PřF:XV004 From Ideas to Business - Course Information

XV004 From Ideas to Business

Extent and Intensity

2/2/0. 4 credit(s) (plus extra credits for completion). Type of Completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

RNDr. Vojtěch Krmíček, Ph.D. (lecturer)
RNDr. Eva Janouškovcová, Ph.D., LL.M. (lecturer)
Mgr. Markéta Vlasáková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Ing. Radoslav Trautmann, Ph.D., MBA (lecturer)
Ing. Jiří Velinský (lecturer)
Mgr. Iveta Zieglová (lecturer)
Mgr. Veronika Rejšková (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

prof. RNDr. Jan Slovák, DrSc.
Faculty of Science
Contact Person: RNDr. Eva Janouškovcová, Ph.D., LL.M.
Supplier department: Faculty of Science

Timetable

each odd Thursday 14:00–17:50 JIC1-102-SALM

Prerequisites

The course is intended primarily for students of masters study programs, but it is also suitable for bachelor and doctoral students accross the whole Masaryk University.

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 60 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 5/60, only registered: 0/60, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/60

Course objectives

The course From the Ideas to Business reflexes a demand from students to obtain up-to-date information and training on business related issues for their future use. Thus the original course XV004 Research and Development in Practice (taught from spring 2008 to autumn 2017) has been significantly modified since autumn 2018.

The main objective of the course is to introduce students to the field of entrepreneurship as a possibility of their future career choice (in comparison to an employee). The subject also focuses on the research (academic) environment and offers specific tools, procedures and methods for working with the main concept (identification, development, usage or processing of the main idea up to a stage of eventual formation of a company). The aim is also to inspire and motivate students by examples from practice and to offer real inputs from interesting entrepreneurs. It also includes presentation of principles of research plan realization, possibilities of financing, protection of intellectual property and methods of transfer of technologies and knowledge out from the university environment.

Learning outcomes

Students will get a real insight into the business as an optional career choice and will discover the broader context related to business. The will learn theory and praxis of the basic methods for working with ideas such as verifying a commercial potential of a market idea, creating a business model, financial management, skills needed to present their idea, funding and realization of the research plan, intellectual property protection and technology transfer in the university environment. The output will be specific business plans, created by the students themselves with the aid of learnt methods.

Syllabus

• Unit 1: Entrepreneurship as an option for a career choice and work with an idea - 1. Comparison of business, employment, research and development 2. Innovations, ideas and trends of the modern world 3. Where to take the idea from and how to verify its commercial potential 4. Customer, problem, value, solution 5. Meeting and sharing experiences with a successful entrepreneur
• Unit 2: Business model and key areas at the start of a business - 1. Lean canvas and Business model canvas - a wider view of the business as a whole 2. Value of the idea for the customer, preparation of the solution, creation phase of the company 3. Vision, goals and key metrics, strategies 4. Meeting and sharing experiences with a successful entrepreneur
• Unit 3: : Product, prototyping, action plan- 1. Describing a product based on primary market research 2. Understanding basic methods of prototyping and validation of a product 3. Creating an action plan 4. Visit of digital open workshop FabLab
• Unit 4: Funding of an idea and how to manage finance - 1. Fundamentals of Financial Management: Income and pricing model, expenses, costs, cash flow, financial planning 2. Possibilities of financing an idea / project - public (grants, subsidies, research, etc.) and private (investors, funds, crowdfunding, etc.) 3. Meeting and sharing experiences with a successful entrepreneur
• Unit 5: Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer, Care for Research Results - 1. Intellectual property in the academic environment - basic overview, link to results of the research, protection of intellectual property 2. Technology and knowledge transfer - forms, conditions of implementation, examples 3. Management of research results - conditions, contractual relations, etc.
• Unit 6: How to Communicate an Idea / Project - 1. Basics of presentation skills 2. "Elevator pitch" of a project, presentation preparation and project feedback 3. Marketing, needs of customers, distribution chains

Literature

• RIES, Eric. The lean startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. United States of America: Crown Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0-307-88789-4. info
• ŠVEJDA, Pavel. Inovační podnikání. 1st ed. Praha: Asociace inovačního podnikání, 2007, 348 pp. ISBN 978-80-903153-6-5. info
• Business Model Generation (Alexander Osterwalder, ISBN 0470876417)
• Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company (Steve Blank, Bob Dorf, ISBN 0984999302)
• Business Model Navigator: 55 Models That Will Revolutionise Your Business, (Oliver Gassmann, Karolin Frankenberger, Michaela Csik, ISBN 978-1-292-06581)
• Running Lean (Ash Maurya, ISBN 1449305172)

Teaching methods

Lectures will be combined with practical workshops during the whole course. Students in teams will work on their business plans, present them regularly and thus acquire necessary methods and procedures. An important aspect of the lectures will be an introduction of entrepreneurs from different fields (e.g. IT, services, social business, production, etc.)

Assessment methods

The course is based upon the attendance of lectures and consequential seminars by students within 6 blocks. Graded credit is required to the completion of a course. Obtaining the graded credit depends on the active attendance of lectures and seminars and successful work-out and presentation of concrete worked-up outputs and business plan created by student project team.

Language of instruction

Czech

Further comments (probably available only in Czech)

Study Materials
The course is taught annually.

• Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2020, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/sci/autumn2020/XV004