The MBA Global and High Tech Project

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1 1 הטכניון - מכון טכנולוגי לישראל TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY THE MBA PROGRAM The William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management Technion City - Haifa Israel MBA Project Haifa 2006 Mini 8 הפקולטה להנדסת תעשיה וניהול ע"ש ויליאם משה דוידסון קרית הטכניון - חיפה Global and Strategic Business Plan Projects Course (6.0 credit points) Round 3 ( C ) : Haifa Dr. Graham Jackson ( Marketing ) Chanan Ben Oz Mini Semester 8 (24 March 26 May 2006) A. COURSE OBJECTIVE As an integral part of the MBA program, this course offers our students the opportunity to do projects in established High-Tech companies, start-ups or for technological innovations. The philosophy behind this is to help bridge the gap between Academia and Industry and emphasize the practical aspect of the Technion's MBA Global and High Tech vision. This is part of the third round of a course giving Technion MBA students a unique opportunity to integrate and apply what they have already learnt in class to real-life problemsolving in Marketing and Business Strategy for established or start-up Israeli high tech companies. The project will involve data collection, writing a Marketing or Business Plan and making presentations. The work will include application of concepts, models and tools studied in the MBA Program. While all the projects will be based on Israeli companies or start-up ideas, the perspective in all the projects will be the global marketplace. The project method is different from a regular course since it provides a fascinating and challenging intellectual experience for the students that will enhance their prospects for career advancement in High-Tech industries. B. COURSE / PROJECT TEAM Course / Project Team address Technion Phone Course Co-Directors Professor Avi Fiegenbaum and Professor Uzi de Haan Course Manager & Project Mentor Dr Graham Jackson jacksong@tx.technion.ac.il Course Project Assistant Chanan BenOz benoz@techunix.technion.ac.il C. STUDENT TEAMS Students will be free to form their own project teams (4 students per team).

2 2 D. PROJECT DEFINITION Up to February 2006, each student team should choose a project from one of the following sources: (a) students' own ideas for a start-up company (b) students' places of work (high-tech companies) (c) Technion MBA Alumni projects (MBA graduates will be invited to offer their ideas for projects). In choosing a project, the students should take into account their prior knowledge of the field plus access to data and relevant managers in the chosen companies and industries. Typical projects could include assessment of a new product idea and/or evaluation of international market potential for an existing product or company All the projects will be written up and submitted in the form of a Marketing Plan or Business Plan, Each project will involve making a number of intermediate PowerPoint presentations, plus a final presentation. In order to simulate the real business world, all written work and all presentations will be in English. The proposed project must have the backing of the company management (where appropriate). The student team will submit an initial Project Proposal (See Attachment). Each student team may propose one or more project proposals. The proposals will be submitted to the Course Manager, Dr. Graham Jackson. The Course Management Team will then decide which projects will be accepted. A final agreed definition of the Project Goals and Expectations will be submitted in Week 2 of the course. E. COURSE PROCESS The course is project-based, with regular tutoring and supervision by the Project Mentor and Teaching Assistant (Dr. Graham Jackson and Chanan Ben Oz). There will be weekly meetings (times to be decided). At the start of the course, the first 1-2 hours will be dedicated to a full class meeting for a relevant lecture. Later, students will meet the Project Mentor and Teaching Assistant to receive guidelines, feedback and recommended background reading. The students will collect data by interviewing company managers, followed by meeting industry experts and typical customers in Israel. In parallel, the students will collect data from the Internet, and study available published reports and surveys. Throughout the above process, intermediate deliverables and milestones will be determined by the Project Mentor. There may also be selected Guest Lectures by managers with start-up and/or international business experience. There will be intermediate presentations to and feedback from both of the Course Directors (Prof Avi Fiegenbaum and Prof. Uzi de Haan) We might assign Technion MBA Alumni to advise each team and help as sounding-boards for ideas and feedback (depending on their availability). It should not be expected that the weekly class meetings will suffice for the projects. Students teams will need to meet outside of class hours for unsupervised group discussions and assign individual tasks among the team members. The final presentations will be made to a panel of senior industrial managers, entrepreneurs and other experts who will give their feedback.

