黑料社区

Email: anton.jordaan@adelaide.edu.au

Anton Jordaan was originally trained as an accountant and tax specialist. Five years after setting up an accounting and tax consultancy, he sold his interest to his partners and set out to establish, grow and harvest a number of business ventures in the private education and training sector. In subsequent years, one of his businesses was acquired by a stock exchange listed company; and a few years later his business was involved in an initial public offering (IPO). He served as a founding director of the newly listed stock exchange listed company for a period of 2 years. He has been involved as lead-entrepreneur in a number of startups and has an in depth understanding of entrepreneurial leadership, challenges of start-up teams,and the new venture mindset.

In addition to corporate strategy, leadership, and financial roles, Anton has maintained an active interest in education and training, and has 25+ years teaching experience in the delivery of education and training courses to postgraduate students and managers in public sector and private sector organisations. He has delivered business improvement and capacity building courses in North America, UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. Courses presented include Strategic Management, Project Management, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Governance, Leadership, Risk Management, and Accounting.  

After attaining a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting, he completed a BCom Honours in Accounting, Master of Commerce in Business Management, a MBA, and a Master of Advanced Business Practice degree. He completed a PhD at The University of 黑料社区 in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of 黑料社区’s Entrepreneurship Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC) and is a member of CPA Australia.

This course is designed to sharpen your ability to:
    
1.   Determine if you could (or should) become involved in a business startup
2.   Recognize and analyse new venture opportunities
3.   Anticipate startup challenges so they can be planned for and managed
4.   Understand different sources of new venture funding
5.   Pitch a new idea

The textbook for this course is The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries (Crown Business, 2011).

There are further required readings and cases which will be listed in MyUni.

See Myuni for specific details

Assessment Item	Weighting	Individual / Team	Learning objective
Presenting the concept/idea	15%	Individual	1,5
Venture Concept Analysis	15%	Individual	1,2,5
Anatomy of a Startup	25%	Group	2,3
Opportunity Assessment	35%	Individual	2,3,4
Workshop Participation	10%	Individual	2,3,5

Assessment 1: Present your intrapreneurial/entrepreneurial venture idea (15%, individual) Early in the course we’ll work on generating and screening venture concepts. Good venture opportunities don’t just happen, they emerge from an iterative process of recognition, research, reflection and refinement. In order for you to understand this process better, each of you should start a venture concept diary, keeping track of your ideas for new ventures. It will probably contain a mix of ideas that you’ve rejected, ideas that you’ve explored a little and are ambiguous about, and ideas that you think might be viable.

In recording and evaluating your ideas,the screening criteria that you’re implicitly using will emerge. It is useful to write these down. You are likely to reject many of your ideas very quickly, and so the description of these ideas will be brief. You should spend more time exploring the ideas that pass your (perhaps unconscious) screening criteria. At the start of day 4 each student will pitch their best idea to the class. Due date: See MyUni (a.m. class). Length of pitch: 3 minutes max, followed by 5-10 minutes of Q&A from class.

Assessment 2: Venture Concept Analysis (15%, individual) All new ventures are characterised by uncertainty and successful entrepreneurs are able to identify and manage the uncertainties of particular venture concepts. In order to understand this process better, each student will provide a written analysis of the promising venture concept that you present.

I recognise that your ideas will be very early-stage and tentative at this point, which is a typical characteristic of this stage of the entrepreneurial process. Nevertheless, expressing your ideas in as concrete a manner as possible will enable you to test them more
 
(i)  A description of the opportunity.  Provide a description of the opportunity, in terms of the product, service, or experience offered, the target market and your value proposition. Summarise what you know now about its technical, market and financial viability and feasibility for you to pursue as a venture. Identify key uncertainties and hypotheses you would need to confirm; and   

(ii) An analysis of the uncertainties associated with the opportunity. Identify the two hypotheses about your venture concept that are most critical to test. For each, explain why it is important and describe how you could “test early, test cheaply.”

Due date: See MyUni (a.m. class). I will allow approx one hour after the pitches conclude to revise your analysis if you choose to do so (based on the Q&A feedback from the class following your pitch). Word limit: 1500 words. Exceeding a word limit will attract a mark penalty.

