Managing Start up and Growth
Most new ventures face near fatal situations during the initial few years, threatening their
very existence. Many of these are for want of an understanding of the management
challenges of a new venture, and thus avoidable. These challenges are not the same as
those of a well-established firm. Managers and entrepreneurs hence need additional set
of attitudes, skills and knowledge to overcome these issues. Traditional MBA courses
start with the assumption of an existing business and its management where systems,
processes and relationships are already in place. Managing a start up venture is
altogether a new experience of simultaneously working on several fronts often with
limited resources in hand. Entrepreneurs should try to compress the new venture phase
and move to the growth phase like a meteor. This course will provide some insight into
the challenges of successfully managing this phase of a venture and manage the growth
phase.
Objectives:
1. Understand the challenges involved in the management of a firm at the start up
stage, soon after implementation.
2. Develop insight into the strategies that can enable firms to compress the start up
stage.
3. Identify the building blocks that enable firms to break into their growth phase and
manage it.
Tentative Outline
Date
Session
Session Details
Module: The Essence of New Venture Management
1
Taking Stock:
• Course introduction
• New venture management: significance, challenges and
options
• Validating assumptions after project implementation
• Caselets on positive and negative changes, controllable
and uncontrollable changes and decision options
Read:
1. How Entrepreneurs Craft Strategies That Work, Amar Bhide,
HBR, March- April 1994
2. Are You Sure You Have a Strategy, Hambrick and
Fredrickson, Academy of Management Executive, November
2001
2
Entrepreneur Experience sharing: Dr Vasireddi, MD,
Vimta Labs
Read: Case on Vimta Labs
Module: Stabilizing Operations: all-round challenges
3
Start up Marketing
Case: 1. Zip Car
2. Elite Bread
4
Read:
1. Spend a Day in the Life of Your Customers, Gouillart and
Sturdivant, HBR Jan-Feb., 1994
2. The Growth Crisis – and How to escape it, Slywotzky and
Wise, HBR July 2002
Managing Your Working Capital
Case: 1. Dell’s Working Capital
2. Tristar
Read:
1. Cash Management Practices in Small Companies, HBS
9-699-047, Dec. 1998
2. How Fast Can Your Company Afford to Grow, HBR, May
2001
5
6
7
Managing Your Working Capital contd..
Presentation on “How Banks Finance Working Capital in India
and Implications for Firms”
Managing Regulatory Environment
Presentation by an Entrepreneur
Mid Course Test
Module: From Start Up to Growth
Compressing the New Venture Stage: muddle through Vs
focused
Case: Staples (A)
Read: Discovery Driven Planning, McMillan and McGrath
8
Compressing the New Venture Stage: customer pull Vs push
Case: 1. Goodknight
2. Caselets on Indian Companies
Read: 1. Customer Driven Approach
2. Managing Rapid Growth, HBS, 9-387-054
9
Building Resources for Growth:
Case: Infotech, Presentation by Mohan Reddy, MD
Read: New Venture Resources, KR and SR
10
Differentiate to Grow:
Case: Weavers Studio, Kolkata
Read:
1. Profit from the Core, Executive Book Summaries
2. Fast, Global and Entrepreneurial: Supply Chain Management,
Hong Kong Style, Joan Magretta, HBR, Sept-Oct, 1998
Evaluation
Weightage :
Diary
Class Participation
Mid course Test
Final Examination
25%
20%
15%
40%
Diary: Students will write about 250-300 words of diary on every day of the class
summarizing their opinions and interpretations of central ideas discussed in the
class. The papers provide students the chance to reflect on personal experiences
that give depth and individual connection to topics in day-to-day class. Students
who miss any class have to submit a note covering the main themes and the points
that they wanted to raise in the class. This should be submitted ahead of the class.
Class Participation: The quality of learning depends a lot on the quality of class
participation. Hence:
•
•
•
Reading and analyzing all materials (e.g. Cases and articles) provided is
compulsory.
Most days, half of the class time will be devoted to case discussion and the other
half for students’ presentations, conceptual discussion and experience sharing by
students.
I will cold call
Class Size: Limited to a maximum of 40.