MHR 425 Emergent Ventures Winter 2006 Dr. Stan Abraham MHR Dept.

Principal Course Objectives To understand the characteristics, difficulties, problems, challenges of high-growth businesses To identify the high-growth industries in California and learn how to analyze them To understand the options and dynamics of financing growth, including bank debt or SBA capital, informal investors, angel-investor groups, venture capital, and private placements To understand how different the following are for high-growth companies: management style and organization, innovation and new product development, target markets and customer-value propositions, deciding on or changing growth strategies, and the imperatives of ethics and regulatory compliance Work in a group to research and present an analysis of a high-growth company based on research findings and interviews with company executives Prerequisite MHR 320 or EBZ 306

Required Text None But there will be a lot of research and reading to do!

My Expectations of You To take more responsibility for your own learning You won’t learn as much if you don’t To commit to having a very good group experience Your workload and stress level will increase exponentially if you don’t, and your grade will suffer proportionately To research a topic and lead a class discussion on it Your classmates will help you To help other groups with their research And learn about the other topics in the process

My Role as Professor To create a friendly and fun environment for learning To act as a resource, coach, expert, and sounding board for you as you develop your business plan To provide useful feedback and grade your assignments To invite two guest speakers to class

The High-Growth-Company Project Done in groups Based on a company in a high-growth industry Developed in stages Improved through feedback from prof and class Apply the six topics to your company Culminates in both –A 30-min. class presentation –A written final report Select a Company Six Topics Critical to High-Growth Cos Industry Analysis Final Presentation and Report Strategic Issues and Strategy Company Interviews

Participation Grade (15 pts) Nothing happens until I know all your names (week 3 or 4) Six points allocated to attendance Remaining nine points allocated to asking questions and giving feedback during intermediate and final presentations Unexcused absences over two lose a point for each absence More than five unexcused absences gets an automatic ‘F’ in the course

(Un)excused Absences Absences are classified as ‘excused’ when You let me know before (or after) class why you are going to be (or were) absent The reason is reasonable (medical, family emergency, accident, Cal Poly trip, etc.) and some proof can be shown All other absences are ‘unexcused’

Written Work First drafts must never be handed in Always edit your work once or twice (read and check with the handout “On Editing One’s Work”) I won’t grade it if I suspect no one has applied the advice in that handout Business writing is concise and clear If you find writing difficult, you must go to the University Writing Center for help Take pride in your work—a quality paper or report has a better chance of an ‘A’ Final reports poorly written will lose points

Key Due Dates for Company Project Th Jan 19 – Submit proposal on chosen company Tu Jan 24– Group presentation on introductory company overview Tu Jan 31– Group presentation on industry and competitive analysis Tu Feb 14– Group presentation on company strategy Tu Feb 21– Group presentation on future outlook Tu Mar 7– Final group company report due Tu Mar 7– First of three sessions on group presentations of company project

Group Topic Presentations Th Jan 19 – Innovation and new product development Th Jan 26 – Target markets and customer-value propositions Th Feb 2 – Board of directors, management, & organization Th Feb 9 – Financing and sources of funds Th Feb 16 – Key issues and expansion strategies Th Mar 2 – Ethics and regulatory compliance

Grade Points Leading topic discussion in class 20 Paper on highest-growth CA industries 10 Four interim group 5 pts. 20 Final summary company presentation 10 Final group written company report 25 Participation 15 TOTAL 100 Group work = 75%

Any Questions?