Syllabus

Title
4047 E&I Project 2: Scenario Planning
Instructors
Dr. Sonja Sperber, Alexander Staub, M.Sc.
Type
PI
Weekly hours
2
Language of instruction
Englisch
Registration
02/17/23 to 02/19/23
Registration via LPIS
Notes to the course
Dates
Day Date Time Room
Wednesday 03/01/23 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM TC.0.10 Audimax
Thursday 03/09/23 09:00 AM - 06:00 PM TC.4.13
Friday 03/10/23 09:00 AM - 03:00 PM D5.1.002
Wednesday 03/15/23 04:00 PM - 07:00 PM D5.0.002
Wednesday 04/19/23 01:00 PM - 06:00 PM EA.5.044
Wednesday 05/10/23 02:00 PM - 06:30 PM D5.0.002
Wednesday 05/17/23 03:30 PM - 07:00 PM D5.1.004
Monday 06/12/23 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM Extern
Wednesday 06/21/23 03:30 PM - 07:00 PM D5.1.002
Contents

Digitalization is changing the way companies create and capture value across different industries. In media sector and creative industries, for instance, Netflix and Spotify need to come up with new digital products or new strategies that are appealing for customers and are able to compete with future incumbents. Disruption has even affected the pure manufacturing sector with Ford and Toyota competing not with each other but with the larger ecosystem including Google and Uber.

This course won the 2020 award for Innovative Teaching by the WU for its focus on transferrable skills and learning outcomes which were deemed highly relevant for practice

This course is designed to prepare students with fundamental elements of trend analysis and scenario planning. Students will have the opportunity to work on real-world problems of partner companies such as Nokia, Mondi, and A1 and solving them through applying state-of-art methods and techniques. 

Choose this course, if you would like to learn
- to analyze relevant trends for an organization
- to create future scenarios based on key trends
- Come up with solution approaches for future business challenges
 

In addition, the course allows you
- to work with established companies
- to gain insights from and contacts with these companies
- to combine analytical abilities wtih creativity

 

 

Learning outcomes

In the E&I Scenario Planning: Anticipate Disruption course, students expand their understanding of and ability to apply theories of entrepreneurship and innovation. Students work on a real-world case with a partner company to deepen and broaden their skills. After successfully completing the course, students will be able to:

Project management skills

· Independently structure complex problems.

· Set up and manage innovation projects (addressing problems that are often poorly defined).

· Present group findings in a concise report.

· Manage a team and harness the strengths of every team member for a project.

Communication skills

· Efficiently communicate with team members, partner companies and stakeholders (making appointments, discussions, representation of the institute, etc.)

· Professionally communicate results in oral and written reports.

· Create and deliver professional presentations.

Subject-specific knowledge and its application

      · Effectively gather and filter market data.

· Use scientific (qualitative and quantitative) methods to research and analyze market data in a meaningful way.

· Professionally analyze the target ecosystem and identify relevant future trends.

· Create sophisticated scenarios using scenario planning techniques and the appropriate analytical tools.

· Apply divergent thinking to increase creativity, identify multiple perspectives and arrive at a set goal

In addition to the content provided in class, students have premium access to DataCamp, giving them an opportunity during the course to improve their data science skills and better their understanding of the technical aspects involved in collecting and exploiting user/financial/environmental data.

Students are not required to engage with the content on DataCamp to successfully complete the course. It is, however, an excellent opportunity to develop highly valuable technical skills as well as gain a better understanding of the discipline of data science, the opportunities it unlocks, and working with data beyond Excel.

Students can explore the following areas on the platform at their own pace:

· Data manipulation

· Data visualization

· Data collection

· Introductions to R and Python

· Introductions to machine learning

Attendance requirements

As the interaction with other students as well as external stakeholders is an integral part of this course, active participation in-person is important.

Students must attend at least 80% of all classes and events to successfully complete the course. However, due to their importance in reaching the course goals, 100% attendance is required for the literature test, kick-off, mid-term and final presentations as well as the E&I Touchdown event. In case of absence due to illness for the literature test, an alternative exam (written or oral) will be provided to the student. For the kickoff, absences (up to maximum of 1,5h) due to a scheduled written exam at WU can be excused if the course instructors are notified with a proof of examination before the kickoff.

