OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

BA 460: Venture Management

Cory Taylor Cromer, PhD Office Hrs:

Bexell Hall, 407 Monday: 3:30-5 pm

Phone: 737-4297 Wed: 3:30-5 pm

cory.cromer@bus.oregonstate.edu (and by appointment)

Mandatory Readings:

William B. Gartner and Marlene G. Bellamy, Creating the Enterprise. Required

Course Charter                                                                                            

New ventures are the driving force for change and new business creation, and hence foster economic development as well as career opportunities.  Venture Management focuses on the venture management process for emerging technologies, introducing the student to business model creation, venture development, and venture implementation.  This includes understanding the challenges of managing an organization’s innovation system with the associated new products, services and processes.  This course will further contribute to the development of skills in creativity, problem solving, communication, and project management.

Learning Outcomes

This course will prepare you for the role of a manager or specialist in venture management activities within existing organizations or in startup businesses.  To achieve this, you will (1) remember and understand Venture Creation principles, (2) remember, understand and apply the Business Model framework, (3) understand, apply and evaluate the New Venture Innovation Process, (4) analyze and evaluate Real Ventures in real organizations at different stages of growth, and (5) synthesize and present an actual new Feasibility Analysis of a venture.

Learning Activities

Activities include lectures, text readings, case analyses, exams, article reviews, and a group venture proposal.  Lectures and articles will build on and integrate class readings, as well as cover current thinking on new ventures. 

Class Schedule

Tues, 1/6 Course Introduction-Overview & Expectations

Thurs, 1/8 “The Start-up”; Chapter 1-Creating a Framework for Success

Tues, 1/13 Group 1 Presents; Chapter 2-Enterprisers

Thurs, 1/15 Group 2 Presents; Chapter 3-Enterprising Fundamentals

Tues, 1/20 Group 3 Presents; Chapter 4-What is an Enterprise?

Thurs, 1/22 Group 4 Presents; Chapter 6-Discovering Opportunities

Tues, 1/27 Group 5 Presents; Chapter 7-Feasability

Thurs, 1/29 ATTEND TOBIAS GUEST LECTURE; NO CLASS

Tues, 2/3 Group 6 Presents; Chapter 5-Legal & Regulatory Environment

Thurs, 2/5 Exam 1

Tues, 2/10 Handback Exam; Group 7 Presents

Thurs, 2/12 Group 8 Presents; Chapter 8-Business Plans and Planning

Tues, 2/17 Group 9 Presents; Chapter 9-Pathways to Enterprise Creation

Thurs, 2/19 Group 10 Presents; Chapter 10-Purchasing a Business

Tues, 2/24 Group 11 Presents; Chapter 11-Franchising

Thurs, 2/26 Group 12 Presents; Chapter 12-The Enterprising Mind

Tues, 3/3 Group 12 Presents; Feasibility Review

Thurs, 3/5 Group 13 Presents: Exam Review

March 8-12 Finals Week: TBD

Wed./, 3/11 Feasibility study due; hard copy in box outside office

Wed., 3/11 Book Review & Analysis due; hand in hard copy to my office, Bexell 407.

Notes and summary of grading:

1.  Late assignments and exams.  Unless you have an acceptable reason and give advance notice, I will deduct up to 25% of the available points for late submissions and give no points once an assignment/exam is returned to the rest of the class.

2.  Typing and writing.  Assignments must be typed.  Well-written English and good spelling are expected; I will deduct 10% of the available points for five or more spelling and/or grammar errors on any assignment.  Staple together the pages that you have written.  Also, put your section number and class-group number on all group assignments and evaluations.

3.  Students with disabilities.  Accommodations are collaborative efforts between students, faculty and Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). Students with accommodations approved through SSD are responsible for contacting the faculty member in charge of the course prior to or during the first week of the term to discuss accommodations. Students who believe they are eligible for accommodations but who have not yet obtained approval through SSD should contact SSD immediately at 737-4098.  

