ashesi university entrepreneurship course outline fall 2014

ENTREPRENEURSHIP I

Instructor: Todd Warren Office: 213 Tel Ext: 1028

E-mail: [email protected] Class time: Thurs 1330 - 1640

Office Hours: Friday 1000 - 1200 or by appointment Class location: 218

Instructor: Sena A. Agyepong (PhD) Office: 205 Tel Ext: 1058

E-mail: [email protected] Class time: Thurs 1330 - 1640

Office Hours: Tues & Thurs 1500 – 1700 or by appointment Class location: 218

Faculty Intern: Michael Asiedu Office: 209 Tel Ext: 1076

E-mail: [email protected] Discussion time: Tuesday 1330 – 1500

Office Hours: Tuesday 900 - 1100 Discussion location: 218

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Course Description:

Entrepreneurship has been held by many as the key to development in the under developed

world. It is key as it holds the potential of aiding people come up with innovative products and

services that will improve the lives of many as well as help in alleviating poverty by providing

job opportunities and social interventions needed by the deprived.

If Africa, and indeed other developing economies can achieve the MDGs and beyond, there

will be the need to develop profit generating enterprises as well as social enterprises to serve

as the backbone and propellant of this effort. There is absolutely no need for an unemployed

graduates association, neither is it absolutely required that all graduates work for established

corporations and multi-nationals.

Ashesi has been fortunate to have some of its graduate’s start-up business and some having

grown them into small and big corporations causing waves across the globe.

This class, in a bid to further position graduate to understand the nuances of start-ups,

integrates the various skills and knowledge obtained from courses offered in their past three

years on campus. This class will teach students what a start-up business is, and make the clear

distinction between a start-up and a small business. It will take students through ideation, and

developing business concepts that will be modelled using the Business Model Canvas, from

the ideas generated. The methodology is based on the “Lean Launchpad” class used by the US

National Science Foundation, Stanford, and University of California Berkeley.

The core teaching philosophy of this class will have experiential, learner-centric and inquiry-

based classes that help to develop the mind-set, reflexes, agility and resilience an

entrepreneur needs to search for certainty in a chaotic world. This will be achieved with the

adoption of a number of teaching aids, prominent amongst which is the Launchpad Central,

and videos from Steve Blank’s class on “How to start a business”. To be stressed will be the

need to “get out of the class room” and bring the business models to life.

Since this is a capstone class, the first half, which will be undertaken in the first semester, is

what the course outline will be based on. It will guide students to come out with a laudable

business concept which will be presented to established entrepreneurs to feedback for further

development in the second half.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this class, students should have:

1. An understanding of the elements and journey of entrepreneurship and how an

entrepreneur uses the concept of ‘effectuation’ to decide where to enter;

2. A general understanding of the opportunities and differences in being an entrepreneur

in Ghana:

3. An understanding of how to develop a business model hypothesis using the business

model canvas.

mailto:[email protected]




Entrepreneurship I – Fall 2014

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4. The experience of testing a business model hypothesis using customer development

techniques, and formulating and executing a ‘minimum viable product’.

Text:

“Start-up Owner’s Manual (SOM): Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company” by Steve

Blank and Bob Dorf © 2012

Supplementary text and material:

Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship (KOE) by Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia © 2012;

Videos from the Udacity class on “How to Start a Business” by Steve Blank (distributed

in class);

8 month access to LaunchPad Central https://www.launchpadcentral.com; and

Articles as will be deemed necessary and posted on courseware by instructors.

Measuring of Learning Outcomes:

The above mentioned learning outcomes will be measured by the activities identified below:

Assessment Detailed

Scores

Total

Score

Weight

1 Online and In class Participation, and attendance 10+10+10 30 6

2 Interviews in LPC 20+20+20+20 80 16

3 Case Reviews and Industry Sector Research 20+20+10 50 10

4 Idea hypothesis and Canvas updates 25+25+25+25 100 20

5 Mid-point concept evaluation 100 100 20

6 Weekly team blog posts 20 20 4

7 Final concept presentations 100 100 20

8 Lessons learnt presentation 20 20 4

500 100

Team formulation:

Teams will be formed at two levels:

1. Following the industrial sector taxonomy used by the Ministry of Finance and Economic

Planning (MoFEP) in the development of its budget, students will select their industry

of interest and will be grouped as such for idea ‘elevator pitch’ sessions.

a. Agriculture: crops; livestock; forestry and logging; fishing; agro processing;

breweries and beverages; etc

b. Industry: mining and quarrying; petroleum; manufacturing; electricity; water

and sewerage; construction; consumer goods; media; pharmaceuticals;

telecommunications

c. Services: trade, repair of vehicles, household goods; hotels and restaurants;

transport and storage; information and communication; financial

intermediation; business, real estates, and others; public administration &

defence; social security; education; health and social work; consumer &

industrial products and services

2. In the various industrial interest groups, students will be tasked with pitching different

business ideas for the instructors of the class to select the ones that are likely to be

https://www.launchpadcentral.com/


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successful. This will be followed by a session of student idea collaborations etc to form

various business teams. The focus of team formulation will need to be on compositions

with strengths that complement each other, rather than composition based on

friendships.

