Syllabus
Table of Contents
Last Update: 03/12/07
Instructor
Information
Dr. Hugh Sloan |
Office
Hours: |
Assoc. Prof. of
Marketing |
By
appointment |
234 Holman Hall |
Phone: 915-7414 |
E-Mail: hsloan@bus.olemiss.edu
|
|
Dr.
Del Hawley |
Office
Hours: |
Senior Associate Dean |
By
appointment |
Assoc.
Prof. of Finance |
Phone:
915-5496 |
320 Holman Hall |
FAX:
915-7821 |
E-Mail: dhawley@bus.olemiss.edu
|
|
Course
Objectives
With a unique blend of Marketing and Finance, this
course takes students through the entire process of conceiving and
planning a business start-up. The semester-long business planning
project serves as the framework around which all of the instruction is
based. The final business plan encompasses all of the necessary
components to launch a successful and financially viable business.
While the business plan project serves as an important
element in the application and integration of the topics included in
this course, coverage includes material and concepts that are not
directly associated with the business plan.
This course provides advanced analysis
and decision making concepts, tools, and techniques to be
applied in a real business setting. Topics include marketing and financial analysis, competitive strategy and pricing,
sales and growth forecasting, distribution of goods and services, cash
budgeting and forecasting, short and long-term
financial planning, and traditional and venture capital. The
effective use of communication and other electronic technology is
integrated throughout the course and is an important aspect of the
business plan project. Assignments and the business plan project also
emphasize written and oral communication to a large extent.
Required
Materials
|
Corporate Finance
Smart, Megginson, and Gitman
Thompson/Southwestern Publishing (2003)
This was your book for MBA 611 |
|
|
|
Writing a Convincing Business Plan
DeThomas and Grensing-Pophal
Barron's Publishing (2nd Edition)
ISBN 0-7641-1399-2
Link to Amazon.com |
Other materials will be provided as needed. You will make extensive
use of BusinessWeek and the internet.
General Information
On-Line Lectures and Modules: On-line lectures and modules
highlight important material, demonstrate
problem-solving techniques, and discuss important
issues. It is assumed that you have read the assigned
material carefully and completed all other assignments
BEFORE you view the modules.
Exams: Exams are designed to test your
understanding of facts, concepts, and problem-solving
methods. They are NOT designed to test your
ability to memorize. Your score will depend very little
on your ability to memorize and very heavily on your
ability to relate a few fundamental concepts and
procedures to practical business situations. Your ability
to perform well on exams will require a large amount of
preparation involving EXTENSIVE individual or
group practice on problems and examples.
Assignment Submission: All assignments must be handed in at
the stated time and in the stated form or they will automatically
receive a grade of zero. Late assignments are not acceptable. It is your
responsibility to retain a copy of all assignments should any questions
arise later concerning that assignment.
Instructor Contact: You are encouraged to communicate with
your instructors by email or phone. We will try to answer your questions
within a few hours, but we are not always at our computers so
occasionally there will be a longer delay.
Discussion Board Usage: You are encouraged to use the
discussion board in Angel to post questions. Posting your questions
there means that your fellow students may be able to answer your
questions before your instructors can. If that happens, it's great.
Posting questions and responses on the discussion board also means that
the information is archived so you and others can refer to it later for
review.
Statement of
Academic Integrity:
The School of
Business Administration upholds honor and academic integrity in
all of its teaching, research, and service activities. All
business faculty, staff, and students are charged with the
responsibility to behave with personal and professional
integrity and to refrain from dishonorable conduct.
Academic Dishonesty:
Any student who commits any act of
academic dishonesty will automatically receive a grade of "F"
in this course and will be immediately recommended by both instructors for permanent dismissal from The
University of Mississippi. There are no lesser penalties and no exceptions
to this policy.
Academic dishonesty includes representing someone else's
work as your own (plagiarism), knowingly allowing someone else to
represent your work as his or her own, and gaining or attempting to gain an
unfair advantage.
Unless specifically told otherwise by
Dr. Sloan or Dr. Hawley, all assignments submitted for a grade in this course are to be
your, and only your, work.
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Business Plan
Project
The business plan project will form the centerpiece and unifying theme
for the course. You, along with your group members, will conceive a new business venture
and plan for its
marketing and financial strategies as well as all other aspects of the
business. The project will involve research, data
gathering, analysis, and preparation of a professional-quality business
plan
at the end of the semester. You will work in teams of three for
this project.
Project Objectives and Intended Outcomes:
The business plan project is intended to foster the following
learning objectives and outcomes:
- Gain extensive experience in business planning
- Challenge your resourcefulness
- Exercise your powers of innovation and creativity
- Gain an understanding of what "professional-quality output"
means
- Improve your writing/revision skills
- Improve your critical thinking skills
- Improve your risk analysis skills
- Improve your research skills
- Improve your presentation and communication skills
- Improve your ability to think globally
Group Structure:
The structure of your group (roles and responsibilities) is your choice. However, you need to agree upon a group
structure and commit it to writing. This agreement must
document the job descriptions and range of
responsibilities for each group member. The agreement must also include the conditions
under which a group member can be "fired" and the progressive procedures
that would precede such action. This agreement
must be approved and signed by all members of the group
and submitted to the class leaders. Note that if a person is "fired"
from a group, he or she will be required to complete a business plan
by himself or herself to fulfill the requirements of the course, and
the plan will be graded on the same criteria as the plans from all
other groups.
