Syllabus

Title
5225 Garage - Business Planning and Performance Management
Instructors
Univ.Prof. Dr.habil. Christopher Lettl, Dr. Thomas Funke, Dr. Thorsten Lambertus, Lorenzo Massa, Ph.D.
Contact details
Type
PI
Weekly hours
5
Language of instruction
Englisch
Registration
02/18/13 to 03/01/13
Registration via LPIS
Notes to the course
Dates
Day Date Time Room
Wednesday 03/06/13 01:00 PM - 08:00 PM Extern
Thursday 03/07/13 09:00 AM - 04:00 PM Extern
Wednesday 03/13/13 10:00 AM - 06:00 PM Extern
Tuesday 04/09/13 02:00 PM - 06:00 PM Festsaal
Friday 06/07/13 05:00 PM - 08:00 PM Extern
Tuesday 06/11/13 12:00 PM - 03:00 PM Extern
Tuesday 06/18/13 12:00 PM - 03:00 PM Extern
Tuesday 06/25/13 12:00 PM - 03:00 PM Extern
Contents

The E&I course "Business Planning & Performance Management" builds on the teaching format "garage". The garage received the "Award for Excellent Teaching 2011" of WU Vienna and stands out due to its highly interdisciplinary setting. In the garage students from different universities have the opportunity to develop their own business idea and to learn how to form an idea/technology into a sound business concept. Thereby, students learn how to apply techniques and methods of how to build-up a successful start-up company in an early phase based on best-practices from leading entrepreneurs.

Students will start out with an idea/technology and will merge into an interdisciplinary team. Once teams have been built, students are guided step-by-step through the process of developing a rough concept into an attractive business idea. Special emphasis lies on the iterative nature of developing a business.

Learning outcomes

In this highly interactive course students learn what it takes to start a successful business in a "real life" scenario.

After completing the course, students will know how to:

from a content perspective:

  • ..search, recognize & assess business opportunities
  • ..enrich business ideas by applying appropriate tools & techniques 
  • ..discover customers & their needs
  • ..evaluate the ecosystem around business ideas
  • ..create profitable & sustainable business models
  • ..apply creativity techniques in an appropriate way
  • ..deal with high-tech

from a  project management perspective:

  • ..structure a fuzzy project & to tackle uncertainty
  • ..break down complex tasks into manageable modules
  • ..deal with several stakeholders at once
  • ..manage different ways to target & to arrive at a decision
  • ..nail down the relevant project outcomes in a business proposal

from a team management perspective:

  • ..learn how to effectively handle interdisciplinarity
  • ..work in teams efficiently by incorporating the strenghts of each team member into the process
  • ..cope with different work styles, opinions & perspectives

from a communication perspective:

  • ..engage in vivid discussions & interactive group sessions
  • ..present project outcomes in different environments & for different target groups (e.g. expert jury, team members, VirginiaTech conference, etc.)

Teaching/learning method(s)
The course builds on workshop sessions. The workshop sessions include a combination of various learning methods to deliver the different topics and skills to the students and are highly interactive. The workshops will include team work, open class discussions, individual team coachings and team coachings with external experts.
Assessment

The final grade of the course will depend on:

  • 15% in-class contribution and presentations (active listening and discussion in class, pitch presentations, implementing feedback) 
  • 30% assignments (individual reports, team reports, comfort challenges) 
  • 25% final report 
  • 30% final presentation

 

Availability of lecturer(s)

Dr. Thomas Funke, thomas.funke@wu.ac.at, +43-(0)1-31336-5972;

Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. Thorsten Lambertus, thorsten.lambertus@wu.ac.at, +43-(0)1-31336-5419;

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christopher Lettl, christopher.lettl@wu.ac.at;

Unit details
Unit Date Contents
1 06.-07.03.2013 13:00-20:00 + 09:00 - 16:00 Garage-Blueprint: Introduction of the garage-toolbox; focus on me, myself, I; informal exchange of business ideas 
2 14.03.2013 10:00 - 18:00 Garage-Basement: Idea exchange; start-up teams
3 09.04.2013 14:00 - 18:00 Garage-Pitch: mid-term presentation
4 07.06.2013 17:00 - 20:00 Garage-Launch: Investor presentation
5 11.06.2013 12:00 - 15:00 Garage-Tuning 1: business-concept refinement
6 18.06.2013 12:00 - 15:00 Garage-Tuning 2: business-concept refinement
7 25.06.2013 12:00 - 15:00 Garage-Tuning 3: business-concept refinement
Last edited: 2013-02-12



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