Entrepreneurship: The Quest for the Next Big Thing

Success in entrepreneurship, whether in creating a new venture or starting a new business within an organisation, rests on many factors, the most important of which are natural talent and skills. No matter what level of talent someone brings to their entrepreneurial enterprise, they can benefit from learning and honing their skills.
The skills that improve one’s chances of succeeding in entrepreneurship, like all skills, can be improved through learning and practice. In this workshop, participants will learn by example and thru participation.

This workshop begins by examining the risks and rewards of becoming an entrepreneur. It then covers the importance of failure for innovation and then practical steps one needs to take to start a business and to generate successful new business ideas.

Generating and evaluating new ideas are critical for sustaining innovation. There is a common perception that new idea generation happens almost magically and that it is impossible to evaluate the potential success of new ideas. In this workshop, participants will learn to generate their own new ideas and evaluate which ideas have the greatest chance of success. They will also get a chance to present their ideas as an “elevator pitch”.

Course Outline

• What is an entrepreneur and why is entrepreneurship important?
  
• What are the qualities that make a successful entrepreneur?
  
• Can entrepreneurship be taught?
  
• Why innovation requires failure?
  
• Sources of new business ideas
  
• Evaluating new ideas and assessing feasibility of a new venture
  
• Evaluating technical feasibility and marketability
  
• Asking the right 10 questions about your idea
  
• Past and present trends and mega-trends

Instructional Methodology

The workshop is structured in the same way as the entrepreneurial process itself, from idea generation and evaluation to creating a business model to negotiating and presenting to investors. The workshop will be hands-on and interactive, as participants work through each stage in the process of creating a new venture. The participants will develop skills to identify new ideas and opportunities forming the seeds of a successful new business. It comprises of both classroom lectures and experiential exercises.

Expected Outcome

The participant will learn the foundation for entrepreneurship, and the basics skills required for starting up a new business.

This includes sourcing for new business ideas, evaluating and assessing feasibility of new venture including technical feasibility and marketability, and learning to ask the right questions to minimise chance of failure and maximise opportunity of success.