Necessary Elements of the Venture:
Your business must possess the following characteristics:
- It must be realistic and feasible in the current business
environment.
- It cannot be a financial company per se (not a bank or a
loan company).
- It must have a highly significant internet component but does not
have to be completely internet based.
- It cannot be a franchisee, but can have the potential to
become a franchisor.
- It must have a physical location and physical assets in the
USA.
- It must be chartered in the USA (any state).
- It cannot be located in Lafayette County, Mississippi, unless
it is an on-line business venture.
- It must make a reasonable income for the founders (you)
within a reasonable period of time (3 years). Reasonable means
that you can live on what you make from the business at
something more than the catsup soup/ramen noodle level -- more
like what a would be expected of a professional with an MBA.
- It must have the realistic potential to be cash-flow
positive and profitable within 3 years.
- It must employ at least one person other than the founders on a full-time
basis sometime in the first year of operation.
- The founders must have a personal financial stake and take
on personal financial risk.
- Financing must be realistic based on the actual personal
connections of the founders and other likely sources of funding.
Outlandish claims for capital availability will require
justification.
- It must have long-term growth and expansion potential
commensurate with the financing sources that are specified in
the business plan.
The grade on the project will be substantially influenced by the
originality, innovativeness and
scalability of the concept.
Progressive Creation:
The business plan is a semester-long project that will require
immediate and continuous work throughout the entire 15 weeks of the
semester. To help keep you on track for successful completion of the
project, there will be many assignments due throughout the semester.
These assignments and their deadlines will be noted on the schedule
page, but in general will include the following:
- Create and submit a description of your group structure,
roles and responsibilities, and "how to get yourself fired."
- Conceive and select TWO business ideas with mission
statements and general descriptions of the product/service to be
offered and a reasonable discussion of how each business will
meet ALL of the required
criteria for the project.
- Based on feedback received from the instructors, select one of the two businesses to
form the basis for your business plan.
- Submit an industry analysis
- Submit a market analysis, plan, and sales forecast
- Submit a cash budget
- Submit pro-forma financial statements (Excel spreadsheet
model) that are integrated with the cash budget.
Note that grades will not be given on the individual submissions,
since the final project is the only "deliverable" for the project.
However, penalty points will be assigned to the project for late
submissions, inadequate or poorly prepared submissions, or lack of
submissions. The instructors will provide written feedback on the
submissions so that improvements can be made in the final product.
Confidentiality:
All ideas and concepts associated with the ventures undertaken by
you and your classmates are deemed to be confidential and
proprietary to the members of the group. All class members will sign
legally binding confidentiality statements at the beginning of the
semester.
Business Plan Write-Up:
Your primary deliverable for the project is a
professional-quality business plan. The content of your plan should
contain the elements presented in Writing a Convincing Business
Plan, but that book is meant as a guide -- not as a
carved-in-stone formula. Personalization and customization of your plan is
strongly encouraged.
Presentation:
At the end of the semester, your group will deliver a
formal professional-quality presentation on video that
summarizes your business plan. More information on the presentation will
be forthcoming.
Co-Member Evaluation:
Team members will evaluate each other according to the
method described here: Group
Member Evaluation Procedure
Gillespie Business Plan Competition:
Your team will have the option to participate in the 2nd
Annual Gillespie Business Plan competition, which will be held in late
April on the Ole Miss campus. Two $5,000 prizes will be awarded -- one
for the best business plan and one for the best business concept.
Details on this competition will be provided as soon as they are
available.
Grading Policy
Points will be assigned based on your
performance on exams and all assignments associated with
the Business Plan Project as shown below:
Exam 1 - Marketing |
100 Points |
Exam 2 - Finance |
100 Points |
Term Project |
200 Points |
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Grades will be assigned according to a
straight scale: 90%=A, 80%=B, 70%=C, 60%=D, less than
60%=F
Tests are graded on a curve. Final grades
are not curved. The class leaders believe in challenging
students to reach beyond the minimum and to aim for the
highest possible achievement. This means we give hard
tests, but grade them fairly.
Famous quotes from
Dr. Hawley:
-
"You can't learn to jump the high
hurdles in life by practicing on toothpicks."
-
"D's and F's
are available to those who work for them."
-
"Education is not something that somebody does to you. It
is something you do for yourself."
Famous
quotes from Dr. Sloan:
-
"The future is digital and global."
-
"If you work way harder than you ever thought you could, you'll get
half done."
-
"Sleep is for sissies and undergraduates."
Policy for Make-Up Exams
If you have a problem or work commitment that
may interfere with either scheduled exam, communicate with the
relevant instructor in a timely manner and we will try to help
if we can.
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