McCombs School of Business - Graduate MAN 385 Entrepreneurial Management
Entrepreneurial Management is intended for anyone interested in starting a business, working for an entrepreneurial company or working with entrepreneurial firms as an investor or advisor. It is designed as a broad overview of entrepreneurial activities and issues, including identifying a winning business opportunity, gathering funding for and launching a business, growing the organization and harvesting the rewards.
MAN 385 Opportunity Identification and Analysis
Opportunity Identification and Analysis is for students who want to learn how to identify and evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities so that they will only pursue those ideas that have the greatest chance of success. It helps students understand all of the things they must do during the opportunity identification phase to accurately reflect the real tasks and costs of starting a new enterprise. This course covers multiple funding options including angel investors, venture capital, Leverage Buyouts and bootstrap financing. A key part of this course is the systematic evaluation of each piece of a business idea and the crafting of specific strategies and tactics to turn that idea into a functioning, profitable business.
MAN 385 Gathering Resources and Launch
Gathering Resources and Launch teaches how to turn a compelling idea into a real business. Students also gain “hands-on” experience working with real ventures in launch mode at the Austin Technology Incubator. This class focuses on companies that are established and on the verge of growth. This growth requires the entrepreneurs in the cases to understand what their strategies are, what resources and commensurate capital are required to implement them and what is needed to execute those plans. The stage of companies analyzed is typically early stage with established revenue streams, products and customers, facing the need to scale their existing business. The course focuses on designing the business model, obtaining funding, valuing the venture and striking the deal, recruiting and managing the team and selling.
MAN 385 Managing Entrepreneurial Growth
Managing Entrepreneurial Growth is for students who want to explore the challenges of running and growing an entrepreneurial company or a division of an established firm. The course starts by looking at the most basic question: Can the firm grow; should the firm grow? Since growth is a choice, the course also looks at the trade-offs between aggressive growth and what venture capitalists call “life style” businesses as well as the importance of identifying opportunities for new product development and responding to competitive threats. Finally, the course explores how managers can learn how to identify and respond to strategic inflection points that shape the growth potential of all firms – a critical first step before deciding what growth model makes the most sense for a firm. A crucial part of the analysis will be to better understand how managers can anticipate and respond to the reaction of competitors to their growth strategies.
MAN 385 New Venture Creation
New Venture Creation takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the preparation and presentation of a business plan. The course explores evaluating a business opportunity and the skills conducive to venture success including team building, organizing, planning, integrating and persuading. The course qualifies students to compete in the Texas Moot Corp Competition.
MAN 385 Advanced Venture Development Practicum
The Advanced Venture Development Practicum is designed for individuals and teams who have already developed a business plan for a new venture and seek to implement the plan. The course accelerates the venture development process by focusing on development and completion of action plans which may deal with risk management, acquisition of funding for the venture, recruitment of key personnel such as directors, the development of networks and presentation skills. It provides direct interaction with potential investors, professional service providers in areas such as accounting, banking and law, entrepreneurs with experience in key areas of new company development and potential customers and suppliers. By focusing on implementation, the course provides a means for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their new venture.
MAN 385 Entrepreneurship and Incubation
The purpose of Entrepreneurship and Incubation is to understand how new opportunities are identified and commercialized. Special emphasis is placed on the process of incubation. Austin is a “natural laboratory” for the incubation of new enterprises. The course places a great deal of emphasis on “live” case studies of entrepreneurs who have contributed to creating wealth and jobs in this region and around the globe.
MAN 385 Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance examines the roles and responsibilities of organizational leadership in a wide variety of settings as all organizations face slightly different versions of the same issues. Senior executives must consistently balance their time between achieving quarterly performance targets and building strong companies that can sustain above market financial performance in the future. As the business environment grows more complex, senior executives have to simultaneously manage business and political relationships, initiate and integrate acquisitions, create/change corporate culture, continually align the organization’s structure to the business strategy, deal with issues of corporate governance and succession planning and learn to navigate through potential public relations disasters. In addition, the senior management team must continually grapple with the question of how to allocate resources to competing programs and disciplines in support of the corporate strategy.
MAN 385 Economics of Competitive Strategy
Economics of Competitive Strategy is designed for individuals and teams who have already developed a business plan for a new venture and seek to implement the plan. The course accelerates the venture development process by focusing on development and completion of action plans which may deal with risk management, acquisition of funding for the ventures, recruitment of key personnel such as directors, the development of networks and presentation skills. It provides direct interaction with potential investors, professional service providers in areas such as accounting, banking and law, entrepreneurs with experience in key areas of new company development, and potential customers and suppliers. By focusing on implementation, the course provides a means for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their new venture.