Teams will agree on a team charter to guide team activities, produce weekly team logs for

assessment. As part of the charter, team members will define the major milestones that they

will need to meet (at least 5), and appoint one team member to be in charge of each milestone.

Assessments:

LPC=launchpadcentral.com

Week Class

Date Assignment Due

1 04/09/2014 Case 1 : 1 pager & presentation (Due in Discussion Section)

2 11/09/2014

Case 2: 1 pager on a business from smallstarter.com & short

presentation in class

Industry Sector Research: What are problems worth addressing;

identify many

Weekly Blog

3 18/09/2014

Idea hypothesis

Team charter

LPC interviews #1

Weekly Blog

4 25/09/2014

LPC interviews #2

First Canvas in LPC

Weekly Blog

5 02/10/2014 Update to the canvas in LPC

Weekly Blog

6 09/10/2014 Weekly Blog

7 16/10/2014 Mid-point canvas and report

Weekly Blog

8 23/10/2014

LPC interviews #3

Customer Acquisition Tactics Budget/Hypothesis

Weekly Blog

9 30/10/2014

10 06/11/2014 Update to canvas

Weekly Blog

11 13/11/2014 LPC interviews #4

Weekly Blog

12 20/11/2014 Update to canvas

Weekly Blog

13 27/11/2014 Lesson Learned Document

Weekly Blog

14 04/12/2014 Final presentation, canvas and report

Weekly Blog

Participation

Participation will be based on attendance, in class discussion, online discussions, as well as

peer feedback given during in-class critique sessions in the launchpadcentral (LPC) platform.


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Regular and prompt attendance as well as active participation in this class is crucial to your

understanding and enjoyment of this class. Should there be a need to miss a class, please be

sure to inform the instructors in advance. Attendance and participation during discussion

sessions and participation in online discussions, will contribute to your grade, so be sure not

to miss class, discussion sessions and online sessions, and be engaged while at it.

Interviews in LPC (4 sets of interviews)

A key part of entrepreneurship, and the method we are using to teach it, is the idea of getting

out of the building. That is to say, the answers you are looking for to better formulate your

business are not between your ears, but out in the world. Much will be learned by talking to

customers, ideally in person, but also on the phone and online. We expect that teams will

perform at least 80 interviews with potential customers and stakeholders in their business

before the close of the semester. The interviews are due on 4 dates throughout the semester;

20 interviews per team per date. Our intention is that each person will be involved in

interviewing, and so for a team of 5, an average of 4 interviews will be done per person. Some

interviews will be very extensive; others will be very brief. At the beginning, these interviews

will be open ended, and then later in the semester more focused on gaining feedback to your

product prototype and value proposition. Interviews will be recorded in LaunchPadCentral,

and scored appropriately. Teams may also earn up to 20 points extra credit, one point for each

interview beyond 80. The point value is 1 point per extra interview.

Case Reviews (2 cases)

Early in the quarter, we will have two cases that students will prepare in teams. The students

will prepare a short paper and then present to their peers, first, on a set of start-up companies

the faculty team assigns (discussion section after (4/9/2014); and for the second case, on a start-

up company of the team’s choosing from smallstarter.com (11/9/2014). In each case, students

will work together to analyse the business model of the target company, their competitive

environment, and their competitive advantage. The same team will be used for both projects,

and we will factor in a peer and overall team assessment. Each case will be 20 points. 10 points

for the short paper and 5 points for the presentation.

Industry Sector Research (1 report)

In the first class, we will break into teams by industry sector. Each individual within the team

will be responsible for producing a one page industry brief. The brief will potential

opportunities, trends, and customer segments that could be served by new startups. We

encourage teams to divide the space between them to get as much breadth in the sector as

possible.

Idea hypothesis and Canvas updates (4 updates)

We will start with elevator pitches and then an idea hypothesis. The idea hypothesis will follow

a format provided by the instructors, focused on describing a scenario where the start-up’s

product is applied. The other 3 canvas updates will occur in the LaunchPadCentral tool.

Students will be graded on the completeness and reasoning for each piece of the business

model canvas. As students move to later critiques, they will be judged on the extent to which

they match interviews to canvas hypothesis to improve their understanding of how to adapt

their business idea to the reality of the market.

http://www.smallstarter.com/


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Mid-point concept evaluation

This is evaluation to be done before the mid-semester break. Students will be required to

submit a complete canvas, with supported hypotheses for each aspect of the canvas. Students

will also prepare a mid-term presentation, and a panel of industry advisors will assist in giving

student teams feedback.