3 3 F. TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE In every week there will be meetings with the Course Mentor and Project Assistant. The schedule of full class meetings and deliverables is shown below, and is subject to change: Week 1 2 Date Full Class Meeting Subject Introduction Introduction to Market Research Business Plan for Established Companies and Start ups How to use the Technion library databases to search for data 3 Review of Strategic Alternatives and other relevant Academic Models Competitive Intelligence Lecturer Avi Fiegenbaum Graham Jackson and Guest Lecturer: Raphael Barki, RAD Data Communications Graham Jackson Jody BarOn, Database search expert, Faculty of Industrial Engineering & Management Library Graham Jackson Michael Neugarten (Israel Aircraft Industries) 4 Revenue Models Graham Jackson Demonstration by MBA students MBA students from Haifa from a previous Round 5 Intermediate presentations to full class (all teams) and Prof. Avi Fiegenbaum Student team presentations 6 7 Intermediate presentations to full class (all teams) and Prof. Uzi de Haan Student team presentations Deliverables Project data requirements to the Faculty Information expert: Jody BarOn Final agreed Project Proposal Mid-way PPT presentations Dry-Run final Presentation 8 9 Final Project Presentations All student teams Final Presentations G. STUDENT EVALUATION This course accredits 6 points and should be the only course that the student will take during the mini semester. As such, it is expected that each student will attend the weekly meetings and invest about 20 hours in teamwork and individual work for each one of the 9 weeks. The final grade will be based on the following weights: First proposal - 10% Final PPT presentation - 25% Final written plan - 55% Peer Evaluation - 10%

4 4 H. WHAT IS A BUSINESS PLAN? Before undertaking a project whether it be for a new company to be formed company or to execute a new idea within an existing company, the team creating the idea needs to develop a Business Plan. That plan is the working document for the steps required for the implementation and execution of the idea along with the financials which showing the budget requirements and sales forecasts that hopefully will achieve profitability. First the team needs to develop the concept for itself to demonstrate to itself that it understands the issues required to create its concept and to bring forth its idea to the market place. Second it needs to quantify the steps to define the budget requirements, and to demonstrate that the execution of the ideas can create a profit over time. The team must then be able to communicate its ideas and budget needs in a concise way to either outside investors or to company management in order to obtain budget approval and to set the milestones for reviewing the progress of the execution of the plan. The creation of the plan and the preparation of a concise presentation help the students learn how real business planning is done, and how to communicate an idea in a clear concise form. It is not what you know, it s how you communicate what you know I. CONCEPTS AND MODELS USED IN PREPARING A BUSINESS PLAN Concept or Model Market Segmentation SWOT Analysis Value Chain Five- forces Analysis The Total Product Diffusion of Innovations Crossing The Chasm Revenue Models Evaluation of Strategies PARTS Model Vision & Mission Statement Industry & Market & Environment Analysis Business Plan Chapters / Sections Company or Division Status * ** ** Marketing Strategies Technology and R&D Production or Operations ** ** ** * ** ** Human Resources * ** ** * * ** ** ** * ** * ** ** ** * * ** * ** ** * ** Financial Strategy

5 5 הטכניון - מכון טכנולוגי לישראל TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY THE MBA PROGRAM The William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management Technion City - Haifa Israel הפקולטה להנדסת תעשיה וניהול ע"ש ויליאם משה דוידסון קרית הטכניון - חיפה Global Strategic Business Plan (Emphasis on Marketing) Project Proposal This proposal is needed in order to check the acceptability of your project. Preferences will be given to projects with a clear Global Business perspective in High-tech companies or industries. You can add any other related documents you find important as appendices. This proposal should be submitted as soon as possible by to: Dr. Jackson at jacksong@tx.technion.ac.il, A. Name, Phone number & address of team members: B. Name of Company: and Website: C. Definition of proposed project:

6 6 D. Project questions for enquiry: a. b. E. Expected results: a. b. c. F. Expected data resources: a. b. c. G. Other relevant information: (*) H. If this project is for an established company, it is important to involve higher level of management from the sponsoring company in the project. Therefore we wish to turn to them and ask their cooperation. Please specify details of the company manager (or entrepreneur) who is going to be most involved in the project: a. Manager name: b. Manager title : c. Phone number: d. address: (*) Relevant appendices can be attached.