NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

NUS Business School

Department of Management and Organisation

MNO2009 / BSP2009 Entrepreneurship (Semester 2, AY2013-2014)

Course Instructor M&O: Dr. Nicola Breugst
Office: BIZ1/7-35, MRB
Phone: 6516-3049
E-Mail: bizncb@nus.edu.sg

Course Instructor S&P: Dr. Vivek Tandon
Office: BIZ1/6-2, MRB
Phone: 6516-3544
E-Mail: vtandon@nus.edu.sg


0. General information
As entrepreneurship is about people who discover, evaluate, and exploit opportunities to create
something new, the module MNO2009 will cover these two parts of entrepreneurship. In the first
part (micro part taught by Nicola) we will deal with the people side of entrepreneurship. We will
discuss opportunity recognition and creativity, goal setting, personal and motivational factors,
leadership, negotiation, and forming and working in entrepreneurial teams.
The second part of the module will deal with the identification and development of a business
idea from a strategic point of view. In this part, we will develop a business concept and analyze
aspects that relate to the feasibility and profitability of the business idea.
The lecture is interactive and the instructors will ask you to participate in in-class discussions,
exercises, exchange of experiences, and critical reflections. Beyond this input in the lectures, you
will make your own entrepreneurial experiences in the tutorials by working in teams on specific
projects. These projects will help you to solidify your understanding of the materials discussed in
class.

1. How are the grades distributed across Strategy and MNO?
Strategy MNO Total Weight
Group Project 25 (Business Idea
Identification and
analysis)
10 (Business Idea
Implementation)
35
Individual Case Study 7.5 22.5 30
Quiz 10 (2 quizzes of 5
points each)
10 (2 quizzes of 5
points each )
20 (4 quizzes in all,
5 points each)
Class Participation 7.5 7.5 15
50 50 100

2. How does the individual assignment look like?
We will hand out a business case to you and will ask you for an analysis of this case. There will
be one case with questions from both Strategy and MNO side. Please answer all the questions
(i.e. both Strategy and MNO) in one 5 page document only. This means that you should not
submit two files (one for strategy and one for MNO), but you have 5 pages in total.

3. What are deadlines for the individual assignment?
We will hand out the case on March 4, 2014.
You need to submit your report (i.e. your max. 5 page document) by April 25, 2014.
Please not that it is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted your deliverables in
time.

4. How should I format the individual assignment?
1. Maximum 5 page (without cover page; this means that cover page can be an extra page)
2. Cover Page containing
(a) Student Name
(b) Student Matriculation Number
(c) Tutorial Number
3. Header containing Student Name and Matriculation number in each page.
4. 12 Point font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margin on each side, 1.5 line spacing A4 size
paper
5. The file should be either a Word document or a pdf file. The file should be named in
the following format:
<MatricNumber>_IndivAssign.pdf (or .docx etc.)
Make sure that you name your file in this format while submitting. This is a large
class and it is very difficult to track down the assignments if they are not correctly named.

5. Where do I submit my report of the individual assignment?
Folders will be formed in IVLE. In the folder Student Assignments you will find a subfolder
labeled Individual Assignments.

6. When will the quizzes take place?
There will be four quizzes, two for the MNO part and two for the strategy part.
Quiz 1 (MNO): J anuary 28 (starting 18:00) to J anuary 31 (deadline 23:59)
Quiz 2 (MNO): February 18 (starting 18:00) to February 21 (deadline 23:59)
Quiz 3 (Strategy): March 18 (starting 18:00) to March 21 (deadline 23:59)
Quiz 4 (Strategy): April 15 (starting 18:00) to April 18 (deadline 23:59)

7. What is the scope of the quizzes?
The quizzes cover the content of the lectures up to the week of the quiz. However, content that
had been covered in previous quizzes will not be included in the next quiz. For example, Quiz 2
will cover the contents of weeks 4, 5, and 6.

8. What will quiz look like?
It will be a multiple choice online quiz. You will have to answer in one sitting; no second
attempts.