Weekly team blogs

Each Team will be required to produce a blog post for each week on the Ashesi courseware

system. The focus of the blog will be: key insights, accomplishments, and plans for the next

week, and lessons learned. You should make the posts exciting to read. The task should be

rotated between team members. Individuals are encouraged to read posts by other teams in

the class and give them feedback regularly. (PS: this will count towards online participation and

engagement)

Final concept preparations

The final concept for the semester will include the following components: First, a business

report describing the start-ups current thinking on the elements of the business model canvas,

as well as its competitive position. Second, a business pitch will be done before faculty and a

panel of industry advisors. Finally, a video concept pitch, of length 2-4 minutes, which is an

amalgam of your product and pitch, leading us through your company, customers served,

problems solved, and product you are producing.

Ashesi's Learning Goals

Ethics and Civic Engagement

An Ashesi student is an ethical, responsible and engaged member of his/her community.

To be ethical as an entrepreneur means to ensure that the business concept is one that fits within

the Code of Conducts of doing business within the context the business will be established in. It will

also mean putting in place structures and making assumptions that makes the entrepreneur conduct

business with integrity. In this class, students will receive feedback on their business ideas and

concepts from the instructors and from class guest to teach them the ethos of doing business locally

and internationally. Also, the methodology for the class will have students taking their ideas outside

the class room and testing them. This will make them engage with their communities, who will form

part of their target customer base, and all the feedback from these engagement efforts will shape

their ideas to be sure they are sensitive to the requirements of the communities.

Critical thinking and Quantitative Reasoning

An Ashesi student is able to apply critical thinking and quantitative reasoning to approach complex

problems.

In the entire class, students will be expected to make very sound business decisions and

assumption, as well as justify these decisions and assumptions. This capstone class will give them

the opportunity to integrate the critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills acquired over the

years. They will further conduct various research and customer feedback sessions that will need to

be analysed to help them draw on sound conclusions to feed into their business ideas. This class

thus gives them an excellent opportunity to sharpen this skill and develop new techniques for

approaching complex problems as young entrepreneurs.


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Communication

An Ashesi student is an excellent communicator in a variety of form

The class and discussion sessions will be filled with written and oral presentations to help students

hone their communication skills. Also, interactions with class guests and their peers will help the

students pick up key communication up points for an entrepreneur including listening skills, giving

and receiving feedback, and pitching ideas and business concepts to potential partners, investors,

customer and other stakeholders.

Leadership and Teamwork

An Ashesi student is adept at leading and functioning in teams.

The entire class is based on team activity and team effort. Students forms teams very early in the

semester and work together as a team till the end. Instructors in this class pay attention to how team

development occurs and coach students on how to work together focusing on what contribution

each team member makes to it, and minimize the differences they have to help them succeed. The

students would have also worked in different teams from their enrolment at Ashesi, but with these

team projects as a subset of the various classes. In this class, they will realize how they ultimately

must rely on each other, and learn the hard lessons of having no option than to work together to

attain success for the team and individually as well. The hope is that, they will be able to put into

practice, some of the team formulation skills they would have learnt in previous classes.

Innovation and Action

An Ashesi student takes intellectual risks and demonstrates an entrepreneurial spirit.

The foundation of this class starts with the ideation process the team goes through and how they are

able to come up with creative ideas and work throughout the semester to make them feasible. They

will learn how to be proactive as a team, analyse the risks that they and their teams are subjected

to, find ways of mitigating these risks and work at achieving team success. This assignment will

require them being bold, intellectually justifying all assumptions and decisions, and developing

the tenets of an entrepreneur. They will at the end of the class be ready to graduate from Ashesi

and start businesses with all the calculated boldness that goes with it.

Curiosity and Skill

An Ashesi student is inquisitive and confident, has breadth of knowledge, and has attained a high level

of mastery in his/her chosen field.

A student who is not curious, does not question the status quo, and fails to apply all the knowledge

garnered from classes taken prior to this class, will not be able to succeed in this class. The structure

of the class is such that, students will learn how to be intellectually curious through various research

and customer feedback interviews. Also, they will learn how to probe properly in the critique

sessions and master the art of confidently projecting their points while they objectively receive

feedback for improvement. The integrative nature of the class will also have them drawing and

knowledge acquired in previous classes, and have them read up on materials from other sources

including professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, etc to feed their curiosity buds and to help them

achieve project success.

Technological Competence

An Ashesi student is an effective and flexible user of technology.

Over the years at Ashesi, students have been introduced to various technologies to help aid these

classes, as well as make them functional when they go out for internships and in their social settings.

