Exploring Enterprise

“Exploring Enterprise” aims to develop students’ problem-solving skills, creativity, and commercial awareness. Acting as consultants, students will identify and evaluate business opportunities using tools like SWOT, PEST, and Ansoff’s Matrix. This unit bridges the gap between academic knowledge and real-world applications, making students’ expertise more relevant in business contexts. The course culminates in a consultancy project where students analyse a business and recommend innovative changes to that company’s business model. By the end of the unit, students will have started to develop a consultancy mindset (i.e. commercialising focused both aware of other stakeholder interests and expectations), gained essential analytical skills, and further developed their abilities to innovate creating value in various contexts. 

In line with the mission of the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC), i.e. to equip students with the entrepreneurial skills and experiences to excel in their career or launch their own venture, "Exploring Enterprise" aims to develop students' problem-solving skills, creativity, and commercial awareness.  

Develop a Consultancy Mindset: Equip students with the skills and mindset necessary to think and act like effective CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs, focusing on problem-solving and strategic analysis.

Bridge Academic and Real-World Applications: Enable students to apply their academic knowledge to real-world business situations, making their expertise more relevant and valuable in commercial contexts.

Master Analytical Tools and Techniques: Train students in the use of key business concepts and analytical tools such as financial analysis, the business model canvas, PEST, Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT, and Ansoff’s Matrix to conduct thorough internal and external business analyses.

Promote Holistic Value Creation: Encourage students to consider value creation in its broadest sense, including commercial, social, environmental, health, and well-being aspects, while developing innovative business model recommendations.

Acting in the role of consultants, students will analyse a business of their choosing  recommending ways in which that business could innovate its business model. innovative changes. The results and findings of their study will be communicated in a single submitted piece of summatively-assessed work taking the form of a short consultancy report (1500 words) or a PowerPoint slide-deck (20 slides). 
 

The overall aim of the unit, in alignment with MEC’s mission, is to further develop students’ problem-solving skills, creativity, ability to innovate, and overall commercial awareness, thinking with the same mind-set as an effective CEO, founder and / or entrepreneur. With this aim in mind, “Exploring Enterprise,” puts the student in the role of a consultant, employing a structured consultancy approach to identifying and evaluating opportunities for enterprise and business model innovation.

Exploring Enterprise aims to bridge the gap between the student’s subject area and real-world business applications. Employers often report that while students are knowledgeable about their subjects, they struggle to apply this knowledge in commercial and other real-world situations. This unit addresses this perceived gap by encouraging students to explore the commercial aspects of their fields, making their academic knowledge more applicable in business contexts. Previous students have found this unit particularly useful when transitioning into employment.

The individual summative assignment requires students acting as consultants to conduct a short study on a selected business of their choosing related to their subject area, and to produce a report with evidence-based recommendations on how the company might innovate its business model. This involves applying a methodical approach to the analysis of both their selected business (internal analysis) and the business environment in which the business operates (external analysis). These analyses will require the application of a range of key business concepts, tools and techniques such as financial analysis, the business model canvas, PEST, Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT and Ansoff’s Matrix.

Students will be encouraged to think about value creation in its broadest sense, considering not only commercial but also social, environmental, health, and well-being aspects of innovation. This holistic approach requires critical thinking and empathy, as students will need to consider multiple stakeholders and their needs and expectations when evaluating and recommending ideas.

By the end of the unit, students will have developed a consultancy mindset, mastered essential analytical tools, and gained the ability to identify and evaluate business opportunities. They will be equipped to spot opportunities for innovation creating value in various contexts, aligning with MEC’s vision of nurturing innovators and fostering start-ups with a global impact. 

Introduction to the unit

• Key steps to identifying and evaluating ideas for business model innovation.
• Communicating evidenced-based findings, conclusions and recommendations whether in written format or through a slide-deck.
• Three critical factors to innovation: the enterprising individual (entrepreneur/intrapreneur), opportunity identification, and turning ideas into actions (e.g. developing a plan, accessing resources, managing risks)

Enterprising individuals  

• Understanding and characterising entrepreneurs  
• Developing organisations and building teams
• Creating order from uncertainty

Opportunity Identification

Internal (company) analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses

• Interpreting Financial Information (financial statements & ratios), Critiquing the Business Model, Evaluating Customer / Stakeholder feedback

External (business eco-system) analysis to identify opportunities and threats

• Trend and impact analysis: applying the PESTLE tool
• Industry / market insights and issues: Porter’s 5-forces
• Competitive Advantage and Positioning: Competitor Analysis

Idea Generation, Evaluation and Selection

• Combining analyses: SWOT table
• Generating Ideas: Ansoff’s Matrix, Business Model Canvas
• Evaluating Options, Selecting Ideas: Value Created, Investment Required, Strategic Fit

Turning Ideas into Action

• Presenting actionable recommendations
• Recognising and managing risks including ability to access resources
• Getting Buy-In: Marketing your career and company  

• Surgery session for feedback/questions on coursework.
• Review of the unit / End of Unit quiz
• Next steps: Opportunities for further study and personal/business development with MEC

Lectures, workshops and surgeries.

Lectures will be used to introduce and cover the indicative syllabus (section 2). Time will be built into the session for individual and group-based activities designed to support the learning needed apply the content to the assignment.

The surgeries provide time for students to work on their projects or use the tutor for advice and guidance. Canvas resources exist including case studies, articles, links, YouTube videos and all the lecture slides and access to podcasts. 

Apply as a structured process, key analytical frameworks (business model canvas, financial analysis, PESTEL, Porter's Five Forces, SWOT, TOWS, Ansoff's Matrix) to analyse a business and its environment, generating actionable recommendations for business model innovation that create stakeholder value.

• Design, critically evaluate and implement a data-collection methodology using appropriate software tools to source, analyse and structure relevant secondary data from multiple sources necessary to carry out sufficiently in-depth analysis of a given business and its business environment.
• Critically evaluate and synthesise insights findings derived from the student's own analysis order to identify opportunities for business model innovation that are evidence-based, actionable, strategically appropriate and create meaningful stakeholder value.

Apply relevant software tools, including AI, in an innovative and ethical manner in order to research, analyse and to professionally and persuasively present structured business information as a written report or PowerPoint slide-deck that generates stakeholder buy-in.

Apply critical thinking and evidence-based problem-solving to convert business challenges into opportunities that are of strategic importance and that create meaningful stakeholder value in a manner that both demonstrates commercial awareness as well as ethical, social, and environmental.

Formative Assessment

Group Presentation (10 minutes)

Summative Assessment

Individual Project (100%)

Written feedback via Canvas within 15 working days of submission.

Useful websites

The course handbook also provides an extensive list of weblinks

Books

• Mullins, J.W. (2006), The New Business Road Test, 2nd ed. FT/ Prentice Hall, Harlow 
• Worthington, I. and Britton, C. (2006) The Business Environment, 5th ed. FT/Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Atrill, P. and McLaney, E. (2009), Financial Accounting for Non-Specialists, 6th ed, 
  FT/Prentice Hall, Harlow

Supplementary Text:  

• “Small Business Management, an entrepreneurial emphasis”, JG Longenecker, CW Moore, JW Petty, South Western College Publishing
• “The Business Plan Workbook”, Colin Barrow, Paul Barrow, Robert Brown, Published by Kogan Page
• “Strategic Entrepreneurship – A Decision-Making Approach”. Philip Whickham, Published by Prentice Hall
• “Entrepreneurship”, David Kirby, McGraw Hill
• “How to Master Finance”, T Gasking, Published by Kogan Page 

Offered as an option on the BA in Creative and Cultural Industries programme