Assessment 3: Anatomy of a Startup (25%, group) The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to identify and select a business that interests you in order to conduct an in-depth study of how a business dealt with the opportunities and challenges in its early years. There are several guidelines to keep in mind when selecting a business to study:   
·  The venture must have been founded in 2018 or later and is still operating.   
·  The founder/s is not a relative, employer or co-worker (past or present).   

You can obtain relevant information about the early years of the venture from multiple sources (e.g. books, articles, the company’s website and/or interviews). If you're having trouble finding an interesting Australia startup, check out the following: LinkedIn Top Start-ups 2024 - the 25 Hottest Australian Companies to Work For, and Is Australia the next upcoming startup hotspot?

Your report should describe and assess:   
·  The early opportunities recognised by the venture’s founding team (and how the founding team came together); 
·  How the team exploited the opportunities in terms of the value proposition, execution and risk management;   
·  The key challenges faced by the venture at various stages and how they were overcome;   
·  The venture’s opportunities and challenges in the next 1-2 years and how they might be met;   
·  What you learned from studying this venture. Your grade will be determined on the basis of the richness of your analysis,and insights about the venture. My assessment of this will be partially influenced by the clarity of the report itself (i.e. how well it is organised and written) and on the quality of the reference material you draw upon. Due date: See MyUni (a.m. class). Word limit: 2500 words. Exceeding a word limit will attract a mark penalty. 

Assessment 4: Opportunity Assessment (35%, individual) One of the hallmarks of a successful intrapreneur/entrepreneur is the ability to analyse and assess the potential of new ventures. The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to demonstrate your skills in this area. On the last afternoon of the course, you will be given the opportunity to evaluate and assess a new venture opportunity provided based on the learnings during the course. Specific questions will be provided and all work on this assignment will be done during class time and students have access to all course resources. More information about this assignment will be provided in class. Due date: See MyUni (p.m. class). Duration: 2 hours

Assessment 5: Class Contribution (10%, individual) Your class participation grade will be based on your contribution to a positive learning environment. Your class contribution grade reflects your level of engagement and participation in activities during the venture creation simulation case study. Participation includes sharing insights regarding your own experiences, observations, thoughts, and readings. Class contributions are assessed on the basis of the extent to which your contributions are relevant, insightful, and informative. Merely repeating facts or stating the obvious will not contribute to your class participation grade. Regular attendance is essential to contribute to own, and peer learning. Please let me know beforehand if you need to miss a class. Due date: Throughout workshop sessions

Submission

A1: The Venture Idea/Concept Pitch is an oral presentation during class time on day 4.
A2: The Venture Concept Analysis should be submitted on paper up to an hour after the last presentation ends on day 4
A3: The Anatomy of a Startup assignment should be submitted before the beginning of the morning class on day 5.
A4: The Opportunity Assessment is prepared and submitted during class time on day 6 and uploaded to MyUni.
Presentation of assignments: - Make sure you include your name(s) in a footer on each page of your paper assignments.
·  Please must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.   
·  Please attach an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet’, which is signed and dated by you before submission
·  All group assignments must be attached to a ‘Group Assignment Cover Sheet’, which must be signed and dated by all group members before submission. All team members are expected to contribute approximately equally to a group assignment.

Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details - A copy of the Postgraduate Programs: Communication Skills Guide will have been given to you at the beginning of your program. This guide will assist you structure your assignments. A copy of the guide can also be downloaded from http://www.adelaide.edu.au/professions/hub/downloads/MBA-Communication-Skills-Guide.pdf 

This publication also provides guidelines on a range of other important communication skills including writing essays and management reports, making oral presentations etc. In preparing any written piece of assessment for your postgraduate studies it is important to draw on the relevant ‘literature’ to support critical analysis. Also essential is to reference the literature used. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas and arguments that you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, and helps to avoid the problem of plagiarism. (Further information on plagiarism is provided later in this course outline.) The Harvard system is widely used in the Business School. Guidelines for the use of this style of referencing can be found in the Communication Skills Guide.

Further assistance with referencing is available from the Faculty’s Learning Support Advisors. The contact details are provided on page 6 of the Communication Skills Guide. Late Assignment Submission: Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.