MAN 385/LAW 350C/ME 397 Enterprise of Technology: From Mind to Market
Enterprise of Technology focuses on how to move an idea from the mind of the researcher to the marketplace by examining the activities involved in commercializing a technology from conception to profitable enterprise. Lectures are organized around the technology commercialization process. Additionally, outside speakers will speak on specific topics related to the course objectives. A faculty facilitator is present at each session to set the context and help the students understand the rationale of the course organization. This three-hour graduate course is cross-listed in Business, Engineering, Natural Sciences, Law School, and IC2 Institute. A significant portion of the course objectives is accomplished through multi-disciplinary teams.
FIN 394 Financial Management of Small Business
Financial Management of Small Business maps out what it takes to grow a fledging business to its full potential. In a case course, much of the learning occurs in preparing for the case, which often requires three to six hours of readings and preparation, including discussions within your study group. The case method is student-centered rather than instructor-centered. In the classroom, the students will drive a rigorous discussion of each case by identifying the problems and issues faced by the managers and formulating alternatives for solution backed by case facts and assumptions.
MAN 385 Small Business Consulting Practicum
The Small Business Consulting Practicum is designed for entrepreneurs who already have a well-developed business plan or concept for a new venture. The goal of the course is to take each venture to the next level. The next level for each venture is likely to be different. For some it may be launching the business; for others it could be formulating a strategy for obtaining capital or further developing the product. The first portion of the course will entail an assessment of the current status of the venture, the setting of goals for the semester and the formulation of an action plan for achieving the goals. The course accelerates the venture development process by focusing on development and completion of action plans which may deal with risk management, acquisition of funding for the ventures, recruitment of key personnel such as directors, the development of networks and presentation skills. It provides direct interaction with potential investors, professional service providers in areas such as accounting, banking and law, entrepreneurs with experience in key areas of new company development and potential customers and suppliers. By focusing on implementation, the course provides a means for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their new ventures.
MAN 385 International Strategy
International Strategy focuses on building management skills needed to develop strategies, design organizations and manage the operations of companies whose activities span international boundaries. This course should be of interest if you expect to be involved in managing or advising companies that either compete internationally or face international competitors in their home markets. The primary objective of the course is to develop a coherent way of thinking about strategy formulation and implementation of multinational enterprises with special attention devoted to achieving global efficiency, national responsiveness and organizational learning. The course draws on a combination of lectures, cases and conceptual readings.
MAN 385.33 Management and Marketing in the Global Arena
Management and Marketing in the Global Arena is for students who want to learn more about how managers anticipate and respond to competitive pressures in rapidly changing international markets. The course helps students enhance their analytical, decision making and implementation skills in an intense, highly competitive classroom environment. This course will also help students understand and apply analytical tools used by managers and management consultants to exploit competitive opportunities and effectively respond to competitive threats. It will focus on significant international marketing, managerial and operational challenges and opportunities from the perspective of managers with decision making responsibility. This course places an equal emphasis on managerial and marketing issues faced by firms operating in many parts of the world. It will help students address key financial and accounting issues central to global business activities. It also will look at the impact that our evolution from an industrial economy to an information-based economy is having on the nature of international business.
MKT 382 Innovations in Business Marketing
Many enterprises’ strategically important decisions involve marketing issues: understanding how to properly segment the market and target the right customer(s); differentiating the product/service offerings; formulating pricing and distribution channels and forming the alliances and network relationships necessary for dynamic, global marketplaces. This course focuses on these issues for companies selling technology-based products and integrates the impact of strategic marketing decisions on the financial performance of the enterprise. It also touches on management ethics and leadership issues.
MKT 382 New Product Development
New Product Development helps students learn about state-of-the-art management techniques to identify markets, develop new product ideas, measure customer benefits and design profitable new products. With a focus on marketing, the course concentrates on market measurement and the use of that information to develop the benefit targets for the new product. It provides techniques to interface the marketing function with the functions of R&D, design engineering and manufacturing, but it is beyond the scope of the course to emphasize these functions per se. The course will be relevant to students who expect to work directly in brand or product management as well as those whose interests are in general management and consulting. A key feature of the course is a term project (in self-selected teams of 3-4) requiring the development of product concepts that will best serve unmet customer needs. The course provides the generic background necessary for identifying, understanding and responding to customer needs with the opportunity to tailor the course toward your interests by your chosen product.
