Courses - Fall 2011

Fall 2011 Courses | Winter 2011 Courses | Ross Course Descriptions

 

MKT 318	3.0 Credits	Marketing Research Design and Analysis
ES/FIN 329	3.0 Credits	Financing Research Commercialization
ES 395	3.0 Credits	Entrepreneurial Management
ES 399	1 - 3 Credits	Independent Studies / Research Projects
ES/LHC 504(B)	2.25 Credits	Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship
ES 516(A)	1.5 Credits	Entrepreneurship via Acquisitions
ES 520(B)	1.5 Credits	CleanTech Venture Opportunities
ES 615	3.0 Credits	New Venture Creation
MKT 618	3.0 Credits	Marketing Research Design and Analysis
ES/FIN 623(A)	2.25 Credits	Venture Capital Finance
ES/FIN 624(B)	2.25 Credits	Private Equity Finance
ES 627(B)	1.5 Credits	Family Business
ES/FIN 629	3.0 Credits	Financing Research Commercialization
ES 701	1.5 Credits	Wolverine Venture Fund
ES 702	1.5 Credits	Frankel Commercialization Fund
ES 703	1.5 Credits	Social Venture Fund
ES 750	1 - 3 Credits	Independent Studies / Research Projects

Course Descriptions

MKT 318 Marketing Research Design and Analysis
This course focuses on managing the marketing research process, which provides information as an input to marketing decision-making. This requires an understanding of the components of the marketing research process, how to utilize it effectively to obtain relevant information, and how to integrate such information into the marketing decision-making process. We will discuss both the "production" and "consumption" of information for marketing decisions.

ES/FIN 329 Financing Research Commercialization
This course is a practicum, offering an opportunity to apply collective team work of a student/mentor alliance to building a launch pad for a technology-based venture. This course is open to Ross School MBA and BBA students as well as all UM graduate students. Student teams will work with mentors and principal investigators (PI) from UM faculty in the Medical School, College of Engineering and other divisions to build a business and marketing plan for a new technology or invention. Projects are based upon disclosures made to UM Office of Technology Transfer, other universities and industrial companies.

ES 395 Entrepreneurial Management
This course is a pragmatic, "real-world" orientation to the entrepreneurial process of conceiving and implementing an idea for a new venture. It is intended for students who have strong aspirations to eventually develop their careers in the context of entrepreneurial firms. Specific objectives of the course are for students to: gain experience identifying and screening potential business ideas; understand the early stage development of a business idea into an opportunity with the potential to generate profits or other desirable returns; understand capital and other resource requirements, and how to gain access to them; develop managerial confidence through the creation of a compelling business plan; and to experience the intensive, give-and take of a team effort directed toward a specific goal. This course is taught by Len Middleton.

ES 399 Independent Study Project
Independent study projects, supervised by faculty, are available to juniors and seniors in good academic standing. To select a study project, students should consult the appropriate professor about the nature of the project and the number of the credit hours the work would earn. One to three credit hours may be earned. Junior and senior BBAs may elect only one independent study project in a term, and no more than three during the BBA program. No more than seven credit hours from study projects may be counted toward the BBA degree. To register for a project students must submit an approved Independent Study Project application, available online.

ES/LHC 504 (B) Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship
Law provides entrepreneurs with many opportunities for competitive advantage. This course offers an examination of the issues that every entrepreneur should understand, from start-up to IPO. These issues include legal concerns that arise when you leave your current employer to start a business, creating an appropriate ownership structure, funding the venture, contracting with vendors and customers, hiring and retaining the best staff, protecting your intellectual property, and going public.

ES 516(A) Entrepreneurship via Acquisitions
This course is a pragmatic, "real-world" orientation to entrepreneurship through acquisition of a company. Many entrepreneurial oriented managers find that their skills are best utilized in the context of an acquisition and running of an existing firm, rather than via the start up of a new venture. This course addresses the range of relevant topics; acquisition restructuring, and the LBO search fund. This course is taught in the evening by J. Michael Davis.

ES 520(B) CleanTech Venture Opportunities
In 2006, CleanTech became the third-largest sector for venture investment ($2.9 Bn), indicating the potential for economic growth in this technology innovation space. The growth in this area is primarily driven by investments in Energy, with lesser investment in Water, Transportation, Advanced Materials, Manufacturing and Agriculture. Clean technologies have the opportunity to deliver dramatic improvements in resource efficiency and productivity, creating more economic value with less energy and materials, or less waste and toxicity. CleanTech Entrepreneurship will focus on value creation in this space, with emphasis on how strategic business drivers (e.g. regulation, subsidy, and market valuation) influence innovation and investment, and how this may impact research hypotheses and needs. The perspective provides in this course will be valuable for students that are both looking to form or join startup companies as well as for those that are looking to create corporate value via industrial research.

ES 615 New Venture Creation
This course, offered in both the fall and winter terms, focuses on the preparation of the business plan for new ventures. Competitive positions, marketing policies, research surveys, production methods, financial projections and organizational assignments all have to be included in this document. The course is taught both through the case method and through team projects involving 4-6 students working on a business development project for the entire term. The business plan project requires a substantial amount of research, team and faculty meetings, detailed and carefully constructed deliverables, and the final delivery of a full business plan. This course is taught by James Price.

