The course is related to most of the courses taught in business studies. The program lasts for 15-weeks. Admissions are rolling with the aim of securing a cash awarde for the best business plan. A Signature membership to ZERU Center where you access tons of business development services.
Aim of the Course
During as well as after their studies, many students will be involved in business development within existing organizations or they may wish to start their own business. The aim of the course is to give the students the intellectual tools to approach such tasks and to give them insight into and competencies in entrepreneurship in practice through their own projects and reflection on the projects. It is an integrated part of the course aim that the students contribute towards the creation of learning situations that further the competencies required to fulfill the aim of both this specific course and of the study area in general – i.e., the development of ‘enterprising behavior’
Background of the Course
Starting and operating a new business involves considerable risk and effort to overcome the inertia against creating something new. In creating and growing a new venture, the entrepreneur assumes the responsibility and risks for its development and survival and enjoys the corresponding rewards. This risk is compounded for entrepreneurs who go international or who are in fact born global. The fact that consumers, businesspeople, and government officials from every part of the world are interested in entrepreneurship is evident from the increasing research on the subject, the large number of courses and seminars on the topic, the more than two million new enterprises started each year (despite a 70% failure rate), the significant coverage and focus by the media, and the realization that this is an important aspect of the economics of the developed, developing, and even controlled economies.
Who is the focus of all this attention? Who is willing to accept all the risks and put forth the effort necessary to create a new venture? It may be a man or a woman, someone from an upper-class or lower-class background, a technologist or someone lacking technological sophistication, a college graduate, or a high school dropout. The person may be an investor, manager, nurse, salesperson, engineer, student, teacher, homemaker, or retiree. It is always someone able to juggle work, family, and civic responsibilities while meeting payroll.
To provide an understanding of this person and the process of creating and growing a new venture on an international basis, this 1st edition of ZERU Center's Entrepreneurship is divided into five major sections.
Main Topics of the Course
The key objective of the course is to identify and clarify various elements of the concept ’entrepreneurship’ through the students’ own projects based on field studies. These projects will enable the students to carry out and understand the various elements characterizing ‘the entrepreneurial process’ or method, from ‘pre-idea to start-up’, including:
- Analysis of own competencies in order to establish limitations and need for input of external resources
- Carrying out sector/business analyses to spot potential for entrepreneurial activity
- Investigating why, when and how business opportunities arise
- Achieving an understanding of how such opportunities can be utilized
- Demonstrating how the entrepreneurial process can transform a business opportunity into a business idea
- Demonstrating a sense of reality when transforming a business idea into action.
WEEKLY OUTLINE
MODULE 1 - THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PERSPECTIVE
- Week 1 - The Entrepreneurial Mind-Set
- Week 2 - Corporate Entrepreneurship
- Week 3 - Generating and Exploiting New Entries
MODULE 2 - FROM IDEA TO THE OPPORTUNITY
- Week 4 - Creativity and Business Idea
- Week 5 - Identifying and Analyzing Domestic and International Opportunities
- Week 6 - Protecting the Idea and Other Legal Issues for the Entrepreneur
MODULE 3 - FROM THE OPPORTUNITY TO THE BUSINESS PLAN
- Week 7 - The Business Plan: Creating and Starting the Venture
- Week 8 - The Marketing Plan
- Week 9 - The Organizational Plan
Week 10 - The Financial Plan
MODULE 4 - FROM THE BUSINESS PLAN TO FUNDING THE VENTURE
- Week 11 - Sources of Capital
- Week 12 - Informal Risk Capital, Venture Capital, and Going Public
MODULE 5 - FROM FUNDING THE VENTURE TO LAUNCHING, GROWING, AND ENDING THE NEW VENTURE
- Week 13 - Strategies for Growth and Managing the Implications of Growth
- Week 14 - Accessing Resources for Growth from External Sources
- Week 15 - Succession Planning and Strategies for Harvesting and Ending the Venture
- Week 15 - Investor Presentation
- Week 15 - Certification and Membership Pin
