View source for BSHE: Developing Entrepreneurial Skills for a Startup Founder


= Developing Entrepreneurial Skills for a Startup Founder =
* '''Course name''': Developing Entrepreneurial Skills for a Startup Founder
* '''Code discipline''': R-01
* '''Subject area''': 

== Short Description ==
This course covers the following concepts: •    A systematic and balanced approach to the development of entrepreneurial skills for the hi-tech startup founder; Entrepreneurial thinking as a unique phenomenon and the basic condition of successful entrepreneurship; Practice-oriented approach including real-life examples, work-based learning.; Startup founder as a “leader and follower”..

== Prerequisites ==

=== Prerequisite subjects ===


=== Prerequisite topics ===


== Course Topics ==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Course Sections and Topics
|-
! Section !! Topics within the section
|-
| Entrepreneurial thinking and hard-skills for a startup founder in hi-tech sphere || 
# • Entrepreneurial thinking as a key concept for the startup founder
# • Entrepreneurial Skills: Top-5 hard-skills for a startup founder in hi-tech sphere
|-
| Soft-skills of a startup founder || 
# • Presentation and communication skills to promote a startup. Networking.
# • Time management, stress management and personal efficiency: how to ensure balance and productivity for a founder
# • Innovative and flexible thinking, creativity
|-
| Entrepreneurial identity of a startup founder and facing challenges || 
# • Startups in VUCA and BANI Reality: How Entrepreneurial Thinking Can Help a Founder Be Efficient in the Face of Uncertainty
# • A startup as a “reflection” of the founder’s personality: how personal growth helps to increase efficiency and form a strong team
|} 
== Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) ==

=== What is the main purpose of this course? ===
The main purpose of this course is to provide a startup founder with a holistic understanding of how various entrepreneurial skills can help ensure not only the potential success of a startup, but also their own personal effectiveness, as well as enjoyment of running a hi-tech business.

=== ILOs defined at three levels ===

==== Level 1: What concepts should a student know/remember/explain? ====
By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...
* •     the content and characteristics of the modern concept of "entrepreneurial thinking";
* basic entrepreneurial skills and their features;
* methods of self-assessment of readiness for entrepreneurial activity;
* features of presentation, communication skills and networking, their importance for the promotion of a startup;
* concepts and characteristics, the main tools of time management, stress management and personal effectiveness;
* definition, features and characteristics of creativity, innovative and flexible thinking in the context of a startup;
* basic investor requirements for founder skills;
* the concept and characteristics of VUCA- / BANI-reality, special requirements for entrepreneurial skills of the founder in conditions of uncertainty;
* concept and characteristics of a concept of a founder as a “leader and follower”.

==== Level 2: What basic practical skills should a student be able to perform? ====
By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...
* •     Entrepreneurial thinking and basic entrepreneurial skills for the potential effectiveness of a startup;
* Innovational and flexible thinking, creativity
* Time-management and stress management
* Presentation and communcation skills
* Dealing with uncertainty and facing the challenges
* Teambuilding and leadership for startup founder

==== Level 3: What complex comprehensive skills should a student be able to apply in real-life scenarios? ====
By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...
* Understanding of readiness to start business in hi-tech sphere
* Effective communication with investor
* Presenting startup and effective analyzation of  feedback
* Managing startup team
* Facing the challenges in startup realities and leading the team
* Organizing of constant self-delvelopment for the effectiveness of startup 
== Grading ==

=== Course grading range ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ 
|-
! Grade !! Range !! Description of performance
|-
| A. Excellent || 90-100 || -
|-
| B. Good || 75-89 || -
|-
| C. Satisfactory || 60-74 || -
|-
| D. Poor || 0-59 || -
|}

=== Course activities and grading breakdown ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ 
|-
! Activity Type !! Percentage of the overall course grade
|-
| Labs/seminar classes || 20
|-
| Interim performance assessment || 30
|-
| Exams || 50
|}

=== Recommendations for students on how to succeed in the course ===


== Resources, literature and reference materials ==

=== Open access resources ===
* •.     Kiyosaki, R. (2011) Rich Dad Poor Dad. What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Plata Publishing.
* Willink, J. (2020) Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual. St. Martin’s Press.
* Five Insightful TED Talks That Every Startup Founder Should Watch https://mindsea.com/startup-founder-ted-talks/

=== Closed access resources ===


=== Software and tools used within the course ===
 
= Teaching Methodology: Methods, techniques, & activities =

== Activities and Teaching Methods ==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Activities within each section
|-
! Learning Activities !! Section 1 !! Section 2 !! Section 3
|-
| Homework and group projects || 1 || 1 || 1
|-
| Midterm evaluation || 1 || 1 || 1
|-
| Reports || 1 || 1 || 1
|-
| Essays || 1 || 1 || 1
|-
| Oral polls || 1 || 1 || 1
|-
| Discussions || 1 || 1 || 1
|-
| Testing (written or computer based) || 0 || 1 || 0
|} 
== Formative Assessment and Course Activities ==

