Developing and Organizing Entrepreneurial Ventures

Introduction

Entrepreneurs and corporate innovators face significant leadership and organizational challenges such as deciding on and developing the firm's business model, recruiting and leading an entrepreneurial team, leading explorative and experimental work on a shoestring budget, and building an organization from scratch. Successful entrepreneurship requires an understanding of these challenges and a set of leadership skills to overcome them.  The course will give students knowledge and understanding of theory and practice of business models, agile design and development, leadership and organizing in entrepreneurial settings and prepare them for careers in start-ups, scale-ups, and corporate innovation efforts.

Course content

The course covers the following topics:

• Different types of business models and related strategic issues and potential actions
• The leadership capabilities of an entrepreneur: start-ups, scale-ups, and corporate innovation and the different leadership capabilities they require
• Building a team and leading people
• Decision making in entrepreneurial settings
• Leading and organizing innovative projects: introduction to Agile, Lean Startup, rapid prototyping, and Design Thinking methods
• Organizing start-ups, scale-ups, and corporate innovation: the fundamentals of organization design