NUS Overseas College @ fudan: New Venture Creation Course
Outline – 2007 Spring Semester
Lecturers:
NUS Professor Kau Ah Keng
NUS Adjunct Lecturer Virginia Cha
Aims and Objectives
This course aims to provide a hands-on introduction to the scalable venture management for
students with a strong interest in scalable or high-growth entrepreneurship
(“Technopreneurship”).
Technopreneurship does not necessarily mean starting a high-tech
business; it means starting a business with the potential to grow to a significant size.
Prerequisites
English language written proficiency.
No pre-requisites, except a strong interest in being
involved with a start-up.
Modes
Classes will consist of both lectures and interactive workshops, both of which are compulsory.
The lectures and workshops will facilitate the construction of the business plan.
Relevant
topics will be covered as the plans are developed and workshops will be used at plan
milestones.
Both lectures and workshops will include discussions with active participation.
Experiential and creative-thought-development in-class exercises will also be included.
Class size: 28.
Approximately 1/2 are 3rd year undergraduates from National University of
Singapore on NUS Overseas College (NOC) program, and 1/2 are Fudan undergraduates
from business school with English proficiency.
Students are expected to:

Make several in-class presentations.

Participate actively in class,

Engage in problem solving and group discussions.

Read and solve problems as part of preparation for class.

Meet with their project teams outside of class

Work in a team to prepare a written business plan or

Work in the VC analyst team to debate fellow students’ business plan
Time and Venue
Regular Class Sessions: Thur/Sat/Mon 5:30-9 pm
March 1, 3, 5
March 29, 31, April 2
April 19, 21, 23
May 31, June 2, June 4
Business Plan/Venture Plan Presentations: Sat
5:30-9 pm
June 16, 23
Venue: Starr Building, Room 303
School of Management, Fudan University
Guoshun Road, Shanghai 200433,
P.R.China
Consultation Hours:
Lecturer Contact: Ms. Virginia Cha, Virginia@wove.cn
Teaching Assistant:
Ewing (忻乙予),
13816883165
0349014@fudan.edu.cn 13918507765
Course Schedule
Session
Date
Day
Topic
Course overview: Entrepreneurship and Ideas
Lecturer: Kau AK
Due: Class Registration Form (see appendix in this document)
1
Mar 1
Thur
Team Formation & Assignments: Ideas
Fund Raising and the Business Plan
Lecturer: Kau AK/Speaker from Industry
Biz Plan Team Meeting to Finalize Ideas
2
Mar 3
Sat
Team Meeting over Assigned Work
Marketing for Entrepreneurial Companies
Lecturer: Kau AK
Biz Plan Team Meeting to Finalize Ideas
3
Mar 5
Mon
Team Meeting over Assigned Work
Field Trip: Entrepreneur in China
Visit with Dr. Philip Xiao, Profex
Mar
4
29
Thur
On-site visit to selected entrepreneur’s business operations.
Competitive Strategy
Lecturer: Virginia Cha
Assignment Due: Field Trip Report;
Mar
5
31
Class Work Due:
Thur
Teams #1,#2,#3, #4 Executive Summary Presentation
Team Meeting
Power Negotiations
Lecturer: Virginia Cha
Class work: Negotiation Role Play
Class Presentation: Competitive Strategy presentation
6
April 2
Sat
Team Meeting (Very Short)
Power Selling
Lecturer: Virginia Cha
Teams #1,#2,#3, #4 Executive Summary Presentation (5 mins each)
April
7
19
Thur
Team Meeting
Team Building & Organizational Managing
Guest Lecturer: Mr. Chuck Kathrein
May
8
31
Thur
Team Meeting
Legal Issues, Intellectual Property and its Protection
Lecturer: Virginia Cha
Team #5 Assigned Work Presentation;
9
June 2
Sat
Team Meeting
Managing Growth and Going Global
Lecturer: Virginia Cha
Team #6 Assigned Work Presentation;
10
June 4
Mon
Team Meeting
Final Business Plan Presentations: Teams #1-4
11
June 16 Sat
VC Team members to commit on final analysis: pro/con
VC Analysis Presentations:
12
June 23 Sat
Pro/Con of Biz Plans #1-4
Synopsis
The course provides an overview of the major elements of startup/entrepreneurial activity,
including evaluation and planning of a new business, financing, team building, typical
marketing and operational management issues, alternative models for revenue and growth,
and exit strategies
The course is fast-paced and covers a wide span of business subjects, with a strong focus on
the key challenges in starting a venture and their practical solutions. Students with no business
training are expected to read up on their own additional background materials, or consult and
learn from their classmates, where necessary.
The course utilizes lectures, field trips, class discussions of weekly assignments and guest
speakers.
Every student will be assigned to either a Self-Initiated Idea Business Plan team,
a Class Idea Business Plan team or a Venture Capitalist Analysts team with the following
arrangement:

