Thursday, 28 April 2011

The Brief:

PROJECT BRIEF

Project Title

IRL enterprise

Project Value

100% of 15 credits

Unit Title

Enterprise and Entrepreneurship – Making it Happen

Unit Code

CCU303

Level/Term

Level 3 Term 1

Date of Issue

April 2011

Submission Date

Project plan submission deadline 28th of April

Formative assessment 17th of May

Summative assessment presentation 10th June

Completion of project report 13th June

Unit Leader

L T Dimitriou, Jared Taylor

Project Leader and Other Staff

L T Dimitriou, Jared Taylor, Robert Chapman-Ames

If you are unable to make it to a session, or have problems with Moodle please let us know by e-mailing Carole Mallett carole.mallett@rave.ac.uk AND Sarah Mark s.mark@rave.ac.uk

Unit Introduction

In the Level 1 and Level 2 units of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, we have focused on:

- spotting opportunities,

- generating ideas and turning them into wealth creating opportunities

- developing market insight and communication as key components of creative entrepreneurial endeavour.

Now, in Level 3, attention turns to ‘making things happen’. This means taking a holistic view of creative entrepreneurial endeavour and the many factors that need to be organised and managed for successful creative enterprise. A key feature of the Level 3 unit will be to give you the opportunity to experience, as closely as possible, the ‘reality’ of entrepreneurial endeavour and the entrepreneurial way of life, deploying the entrepreneurial attributes, skills and behaviours cultivated during the previous two units. These include:

- emotional intelligence, persistence, adaptability, resilience to failure;

- the ability to make decisions and take calculated risks;

- persuasive communication, particularly intelligent use of evidence, both financial and market related, in support of ideas;

- confidence to cross boundaries into unfamiliar worlds to get the resources you need to make things happen.

Through a mixture of lectures, talks by visiting experts, practical workshops, discussions and seminars, you will extend and consolidate your entrepreneurial knowledge and skill, and put it into practice via the unit project. The project will set a creative entrepreneurial challenge that reflects the complexity, buzz, highs and lows of the real entrepreneurial experience and way of life. On successful completion of the unit, you should feel confident in describing yourself as a creative entrepreneur. This means you will have learnt to:

- Identify and understand relationships between the key elements which need to be considered, prioritised and managed to bring an idea to market, notably product or service; target market audience; people; resources (financial and physical);

- Manage complexity, making judgements and decisions with incomplete data;

- Build and utilise networks purposefully;

- Conduct research, build evidence and construct a convincing case in support of an idea;

- Plan the steps required to establish an entrepreneurial enterprise;

- Communicate an idea, product/service concept and/or business case persuasively to a diverse range of audiences.

Project Brief

In the Level 3 project, you will come up with a business idea and carry out an enterprise. The enterprise can be based on a hobby / interest, based on a business opportunity you have stumbled upon or related to your course.

  • There has to be actual trade- money switching hands or procurement agreement (/contract) signed- before summative assessment
  • You are responsible for making sure you have the appropriate licenses, that your enterprise is legal, morally acceptable and in line with college regulations.
  • Any monetary investments need to be discussed with a tutor and an exit strategy devised.

You will choose whether to work on your own or in a group, and whether to work with members of your own discipline or potentially to bring more varied expertise into the project by collaborating with people from different subject areas. You may choose to collaborate with someone outside of Ravensbourne.

There will be some suggestions of types of ventures you could pursue on Moodle (these have been supplied by your main tutors).

You will come up with an initial project plan including budget and action plan (Gantt chart) that will be handed in by the 28th of April. Throughout the unit you will be using your online learning (b)log to describe your research and learning, covering the process of launching your business including acquisition of skills, contacts and other resources. At the end of the unit you will analyse and review the project’s outcome and result in financial and other terms (we encourage using the ‘triple bottom line’ model). You are expected to analyse why there may be disparity between your initial forecast and the actual results and to tell us what lessons have been learned.

There will be a template on Moodle to use as a guide for writing the project plan and the end report.