9. Oops! My computer crashed and / or internet connection broke down while giving the
quiz. What do I do?
First, please do not wait until the last minute to work on the quiz!
Before sitting down to answer the quiz make sure that your computer is stable and internet
connection is well established (answering from a public place with unreliable internet connection
is a bad idea).
If however this happens, send both Nicola and Vivek an email and we will allow you to resume.
Of course do not expect this to happen the moment you send in the email. Give us reasonable
time. Meaning attempt early rather than keep it for last minute. Do not expect us to answer at
night right around the deadline.

10. Oops! I did not participate in the quiz. What do I do?
Please not that it is your responsibility to ensure that you participate in all assignments and
quizzes. We will not chase the students who have not completed the quiz in time. This
responsibility is part of your learning experience at university and will help you to manage
projects and their deliverables in your professional life.
However, there might be personal reasons why you did not participate. If this is the case, please
contact us within 2 days after the deadline of the respective quiz (48 hours). We will consider
your request and inform you about our decision. Please be aware that there is no guarantee that
you will be given a make-up exam. You might be penalized based on the discretion of the
instructors.

11. How do the tutorials work?
There will be seven tutorials, so there will be about 30 to 35 students per tutorial. Tutorials will
start only in week three. Please not that it is not possible to switch from one tutorial to the other
because you will be working in fixed teams on specifically assigned tasks.
All the project groups will be named as <Tutorial Number>_<group number>. So for instance
the 6 groups in H01 will be named H01_G1, H01_G2, H01_G3, etc.

12. How are the groups for the group projects formed?
Within each tutorial, we will need 6 smaller groups consisting of 5 to 6 students.
There are several options how the teams can be formed. First, you can already think about
potential team members early and form your team before the tutorial. Second, you will have
some (but very limited!) time to form your team within the first tutorial. Finally, if you have no
found your team by the end of your first tutorial, the instructor will form the teams at random.
Please note that no personal preferences can be taken into account if you decide for teams
assembled by the instructor.

13. How do the group projects work?
There are separate projects for the MNO and the strategy part. Please see the respective questions
below.
Any questions regarding the MNO part of project should be addressed to Nicola.
Any questions regarding the strategy part of project should be addressed to Vivek.

14. How do the MNO projects work?
There are several options for projects in the MNO part. In the first tutorials (weeks 4, 5, and 6),
your team will develop an entrepreneurial training for the rest of the group in which you will
apply the concepts you have learned in the lecture to the class room and design exercises that
will help potential entrepreneurs to develop skills needed for their tasks. Readings to help your
team mastering this project will be provided. The rest of the class participates in the training so
that all students develop the skills needed for their future entrepreneurial projects.
The team presenting in the last tutorial (week 7) will discuss with actual entrepreneurs about
their challenges giving us insights into the joys and struggles of the entrepreneurial journey of
some role models. Details about the entrepreneurs that your team can interview will be given to
you in the first tutorial.

15. What are deliverables for the MNO project?
Please prepare a presentation for your training (weeks 4 to 6) or for the insights that you have
gained in the interviews (week 7) and upload it one day prior to your presentation. Moreover, the
full interviews have to be transcribed and uploaded as well.
For the presentations, upload a PowerPoint or a pdf file. The file should be named in the
following format:
<Tutorial Number>_<Group Number>_MNO_Presentation.pdf (or .ppt(x))
Likewise, the interview transcript should be named in a similar format:
<Tutorial Number>_<Group Number>_MNO_Interview.pdf (or .doc(x))
Please make sure that your files have the correct title before uploading them. Otherwise, it will
be very difficult to track your work!

