New Venture Consultancy Projects

This unit offers students the opportunity to gain real-life experience of evaluating a new venture and its founder(s). In the lectures and workshops, students will learn about the challenges new ventures face to launch, manage and grow a venture, with a particular focus on health related ventures. Throughout the unit, various academic concepts, tools and frameworks will be outlined, discussed and evaluated and students will work in groups to apply these to a new venture.  They will have the opportunity to question the founder(s) of their allocated venture and through the insights these interactions offer, along with secondary research and the application of tools and frameworks, they will evaluate the current situation and performance of a new venture and then develop recommendations and action plans to help the venture survive and grow.  

MSc Public Health (Optional) 

The unit aims to:

Provide the student with real experience of the processes, activities and challenges involved in launching, managing and growing a new venture. 

Syllabus (indicative curriculum content):

Phase 1: Understanding and evaluating new ventures

Key characteristics of early-stage new ventures

Measuring performance of new ventures

Challenges facing early-stage ventures  

Phase 2: Evaluating specific aspects of new ventures  

Evaluating a new venture’s offering

Evaluating the founder(s) of a new venture

Evaluating the external environment of a new venture

Evaluating the internal operations of a new venture

Evaluating new ventures’ business models

Evaluating the overall performance of a new venture

Phase 3: Developing Recommendations and Action Plans  

Setting objectives and developing a strategy  

Developing recommendations for survival and/or growth

Creating action plans for implementing strategies and recommendations

Identifying and managing risks of new strategies

10 x 1 hour in-person lectures

10 x 2 hour in-person workshops

In workshops students will use case studies, journal articles, in-class discussions and participate in a group project working with a real early-stage new venture.   

Identify the principal activities that need to be considered and addressed when creating an effective strategy and plan to enable a new venture to survive and/or grow

Evaluate strategic analysis tools in terms of their validity for understanding new venture performance

Collate and utilise relevant contextulaised information to improve decision making, critically evaluate business opportunities, formulate objectives, determine strategies and plan actions

Evaluate the role of founders, other stakeholders and considerations in the success of a new venture.

Undertake an in-depth strategic analysis of a new venture to gain a sufficiently comprehensive, critical and holistic appreciation of the context in which it operates

Create an actionable set of recommendations and action plans to enable founder(s) to grow their business

Collaborate effectively with team members to complete a group project, demonstrating clear communication, role assignment and conflict resolution skills

Create and communicate a tailored business strategy to the founder(s) of a new venture

Propose creative solutions to challenging and complex problems that take account of stakeholder requirements and values, resource constraints and availability, and external barriers, risks and threats

Make strategic decisions in situations of ambiguity, uncertainty and risk based on interactions with the founder(s) of a new venture, reflection and sense-making

Cultivate critical evaluation skills in identifying, selecting, utilising and evaluating various critical evaluation skills.

Group Report 50%

Individual Assessment 50%

Written feedback within 15 working days 

Mazzarol, T & Rebound, S. (2020) Small Business Management: theory and pactice. Springer: Singapore

Sorensen, H.E. & Hoboken, N.J. (2012) Business Development: a market-orientated approach. Pearson: Harlow

Stokes, D. & Wilson, N (2021) Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Cengage: Andover

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Gregory, B., Smith. A. & Papadakos, T. (2015) Value Proposition Design: how to create products and services customers want. Wiley: New York

Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y. (2013) Business Model Generation: A handbook for visionaries, game changers and challengers. Wiley: Somerset