Project Seminar "Business Plan"

Bachelor 2023/2024

Type: Compulsory course

Area of studies: Business Informatics

Delivered by: Department of Strategic and International Management

Where: Graduate School of Business

When: 3 year, 3 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Anna Veselova

Language: English

ECTS credits: 2

Contact hours: 20

Full Syllabus

Abstract

Creating a business plan allows the company's management to establish a set of interrelated key goals, priorities and strategies in the business, evaluate the attractiveness and profitability of a business idea or project, as well as attract additional equity or debt financing. The business planning method is applicable both when creating new business ideas and companies, and when implementing new projects in existing companies. Within the framework of the seminar, students will get acquainted with both classical tools and modern approaches to business planning. The independent work of students includes the study of additional materials within the relevant thematic sections, as well as the development of the theoretical knowledge obtained and their consolidation by examples.

Learning Objectives

To know the basic concepts and terms: the essence and meaning of business planning and business plan.
To know the methodology, methods and information support of business planning.
To know about the basics of business planning: the value of the project, break-even, the attractiveness of the project.
To know the structure and content of the business plan.
To know about the tasks and tools necessary for market analysis.
To know the tasks and tools needed to develop a marketing plan.
To know the steps necessary to build an organizational plan and an operational plan (production plan).
To know the content of the investment plan, the key elements of the financial plan, as well as the main elements of the performance evaluation and risk management plan.
To know about modern online solutions for business modeling and business planning, to know about agile approaches to business planning.

Expected Learning Outcomes

be able to differentiate between key concepts and terms of business planning
be able to formulate key steps in bring an entrepreneurial idea to action
be able to apply key marketing instruments for a market analysis considering the specifics of the business idea
be able to develop a set of marketing tools to promote the product/service
be able to identify tarket market and consumer profile
be able to apply regulatory base of the market to develop an optimal organizational structure
be able to develop a distribution of responsibilities between employees in the most efficient way considering performance quality and financial costs
be able to formulate a set of requirements to the employees in order to obtain the best possible results
be able to differentiate between fixed and variable costs and identify their composition for a specific product/service
be able to clearly describe an operational process and respective operational costs
be able to calculate required operational capacities, equipment, etc.
be able to evaluate financial attractiveness of the project

Course Contents

Introduction
Marketing plan
Organizational plan
Operational plan
Financial plan

Assessment Elements

Group assignment 1
Group assignment 2
Group assignment 3
Group assignment 4
Group assignment 5
Exam

Interim Assessment

2023/2024 3rd module
0.5 * Exam + 0.1 * Group assignment 1 + 0.1 * Group assignment 2 + 0.1 * Group assignment 3 + 0.1 * Group assignment 4 + 0.1 * Group assignment 5

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Colin Barrow, Paul Barrow, & Robert Brown. (2021). The Business Plan Workbook : A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating and Developing a Successful Business: Vol. Tenth edition. Kogan Page.
Osterwalder, A., Clark, T., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation : A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=335366
Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup : How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York: Currency. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=733896

Recommended Additional Bibliography

McKeever, M. P. (2018). How to Write a Business Plan (Vol. 14th edition). Berkeley, California: NOLO. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1840225

Course Syllabus