Centre for Advanced Studies in

Engineering

Entrepreneurship Class of Spring 2011 at CASE

Course Name Technology & Entrepreneurship

Instructor Dr. Nadeem Ehsan

Ph.D. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

Semester Spring, 2011

Credit Hours Three (3)

Class Timings Friday, 6:00—9:00

Email m4nadeem@yahoo.com

Required Text Instructor’s Notes/Slides

Reference Books

Yahoo Group Tech_Ent_CASE@yahoogroups.com

Teaching Assistant Ibtisam Mirza

Email (Ibtisam.m@gmail.com)
(0333-5134953)

Program Coordinator Mr. Shahid Iqbal

Tele 051-8432273
Email shahid.iqbal@case.edu.pk
Office Hours 10:00am-06:00 pm. (Monday to Friday)

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 Course Outline

Entrepreneurship

Introduction

Courses called Entrepreneurship are taught in various universities with emphasis on

useful knowledge areas for a business leader. To be a business leader one has to have an
aptitude for it before one succeeds. Success is still not guaranteed till one has a vision to
assess the future challenges and poise to transform to be in a winning position. This vision
encompasses more than just the knowledge of business, it requires a complete mindset to be
in the leading position. This course has been designed to train a mind to think BIG, for a
leader to look BIG, and an Entrepreneur to act BIG.
Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new businesses and particularly new
organizations, generally in response to known opportunities. Entrepreneurship is generally a
difficult undertaking, since many new businesses often fail. Entrepreneurial activities differ
from each other based on the type of business being pursued. Entrepreneurship ranges in
scale from single projects to major undertakings creating several job opportunities.

An entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or

invention into a successful innovation. Entrepreneurship forces "creative destruction" across
markets and industries, simultaneously creating new products and business models. In this
way, creative destruction is largely responsible for the dynamism of industries and long-run
economic growth.

The understanding of entrepreneurship owes a lot to the work of economist Joseph

Schumpeter and the Austrian School of economics. Entrepreneurship is about taking risk.
The behavior of the entrepreneur reflects a kind of person willing to put his or her career and
financial security on the line and take risks in the name of an idea, spending much time as
well as capital on an uncertain venture.

Still another view of entrepreneurship is that it is the process of discovering, evaluating, and
exploiting opportunities, which go on to apply themselves in the form of new business
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ventures. In this model an entrepreneur could be defined as "someone who acts with
ambition beyond that supportable by the resources currently under his control, in relentless
pursuit of opportunity" (a definition common to entrepreneurship professors Howard
Stevenson and Jeffry Timmons). Pinchot (1985) coined the term Intrapreneurship to describe
entrepreneurial-like activities inside organizations and government. The concept is
commonly referred to as Corporate Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is widely regarded as
an integral player in the business culture of social life, and particularly as an engine for job
creation and economic growth.

This course will particularly be of a great value to you once you will be the middle
and senior level managers, project conceivers, team leaders, coordinators and volunteers and
will be directly or indirectly involved with the projects, organizations, or if you are expected
to be engaged in such activities in future. The course will be useful for you if you join
industry, social sector development organizations, engineering, academia, politics and
journalism or chose to be freelance thinkers.

Objective of this Course

 Understand the concept of Entrepreneurship

 Enhance skills to become an effective Entrepreneur in any institutional or
social environment.
 Understand the internal, external and physical environment of a business
and develop a vision to take prudent decisions.
 Learn the art of remaining politically correct in interactions and resolve the
conflicts amicably.

Broad Course Contents

Introduction to entrepreneurship
The Evolution of Entrepreneurship
Who Are Entrepreneurs?
The Entrepreneurial Personality
The Entrepreneurial Mind-Set
The Macro View
The Micro View
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Developing the Vision
Encouraging Innovation
Sources of Innovative Ideas
Human resources and the entrepreneurial organization: the organizational perspective
Entrepreneurship in other contexts: non-profit and government organizations
Developing an entrepreneurial culture
Corporate strategy and entrepreneurship
Leading the entrepreneurial organization
Assessing entrepreneurial performance
Management Versus Entrepreneurship
Concept of Balance: Simultaneous Looseness and Tightness
Avoiding Folklore: The Myths of Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneur’s Confrontation with Risk
Stress and the Entrepreneur
What Is Entrepreneurial Stress?
Sources of Stress
Dealing with Stress
The Entrepreneurial Ego
Overbearing Need for Control
Unrealistic Optimism
Entrepreneurial Motivation
Overriding Desire for Success
The Entrepreneurial Mind-Set in Organizations—Corporate Entrepreneurship
Reengineering Organizational Thinking
Developing Individual Managers for Corporate Entrepreneurship
Developing Teams
The Ethical Side of Entrepreneurship
Opportunity Identification: The Search for New Ideas
Ignorance of Legal Issues
Understanding the Key Financial Statements
Strategic Planning
The International Environment: Global Opportunities

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Venture Development Stages
New-Venture Development

Course Schedule

The course consists of 16 Week Schedule out of which there will be One Week for Mid Term
examination and One Week for Final Examination.

Grade Distribution

Mid Term Exam 15 Percent

Assignments 20 Percent
Class Presentations 10 Percent
Final Exam 30 Percent
Research Paper/Project 25 Percent

Misc. Instructions

All classes are Smoke and Mobile Free. Timely submission of Homework /Assignments is
mandatory and if not turned in when due, the student will be graded negatively. Individual
homework means individual effort. Homework may be submitted via E-Mail and Fax in
case individual is out of town/ Country.

New Business Venture/ Project & Research Paper Instructions/ Important

Dates

Projects will be done in Groups (maximum 3 members) and must be from real life or may be
from your own background/work environment/ parent department but it must cover the subject.
Topics should be innovative and must have strong relevance with the subject and real life. You
may choose organization in public or private sector (Service or Manufacturing).
To encourage students to write technical research papers, students will suggest topics to write
technical research papers to be published in reputable journals or conferences. A good paper
written by group of students (maximum 3 members) may fetch a better grade in the course. A
paper shall have to be completed within the course time period. The instructor and RAs will
help the students selecting a paper topic and will keep guiding the students throughout till the
publication of papers. The students will not be allowed to publish the same paper in other
courses.

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Sr No. Study Week Important Dates Tasks to do

1 1st Week 4th February 2011 Group Formation Finalization

Synopsis of Project/ Abstract of Research
2 2nd Week 11th February 2011 Paper/Proposals
Notification of Acceptance of Abstracts/
3 3rd Week 18th February 2011 Proposal/ Synopsis
Feasibility Report/Markeing Strategy/Literature
4 5th Week 4th March 2011 Review
5 8th Week 25th March 2011 Mind Storming Session (Discussion week)
6 13th Week 29th April 2011 Final Submission/ Project Report/ New Venture

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