ASSIGNMENT 1:
Select a small firm ‘START UP’ of your choice in the business to business or business to consumer sectors’ and present it as a case study in written report format in the form of an outline business plan for the next five years. Cover the nature of the business start-up, the objectives for the next five years, capital requirements (investment and working capital) and likely sources and the vision and mission set for the new venture. Produce a time plan for the first five years in the form of a Gantt chart or a Critical Path Analysis chart. (500 words)
Using the case study you have constructed from the above task as a vehicle for discussion and analysis and using appropriate evaluative frameworks assess the practical usefulness of the Scott and Bruce (1987) small firm growth model to entrepreneurs with start up firms’ during the first five years of their growth path. Use specific examples in your answer. (1,500 words)
ASSIGNMENT 2 (2,000 words)
Using the case study for the start-up company developed and discussed in assignment 1 demonstrate how such a ‘start-up’ company might use personal contact networking to help achieve sales growth and the acquisition of necessary resources during the first five years of its growth plan. Use examples in your work and use the case study as a vehicle for discussion. (2,000 words)
STUDENT GUIDELINES FOR ASSIGNMENT CRITERIA ASSIGNMENT:
• Use the specific start –up new venture and develop this new venture as a short CASE STUDY (500 words) and include it as part of the business plan. Cover the nature of the business start-up and cover the objectives, finance requirements and sources, time schedules for the first five years, vision and mission set for the new venture.
• Demonstrating and employing your knowledge of entrepreneurship and your entrepreneurial skills developed on the course within the assignment.
• Demonstrate a good grasp of entrepreneurial theory and practice in the construction and content of the business report on the use of the Scott and Bruce small firm growth model for your proposed new venture.
• Appreciate that the Scott and Bruce (1987) model is based on the fact that many small start-up firms’ fail in the first five years because the firm encounters a ‘crisis point’ in its growth path that results in the firms’ demise.
• Understand that the Scott and Bruce model does not in any way attempt to state what the nature of the crisis point may be, at what sales level in may occur or at what time it may occur (Day and Reynolds, 2007).
• Appreciate that there are many other academic studies (e.g. Carson and Hill et al 1995, Hills 2010) that investigate and list possible crises firms may face in the early stages of their growth path together with the likelihood of such events occurring, for example ‘over trading’ and lack of sufficient working capital which may result in insolvency.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the fact that although the Scott and Bruce model is not operationally specific in terms of being a predictive model or being able to identify or predict a specific crisis point, it does alert the entrepreneur to the possibility of such crisis points occurring and so the entrepreneur may be more vigilant and hence more prepared to deal with such an event in the early stages. Thus problems may be dealt with earlier and the entrepreneur may therefore have a better chance of surviving the problem before it develops into a Scott and Bruce type of crisis which may threaten the very existence of the small start-up enterprise.
• Understand that the model does allow the entrepreneur to develop contingency plans for various possible crisis scenarios in advance and so if a crisis develops the entrepreneur may be able to be at least partially prepared and hence have a greater chance of survival (Day and Reynolds, 2011).
• Appreciate that there are a number of early warning systems that may be available to the entrepreneur to help predict when such crises are developing. Many of these have been covered in class as worked examples. Some of these frameworks use a forecasting and tracking signal device to monitor the commercial health of the company tracking financial and other key parameters to provide an advanced or ‘early warning system’ that things are not right and need investigation (Carson, 2007).
• Understand that overall the Scott and Bruce (1987) small firms’ growth model is in many respects similar in predictive ability, or lack of it, to the conventional product life cycle using in marketing strategy, in fact the Scott and Bruce model is a form of life cycle model concentrating on the first five years of the start-up firm’s existence.
• Understand that the model helps to make the entrepreneur aware that a crisis could pose an existential threat to the start-up firm. Like the product life cycle model it is not sufficiently time dependent and situation specific to act as an operationally predictive model although additional measures can be used to operationalise the concept /model.
• Appreciate it is a valuable general model which puts the entrepreneur on a ‘high alert’ setting and encourages eternal vigilance against the possibility of situations getting out of hand and developing into a fully blown crisis which may pose an existential threat to the new firm.
• Conceptual models and academic frameworks should be used to support the points made in the report where appropriate.
• Students’ are expected to make use of specific examples in their work.
• Write in report format and produce a report of professional quality in terms of content, structure and standard of presentation.
• Additional material can be placed in the appendix. The appendix does not count in terms of the word length requirements. Only relevant additional material to support the written work in the actual report should be included in the appendix.