最新糖心Vlog

Becky Reuber
Email: reuber@rotman.utoronto.ca .
Course Website:

Becky Reuber is Professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management, 最新糖心Vlog of Toronto (see ). She is the author of dozens of scholarly papers and the book Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective. Her research has won awards from the Academy of Management, the International Council for Small Business, the Canadian Council of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. She sits on the editorial board of several entrepreneurship journals, and is Associate Editor of Family Business Review. Four recent reports are Success in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players, Building International Sales in a Digitized Economy and Survival of the Fittest: Which SMEs Internationalize Most Extensively and Effectively? published in 2013, 2011 and 2008, respectively, by the Conference Board of Canada, and The State of Entrepreneurship in Canada, published in 2010 by Industry Canada.

After obtaining a Masters degree in Computing Science, Becky worked in the IT industry before completing a PhD in Management. She has held visiting academic positions at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, the 最新糖心Vlog of Victoria, the 最新糖心Vlogn National 最新糖心Vlog, and the 最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide. At the Rotman School, she teaches MBA and executive courses. She is passionate about developing entrepreneurial skills and her MBA students have won business plan prizes in Canada, the U.S., and Europe.

Her research is focused on young and small firms, in the following ways:

(1) Reputation in young firms. Some firms enjoy a good reputation at startup due to their founders’ track record or their affiliations with high status early trading partners; however, many do not. Even with these advantages, there are likely to be negative signals about new firms during their early years, when a lack of market and technological experience often results in tactical and strategic errors. The objective of this line of research is to understand how young firms can signal their reputation effectively.

(2) International new ventures. Traditional international business theory assumes that firms begin to enter foreign markets as they become more established and larger. However, doing business in foreign markets early is essential for many Canadian and 最新糖心Vlogn firms: because of the small domestic size in many sectors, firms require double or triple the export intensity of their U.S.-based counterparts in order to survive. The objective of this line of research is to understand the factors that enable early-stage firms to overcome the limitations of their resources and capabilities, and to internationalize successfully.

(3) Social media use by entrepreneurs. Social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are increasingly being used by entrepreneurs and the objective of this line of research is to understand the implications of this adoption.

Becky is an active supporter of entrepreneurial firms in Canada. She consults to public- and private-sector organizations, and has helped pick entrepreneurial award winners for a variety of organizations including Cisco Systems, the Canadian Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Organization of Women in International Trade. She was a member of the Toronto Board of Trade’s Access to Capital Task Force, and is a past Vice-President (Programs) of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. She is a frequent commentator in the media and recently spent two years on the Business Advisory Panel of the Globe and Mail’s ReportOnBusiness.com website for entrepreneurial firms.

Session	Date	Topic	Graded Assignment Due
Week 1 - Opportunity Recognition and Refinement
1	Tues Jan 7 a.m.	What is entrepreneurship?
2	Tues Jan 7 p.m.	Recognizing opportunities
3	Wed Jan 8 a.m.	Developing opportunities
4	Wed Jan 8 p.m.	The business plan
5	Fri Jan 10 a.m.	Discovering the market
6	Fri Jan 10 p.m.	Pitching the opportunity
Week 2 - Aquisition of Stakeholders
7	Mon Jan 13 a.m.	Attracting others	Pitch; Concept Analysis
8	Mon Jan 13 p.m.	Developing reputation
9	Wed Jan 15 a.m.	Internationalization + Partnerships
10	Wed Jan 15 p.m.	Financing
11	Fri Jan 17 a.m.	Growth + Exit	Anatomy of a Startup
12	Fri Jan 17 p.m.	Business plan assessment	Business Plan Assessment

This course is designed to sharpen your ability to:

     2.1.1    Determine if you could (or should) become involved in a business startup;
     2.1.2    Recognize and analyse new venture opportunities from multiple viewpoints;
     2.1.3    Anticipate startup challenges so they can be planned for and managed;
     2.1.4    Understand different sources of new venture funding;
     2.1.5    Pitch a new idea.

A highly recommended book for this course is The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries (Crown Business, 2011, ISBN 978-0-307-88789-4). It is available online through Dymocks, booktopia and fishpond. It’s a pretty quick read and it makes sense to read it before the course starts.

There are required readings and cases which are listed on the course schedule. These are available through the course folder.

Questions marked with * are to be answered through a Survey Monkey questionnaire by 6 pm the night before class. I will send you the Survey Monkey link for each day. You’re allowed to post only one response from a computer, so it’s best to type your answer separately and then paste it into the Survey Monkey response box when you’re happy with it, because you can’t go back and change or redo it.