16. What are the deliverables and deadlines for the Strategy portion of the course?
Group Project:
Business idea executive summary (1 file per group): April 6, 2013 by 23:59
Business idea presentation slides (1 file per group): April 6, 2013 by 23:59
Business idea presentation: in Tutorial sessions, weeks 12 and 13.
Peer Evaluation (optional)

17. What is the format of:
(a) Executive Summary?
1. Maximum 2 Pages apart from cover page.
2. Cover Page containing
(a) Project Name
(b) Name of group members with their matric numbers
(c) Tutorial Number
3. Header containing Tutorial Number and Project Name in each page.
4. 12 Point font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margin on each side, 1.5 line spacing
5. The executive summary should be either a word file or a pdf file.
(b) Presentation?
1. The presentation should be submitted as either a powerpoint or a pdf file. You may use
your own software for the presentation and therefore any format that you wish. However
while submitting, convert that into a pdf (or a powerpoint file) with equivalent content.
Some graphics (movie) etc. may be lost in the conversion but do not worry about that.
We only need to make sure that the content of submitted file matches that which is
presented.
2. If the presentation has a movie, just add a dummy slide in the submitted file to indicate
that the presentation has a movie. There is no need to upload the movie.

18. What is the naming convention of the Executive Summary and the presentation slides?
All the project groups will be named as <Tutorial Number>_<group number>. So for instance
the 6 groups in H01 will be named H01_G1, H01_G2, H01_G3 , etc.

The executive summary should be named: <Tutorial Number>_<group number>_execsumm.pdf
The presentation slides should be named: <Tutorial Number>_<group number>_presentation.pdf
For instance: H01_G1_execsumm.pdf and H01_G1_presentation.pdf

Of course, the extension (.pdf) will be different based on what format you are using.

19. Do all of us have to present the slides?
For both parts (MNO and Strategy), it is totally up to the team members to decide. It will be
assumed that all the team members contributed equally unless otherwise indicated by peer
evaluations by team members. The distribution of marks after peer evaluation will be up to the
judgment of the instructor.

20. How do we submit the peer evaluation?
Separate document giving the details will be uploaded.

21. Should I buy the book?
We use a number of books and research papers to design our course material. So the text book
does not have all the material that we will discuss in the class. The book is a good one which will
give you a perspective on entrepreneurship but some of the topics we will cover in the course
will be in the book and some won't. We have indicated the chapters in the book that broadly
correspond to the topics covered in the class but you will realize that the book will contain only
part of what we cover. That is why we did not want to force you all to buy the book. It will be a
good idea to study the lecture notes and concentrate on the discussions during the lecture and the
tutorials. You may then read the relevant topics in the book (if it is there).

22. What are the chapters from Timmons and Spinellis book that correspond to the
strategy lectures?
Before we answer the question, we recommend that you re-read the response to question 12. The
correspondence between the book and the lectures is not one to one; not everything we discuss in
the lectures will be found in the book and not everything in the book will be found in the
lectures. In any case, here is the rough list of correspondence:

Session 1 & 2. ( Opportunity Identification Macro & Market & Competitor Analysis) : Chapter
3, 5, & 6
Session 3. (Business Plan): Chapter 8
Session 4 & 5. (Entrepreneurial Finance 1 & 2) : Chapter 13 & 14
Session 6. ( IP etc. ) There is no direct correspondence in the Timmons book
Session 7. (Other forms of entrepreneurship). Chapter 7.
Session 8. Chap. 3 & 5
Session 9. Chap. 2
Session 10. Chap. 2
Session 11. Chap. 9
Session 12. There is no direct correspondence in the Timmons book
Session 13. Chap. 9

23. What else is important?
The module is not only about making many insightful experiences that will be helpful for your
life as a self-employed as well as a decision maker in established companies responsible for
renewing the organization, but it is also about entrepreneurial passion and fun! Please come to
the class with an open mind, actively participate in all our exercises and discussions, and try to
make as many different experiences as you can.
Still, the module also prepares you for the operational side of entrepreneurship and management.
This means that it is your responsibility to stick to the deadlines specified by us. Like in you later
professional life when missing a deadline equals failure, you may be given no points (i.e. get a 0)
for the deliverable if you do not submit your deliverable in time.