MKT 618 Marketing Research Design and Analysis
This course focuses on managing the marketing research process which provides information as an input to marketing decision-making. This requires an understanding of the components of the marketing research process, how to utilize it effectively to obtain relevant information, and how to integrate such information into the marketing decision-making process. We will discuss both the "production" and "consumption" of information for marketing decisions.

ES/FIN 623(A) Venture Capital Finance
This course covers venture capital market structure and institutional arrangements and the application of financial theory and methods in a venture capital finance setting. It presents and applies the fundamentals of venture capital finance, employing "live" case studies to focus on financing startup and early stage, technology-based firms. The course covers four main aspects of venture capital: valuation, deal structuring, governance, and harvesting. The case method is used to demonstrate the practical, hands-on application of techniques following their development in class. Current "market" venture capital deal terms and principles of their understanding, as well as a number of state-of-the-art of financing techniques are covered in the course to give students a strong understanding of a VC deal flow from both sides - investor's and entrepreneur's. Cross-listed with: Fin 623. This course is taught in the evening by David Brophy.

ES/FIN 624(B) Private Equity Finance
This course presents the fundamentals of private equity finance, focusing on financing mezzanine deals and buyout transactions. The course covers the private equity and buyout market structure, institutional arrangements and application of financial theory and methods in a private equity and buyout setting. The course covers four main aspects of private equity mezzanine investments and buyout transactions: valuation, deal structuring, governance, and harvesting. "Live" case studies are used to demonstrate the practical, hands-on application of techniques following their development in class. During this course, students compete in the Michigan Private Equity Competition with a target of creating an investment pitch for a public-to-private investment candidate. The competition is coordinated in conjunction with Glencoe Capital, a $1 billion buyout fund in Chicago and is sponsored by Alan Gelband Company, Inc. in New York. This course is open to all UM graduate students. Cross-listed with: Fin 624. This course is taught in the evening by David Brophy.

ES 627 Family Business
This course explores the strategic, operating, financial, legal, family, career and business issues found in family-owned and managed companies or privately-held firms. The challenge of the course is to provide the tools to be successful, whether as part of a family business, work for one, or want to be a consultant to a family business. This course is taught in the evening by Len Middleton.

ES/FIN 629 Financing Research Commercialization
This course is a practicum, offering an opportunity to apply collective team work of a student/mentor alliance to building a launch pad for a technology-based venture. This course is open to Ross School MBA and BBA students as well as all UM graduate students. Student teams will work with mentors and principal investigators (PI) from UM faculty in the Medical School, College of Engineering and other divisions to build a business and marketing plan for a new technology or invention. Projects are based upon disclosures made to UM Office of Technology Transfer, other universities and industrial companies. This course is taught in the evening by David Brophy.

ES 701 Wolverine Venture Fund
The Wolverine Venture Fund was launched at the University of Michigan in Fall 1997, with a dual mission: to earn a venture rate of return, and to support the educational missions of the Ross School of Business in the area of private equity investing and entrepreneurship. Students have substantial input into decisions to invest in start-up ventures. This course is designed to give students "hands-on" experience in the entire process of venture investing, including: sourcing applicants, initial analysis, due diligence investment negotiation, and monitoring the portfolio of investment. An external advisory board provides assistance and input. This course is taught by Richard M. (Erik) Gordon.

ES 702 Frankel Commercialization Fund
This course is provided for students interested in technology commercialization, new business creation and venture capital. The course combines class room learning with experience managing a student run investment fund formed to accelerate the rate of successful commercialization of ideas and technology found at the University of Michigan. Students will have an opportunity to evaluate new technologies, meet with inventors and company founders, perform due diligence on opportunity of interest, work with the inventors to develop a value adding investment plan for the idea, to prepare and obtain approval for a recommendation to invest, and most importantly, to convince the inventor to accept the investment team's investment proposal. Student teams will seek guidance from and make their recommendations to a Board of Advisors made up of successful business people and industry experts. This course is taught by Tom Porter.

ES 703 Social Venture Fund
This course will provide students with the education, tools, and techniques essential to valuing and financing venture investments that create sustainable value for both the investor firms and society at large. Students will engage in action-based learning of the entire process of social venture investing: sourcing applicant deals, initial screening analysis, due diligence, investment negotiation and monitoring of the investment portfolio. The key distinguishing feature of this course is that all core investment competencies will be developed in the context of creating sustainable social value. Students will develop a broad-based understanding of social and environmental valuation with the objective of measuring and optimizing the blended value of financial and social return of an enterprise. This course is taught by Gautam Kaul.

ES 750 Independent Studies / Research Projects
Independent study projects, supervised by faculty, are available to graduate business students in good academic standing. To select a project, students should consult the appropriate professor about the nature of the project and the number of credit hours the work would earn. Students earn one to three credit hours per project and may elect only one study project in a term. Graduate business students should consult their program bulletins for information regarding total number of projects and credits that can be applied to their degree. To register for a project students must submit an approved Independent Study Project application, available online.

The following links will be available on this website until August 31, 2010. The deadline for submission is September 4, 2010.
Project Sponsor Guidelines
Project Information Form
Proposal Example