In this class, students will be introduced to the Launchpad Central software for developing start-up

concepts. The very interactive interface will require a consolidation of knowledge in the use of ICT

from various classes, as well as help students adapt very quickly to a new interface, which is what


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they will be faced with in industry. In the second week of class, students will be introduced to this

software, and the expectation is that, by the end of the semester, they would have mastered it. This

will aid students hone their skills in adaptation to technology, and proactively studying and

practicing how to use these, to help prepare them for life after graduation.

Class Schedule & Readings

Week Class

Date Part 1 Part 2

1 04/09/2014 - Course Introduction

- Entrepreneur Speaker

- Introduction to and elements of

entrepreneurship:

Who is an entrepreneur

How do they find ideas

What are the elements they

need to think through

- Basic background on the business

model canvas and an example

- Break into industry sector

teams of 5

- Work in teams to develop the

business model canvas of the

enterprise that presented, turn

in at the end of class

- Work on developing an

overview of opportunities and

trends in the sector for

discussion session

2 11/09/2014 - Analyze and write summaries on

businesses on smallstarter.com to

cover:

Brief about business

Business model

Customer segment

characteristics

Value to the customer

- Teams formulation

3 18/09/2014 - Teams present their ideas for

general feedback on soundness

Each team present 2 ideas

Presentations should

address: the business

hypothesis, customer

segment, value the business

will add to customers, and

stakeholders of the business

- Business model hypothesis

- Define customer segment

- Go out and test: Customer

Interview

4 25/09/2014 - Market Research

Purpose

Methods

- Market type

Hypothesis

- Competition

Strategies to manage them

- Persona Definition

- The business Model Canvas

Critique

Attempt The Canvas on

their current idea.

Discuss The Canvas as has

been developed. Each

team will present for

critique. If we run out of

time, teams will continue

at discussion.

5 2/10/2014 - The Value Proposition

Assess needs/ problems of

various market segments

Propose solutions to needs/

problems identified

Identify ways in which the

solution has added value

Find other creative ways of

adding value to modify

product/ service

- Team meeting on MVP


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Week Class

Date Part 1 Part 2

6 9/10/2014 Guests: discuss MVP decisions of

their businesses

- Customer relationships

Identifying customer

expectation

Integrating with business

model

Evaluating cost of

relationship

- Channels of reaching

customers

Selecting channels

Testing channels

Assessing channel

efficiency

- Assignment: customer

acquisition tactics and budget

for discussion section.

7 16/10/2014 - Midpoint concept evaluations

- show prototype of

product/service

- submit a draft document

overview

sections in canvas

competitors and strategy

appendix

- Midpoint concept evaluations

- show prototype of

product/service

- submit a draft document

overview

sections in canvas

competitors and strategy

appendix

8 23/10/2014 Feedback sessions with instructors Feedback sessions with instructors

9 30/10/2014 Mid - Semester Break

10 6/11/2014 - Business Model critique session

Focus should be on what has

been changed after the mid-

point evaluations

- Business Model critique session

Focus should be on what

has been changed after

the mid-point evaluations

11 13/11/2014 - Revenue Models

- Resources

- Cost decisions

- Partners

- Industry guest speakers to

share their experiences.

an entrepreneurs

- venture capitalists

12 20/11/2014 - Business Model Critique

Focus on revenue models,

cost, resources etc

- Business Model Critique

Focus on revenue models,

cost, resources etc

13 27/11/2014 Lessons learned presentations Lessons learned presentations

14 4/12/2014 Final concept presentations Final concept presentations


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Reading List

Week Class

Date

Lean Launchpad

Video Reading

1 4/9/2014 Lecture 1

Lecture 1.5A

Lecture 1.5B

SOM p1-20 (Chapter 1-3)

http://businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc

2 11/9/2014 KOE Chapter 1-3

3 18/09/2014 Lecture 2: Value

Proposition

SOM p51-84 (Chapter 4 and 5)

4 25/09/2014 Lecture 3: Customer

Segments

KOE Chapter 4

SOM pp85-97, 112-125, 203-217 (problem), 218-221

(customer)

5 02/10/2014 MVP Intro:

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/m

inimum-viable-product-guide.html and Eric Ries

Video

(http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.ht

ml?)

6 09/10/2014 Lecture 4: Channels

Lecture 5: Customer

Relationships

SOM p291-343,357-409

7 16/10/2014

8 23/10/2014

9 30/10/2014

10 06/11/2014 SOM 413-425 (Chap 11: positioning)

11 13/11/2014

12 20/11/2014 Lecture 6: Revenue

Model

Lecture 7: Partners

Lecture 8:

Resources,

Activities, and Costs

13 27/11/2014

14 04/12/2014

SOM=Startup Owner’s Manual

KOE=Kuenyehia On Entrepreneurship

Lean Launchpad videos will be made available to the class

ashesi university entrepreneurship course outline fall 2014

Education