AS mentioned above, each student will keep an online learning log and is required to submit a report and analysis of the learning journey (see below under assessable elements). Examples of what you should record in your learning (b)log:

- Any interesting material you stumble upon which has to do with your enterprise or topics covered in E&E

- Lecture notes

- Notes from independent learning on the VLE (Moodle)

- Research: findings along with critical evaluation of sources and methods used

- Motivation for or reasoning behind decisions made throughout the process

- Feedback: from friends, tutors, customers or whoever

- Visual: Sketches, storyboards, visualization of ideas, photographs of your progress

-

Be aware of IP (copyright) and plagiarism. Do not cut and paste text into your blog other than as short citations clearly marked as such and make sure to reference where text and images are taken from. If using online material, there is generally no need to republish the material: instead write a description/summary and link to the original page.

We are working in compliance with the institution's group working policy. Guidelines for how to manage group work can be found on Moodle.

Teaching and Learning Strategies and E-Learning

Values, attitudes, knowledge and skills are gained primarily through lectures, seminars, tutorials, practical workshops, and self directed study as well as project based learning. The project will however be the main vehicle for knowledge and understanding, giving you an intensive and an ‘as close to real as possible’ experience of entrepreneurial endeavour. Visiting speakers, including entrepreneurs, are deployed both to inspire and relate your learning to the real world.

Traditional modes of delivery are supported by the VLE. Changes to curriculum are live fed and there are resources, forums and areas in which to upload work online through Moodle.

For project updates you are required to regularly check your emails and unit specific content in Moodle.

Learning Outcomes

In order to pass this unit, students must demonstrate the following learning outcomes have been achieved:

A1 Demonstrate awareness and understanding of the key characteristics of entrepreneurial endeavour and the entrepreneurial way of life

B1 Demonstrate an ‘I can’ attitude that facilitates exploration of uncharted territory, overcoming obstacles and learning from failures to make a project work

C1 Demonstrate ability to identify and overcome issues inherent in working with people with different mental models and knowledge sets

C2 Demonstrate ability to identify and analyse strategic and market factors and synthesise data to develop viable solutions

E1 Demonstrate the ability to communicate an entrepreneurial idea, or complex data, simply and persuasively, using appropriate media

E2 Develop an action plan in support of development or realisation of entrepreneurial endeavour

D1 Identify, build and use professional networks in support of a proposition

Assessment Criteria

  • Ability to identify the key elements in entrepreneurial endeavour and apply the attitudes, skills and behaviours of entrepreneurial people (A1, B1, D1)

  • Ability to identify and develop appropriate strategies for dealing with key issues inherent in working and communicating effectively with diverse stakeholders who may have different mental models and knowledge sets (C1, D1, E1)

  • Evidence of capacity to think strategically, gather strategic and market intelligence from a wide range of sources and synthesise data to develop viable propositions/solutions (C2)

  • Evidence of ability to identify, build and utilise professional networks (D1)

  • Ability to develop a comprehensive action plan in support of entrepreneurial endeavour (E2)

Assessable Elements and Submission Requirements

Assessable Elements

Percentage of Final Grade

Project

100%

Students are required to keep an online learning log or blog throughout the project.

For all submissions:

All hand-ins need to be uploadable to Moodle for assessment. Therefore students MUST keep back up of all their work on external media until it has been marked – just in case there are problems.

Please note that conduct and engagement in organised activities are noted and may be taken into consideration in the assessment.

If you are unable to make it to a session, please let us know by e-mailing Carole Mallett carole.mallett@rave.ac.uk AND Sarah Mark s.mark@rave.ac.uk

Formative assessment

You will discuss your project plan with a tutor and/or visiting entrepreneur. Feedback received should be added by the student to his/her learning log or blog.

Summative assessment

Report on enterprise, discussion with tutor. Upload project report to Moodle. Peer assessment.

For further details and guidance, students are directed to Moodle.

Key Dates

Students are required to regularly check Moodle and e-mail for live updates and changes to curriculum and schedule.

