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6.2 Description of courses
Minor in Entrepreneurship programme
The Minor constitutes a total of 16 academic units (AUs). It presently covers five modules which are to be taken in a sequential order. To obtain the Minor in Entrepreneurship, students must pass all modules. There are no electives.
EN101 Entrepreneurship and Accounting for New Ventures
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester 1 and Special Semester
This course introduces the concepts of entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and wealth creation, and explains these in the context of the venture creation process. Students will learn to appreciate accounting as a source of essential financial information from both managerial and prospective investor perspectives; and, how successful entrepreneurs craft operating and financial management strategies. The main project requires students to conduct a feasibility analysis of a business opportunity.
EN102 Marketing and Finance for New Ventures
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: EN101, Semester 1 and Special Semester
This course looks at entrepreneurial marketing concepts and methods and explores high-risk finance (from both entrepreneurial and venture capitalist perspectives, and from stages and sources of financing to cash flow management and management of financial performance). During the course we will evaluate various marketing approaches and offer practical guidance on how to apply these in entrepreneurial settings. Students will gain an understanding of the role of marketing in the wider context of strategic planning & management. In addition, students will learn to answer the crucial ‘What am I selling to whom?’ question through product positioning and segmentation. Student will also learn to select, develop, and evaluate new products and services, set prices to maximize profitability, and make the most efficient use of public relations and publicity during product launches and initial rollouts.
At the end of this module, the students are required to come up with a business plan and do an elevator pitch.
EN103 Managing New and On-going Ventures
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: EN102, Semester 1 and Special Semester
The third module in the Minor focuses on the various challenges that new ventures face. The course deepens participants’ insights about the strategic and financial management process by adding additional factors into the new venture creation process, namely employees. Typical management techniques and growth strategies are introduced and discussed. These include: how to motivate various stakeholders to work together more effectively and efficiently; how to unleash the potential of people in one's organization; how ventures can grow and surive in the business environment.
EN104 New Venture Creation and the Business Plan
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: EN103, Semester 2 and Special Semester
The aim in this module is to expose students to some of the major business decisions that entrepreneurs face when growing their ventures. Utilizing a state-of-the-art business simulator as a platform, students will set up a business, develop and implement business strategy and plans, secure investments, gradually build the business, execute typical decisions that new ventures face, manage team members, and compete with other student-run companies in a virtual business world.
As students work through the organization's life cycle, external forces and managerial dilemmas are added to the simulation. Students will gain an appreciation of the usefulness of the various tools, case studies and theories from previous courses as the new venture expands its operations and subsequently must tackle new tasks, take on additional responsibilities and make difficult decisions.
In short, EN 104 encapsulates all key aspects of prior Minor courses into a practice-oriented learning experience in which teams work independently to identify new business opportunities and develop their virtual organizations.
EN105 Entrepreneurship Seminars, Workshops and Projects
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: EN104, Semester 1, Semester 2 and Special Semester
The final module in the Minor is divided into two parts. The focus in the first part of this course is on launching a student-based small business project. The course helps students understand the critical role of opportunity creation and recognition, and practice the method of evaluating new venture concepts. Essentially this course offers a framework that integrates what students have learned in earlier parts of the Entrepreneurship Minor. Throughout this module, students will be exposed to the many 'ups and downs' that starting and operating a new business venture and/or an under-performing or turn-around company entails.
The second part of this course taps into the entrepreneurship ecosystem developed and managed by the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center. Students will learn essential networking skills by attending networking sessions in NTU and beyond. During these sessions, students will have the opportunity to meet and mingle with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, technopreneurs, business angels, government officers, intellectual property lawyers and the like.
Entrepreneurship module for School of Biological Sciences
BS402 Bioentrepreneurship
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester 1, Semester 2 and Special Semester
This specially-tailored programme will provide the fundamental concepts of entrepreneurship and deals with the entrepreneurial perspective through class discussions, case analysis and out-of-class reading. Feasibility analysis is essential to any entrepreneurial venture, whether it is to start a new business or expand an existing one. This, therefore, forms the main project for the course. However, the focus is not on the feasibility plan itself but on the processes and tools leading to the development of the plan. The importance of intellectual property and finance that are vital in any entrepreneurial ventures will be introduced.
The Minor in Entrepreneurship website link:
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/ntc/academic/minor.asp
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