Class	Topic	Readings and Case Preparation Questions
Week 1 - Opportunity Recognition and Refinement
1 7 Jan am	What is entrepreneurship?	Mullins, J. & Komisar, R. A Business Plan or a Journey to Plan B? MIT Sloan Management Review, March 2010. Rich, N. Pitch. Eat. Sleep. New York Times Magazine, May 5, 2013. The Startup Economy, PwC-Google 最新糖心Vlog, 2013
2 7 Jan pm	Recognizing opportunities Guest speaker: Marina Pullin, Radford Institute	Buchanan, L. How Great Entrepreneurs Think, Inc. February 1, 2011 Galt,V. A Case Study on Luring Investment Angels. Globe & Mail Sept. 2010. Case: Evan Williams: Blogger to Odeo (A) Case prep: (1) Compare Evans’ motivations in starting Blogger and Odeo. (2) What are the key differences between the founding of these two companies (list up to 3)? * (3) What should Evan do now?
3 8 Jan am	Developing opportunities	Chapters 1-5 of The Lean Startup Sull, D.N. Disciplined Entrepreneurship. MIT SMR, Fall 2004. Hedlund, M. Why Wesabe lost to Mint, October 2010 Reuber, B. You believe you have a winning idea, 2013. Case: Green Moving Solutions Case prep: What are key hypotheses (up to 3) to be tested in launching Green Moving Solutions and how would you test them? *
4 8 Jan pm	The business plan Guest speaker: Brooke Davey, Operations Manager, Innovyz	10 Business Plan Do’s and Don’t’s. Ronick. Inc. website, April 2011. Anderson, C. How to give a killer presentation, HBR 2013. (click on the link under the article summary to get the pdf)
5 10 Jan am	Discovering the market	Macht, J. The New Market Research. Inc., July 1998 Note on Market Research (HBP E-165) Chapters 6-8 of The Lean Startup Reuber, B. Wattpad hatches solution to its chicken-and-egg problem, 2013. Constable, 12 Tips for Early Customer Development Interviews, June 2010. Case: Cork’d: Building a Social network for Wine Lovers Case prep: What are the two most important things Lindsay needed to do when she arrived at Cork'd and why?*
6 10 Jan pm	Developing reputation Guest speaker: Mal Chia, NoQ Apps	No reading.
WEEK 2 – ACQUISITION OF STAKEHOLDERS
7 13 Jan am	Pitching the opportunity	No reading – venture concept pitch
8 13 Jan pm	Attracting others	Case: EverTrue: Mobile Technology Development (A)               Case Prep: (1) Assess the technology development options available for EverTrue. (2) What criteria should Brent use to assess them? (3) Which option do you prefer and why? *
9 15 Jan am	Partnerships and Internationalization	Alvarez & Barney. How Entrepreneurial Firms Benefit From Alliances with Large Partners, Academy of Management Executive, February 2001. Case: Icebreaker: The U.S. Entry Decision Case prep: (1) What are the essential ingredients in Icebreaker’s success-to-date? (2) What is Moon’s model of adoption for his American customers? (3) What are Moon’s options for channels for a US entry? (4) Which channel should he focus on, and why? *
10 15 Jan pm	Financing Guest speaker: Shane Cheek, Acumen Ventures	De Clerq et al., An Entrepreneur's Guide to the Venture Capital Galaxy. Academy of Management Perspectives, Aug 2006 Reuber, B. Startup raises more than it hoped for through crowdfunding, 2012. Convertible notes in angel financing (HBS note) Case: PunchTab Case prep: (1) Is PunchTab an attractive investment opportunity? (2) Does it make sense to do a seed round of financing? (3) What should Kumaran do, and why? *
11 17 Jan am	Growth & exit	Stumblers and stars in the management of rapid growth. Hambrick & Crozier. Journal of Business Venturing, Winter 1985. Chapters 9-12 of The Lean Startup
12 17 Jan pm	Business plan assessment	No reading – In-class business plan assessment

Students may wish to read more widely in specific subject areas, something that the UABS wholeheartedly endorses. Journals that have interesting and relevant articles on entrepreneurship include the following:

• Journal of Business Venturing;
• Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice;
• Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal;
• Small Business Economics;
• Harvard Business Review;
• California Management Review;
• MIT Sloan Management Review.

