Entrepreneurship and Business Planning & Development

The course provides an overview of the elements critical to starting a successful business enterprise. Using a two-fold emphasis on (1) responding opening to the multiplicity of changing environmental factors that confront a new business venture and (2) the use of management tools which ensure continuity of business operations, the course complements and reinforces the students’ general management competencies and develops their inherent entrepreneurial qualities. By going into the content, scope, and structure of a business plan, students are walked through the fundamentals of conceptualizing, developing and transforming a business idea into a workable venture. Fundamental concepts of the course are illustrated through a number of real-world examples, some drawn from the hospitality industry. In the process of providing valuable pointers on setting up a business enterprise, the course touches on relevant aspects of project management, strategic management, site selection, organizational structure, cost management, quality management, change management, and, as synthesis, overall performance measurement and management.