MBA695 Applied Entrepreneurship - Spring 2014
Wednesday, 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. – Harris School of Business & Economics Building
– Room 113 and SJAB
Instructor:
David Pistrui, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
Director, Center for Entrepreneurship
School of Business & Economics
Office Hours:
Tu.-Th. – 9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. and
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Wed. – 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
By appointment
Contact:
Office: Harris School of Business & Economics Building - 237
Phone: 910-672-2474
Mobile: 312-371-8190
Email: dpistrui@uncfsu.edu
Required Texts:
Kawasaki, Guy. The Art of the Start: The TimeTested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting
Anything. New York, NY: Portfolio, 2004.
ISBN 1-59184-056-5
Gerber, Michael E. The E Myth Revisited; Why Most
Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do
About It. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001.
ISBM 0-88730-728-0
Recommended Text:
Osterwalder, Alexander and Pigneur, Yeves. Business Model Generation. Hoboken,
NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. ISBN 978-0-470-87641-1
Course Description
The goal of this eight-week course is to give students direct hands-on experience
working with a small business or startup. Students will work on their own startup, serve
as a paid or unpaid intern in a company, or consult with a small business under faculty
supervision. Students will be expected to add value to their client organization and
actively reflect on their experiences. The course begins with instruction on the tools
needed for a successful engagement, and ends with a presentation of results and
lessons learned.
Course Goals and Primary Learning Outcomes
Primary Goals include providing students with real world experience and insights related
to starting and growing an entrepreneurial venture. This may include working on your
own start up idea, working with an established enterprise, or serving an internship. The
course strives to connect students, entrepreneurs, the Fayetteville Regional Chamber
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and other community partners together in support of entrepreneurship education. The
course is fast paced, and requires engaging the marketplace, managing a relationship
with an entrepreneur, and developing and delivering materials that can be used by the
entrepreneur to further develop and grow their enterprise.
Specific Outcomes

Provide students firsthand, practical insights and experiences into
entrepreneurship and enterprise development in the marketplace

Strengthen interpersonal skills related to listening, writing, presenting,
empathizing, and persevering through uncertainty

Provide local entrepreneurs and business leaders with additional resources and
capabilities, to help them grow their businesses and develop their enterprises

Produce a series of applied tools, techniques and frameworks that provide
students with active learning experiences, while assisting the entrepreneur with
enterprise growth and business development

Demonstrate community leadership by bringing together FSU, the Fayetteville
Regional Chamber, local business leaders, and other organizations to foster
entrepreneurship and economic growth
Skills Development
Five skillsets are emphasized throughout the course. These five skills are continually
built throughout all entrepreneurship courses.
They include:





