Course Description
This class will help make you a better businessperson in India or abroad, by giving you a view of the business as a set of intertwined areas, where problems arise and are solved by managers. These entrepreneurial managers possess content knowledge from books, blended theory and practical knowledge from courses such as this, understanding of society, and actual work experience. They are frequently challenged at work through assignments that ask them to help make commercially viable innovations, through a product, process or business segment.
The better entrepreneurial managers develop an intuitive skill in diagnosing a problem and solving it, within the confines of what that business, societal imperatives, and geo-political environment allow. These skills are valid in starting a new venture, either for profit or socially, and also for working in a large company.
In a large company, innovation process skills are at a high demand. Moreover, in socially motivated businesses, problems are solved that can help society regain its balance from a market-oriented context that brought us to this unbalanced juncture. The course will continue to look at for profit businesses being driven by increase in shareholder value through Return on Invested Capital and its perceived importance. However, societal imperatives including a reformatting of the current economic understanding to one that looks at ecosystem balancing, along with rapid digitization, reduced globalization, and a more country centric society, will be brought to the class discussion.
This new social business problem-solving style is not easily taught in MBA programs, but we are going to try. Since the course is an introductory one, we will scratch the surface on the topics of innovation, entrepreneurship and social business. Also, for people wanting to start a side business(social or otherwise) or a complete startup in the future, this course will give you the thinking process to improve your success rate from the usual 1 out of 500 success rate to 1⁄5 or better, we hope. The course elective in Term 5 or 6, for Business Plans Development, and other choices in Term 5 and 6, will give you a chance to practice making business plans and thinking processes, behind this ratio improvement.
Course Outcomes & Learning Levels
There are five learning goals which are derived from the mission statement of DOM Kochi as shown in the table below. The mapping of the four outcomes of this course are mapped to these five learning goals in the manner shown in the table. All the sessions, the assignments and the learning diaries exercise are designed to help the participants enhance their leadership skills, their ability to think critically and integrative, and to communicate their thoughts clearly in written as well as oral formats. These three are our first, second and fifth learning goal respectively at the school level. The learning goals of ‘ethical reasoning’ and ‘societal and environmental awareness’ are also served to some degree by this course as shown in the table.
The students are exposed to the thoughts and strategies of some very effective real life innovators and entrepreneurs through videos and small cases. These videos which share the practical aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship reinforce the various theories, tools and techniques that are shared through the reading materials and classroom discussions with the instructor. One of the important evaluation components of this course is the worksheets that thestudents write and submit at periodic intervals. They are required to summarize their learning from the classroom discussions and use them to advance their understanding of developing an entrepreneurial idea, formed through innovative practices. This gives them excellent practice of using their critical and integrative thinking faculties, and to write down their thoughts in a clear and succinct manner.
Specifically, to match the Bloom’s taxonomy:
- To introduce the student to the basic theories and concepts that underlie a survey study ofInnovation, Entrepreneurship and Social Business /Social Entrepreneurship (IE).
- To understand how to generate good large company or startup business ideas / societalideas, and refine these ideas, to substantially increase chances for success in the marketplace
- To explore a sample process for developing a range of innovations from evolutionary, todisruptive, as a set of tools with a good chance for a corporate innovation, and for new startups/ social businesses.
- To choose Financing sources for various stages in the life of a startup and social business and draft appropriate documents to present the startup
- To rigorously apply the various tools of IE, including Design Methods, Lean Entrepreneurship, Innovation Processes, Business Model Canvas and its Lean and Digital variations, SWOT and Porters’ 5 forces and Value Chain model, ending with a business plan formats for startups, corporate new businesses, and social businesses.
- To become skillful in analyzing news and expert opinions about all aspects of innovation and IE. We will primarily use articles from The Ken.
- To become skillful at analyzing research findings, in a beginning way, to develop a healthy skepticism for the facts presented by people and books! We will use MIT Sloan Innovation Review, HBR and Seminal Research papers equally, through course.
Evaluation Pattern
# |
Assessment Component |
Percentage of Marks |
1 |
Continuous Assessment * |
40 |
2 |
Mid –Term Examination |
20 |
3 |
End –Term Examination |
40 |
*Based on assignments / Tests / Quizzes / Case Studies / Project / Term paper / Field visit report.