Course Information Sheet s3

AEM 3250 – Personal Enterprise and Small Business Management Spring 2009 Syllabus

Instructor: Deborah Streeter Bruce F. Failing, Sr. Professor of Personal Enterprise and Small Business Management 307 Warren Hall 255-1611 [email protected]

Administrative TA: Danier Bouza [email protected]

Support Staff: Carol Peters [email protected]

Team Mentors: Marge Hubbert [email protected]

Romi Kher [email protected]

Rachel Gordon [email protected]

Mentor Resource Specialist: Caton McKenna [email protected]

Course Materials: We will be using a textbook by Rhonda Abrams, called The Successful Business Plan. It is available at the campus store. You will also need to buy the financial software associated with the book.

Recommended, but not required books (used copies available at half.com): Say it with Charts, Gene Zalasny The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, Edward P. Bailey, Jr. Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni

Course Location and Meeting Times: Monday/Wednesday Lecture, 12:20-1:10 pm, Warren 201 Wednesday Clinic – 2:30-4:25 pm, Warren 201 Weekly half-hour meetings between mentor and team to be arranged. Weekly one-hour meetings of the team members themselves to be arranged.

Course Website: http://blackboard.cornell.edu/webapps/login Course Content:

1 AEM 3250 is focused on understanding business planning for startups. Content is delivered in various ways:  Lecture  Weekly clinics involving hands-on work  5 on-line learning units completed by individual students  10 assignments done by each team  Video clips from Cornell’s eClips Collection (http://eclips.cornell.edu), delivered in and outside the classroom

Course Staff: The course staff is committed to help you with the primary activity of the course: working in a team of three to write a full-blown business plan. The business mentors have real world experiences with small businesses and will meet with their assigned teams once a week throughout the semester.

This opportunity for you to be mentored by someone with real business experience has been made possible by the financial endowment given to Cornell by the family of Bruce F. Failing Sr. It is a privilege for both you and me. Let’s make the most of it!

I expect highly professional behavior from students in interacting with the course staff. You will be assigned one of us as a mentor. Here are some important things to remember:

1. We want to be accessible to you, but face-to-face meetings have to be on a scheduled basis. Due to the mentors’ busy schedules (just like yours) and other professional commitments, your team will need to commit to a regular meeting time with your mentor. All group members must attend every meeting.

2. Not all mentors will be present at every class, but they are fully aware of what is being presented in lecture. At different points throughout the semester, each mentor will be presenting during regular class sessions or at the clinics.

3. As a course staff we are committed to working as a team. Each teaching staff has his/her own strengths. Often, we will refer problems and issues to another staff member, and we will be in regular communication.

Course Elements: Lecture/discussion

Attendance at lecture is a required element of the course. Because much of the most important material covered in class will come from the lectures, you will not be able to “get notes” afterwards from another student. Although I present material related to the business plan process in class and business plans are the focus of the course, lectures include broader lessons as well.

I expect all students to participate actively. For example, I like students to ask questions, make observations, and to engage in class discussions. Participation can also take other forms: you can write questions or comments via e-mail, talk individually with any of the mentors or me, and/or interact with the guest speakers. Studies have shown that students do best when they participate actively in the learning process. If you have a phobia about speaking in class, it is a good idea to let me know early in the semester so that we can talk about possible solutions.

Clinics

2 Clinics are weekly workshops where you will be doing specific tasks related to your group’s business plan. It is the “how-to” component of this course. Attendance at the Wednesday clinics is required, as the sessions will be extremely helpful in completing your business plan. In previous years, only students who attended and participated actively in all clinics were the top achievers in the course. The clinic format provides a hands-on opportunity to work out arising problems from the work you are doing on your business plan.

Note: More than two unexcused absences from lectures or clinics will yield a score of zero in this category. eClips – Your Virtual Panel of Guest Speakers

We will be getting acquainted with a wide variety of entrepreneurs and their companies this semester via an interesting multi-media project I have been working on since 1994. I have created a large database of digital video clips, called eClips (http://eclips.cornell.edu). The 13,000+ short (1-3 minute) clips cover topics related to business and entrepreneurship and are drawn both from in-depth interviews and formal presentations by the experts. I will be playing short video clips from this collection in almost every lecture. Outside of class, you will be listening to clips as part of your individual work (see below). The clips are intended to provide a variety of views on the topics we are discussing and to help illustrate material presented in class. During the course of the semester, the personality and history of each eClips expert will unfold, giving you a sense of the great diversity that exists in the entrepreneurial community. If you have a particular interest in any of the individuals, you can access any part or all of their interviews yourself on the website. I am very interested in your reactions and your ideas about eClips, so feel free to talk with me before or after class, or to send me a quick e-mail about how to use this resource effectively to help you in your academic, personal and professional goals.

