story.

2. The Socratic questions (homework) encourage students to engage the subject matter. They also provide the students an opportunity to express their creativity, understanding of the topic, personal experiences, and individual thoughts.

3. The entire SIE process promotes student empowerment empowering students in the learning and knowledge-acquisition process.

4. The standardized and repetitive structure of the SIE exercises reduces student uncertainty about what is going to happen in the days class, their involvement in the days class, what is expected of them, and how they will be assessed. This allows students to focus more time, energy, cognitive attention, and creativity on the subject matter.

5. The SIE exercise encourages students to synthesize a plethora of information, experience, knowledge, and concepts into a focused description and understanding of key topics related to entrepreneurship.

6. Students enjoy the SIE exercise and view it as beneficial (based on teaching evaluations).

7. The SIE exercise provides students with a feel for the level of understanding experienced by their fellow students. This seems to encourage students with lower than average understanding, to more aggressively engage the subject matter, and it seems to discourage shirking.

8. The SIE exercise provides instructors with immediate feedback as to student understanding. This allows for immediate correction if a particular concept is misunderstood or misconstrued.

9. The SIE exercise provides immediate reinforcement to the students. The applause after the presentation of each teams masterpiece graphic representation is inspiring.

10. The SIE exercise provides the students with a thorough and integrative understanding of entrepreneurship.

ASSESSMENT
Each class period is worth 100 points, with the grade recorded on the first page of the homework (downloaded from the class website, completed by students outside of class, printed, and brought to class) that students submit at the end of each class (a single submission per student per class). The point distribution is: (a) 40 points for homework; (b) 40 points for classroom participation, which includes punctuality, group contribution, and active involvement at the blackboard; and (c) 20 points for the in-class writing (written in the last section of the homework assignment).

VARIATIONS AND ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS
1. As part of the homework, students are asked to research (e.g. Google) the topic. This serves to (1) demonstrate the vastness of the information available about any the topic, as well as the many perspectives/theories attempting to explain the phenomenon, (2) teach students how to filter through and select among information sources, and (3) expose students to a variety of information sources.

2. As a culminating experience, students are asked to integrate their entire semesters work (i.e. all SIEs from the semester) into a report on the Nature of Entrepreneurship, complete with a graphical representation.

3. Students are asked to present/explain the graphic representation of one of the other teams.

4. Guest speakers are invited in to participate in the lecture, view the student process of creating the graphic representation at the blackboard, ask questions of the presenters and critique each teams story, and participate in the closing discussion.