Books that you may find interesting include the following. Most are available online at Angus & Robertson or Dymocks (and all of these authors have a website):

• The Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki, Baker & Taylor, 2005.
• The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries, Crown Business, 2011.
• The Four Steps to the Epiphany, by Stephen Gary Blank, Cafepress, 2010.
• The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber, HarperCollins, 1995. (older, but still a classic)
• Getting to Plan B, by John Mullins & Randy Komisar, Harvard Business Press, 2009.
• Founders At Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days, by Jessica Livingston, Apress, 2008. 

Important messages, copies of slides and other course material will be posted on MyUni throughout the course. MyUni can be found at .

The course uses a mixture of readings, experiential exercises, cases and guest speakers.

The course is delivered over 6 full-day (9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.) sessions. You can expect to spend 5 hours preparing for each class, and additional time working on assignments. As a rough indication, you could expect to spend in the order of 120 hours of study time to complete the course, including time spent in class.

Details can be found on MyUni.

Assessment Item	Weight	Team or Individual	Due Date	Relevant learning objective(s)
Venture Concept Pitch	10%	Individual	13 Jan – a.m. class	2.1.1, 2.1.5
Venture Concept Analysis	10%	Individual	13 Jan – a.m. class	2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.5
Anatomy of a Startup	30%	Team	17 Jan – a.m. class	2.1.2, 2.1.3
Business Plan Assessment	30%	Individual	17 Jan – p.m. class	2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4
Class Prep Submissions	10%	Individual	Ongoing	2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4
Class Contribution	10%	Individual	Ongoing	2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.5

Venture Concept Pitch (10%, individual)
Early in the course we’ll work on generating and screening venture concepts. Good venture opportunities don’t just happen, they emerge from an iterative process of recognition, research, reflection and refinement. So that you get to understand this process better, each of you should start a venture concept diary, keeping track of your ideas for new ventures. It will probably contain a mix of ideas that you’ve rejected, ideas that you’ve explored a little and are ambiguous about, and ideas that you think might be viable. In recording and evaluating your ideas, the screening criteria that you’re implicitly using will emerge. It is useful to write these down. You are likely to reject many of your ideas very quickly, and so the description of these ideas will be brief. You should spend more time exploring the ideas that pass your (perhaps unconscious) screening criteria. At the end of the first week, each student will pitch their best idea to the class.

Due date: 13 January (a.m. class)
Length of pitch: 2 minutes maximum, followed by 5-10 minutes of Q&A

Venture Concept Analysis (10%, individual)
All new ventures are characterized by uncertainty and successful entrepreneurs are able to identify and manage the uncertainties of particular venture concepts. So that you come to understand this process better, each of you will provide a written analysis of the promising venture concept that you pitch. I recognize that your ideas will be very early-stage and tentative at this point, which is characteristic of this stage of the entrepreneurial process. Nevertheless, expressing them in as concrete a manner as possible will enable you to test them more thoroughly. Your analysis should draw on material discussed in the first two days of the course and should be structured into two parts.

    1.  A description of the opportunity
Provide a description of the opportunity, in terms of the product or service offered, the target market and your value proposition. Summarize what you know now about its technical, market and financial feasibility. Identify any analogs or antilogs you are drawing on, and leaps of faith you are making.

    2.  An analysis of the uncertainties associated with the opportunity.
Identify the two hypotheses about your venture concept that are most critical to test. For each, explain why it is important and describe how you could “test early, test cheaply.”

Due date: 13 January. I will give you an hour after the pitches to revise the analysis if you choose to do so.
Word limit: 1500 words. Exceeding a word limit will attract a mark penalty.

Anatomy of a Startup (30%, team)
The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to conduct an in-depth study of how a business that interests you met the opportunities and challenges in its early years. There are several guidelines to keep in mind when selecting a business venture to study:
    ·  The venture was founded in 2008 or later and is still operating.
    ·  A founder is not a relative, employer or co-worker (past or present).
    ·  You can obtain relevant information about the early years of the venture from multiple sources (e.g. books, articles, the company’s website and/or interviews).

If you`re having trouble finding an interesting 最新糖心Vlog startup, check out the following: The 10 Hottest Startups in 最新糖心Vlog and Is 最新糖心Vlog the next upcoming startup hotspot?