19th of April 1.30-4: Introduction to unit and project

T.B.C: Seminars on FREELANCING including: budgeting, finding work, contracts. Visiting entrepreneur/ freelancers.

28th of April: Deadline for project plan hand-in

10th of May 9.30-12, 1.30-4: Consumer Behavior, Negotiation Tactics, Securing investment, Business Strategy

17th of May 9.30-12, 1.30-4
Formative Assessments/Tutorials

10th of June 9.30-12, 1.30-4

Summative Assessments/Tutorials

13th June Deadline final submissions of project report

Extensions and Mitigating Circumstances

If you have any other unforeseen and serious difficulties during this unit you may apply for an extension, or mitigating circumstances. Full details of how to do this are available from the Registry intranet site at

http://intranet.rave.ac.uk/registry/docs/MITCIRCSFAQ.pdf

Grading and Marking

All projects at Ravensbourne College are assessed against the College Grading Descriptors. (http://intranet.rave.ac.uk/quality/a_to_z.htm)

Reading List

Further recommended items for reading and viewing are continually added to the unit page on Moodle.

Books

Don Tapscott & Anthony D Williams, (2007) Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Atlantic Books

John Mullins, (2006) The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Writing A Business Plan, Times/Prentice Hall 2nd ed

Mary and Andrew Bragg, Developing New Business Ideas: A Step-by-step Guide to Creating New Business Ideas Worth Backing, Financial Times Series/Prentice Hall

Richard Stutely, The Definitive Business Plan: The Fast Track to Intelligent Business Planning for Executives and Entrepreneurs (Financial Times Series)

Cheryl D. Rickman and Dame Anita Roddick, (2005) The Small Business Start-up Workbook: A Step-by-step Guide to Starting the Business You've Dreamed of, How To Books

Gary Hamel, The Future of Management, Harvard Business School Press

Peter F Drucker, (2008) The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization, JB Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation 3rd ed

Peter F Drucker, (2008) Managing Oneself, Harvard Business School Classics

Web

www.creativityincubator.com, Sections: Fostering a Creative Culture; Teams


Chartered Institute of Marketing

www.cim.co.uk

www.telegraphbusinessclub.co.uk

www.designcouncil.org.uk

www.smalllbusiness.co.uk/

www.thisismoney.co.uk/small-business

British Venture Capital Assocation

www.bvca.co.uk

British Business Angel Association

www.bbaa.org.uk

School for Social Entrepreneurs
www.sse.org.uk

New business trends:
www.fastcompany.com

Stanford entrepreneurship corner:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu

Judge Business School Podcasts:
www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/news/podcast_centre/index.html

Bloomberg Businessweek

www.businessweek.com

Free grant search service for small companies, charities and community groups: http://www.grantnet.com/

iTunesU:

University of Oxford- Building a business (basic business knowhow series- talks on how to raise funding, the importance of good accountancy, how to write and sell a business plan)

Open University- Winning Resources and Support (Fundraising and campaigning for social enterprise and charities)

All references must be written in the Harvard style of referencing. Refer to the LRC Booklet ‘How to … Reference your work’.

Learning Support

Learning Support is available through Student Services and includes – English as a second language, academic writing support and dyslexia support.

For more information on the type of support you can access, either visit the Student Services Team, or see the Support for Learning brochure which can be downloaded from –

http://intranet.rave.ac.uk/support/Support4Learning.htm

Alternative assessment arrangements may be made or additional learning support arranged for students with disabilities or medical conditions which would impair their performance in meeting the above requirements and who have registered in advance with Student Support. This must be discussed and agreed in advance with the Subject Leader and will be reported to the Board of Examiners.

Re-Submission Requirements

Students who fail this project, or parts thereof, will be required to complete a resubmission project which demonstrates that they have achieved the learning outcomes.

Students should be aware that resubmissions are capped at an E grade (for University of Sussex Validation) or a bare pass grade (for City University London Validation) unless the mitigating circumstances panel uphold an evidenced application.

The deadline for re-submission is 27th of June 2011

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