Overview

This course is first intended to equip participants with information and skills which will prepare them for successful entrepreneurship, it follows the recently accepted belief that entrepreneurship like any other discipline can be taught and learnt. The course also aims at igniting student’s interest and encouraging them to be entrepreneurial wherever they find themselves. It will present participants, the theoretical basis for making sound entrepreneurial decisions, and use case studies and practical examples to drive the key issues home.

After this course, Participants hopefully will feel confident traversing the often intimidation maze of business, and even if they do not venture into entrepreneurship themselves, they will have a healthy appreciation of the issues, and be supportive of those who do.
It will take participants on issues from Idea Creation through Venture Funds all the way to Exit Strategies, so that wherever they find themselves, either as employees or employers, they would be able to analyze these issues intelligently and offer constructive contributions that build businesses.

Students will later in the course be exposed to real life successful entrepreneurs who will come to class as external speakers. Such interaction will hopefully drive some of the key issues home as they see them in real life practice.


Evaluation Criteria:

FOR THIS YEAR THE COURSE WILL BE A SERIES OF BUSINESS PLANS PREPARED AND PRESENTED BY STUDENTS UNDER THE LECTURER’S SUPERVISION.

PRESENTATIONS WILL BE MADE AND CRITIQUED IN CLASS, AND THE FINAL WORK GRADED

STUDENTS ARE TO DO THE READINGS AHEAD, AND ALSO USE THE LECTURERS AND SLIDES FOR GUIDANCE

Text:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP, A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH, D. F. KURATKO AND R. M. HODGETTS
Additional material will be provided

Thoughts to ponder as you venture into life and business

Humanity's progress from caves to campuses has been explained in numerous ways. But central to virtually all of these theories has been the role of the "agent of change," the force that initiates and implements material progress. Today we recognize that the agent of change in human history has been and most likely will continue to be the Entrepreneur

In ... Entrepreneurship, there is agreement that we are talking about a kind of behavior that includes: (1 ) initiative taking, (2) the organizing or reorganizing of social economic mechanisms to turn resources and situations to practical account, and (3) the acceptance of risk of failure.

Entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental wealth. This wealth is created by individuals who assume the major risks in terms of equity, time, and/or career commitment of providing value for some product or service. The product or service

It's not the critic who counts, nor the observer who watches from a safe distance.
Wealth is created only by doers in the arena who are marred with dirt, dust, blood, and sweat. These are producers who strike out on their own, who know high highs and low lows, great devotions, and who overextend themselves for worthwhile causes.

Without exception, they fail more than they succeed and appreciate this reality even before venturing out on their own.
But when these producers of wealth fail, they at least fail with style and grace, and their gut soon recognizes that failure is only a resting place, not a place in which to spend a lifetime.

Their places will never be with those nameless souls who know neither victory nor defeat, who receive weekly paychecks regardless of their week's performance, who are hired hands in the labor in someone else's garden.
These doers are producers and no matter what their lot is at any given moment, they'll never take a place beside the takers, for theirs is a unique place, alone, under the sun.
They are entrepreneurs.

Joseph R. Mancuso
Center for Entrepreneurial Management

ENTREPRENEURS-CHALLENGING THE UNKNOWN

Entrepreneurs are individuals who recognize opportunities where others see chaos, or confusion. They are aggressive catalysts for change within the marketplace. They have been compared to Olympic athletes challenging themselves to break new barriers, to long-distance runners dealing with the agony of the miles, to symphony orchestra conductors who balance the different skills and sounds into a cohesive whole, or to top-gun pilots who continually push the envelope of speed and daring.

Whatever the passion, because they all fit in some way, entrepreneurs are the heroes of today's marketplace. They start companies and create jobs at a breathtaking pace.

The U.S. economy has been revitalized because of the efforts of entrepreneurs, and the world has turned now to free enterprise as a model for economic development. The passion and drive of entrepreneurs move the world of business forward. They challenge the unknown and continuously create the future.

One anonymous quote found by Jeffry A. Timmons sums up the realities for entrepreneurs. "Anyone [can be an entrepreneur] who wants to experience the deep, dark canyons of uncertainty and ambiguity; and who wants to walk the breathtaking highlands of success.
But I caution, do not plan to walk the latter, until you have experienced the former."

I keep six honest men, they taught me all I know, their names are: WHAT, WHY, WHEN, WHO, WHERE and HOW.

Rudyard Kipling

Be slow to judge others. Make sure you don’t make the mistakes you condemn.

Your most treasured part as a human being, which separates you from other creatures is your conscience.

Conscience is like a fruit tree, you look after it, it will grow and bring you good fruit, you leave it, and all kinds of things will happen to it, ultimately it will die off, if you are not lucky it will break and fall on you.

“SECURITY IS MOSTLY SUPERSTITION, IT DOES NOT EXIST IN NATURE, NOR DO THE CHILDREN OF MEN AS A WHOLE EXPERIENCE IT.

AVOIDING DANGER IS NO SAFER IN THE LONG RUN THAN OUTRIGHT EXPOSURE.
LIFE IS A DARING ADVENTURE OR NOTHING AT ALL.

Helen Keller

Wrong is Wrong; and Right is Right; but life is not Black or White

Kofi Bentil

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