Curriculum

This course provides an overall framework, with which students can begin to understand the elements, and the complex relationships among them, that lead to both entrepreneurial and innovation success. This course is the first in the program, and will serve to introduce specific topic areas that will be covered in greater depth throughout the remainder of the program. The course will be delivered in a concentrated and experiential fashion at the start of the program, so that students can experience the entire innovation context and use it as a first step in further discovering their specific area of focus within the program. Specific topics include: characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and innovators; business model, business case and business plan development; and structures for innovation. Students will apply each of these concepts during the course as they prepare their first new venture/innovation idea to be presented at the end of the course. In essence, this first course is a kickstart boot camp to set up the rest of the program.

Design thinking is an important element of building effective business models for new entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ventures. At the same time, design thinking lies at the heart of engineering, within the context of understanding the physical world around us. A convergence is emerging between the design approach in engineering, and the design approach in business that draws from an understanding of customers, markets and finance. This course is designed to provide a foundation for design thinking in both contexts, along with insights, skills and tools to deploy this important mindset effectively.

The objective of the course is to put innovation into practice through the building of creativity skills as well as implementing innovation in a real organization. It is a foundational course for innovators and entrepreneurs. The course explores personal growth as innovators, the different types and process of innovation. The course also explores leadership in innovation in a practical way by having teams identify, negotiate and implement change to address problems that a real organization is facing, all the while managing the innovation process with their own team members as well as the management team of the organization with which they work.

The key aim of this course is to equip you with the skills and knowledge needed to perform high-quality industry and customer insight research. The course will introduce you to the key components of qualitative and quantitative research methods, discuss tools for strategic industry assessment and support you in building your own how-to toolkit for effective market research.

Innovation takes place when an idea is actually launched and commercialized. This course is designed to enable students to apply the tools that take an idea from inception through launch and implementation. It will also discuss how to maintain a culture of innovation in the firm, while applying various systems and tactics to effectively control and manage the development process. Tools such as stage-gate systems, innovation cycles, product life cycles, probability-based estimating and risk assessment are introduced, as we develop some structures around our innovation process, and give the organization the ability to effectively manage a creative business.

This course provides a detailed examination of the venture capital industry across the entire spectrum of investment, ranging from funding initial rounds of “seed” capital all the way to pre- IPO funding of later-stage companies. Real venture capital term sheets from recently completed deals are examined in detail from the perspective of both the investee company and the venture investor. Different investment structures are discussed in detail, and the process of company selection that occurs inside a venture capital fund is examined.

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding and appreciation of the role of a sales manager. Topics are covered from the perspective of both a sales manager and a sales person. Specific topics include managing the interplay between the marketing and selling functions, setting and evaluating sales strategy, managing the day-to-day sales functions including recruitment, training, compensation and performance management as well as, the evaluation and control of professional selling methodologies and activities.

To put the learning into practice, students will participate in a 48-hour corporate innovation challenge. A corporate innovation problem will be provided by partner companies and teams will work on providing a solution to the problem within a tight time frame. The session will finish with student solution pitches to the companies.

Two intensive workshop sessions will be held to explore how to put together an investment memorandum. Innovators and entrepreneurs have great visions, ideas and dreams – yet many of these dreams will remain unrealized unless the financial resources can be secured to turn these ideas into tomorrow’s products, services and “must have” innovations. These sessions will provide students with the financial view from the other side – the investors’ due diligence approach.

Negotiation involves resolving differences, reaching agreements, and managing conflict between individuals, groups and organizations. These are essential activities in the world of management. Negotiation skills are vital for entrepreneurs and innovators. In this non-credit workshop students will be provided with insights and tools to help them better understand themselves and their negotiating styles. The training will expose students to the various types of negotiations that they may encounter in their entrepreneurial or innovative endeavors (e.g., bargaining, integrative, multi-party and cross-cultural) – both theoretically and practically through experiential exercises. Students will gain understanding of how to best deal with the different types of people they might encounter (e.g., partners, staff, customers, suppliers and financiers). In addition, students will also get to learn how to deal with difficult negotiators and situations in which they may be in a weak power position.

Starting a venture may be deemed simple by some – sustaining, growing, and scaling a business is a little more complex. With many stages in the lifecycle of new ventures, the skill set, aptitude, and knowledge required at each step changes and challenges entrepreneurs to become more situationally aware of critical aspects like strategy, finance, marketing, organizational structure, balancing people and culture, and operational systems/processes. This non-credit workshop will cover moving beyond MVP to creating a structured, high-value-adding company and will use a combination of teaching and guest speaker(s).