In general, all absences in the course must be notified to the course instructors via email (if possible in advance) and confirmation (for example a medical certificate, or in case of an exam a note confirming the date of the written examination) must be submitted as soon as possible. Absences can result in additional compensation work to ensure the course's learning outcomes.

 

Information for E&I students taking a semester abroad that starts in January
At E&I we value the international experience our students get from taking an exchange semester abroad. We also understand that some exchange semesters already start in January, leading to schedule overlaps with our courses. In that case, we will enable you to take the project course. Please inform your course instructors and fellow team members when the semester starts to make the necessary arrangements and counterbalance the absence in the last month by distributing the workload in a fair and reasonable manner among all team members in advance.

Teaching/learning method(s)

- 1 ½ day kick-off event with case study work, project selection, partner company meetings, and networking

- Group work on real-world projects with mentoring from course instructors and external coaches

- Workshops and regular coaching as needed for each team

- Periodic presentations of work in progress, mid-term and final presentations with partner company involvement

- Documentation of analyses and results in a final report

- Skills workshops on course content (project and team management, presentations, idea generation)

- Skills-workshops regarding the contents of the course (project- and team management, presentations, idea generation)

Assessment

Performance is assessed based on individual as well as group work throughout the semester.

Grading system:

  • 60% Group-based performance
    • 10% Midterm presentation
    • 10% Midterm report
    • 15% Final presentation
    • 20% Final report
    • 5% Touchdown (adherance to deadlines, implementation of feedback and quality of pitch)
  • 40% Individual performance
    • 10% Literature test (in English / literature according to Learn@WU)
    • 25% ongoing participation and project management (presenting and participation during Q&A; contributions in kickoff, coaching and workshops)
    • 5% Reflection essay

 

Additionally, there will be mid-term and end of term peer ratings of the team members which may result in individual up- or downgradings.

The literature test takes place on the WU campus on March 1st, 2023, from 8:00 - 9:00 am. The test examines the basic and in-depth knowledge that is absolutely necessary for the participation in the projects. Therefore, you can find a literature list @learn with basic literature and course-specific additional literature for self-study. If you fail the literature test (less than 50%), you will be automatically transferred to the Analyst Support Program. As a student in the Analyst Support Program (ASP), you will work individually instead of working on a group-based project during the semester. The course instructors are responsible for the design of the program. In case of non-participation (e.g. due to illness) a medical certificate must be presented. For this purpose, a substitute exam will be offered

Attendance: In order to successfully pass this course, your absence is limited to 20% of our appointments. Please note that the attendance of the literature test, the kick-off and the E&I Touchdown (12th of June) is obligatory (exceptions in case of illness - requires a doctor's note). In case of an overlapping exam, clarify with the lecturer if parts of the kickoff can be missed.

Prerequisites for participation and waiting lists

Students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Specialization Program.

Please note that course registration is binding. The moment your registration is received, it is regarded as a clear commitment on your part. Students cannot transfer to another course (once the add/drop period is over) with no exceptions, as it would be unfair to other students (who might not have gotten into the course of their choice because of the spot you registered for). The number of students accepted to the course will only be expanded if there is no space in any other course 4/5.

Attention: the obligatory literature test will be held on 1 March 2023 between 8 and 9 am. Course participation is only possible by passing the literature test – if you cannot attend the test, we kindly ask you to not register for this course. Detailed information regarding contents and location of the test will be provided after the registration phase for this course. The literature test in this course overlaps with other courses within Course 4&5 of the specialization Entrepreneurship & Innovation. A parallel attendance of these courses is not possible.

Readings

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.

Availability of lecturer(s)

Office hours: by appointment via e-mail to sonja.sperber@wu.ac.at / alexander.staub@wu.ac.at

Other

ATTENTION – The abovementioned dates can change!

These dates are agreed either individually with lecturers and partner companies or take place off-campus. This is not uncommon in innovation projects. Detailed information regarding dates will be provided during the kick-off.

The literature (basis for the literature test) is available to download on learn@wu. (https://learn.wu.ac.at).

Weitere Informationen

Attention: the obligatory literature test will be held on March 1st 2023 between 8 and 9 am. Course participation is only possible by passing the literature test – if you cannot attend the test, we kindly ask you to not register for this course. Detailed information regarding contents and location of the test will be provided after the registration phase for this course.

The literature test in this course overlaps with other courses within Course 4&5 of the specialization Entrepreneurship & Innovation. A parallel attendance of these courses is not possible.

Last edited: 2023-02-21



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