I spent Christmas eve, Christmas, and post Christmas checking and grading the business plans. I merely checked the completeness: 20 pts each for Enterprise Delivery System, FS, Sales estimate (macro and micro market analysis), 10 pts each for business concept and business model, business objectives, and product <-->customer; 5 pts each for exit strategy and conformance to regulations. Some papers missed out parts completely; some are incomplete. The last tw,o since they are the latest part of the BP, the end game, have been for most papers are wanting.
Some did not follow the format: were not 40 pages or more, some were in power point. This is the rigor in entrepreneurship. There is the right format and completeness in form that must be followed. The VC out there are ruthless; more so than the academics. Some think this can be winged. If we cant be detailed and meticulous in this academic exercise, then it cant be done in real life and most likely the venture will fail.
Innovation and entrepreneurship is not just about innovation; and innovation is not just about creativity and new ideas; letting a thousand flowers bloom means you have to have flower culture -fertilization, weeding, watering. In entrepreneurship, it means knowing about processes, analysis, data - rigor and discipline.
Learning to write a business plan is an important business skill that must be learned by Masters -future guru of business (why are they called masters anyway if they can not write a business plan). It is a preparation for strama. Most of entrep students who breezed through the BP say writing a strama has been a walk in the park.
Congratulations to Mariko, Marta, Lei, and Rhea who wrote good business plans
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