Courses - Fall 2013

Fall 2013 Courses | Winter 2013 Courses | Ross Course Descriptions

 

ES 250	3.0 Credits	Introduction to Entrepreneurship
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 Study Project
ES 444(B)	3.0 Credits	Introduction to Microfinance - Undergraduate
ES/STRAT 445	3.0 Credits	Base of the Pyramid
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 644(B)	2.25 Credits	Introduction to Microfinance - Graduate
ES 646(A)	2.25 Credits	Solving Social Problems
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 735(A)	1.5 Credits	Entrepreneurial Tunaround Management
ES 750	1 - 3 Credits	Independent Studies / Research Projects

Course Descriptions

ES 250 Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Introduction to Entrepreneurship is designed for all freshman, sophomores and juniors, including non-business students, who wish to learn about entrepreneurship, its role and importance in our society, and how to bring new ideas to marketplace both in the startup and corporate setting. This is an introductory course intended to provide students with a solid foundation on how entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship play a key role in the 21st century global economy. In the course, we will assess, explore, and critique the world of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is approached as a way of thinking and acting, as an attitude and a behavior. Our emphasis is on entrepreneurship as a process that can be applied in virtually any organizational setting. The principle focus will be on the creation of new ventures, the ways that they come into being, and factors associated with their success. This is a course of many ideas and questions, and you will be encouraged to develop and defend your own set of conclusions regarding each of these issues. This course mixes theory with practice, and you will be challenged to apply principles, concepts and frameworks to real world situations. This course is taught by Len Middleton.

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. This course is taught by Anocha Aribarg.

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. This course is taught by David Brophy.

ES 395 Entrepreneurial Management
Entrepreneurship is about overcoming ambiguity, risk and failure, embracing it, and learning from it. This course will explore entrepreneurship and identify and many contexts in which entrepreneurship manifests, including start-up, corporate, social, and public sector. It will prepare students for starting and succeeding in an intrepreneurial venture. It will enable participants to sharpen their ability to find and evaluate opportunities for a new venture, as well as to think creatively and solve problems in highly unstructured situations. A broad range of topics essential to entrepreneurial ventures will be covered, including idea generation, feasibility analysis, raising capital, marketing strategies, financial modeling, attracting a capable team, creating a culture, and preparing for growth. In addition, the course will cover buying a business, franchising, and family business. The main course deliverable is a complete business plan and a presentation to an outside group of investors. 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 444(B) Introduction to Microfinance - Undergraduate
Microfinance provides financial services to the poor, including credit, savings, and insurance. The field is undergoing a period of transition as microfinance institutions begin to seek money from capital markets. This course will explore how microfinance institutions are organized, how they raise money and are managed, and emerging trends that are shaping the field, all with an eye towards understanding the interplay between business models and poverty alleviation. This course is taught by Michael Gordon.

ES/STRAT 445 Base of the Pyramid: Business Innovation for Solving Society's Problems
In every country there are people who are very poor by either absolute or relative standards. These individuals at the economic "bottom of the pyramid" lack adequate income, health care, educational opportunities, etc. This course focuses on how business can serve the poor by remedying these conditions and make handsome profits while doing so. This course is taught by Michael Gordon.

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. This course is taught by Cindy Schipani.

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
In this capstone course, students learn and apply powerful frameworks and methodologies that are useful not only for planning and launching entrepreneurial ventures, but for corporate new-business-development and new-market-entry as well. Real-world lessons from entrepreneurs and investors are supplemented by a semester-long team project that entails each 4- to 5-student team researching and developing a business plan and investor presentation for a different startup business concept, with the professor's coaching. 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(B) 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 644(B) Introduction to Microfinance - Graduate
This live broadcast of a 7-week seminar speaker series hosted by the Haas School of Business University of California explores why and how microfinance operations have grown to proved financial services to poor and low-income people on a sustainable basis. The class brings together advice and best practices from successful practitioners and institutions around the world as well as new technology startups targeting the industry. This course will provide students with an excellent introduction to microfinance as an important development effort in the war against poverty, and it will also serve as an excellent forum to learn about current challenges and debates in the world of microfinance. This course represents a unique partnering with the Haas School of Business. A 2-hour webcast will be followed by an additional hour of discussion led by Michael Gordon.

ES 646(A) Solving Social Problems Through Enterprise and Innovation
The world's toughest problems can become opportunities for for-profit companies, non-profits, and other enterprises. These include challenges in the areas of poverty, health, education, the environment, and other social issues, such as treating women and children better. We will pay significant attention to how companies working at the economic base of the pyramid in the developing world and the West can develop successful businesses, though we will focus on other opportunities as well. We will see how many innovations in this area embrace new business approaches that are supported by leapfrog applications of information and communication technology. We will look at many examples of societal development through enterprise, try to spot trends, and look for frameworks. We will see that part of what makes such solutions work is finding ways to adopt innovative perspectives and devise innovative solutions. This course is non-technical, highly interactive, and requires no special background. It should be of interest to those wishing to understand where new business opportunities for serving society lie and how organizations can innovate to take advantage. This course is taught by Michael Gordon.

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 735 Entrepreneurial Turnaround Management
Turnaround management techniques will be examined in this course, led by an experienced practitioner. This "hands on" course evaluates analysis techniques, prioritization of tasks, communication strategies, strategic repositioning, financial restructuring, and the psychological aspects of troubled situations. This course is taught by Michael Hall.

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, 2013. The deadline for submission is September 7, 2013.
Project Sponsor Guidelines
Project Information Form
Proposal Example