Leading a successful project
Working with entrepreneurs
Identifying opportunities in the marketplace
Gathering, analyzing and hypothesizing
Listening, communicating and advocating
Assignments and Pace
A combination of in class and field assignments is included in the course. It is expected
that you will work together with an entrepreneur (in the field). Along the way you will be
asked to submit updates and examples of your work for review, critique and discussion
during class. You will need to be able to react on short notice as our pace may change
and vary. This is a natural component of entrepreneurship. The key is get organized,
dig in and get prepared. This will be intense.
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Project Portfolio (25 points)
You will develop and submit, for evaluation and feedback a Project Portfolio. This will
be a living document that contains important information that articulates your objectives,
identifies key milestones, defines outcomes and clarifies outputs. You must bring it to
class and be prepared to present updates in class, and during meeting with your partner
entrepreneur and faculty. Each Project Portfolio will include the following components:
1. Project Scope, Objectives and Outcomes
2. Weekly Activity Reports and Communication Log
3. Opportunity Identification and Engagement Plan
4. Market Engagement, Research and Analysis
5. Business Model Canvas and Action Plan
Each Project Portfolio will also reflect the uniqueness of individual projects, but must
contain each of these sections. This is a key part of the course and 25 points towards
your grade.
Business Development Assessment Report (35 points)
You will work closely with your partner entrepreneur/enterprise to develop and present a
comprehensive report that address the business opportunity identified. The Business
Development Assessment Report (BDAR) documents research activities, lays out an indepth analysis, accesses the risks and rewards, and provides a series of scenarios that
may by pursued by the entrepreneur/enterprise. The BDAR is a living document
designed for application and evaluation of business development opportunities.
The BDAR must include the following:
1 - Introduction and Overview
 Objectives
 Outcomes
 Opportunity
2 - Strategy and Tactics
 Project management
 Key milestones
 Measures and metrics
3 - Market Engagement
 Research
 Analysis
 Assumptions
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4 - Business Model
 Risks and rewards
 Revenue and cost structure
 Financial scenarios
5 - Call to Action
 Recommendations
 Business Model Canvas
 Next steps
Final Project Presentation (25 points)
You will make a final presentation during the last class meeting. This presentation will
draw from the BDAR and provide a high level overview. Facts, figures, numbers,
examples and a Business Model Canvas should be included. This needs to be more
than just another PowerPoint presentation. Each presentation should be 20 minutes,
with 10 minutes of discussion. You are allowed 10 slides of content, a cover slide and a
Call to Action/Next Steps slide for a grand total of 12 slides. Presentations will be timed
and professional attire required.
Class Participation (15 points)
This class combines online learners and students who attend class. You are
encouraged to prepare and submit questions prior to and immediately after class and to
take an active learning approach. For those attending on the FSU campus, we ask that
you attend every class, and to be prompt and on time. We will be recording classes and
incorporating a variety of learning platforms. Let’s be entrepreneurial and expect some
technical glitches along the way.
Grading
Project Portfolio
Business Development Assessment Report
Final Project Presentation
Class Participation
Total
25 points
35 points
25 points
15 points
100 points
Course Policies
Students in this course are expected to conform to all university policies. In particular,
students should familiarize themselves with the specific policies and related materials
that can be found at:
http://www.uncfsu.edu/policy/policies-listed-by-subject#Students
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Faculty Profile
David Pistrui, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and, Director of the
Center for Entrepreneurship, at Fayetteville State University. Dr. Pistrui also serves as
the Managing Director of Acumen Dynamics, LLC. Dr. Pistrui’s activities include
strategy development, business succession, assessment modeling, technology transfer,
executive education and social science research. This includes programs and activities
in the North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Dr. Pistrui has held scholarly appointments in the US and Europe, including the
Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
He served as the founding Managing Director of the Wharton Enterprising Families
Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Dr. Pistrui has thirty years of
industry experience, having been involved in a series of new ventures that led to public
offerings on NASDAQ, Dubai Financial Market and Bahrain Stock Exchange in the
technology and construction sectors.
Dr. Pistrui is an active researcher focusing on the growth and societal impact of
entrepreneurship, family business, and enterprise development. He is the co-author of
groundbreaking work including New Venture Financing: An Empirical Investigation of
Chinese Entrepreneurs, (Cambridge, 2009), Family and Cultural Factors Impacting
Entrepreneurship in War Time Lebanon, (Interscience, 2010), Mapping the Behaviors,
Motives and Professional Competencies of Entrepreneurially Minded Engineers in
Theory and Practice: An Empirical Investigation, (Journal of Engineering
Entrepreneurship, 2013).
In 2009 Dr. Pistrui was appointed as a Senior Fellow at the Austrian Economics Center
in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Pistrui provides commentary to TV, radio, and business
publications. He has appeared in Crains’ Chicago Business, Family Business, MEED,
CNN, CNBC, INC. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Los Angeles Business Journal, Chicago
Tribune, Bahrain Tribune, Alwasat, Gulf Business, Gulf News, Khaleej Times, Profil,
Format, Der Standard, Die Presse, Wirtschaft Blatt, Ekonmist and many other news and
media outlets.
Dr. Pistrui holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration (Cum Laude) in Entrepreneurship,
Strategy, and Management from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, and a
Ph.D., in Sociology from the University of Bucharest, Romania. He earned a Master of
Arts in Liberal Studies degree from DePaul University (Chicago) and a Bachelor of
Business Administration, in Marketing and Economics from Western Michigan
University.
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Tentative Course Schedule (Dates and assignments are subject to change)
1/15 - Introduction and Overview
 Objectives
 Outcomes
 Opportunity
Kawasaki, chapter 1
Gerber, pp. 1 - 33
Project Kickoff
1/22 - Strategy and Tactics
 Project management
 Key milestones
 Measures and metrics
Kawasaki, chapters 2 & 3
Gerber, chapter 5
Project Updates
1/29 - Market Engagement
 Research
 Analysis
 Assumptions
Kawasaki, chapter 4
Gerber, chapter 6
Project Portfolio Presentations
2/5 - Business Models
 Risks and rewards
 Revenue and cost structure
 Financial scenarios
Kawasaki, chapter 5
Gerber, chapters 10 & 11
Draft BDAR Due - Project update Presentations
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2/12 - Call to Action
 Recommendations
 Business Model Canvas
 Next steps
Kawasaki, chapters 6 & 7
Gerber, chapters 12 & 13
Project Feedback Session
2/19 - Packaging and Presenting
 Report formatting
 Effective presentations
 Application and implementation
Kawasaki, chapters 8 & 9
Gerber, chapters 14 & 15
Project Updates
Portfolio Updates
2/26 - Reflections and Feedback
 Personal assessment
 Employing all senses
 Entrepreneurial insights
Kawasaki, chapters 10 & 11
Gerber, chapters 16 & 17
Hand in Project Portfolio
3/4 - Final Presentations
In Class Presentations
Hand in Final BDAR
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