The Smith School Redefines the MBA
Experience with
New Business Plan Course
The Smith School’s new Business Plan Course is not just for entrepreneurs –
it’s for everyone. BUSI 691 starting in the spring is a capstone course for the
full-time MBA program that offers a great example of how the school is
progressively pushing boundaries on the traditional MBA experience.
The ability to respond quickly to changing market conditions – an essential
skill for global business leaders – also demands high levels of flexibility and
creativity. The Business Plan Course is a unique course that cultivates
innovative thinking, while integrating the knowledge from the MBA program and
principles from core courses into one final project. Designed and taught by Bob
Baum, associate professor of entrepreneurship, the course reflects the Smith
School’s core values and commitment to innovation as key to business education
in the modern world.
“Entrepreneurship involves commercialization of innovation,” said Baum. “The
business plan involves students in their own ideas – and forges a valuable link
between core classes and projects.”
During the course students will form three-person teams that will create a
business plan to commercialize an innovation. The plan can involve creation of
independent ventures or ventures within an established business and Baum
estimates that about 50 percent will be within an established company. Other
essential course components include real-life case studies taken from the
Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship and an analysis that will test the feasibility of the
proposed business plan.
The course will last a total six sessions, featuring a guest speaker and
lecture for each session. The line up of guest speakers includes Asher Epstein,
managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship; and Melissa
Carrier, director of venture investments and social entrepreneurship. Epstein
will share the Dingman Process and ideation, a systematic approach to
identifying opportunity and creating new ventures; while Carrier will help
students explore ideas in social entrepreneurship and ethics.
Other guest lecturers include:
- Smith School MBA ‘05 Matt Fleisher, CEO of Hook & Ladder, a successful
microbrewery that got its start at the Dingman Center
- Seth Goldman, CEO and founder of Honest Tea, a Bethesda, Md.-based firm
that produces organic beverages
- Doug Britton, senior business development officer at Lockheed Martin and
a current part-time MBA student.
Students will have an opportunity to showcase all they have learned with a
real business plan competition on May 8. Students will be charged with
delivering 10-minute oral presentations that will lead to eight selected
finalists. Smith School faculty and industry practitioners will serve as judges.
“This is one competition where everyone will win,” said Baum. “The knowledge
and experience gained in class will bring career-long rewards.”