4 Business Plan teams of 4 students each.
o
Teams: Team #1 Biz; Team #2 Biz; Team#3 Biz, Team#4 Biz.
o
Expected deliverable: Completed business plan; Presentation of Business
Plan
o
Interim draft business plan must include: Industry Analysis, Business Model,
and Competition
o
Final Presentation of all 4 teams. 20 minutes presentation each.
o
Presentations can be English, Chinese, or Bi-lingual.
Business Plans must
be in English.

Venture Capital Analyst team of 12 members assigned to teams #5, #6, #7, #8.

Team #5 is assigned to analyze the business plan from team #1, team #6 to #2, team
#7 to #3, and team #8 to #4.

The VC teams must commit, prior to the final report submission, on whether to support
or not support the funding requests of the assigned business case.
The report must
detail on the SWOT of the business model, and point out the risks and opportunities
from the business plan.
o
In addition to the VC analysis work on the business plan, students on the
analyst teams also have to do assigned work and presentation on assigned
topic.
o
o
Assigned Classwork:

Team #5: Legal Topic Assignment

Team #6: Going Global Topic Assignment

Team #7: Marketing in China Assignment

Team #8: Promotions in China Assignment
Business Plan Analysis Report must be in English.
Class sessions are supplemented by after-class discussions during scheduled consultation
hours. An electronic discussion forum will also be established in the course website for
discussion among class participants (see below).
The course will seek to bring in regular guest speakers from the Asia Pacific Region as well as
from the PRC who are prominent actors in high tech start-ups, including successful high tech
founders, VCs, lawyers, etc. Planned guest speakers will vary from year to year, but will
typically include founders of high tech firms, senior partners of VC firms and experienced
business angel investors, and other experienced venture support professionals like law firms
specializing in working with start-ups.
A teaching assistant (to be announced) will also be
appointed to assist in administrative matters
Assessment
The course will have no final written exam and will be 100% based on the following continuing
assessment components:
Attendance (20%) & Participation (20%) & On-site Quizzes (20%)
Students will be scored 20% based on attendance (physical presence).
Late arrivals (> 10
minutes) or early departures (> 15 minutes) will count as full class absence.
Students’ interaction in class will be scored 20% based on interaction.
Either English or
Mandarin interaction are acceptable.
Quizzes & classwork (including field trip report) will be handed out at select classes.
will be scored accordingly and weigh 20%.
Business Plan
& Presentation
Answers
*Absolutely no makeup work allowed.*
(30% & 10% for business plan teams)
Assigned Work & Presentation and Business Plan Analysis & Presentation (10% x 4 for
analysts teams)
For Teams presenting Business Plans: Plans will be evaluated on the quality of the idea, and
the thoroughness and professionalism of the plan. A successful plan will be one that could be
submitted to a VC and would be seriously considered for funding.
For Teams presenting Analysis: Analysis reports will be evaluated on knowledge of industry,
competitive know-how, critical thinking, financial analysis, and persuasion strength.
A
successful report will be one that convinces the Venture Capitalists on viability/non-viability of
the funding.
Also, teams will be scored on thoroughness and originality of assigned work and
effective presentation.
Teams are required to submit 2 drafts before the final business plan. The drafts will not be
graded but any late submission will count towards penalty points in the final business plan.
Presentations will be evaluated on their persuasiveness and professionalism. A successful
presentation will be one that resulted in the examiners wanting to schedule a follow up meeting
to discuss the plan.
60% of marks (Attendance/Participation/Quizzes/Field Trip Report) will be by individual. 40%
of marks (Presentation and Business Plan/Analysis/Class Report) will be by group (all
members of team receive the same team score).
Students are required to be prepared to be called on randomly in class to respond to
questions, to make presentations, etc.
There will be no makeup for missed classwork/quizzes.
Texts and Readings
Textbook, Cases and Other Reading Materials
The textbooks for the course are Scott Shane’s Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying
Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures (2005) and Kuratko and Hodgetts’
Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, Practice (6th Ed). In addition to that, various articles and
cases will be assigned for additional reading and class discussion; these will either be handed
out in class, or where they are available via the internet, students will be provided with the
relevant URL link via the IVLE course website.
Intellectual Property and Doing Business in China, by Deli Yang, published by Elsevier