=== Ongoing performance assessment ===

==== Section 1 ====
{| class="wikitable"
|+ 
|-
! Activity Type !! Content !! Is Graded?
|-
| Question || 1. What are the key features of entrepreneurial thinking? || 1
|-
| Question || 2. What are the top-5 hard skills for a startup founder? || 1
|-
| Question || 3. What are the characteristics of startup readiness? How can you understand that someone is ready to start a business? || 1
|-
| Question || 4. Why is self-assessment so important for starting a business? || 1
|-
| Question || 5. What is a personal brand? What does it consist of? || 1
|-
| Question || 1. Do you think a startup founder can/should be excellent in all top-5 hard-skills? Why? || 0
|-
| Question || 2. Which skills can you add to this list? Why? || 0
|-
| Question || 3. Do you think that most successful entrepreneurs were having their entrepreneurial skills already well developed or were developing them to be a success? Find 2-3 examples. || 0
|-
| Question || 4. Do you think startup founder should always be a manager? Find 2-3 examples. || 0
|-
| Question || 5. Do you know any examples of startup founders without a proper background and knowledge in the sphere of his/her business? Is it possible in IT-sphere? || 0
|-
| Question || Questions for exam preparation within this section || 0
|-
| Question || 1. What is the vision of hard-skills of a startup founder? Find 3-5 examples on internet. || 0
|-
| Question || 2. How do typical hard-skills of a startup founder differ in IT-sphere? Why do you think so? || 0
|-
| Question || 3. What is your motivation of becoming a startup founder? || 0
|-
| Question || 4. Do you think it is possible to understand if a startup will be successful or not? Find 2-3 examples of real stories of success and failure in the predictions. || 0
|-
| Question || 5. Do you have an entrepreneurial thinking? How others can see it? Do you want to develop it? How do you think to do it? || 0
|} 
==== Section 2 ====
{| class="wikitable"
|+ 
|-
! Activity Type !! Content !! Is Graded?
|-
| Question || 1. What is a pitch deck? What is an elevator pitch? || 1
|-
| Question || 2. What are the main principles of time-management? Startups are all about deadlines, would you agree or not? || 1
|-
| Question || 3. Is stress always harmful and negative? Why? When stress is very harmful? || 1
|-
| Question || 4. What is networking? What are the main differences between networking and “useful” connections? || 1
|-
| Question || 5. What is creativity / innovational thinking/ flexible thinking? || 1
|-
| Question || 1. What are the best stress management techniques you know? (use different kind of sources for your search) || 0
|-
| Question || 2. What are the best startup pitches in your opinion? Find 2-3 best inspirational examples. || 0
|-
| Question || 3. What can your startup community look like? Which values will you share? Who will join you and why? || 0
|-
| Question || 4. Why is it difficult to listen and hear others? Why is this so important in startup/investors relationship? || 0
|-
| Question || 5. What are the most important psychological aspects of investor/founder relationship? || 0
|-
| Question || Test questions for exam preparation within this section || 0
|-
| Question || 1. What are the crucial parts of the pitch deck? || 0
|-
| Question || 2. What is a work/life balance for a startup founder? || 0
|-
| Question || 3. How does stress management can be used by a startup founder? || 0
|-
| Question || 4. Create your own time-management rules || 0
|-
| Question || 5. What are the innovative technologies that you are going to use in your startup? || 0
|} 
==== Section 3 ====
{| class="wikitable"
|+ 
|-
! Activity Type !! Content !! Is Graded?
|-
| Question || 1. What is VUCA and BANI reality for entrepreneurs? || 1
|-
| Question || 2. What is a professional identity of entrepreneur? || 1
|-
| Question || 3. What is a critical incident in entrepreneurship? || 1
|-
| Question || 4. What are the main strategies of facing critical incidents by startup founders? What are their features? || 1
|-
| Question || 5. What is a concept of “leader and follower”? Why is it important for founders in hi-tech sphere? || 1
|-
| Question || 1. What are the best examples of the actions of entrepreneurs for facing the challenges? Find 2-3 interesting examples. || 0
|-
| Question || 2. What is for you to be a startup founder? How does it reflect on your identity? || 0
|-
| Question || 3. Create the identity profile of a famous entrepreneur that inspires you. How does it look? Why all these roles help person to be a success? || 0
|-
| Question || 4. What does uncertainty provide for the startup? How to use the uncertainty for achieving new goals? || 0
|-
| Question || 5. Who are you – a leader or follower? Why? How can a founder combine both these roles? || 0
|-
| Question || Test questions for exam preparation within this section || 0
|-
| Question || 1. Is uncertainty good or bad for a startup founder? Why? || 0
|-
| Question || 2. What are your main strategies of facing critical incidents in entrepreneurship? What are the strong and weak sides of those? || 0
|-
| Question || 3. Do you think being entrepreneur is easy or hard? Why? When do you think it is easier – in the beginning or in some years of practice? || 0
|-
| Question || 4. What are the psychological factor of failure of major of startups within the first year in your opinion? || 0
|-
| Question || 5. What are the main critical incidents that a startup founder must face? || 0
|} 
=== Final assessment ===
'''Section 1'''
# 1. Create your hard-skills map and show what is a potential of the development of these skills.
# 2. What will you do for the development of these skills in future?
# 3. Evaluate your own startup readiness using the tools of the course
# 4. Evaluate the readiness of your pair companion and give some recommendations that you suppose will be useful for him/her.
'''Section 2'''
# 1. Present your startup (elevator pitch + standard investors’ 3 minutes pitch)
# 2. Present the innovative technologies that you are going to use in your startup? Why are they innovative?
# 3. Present your concept of life/work balance of entrepreneur. Which tools of time management and stress management will you use?
# 4. Present you networking concept. What are your values? Which values can you propose to others?
'''Section 3'''
# 1. Present your type of entrepreneurial identity and describe which strategies you will use for facing critical incidents
# 2. Create your identity profile. How will different identities create cooperation effect for your future effectiveness?
# 3. Find the example when you managed to face the challenge or situation of uncertainty effectively. Why did you manage?

=== The retake exam ===
'''Section 1'''

'''Section 2'''

'''Section 3'''