Innovation, Enterprise & Entrepreneurship
Our alumni regularly stress the significance of commercial understanding as critical to success in both industry and increasingly in a research environment funded by industries looking for the commercial applications of technology.
The aim of this unit is to make you aware of the knowledge, understanding, abilities and skills that are essential to set up a successful entrepreneurial venture. This will be achieved through lectures and workshops and placing you in a semi-realistic entrepreneurial situation, where you work in a team, with mentor advice, to develop a business plan and give a presentation to potential investors.
As a starting point, a specific market is outlined and you will be challenged to create a suitable technology-based product, service, process or system. This must address a defined need you have identified and can evidence through sound market research and can take one of the following forms:
• a small commercial start-up company which is growth/profit oriented
• an innovation initiative in a large, established organisation (intrapreneurship)
• an initiative concerned with social entrepreneurship or a not-for-profit enterprise
Students taking the course will develop an understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour, the process of enterprise creation and the issues arising from the changes that it brings. In relation to entrepreneurship within large and established organisations, they will also explore the management challenges associated with corporate entrepreneurship and innovation.
• Creativity and Group Work
• Business plans and presentations
• Buyers, Markets & Innovation
• Entrepreneurial Talents
• Developing the enterprise into an operation
• Risk & Growth
• IP & Legal issues
• Open Surgery (project discussion)
• Gaining Funding, Valuation and exit strategies
What does it include?
• Ability to conceptualise and design an innovative technology-based product, process, service or system as the basis for a successful entrepreneurial venture.
• Knowledge and understanding of a range of management and business practices and the ability to apply them effectively.
• Ability to apply relevant theories and concepts from management science in a reliable manner
• Ability to identify, understand and evaluate both technological and commercial risks and put in place appropriate management and mitigation measures
• Ability to identify and extract commercial, business and reference information pertinent to the entrepreneurial venture and analyse this with computer software (where appropriate)
• Team-work skills, critical self-reflection, internal negotiation of team rewards and action planning
• Ability to produce and present a professional presentation, executive summary and detailed business plan report for potential investors to consider
What will you gain?
Who is it for: Engineering Students (all levels welcome) and recent graduates or individuals interested in founding a start-up business.
Extra features: The skills that you will gain map against a number of those required by the Engineering Council’s UKSPEC and the QAA Engineering Benchmark for an MEng programme to be accredited for Chartered Engineer status.
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