Seminar "The practice of entrepreneurship"
Please direct your questions to entrepreneurship@isu.uzh.ch; NOT to professor Kaiser - emails sent to him will not be answered!
THINK BEFORE YOU EMAIL AND READ THE INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET CAREFULLY!!!
Seminar contents
This seminar aims at confronting students with problems and perspectives in entrepreneurship practice. The goal of the course is to enable students to effectively write their own business plan. Students will write an own business plan that may relate to either an original startup or an existing firm whose business potential is not yet fully explored. This business plan will be evaluated – and graded – by a team of industry professionals.
A sample business plan from last years' class is posted under "Course material downloads".
Generating business ideas
Business plans may originate from two alternative sources: - an own idea that is to be turned into a viable business or - material obtained from an existing firm with growth potential.
We will also offer students the opportunity to write business plans for businesses that either need to grow, need to be sold or need to be turned around. A brief outline of those firms is posted in the "Course material downloads" section of the present website. Further information follows during the first lectures. “Own” business ideas may be generated in collaboration with “unitectra” (www.unitectra.ch), the technology transfer organization of the Universities of Bern and Zurich. Information regarding existing firms may be gathered by contacting – i.e. – Zürcher Handelskammer (Zurich Chamber of Commerce) or kmuNEXT (http://www.kmunext.ch). Additional inspiration may be gathered from websites such as http://www.venturelab.ch, www.btools.ch or http://www.businessangels.ch to name but a few.
Jury members
- Christoph Adrian, Greissinger & Partner Business Consultancy, Münster
- Ulrich Kaiser, University of Zurich
- Jan Fülscher, Business Angels Schweiz
- Herbert Reutiman, Unitectra
- Andreas Schweizer, ZKB
Target group
This seminar is open to UZH students of Business as well as to students of Economics. UZH students from other disciplines may enroll as guest students. Guest student will not obtain ECTS points.
The seminar is limited to 12 teams, each with 1 to maximum 5 members. Students will be selected on the basis of a one page motivational letter. The motivational letter is to be written by the individual student and not by the team.
Teams will be formed during the first lectures. The chair for Entrepreneurship is not involved in the formation of teams.
Application deadline
Sept. 1, 2010; email to entrepreneurship@isu.uzh.ch.
Format
This is a compressed seminar which consists of 15 class meetings.
There will be two introductory lectures by Professor Ulrich Kaiser where students will be familiarized with the concept of business plan writing.
These introductory lectures will be followed by presentations from practitioners in the field, namely:
- Christoph Adrian, MBA, Turnaround and interim manager -
- Marc Bourgeois, Endurit, Zürich
- Jan Fülscher, Business Angels Schweiz
- Heribert Reutimann and Adrian Sigrist, Uni Zurich/Bern technology transfer office
- Gaby Stäheli, GRYPS, Rapperswil
- Sylvain Santamarta, Boston Consulting Group, Oslo
- Eduardo Theiler, Phytoceuticals, Zürich
- Erika Puyal, ZKB, Zürich
Course readings
t.b.a.
Prerequisites
BA in Business or Economics for enrolled students, BA in their respective fields for guest students.
Complementary courses
Students seriously interested in starting their own business are encouraged to attend my course “A Primer in Entrepreneurship”, a BA-level course taught each fall semester (http://www.isu.uzh.ch/cms/entrepreneurship/Teaching_en.html) and “Unternehmensgründung: Von der Idee zum Finanzierungsentscheid“ offered by ISB (http://www.vorlesungen.uzh.ch/SS08/suche/e-50401053.details.html).
Class meetings
Fridays, 14:00-15:45 KOL-G-221
10.11.2010, 14:00-17:00 KOL-G-212
17.12.2010, 14:00-18:00 KOL-E-13
18.12.2010, 09:00-12:00 KOL-G-212
Grading
1.) Draft plan: 25 percent – written draft plan 10 percent, oral presentation 15 percent.
2.) Full business plan: 65 percent – written full plan 30 percent, oral presentation 35 percent.
3.) Oral participation: 10 percent; oral participation is measured both in terms of quantity and quality.
Class attendance is mandatory. Students may skip, however, three of the 15 class assemblies provided that they pre-announce their absence by sending an email to entrepreneurship@isu.uzh.ch.
Grades are for the teams, not for individual team members.
ECTS points
This class gives 6 ECTS points. Enrolled students can use the credits for the following modules:
• MA: Wahlpichtbereich BWL 5
• MA: Seminare M&E
Due dates
Written draft business plans: Sun., Nov.7, 12:00; email to entrepreneurship@isu.uzh.ch.
Oral mid-term presentations: Wed., Nov. 10, 14:00-17:00 (jury: Ulrich Kaiser & Jan Fülscher).
Final presentations: Dec. 17, 14:00-18:00 and Dec. 18, 9:00-12:00 (full jury).
Mid-term exam
- You submit a written summary business plan that contains 10-15 pages by Sunday, Nov. 7, 12 p.m. There is no renegotiation regarding the submission date. Plans that are not received at this time receive the grade “1”. Submit to entrepreneurship@isu.uzh.ch.
- That plan lays out the basic idea, describes the managing team, contains a first market analysis and describes briefly how the plan is supposed to be executed.
- You present your plan before Jan Fülscher and me as well as the rest of the class on Wed., Nov. 10, 14:00-17:00 in room KOL-G-212; you will be assigned a slot. There is no renegotiation regarding the slot you are assigned to.
- You do not need to present paper copies of the presentations for the other students. You should, however, provide the slides for Jan Fülscher and me. My secretary Rahel Haymoz will post your presentations on the course website – if you want them to be posted.
- It is mandatory for all students to attend all presentations by all teams. Remember you get grades for oral participation.
Podcasts
There will be no podcasts as some information provided during the course is proprietary.