Guest Speakers

In addition to our “virtual visitors” via eClips, I will invite various guests to present during the semester. Please make sure to treat the speakers with courtesy. Make the most out of our guests’ visit by:  Preparing ahead of time by reading the bio on-line and being ready to ask some questions.  Arriving on time and turning off your cell phone.  If you arrive early, please greet the guest and introduce yourself.  Thanking the guests as you leave after class.  Maintaining an awareness that your demeanor in class will greatly impact the experience the guests have at Cornell and could very well influence whether or not they return.  Following up by email (optional) if you particularly like a guest speaker.

Course Project: The Business Plan

(Note: for the first draft and final versions of your plan you will be submitting multiple copies. Including the body of the plan and all appendices, plans can be as long as 40-50 pages. Plan ahead with your other team members for the copying expenses. If you believe you will need financial assistance, you must inform Professor Streeter in the first four weeks of the course. )

Students work in teams of three to come up with an original business idea and write a fully developed business plan focused on developing, funding and launching a product or service. Teams brainstorm ideas together and then settle on a concept that all members embrace. Writing a business plan provides you with hands-on experience with the startup planning process. As you sit in class, listen to the panel of experts, and talk to guest speakers, think about how the content relates to 3 your own project, as well as your longer-term goals. A challenge for you (being the learner) is to integrate the various parts of the course and to maximize the relationships among all the elements. Further, the business plan will provide a group experience for you, and each member will have an opportunity to evaluate the other members of the team.

Assignments

There are two types of assignments for the course: 1. Individual Learning Units (online through BlackBoard) The on-line Learning Units, accessed via the course website, are to be completed by individual students (not by teams). Typically, the Learning Unit will refer you to the relevant section of the textbook, introduce additional short articles or on-line resources and ask you to listen to 3-5 eClips. The Learning Units are intended to help each team member prepare for the next task the team will undertake.

2. Group Assignments Each group assignment helps to build a part of the business plan. Teams hand in the assignments, and all members of the team are expected to participate in every assignment. The assignments are designed to keep your term project on schedule and to help to integrate material from the text and lecture with your business planning activities.

Peer Evaluation

Before you do any work for this course, please read the handout entitled: “A word about Teams…” Working towards a high-functioning team will enhance your experience in the course and is an excellent preparation for your career. Teamwork also counts as part of your grade. Participation will, in part, be based on the peer evaluation sheets found on the course website. If your teammates and your mentor report that you are not participating, it will influence your grade.

Final Grades:

Course Element Weight Final business plan 25 First draft of business plan 20 Group assignments 20 Final oral presentation 20 Participation 5 Evaluation of individual team participation (based on peer evaluations and mentor 5 comments) Individual learning units 5 TOTAL 100

* Your course packet contains a separate handout with additional grading details. *

Academic Integrity: Students should be familiar with and adhere to the Code of Academic Integrity. For example, while group work is clearly collaborative in this course, individual work is expected to be completed by each student without assistance from others. Violations of the Code will result in serious consequences, including a failing grade if appropriate.

4 AEM Learning Goals: AEM has adopted learning goals that we hope each student achieves while getting a degree from our program. Each individual course will not cover all learning goals; however, through your program of study you should be able to improve your knowledge and skills across all learning goals.

This course contributes to the following AEM AEM Learning Goals learning goals: Students learn to present and “pitch” their business Develop effective communication skills ideas and also to communicate effectively within a team setting.

Attain analytical and functional competency in In writing a business plan in this class, students will basic business and economic skills further develop competency in market research, strategy, branding, operational analysis and financial modeling. Demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and Through a series of cases, we will examine the ethics ability to apply to real world settings involved in creating, running and growing a business. Demonstrate ability to solve practical business Students write business plans, a very real-world and economic problems and make an exercise, requiring the application of theory and impact in real world and society frameworks to create solutions for real problems. Develop skills to be critical consumers of business Students learn to gather market information and to and economic information and research discern what is most authentic and most important.