LEB 380.26 Law for Entrepreneurs
All entrepreneurs face a raft of difficult legal issues, including how to protect their intellectual property, how to hire and retain employees, how to raise capital without violating SEC rules, how to extract wealth from their company without being sued, etc. During this class, students take an idea and learn how to protect it, build a business around it and grow that business while minimizing legal and regulatory risks.
McCombs School of Business - Undergraduate MAN 337 Entrepreneurial Management
Entrepreneurial Management covers the natural life cycle of an entrepreneurial business: (1) evaluating the attractiveness of an idea; (2) launching the business; (3) growing the business; and finally, (4) harvesting the profits. The course examines the entrepreneurial venture as a journey; an adventure with a natural life cycle that begins with selecting worthy goals and ends with the harvesting of profits. The goal of the course is to prepare students for long, profitable and meaningful lives in business. Lifelong learning and the practical application of sound theory and ethical, moral and philosophical reflection are stressed.
MAN 337 Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Entrepreneurship and Innovation is about entrepreneurship, with special emphasis on technology transfer and wealth creation. The course brings together both the business side of entrepreneurship research and the liberal arts side of new venture development. The course concentrates on the entrepreneurial process as well as the history (elements from the ancient world) and theoretical aspects of new venture developments. Readings range from the development of high tech firms to how immigrants and internal minority groups develop and create wealth.
MAN 337.20 Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Introduction to Entrepreneurship is for anyone interested in starting a business, working with an entrepreneurial company or using entrepreneurial ideas to manage opportunity and risk in a larger company. This involves identifying a winning business opportunity, getting funding for and launching the opportunity, growing the business and harvesting the rewards. The course considers how entrepreneurial initiative can make a difference to business and society.
MIS 375 Strategic Information Technology Management
The rapid rate of IT innovation, massive investments in the IT infrastructure and applications, conflicting viewpoints regarding the value of IT and the massive erosion of technology-related wealth raise a gamut of issues for managers in user organizations, financial institutions, vendor organizations and consulting firms. This course has been designed to provide the frameworks and underlying principles to address these and other related issues. By the end of the semester, students will have developed an understanding and appreciation for the impact of IT on economies, industry sectors and businesses, the emerging technology infrastructure and its role in the modern organization, the justification of initiatives requiring information technology investments and the governance of information technology decisions in today’s firms.
MIS 373 Managing the Future
Managing the Future addresses the issue of the management of uncertainty. The course investigates different structured approaches that managers can use to deal with an uncertain future and introduces managerial concepts and methods for structuring decisions about the future of industries, products, markets and technologies. Methodologies include scenario analysis, technology roadmaps and dynamic innovation models.
School of Law 379M Business Law and Innovation
In Business Law and Innovation, the class explores the answers to three big questions: 1) what do ocean waves, flu viruses and fashion trends have to do with how business works; 2) why is spending on technology such a large part of our economy; and 3) what is the role of law, entrepreneurs and venture capital in this mix. The first question concerns an area of academic study and explains business behavior not just in terms of supply and demand economics, but by looking at the behavioral characteristics of natural systems. The second question addresses how businesses use technology to win against their competitors. Finally, students will learn how new technologies, brought to market by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, become part of how businesses function.
379M Green Technology Law and Policy
Green Technology Law and Policy examines the legal, business and policy dimensions of current efforts in the U.S. to promote the development and diffusion of green technologies. Drawing on recent legislative and policy developments at the state and national levels, the course will assess the merits of different policy instruments (e.g., market-based forms of regulation, renewable-energy portfolio standards, tax breaks, direct subsidies, prizes) as means of overcoming market barriers to green technologies. The viability of markets for green technologies and technological obstacles will also be evaluated. A series of technology-specific case studies will be discussed, with technologies including energy efficient products, renewable sources of power, carbon capture and sequestration and biofuels.
MAN 385/LAW 350C/ME 397 Enterprise of Technology: From Mind to Market
Enterprise of Technology focuses on how to move an idea from the mind of the researcher to the marketplace by examining the activities involved in commercializing a technology from conception to profitable enterprise. Lectures are organized around the technology commercialization process. Additionally, outside speakers will speak on specific topics related to the course objectives. A faculty facilitator is present at each session to set the context and help the students understand the rationale of the course organization. This three-hour graduate course is cross-listed in Business, Engineering, Natural Sciences, Law School, and IC2 Institute. A significant portion of the course objectives is accomplished through multi-disciplinary teams.