Your report should describe and assess:
    ·  The early opportunities recognized by the venture’s founding team;
    ·  How the team exploited the opportunities in terms of the value proposition, execution and economics;
    ·  The past challenges faced by the venture and how they were overcome;
    ·  The venture’s opportunities and challenges in the next 1-2 years and how they might be met;
    ·  What you learned from studying this venture.

Your grade will be determined on the basis of the richness of your analysis and insights about the venture. My assessment of this will be partially influenced by the clarity of the report itself (i.e. how well it is organized and written) and on the quality of the reference material you draw upon.

Due date: 17 January (a.m. class)
Word limit: 2500 words. Exceeding a word limit will attract a mark penalty.

Business Plan Assessment (30%, individual)
One of the hallmarks of a successful entrepreneur is the ability to analyze the potential of new ventures. The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to demonstrate your skills in this area. On the last afternoon of the course, we will watch a video recording of an entrepreneurial team presenting their business plan to a group of investors. After watching the recording, you will provide a written assessment of the business and the business plan. Specific questions will be provided and all work on this assignment will be done during class time. More information about this assignment will be provided in class.

Due date: 17 January (p.m. class)
Length of writing time: 2 hours

Class Prep Submissions (10%, individual)
Class prep questions have been listed for 6 classes, and one question for each of these classes is designated with an asterisk (*), indicating that a written answer should be submitted through a Survey Monkey link (which I will give to you) by 6pm the night before class. Please note that I will download the responses at this due time, and so will not see any late responses. Your answer should be short (250 words or less) and to-the-point. Preparing these answers will help you to contribute your own analysis, conclusions and recommendations during in-class discussion.

Class Contribution (10%, individual)
Your class contribution grade for this course will be based on your contribution to a positive learning environment. If you’re not here, you can’t contribute, and so regular attendance is a component of this. Please let me know beforehand if you need to miss a class or if you are coming to class unprepared to contribute to the discussion.

Your class contribution grade includes participation in class discussions and activities, insights shared about the readings and cases, your engagement with speakers, and any assigned work that doesn’t have a specific grade attached to it. Articles and cases listed on the course schedule should be read before class. Class contribution each day is assessed on the basis of the extent to which your contribution is relevant, insightful, informative and informed. Merely repeating facts or stating the obvious will not contribute to your class contribution grade. Quality is more important than quantity, but quality can only be judged if there is some quantity. It is possible to get a negative contribution grade for a class if your behaviour is distracting to other people.

The guest speakers are all extremely approachable and interested in talking with you. Please make the most of these sessions. If you spend some time before class finding out about the speakers and their firms, you’ll be able to participate more meaningfully in the discussion.

The Venture Concept Pitch is an oral presentation during class time. The Venture Concept Analysis should be submitted on paper up to an hour after the last pitch ends. The Anatomy of a Startup assignment should be submitted on paper to the instructor at the beginning of the morning class on January 17. The Business Plan Assessment can be (a) written on paper and submitted during class time; or (b) written on a laptop and then emailed to the professor. If a laptop is used, students are not permitted to access the internet. Each Class Prep Submission is submitted via a unique Survey Monkey link by 6pm the evening before the class in which it is due.

Make sure you include your name(s) in a footer on each page of your paper assignments.

Presentation of Assignments
    ·  Please must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.
    ·  Please attach an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet’, which is signed and dated by you before submission (except for the Survey Monkey submissions).
    ·  All group assignments must be attached to a ‘Group Assignment Cover Sheet’, which must be signed and dated by all group members before submission. All team members are expected to contribute approximately equally to a group assignment.

Lecturers can refuse to accept assignments, which do not have a signed acknowledgement of the 最新糖心Vlog’s policy on plagiarism.

Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details
A copy of the Postgraduate Programs: Communication Skills Guide will have been given to you at the beginning of your program. This guide will assist you structure your assignments. A copy of the guide can also be downloaded from
 

This publication also provides guidelines on a range of other important communication skills including writing essays and management reports, making oral presentations etc.
In preparing any written piece of assessment for your postgraduate studies it is important to draw on the relevant ‘literature’ to support critical analysis. Also essential is to reference the literature used. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas and arguments that you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, and helps to avoid the problem of plagiarism. (Further information on plagiarism is provided later in this course outline.)
The Harvard system is widely used in the Business School. Guidelines for the use of this style of referencing can be found in the Communication Skills Guide.

Further assistance with referencing is available from the Faculty’s Learning Support Advisors. The contact details are provided on page 6 of the Communication Skills Guide.

Late Assignment Submission
Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late. No late Survey Monkey responses will be accepted.