4.  Academic dishonesty.  Any case of academic dishonesty will result in a grade of F for the course.  This action is allowed by Academic Regulations and Procedures as described in the Schedule of Classes.  I expect you to know and understand these policies and regulations.  If there is any doubt about their meaning and interpretation, ask for an explanation.  This link leads to more information about the university’s policies on academic dishonesty.

Grading Breakdown

Feasibility Analysis	20%
Exams: 2	40%
Wall Street Journal Presentation	15%
Book Review & Analysis	10%
Class Participation	15%

1.  Group Participation & Project.  You must come to class.  You will be part of a developing group throughout the term; your group’s success depends upon your attendance.  There is a penalty for missing class group activities.  Showing up after a group activity has begun will count as an absence, as will leaving early.  Most class sessions will involve group work. The absence allowance should give you enough flexibility to deal with unexpected illness or emergency.  In no case, however, will there be an exception to the policy.  If you are likely to have some regularly scheduled event during class sessions, you should take this course during a different quarter.

2.  Class Participation.  I expect all class members to contribute to class discussions.  This should be based on prior reading, lectures and class exercises.  This requirement applies to the large class sessions as well as class group work. If you don’t feel comfortable getting involved in large group discussions, see me privately about strategies for increasing your involvement. 

3.  Exams. Two exams will be given based on the material covered in lectures and from the assigned book for the class. There are no make up exams unless approved a minimum of one week prior to the exam date. Make up exams will also be given at the Professor’s discretion.

4. Written assignment (Book review and analysis). Book report on an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial company, or on an industry you are interested in looking at for start-up possibilities. Examples would include a biography of an entrepreneur, a book about a start-up company(ies), a book about the venture capital process, or a book about marketing approaches for start-ups. Write a short paper on the book, discussing the author’s message and 3-5 most important points you learned from the book and how you can apply them to a specific business or venture. Adding your own reflections during the analysis is essential to writing a good review. Be sure to include title, author and date of publication in your report. (Three-five pages approximately, 1.5 spaced).

Wall Street Journal Presentations:

Groups will pick an article about a company from a recent Wall Street Journal article (no more than 2 weeks old). You will have 15-20 minutes to give an overview of the article to the class. You do not need dress attire, but be professional. Please have your PowerPoint presentation available on an email account you can access from the computer in the classroom. Typical reviews will be an appropriate amount of slides covering the following:

Why you chose this article, what date from the WSJ.

Type of Business; Public, Private, S-Corporation, C-Corporation, LLC

Industry Overview

The company you have chosen’s products and services

How do they compete?

Projection of their success or failure

Questions for the class

You can cover any other are of interest in your presentation that you feel is germane to the article/company you have chosen. Present what you feel is important.

Feasibility Analysis:

As the name implies, a feasibility study is an analysis of the viability of an idea.  The feasibility study focuses on helping answer the essential question of “should we proceed with the proposed project idea?”  All activities of the study are directed toward helping answer this question.

A feasibility study is usually conducted after producers have discussed a series of business ideas or scenarios.  The feasibility study helps to “frame” and “flesh-out” specific business scenarios so they can be studied in-depth.  During this process the number of business alternatives under consideration is usually quickly reduced.

During the feasibility process you may investigate a variety of ways of organizing the business and positioning your product in the marketplace.  It is like an exploratory journey and you may take several paths before you reach your destination.  Just because the initial analysis is negative does not mean that the proposal does not have merit if organized in a different fashion or if there are market conditions that need to change for the idea to be viable. Typical projects range from 12-30 pages. 1.5 spaced.

Final grades will be determined based on the following percentages:

            A                     94-100                                    A-        90-93

            B+                   88-90                                      B         84-87

            B-                    81-83                                      C+       78-80

            C                     73-77                                     C-        70-72

            D+                   67-69                                     D         63-68

            D-                    60-62                                      F          60 or lower    

Everything on this syllabus is subject to change.