BE 942
Creating and Growing a New Venture
Assessment Details
Assessment for this module takes the form of course work only and has two components.
Component 1
For this component you are required to prepare:
An Individual Creative Action Plan (75%): This will take the form of an essay covering the
student’s propensity to enterprise, self-assessment of entrepreneurial capability; identification and
validation of opportunity and the creative conception of new venture idea
You should reflect on all your learning on the course to develop your action plan. Remember you are
not preparing a business plan but a plan of action showing what steps you will take to develop an
idea for a new venture. It should, therefore, cover your motivations, how you have identified an
opportunity, how you will assess the market, what factors in the wider environment you should take
into consideration, and how you might raise appropriate funding for your venture.
Word Count – max., 3,000 words (+/- 10%)
Submission date: Wednesday 10 May 2023 (check Fazer for details)
Component 2
The second component of your assessment will require you to write a Group Report.
The Group Project (25%) will involve groups of no more than 5- 6 participants (self-selected)
to work in teams to write a report on the Group Project which will test students’ critical ability to
work in teams to form a new venture organisation, conduct critical internal and external resource
planning and develop essential start-up management skills and competencies
Word Count – 5,000 words (+/-10%)
Submission Date: Wednesday 26 April 2023
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Coursework Guidance Notes
1. The Individual Action Plan
What are you expected to do?
You are expected to write an “Individual Action Plan” that discusses your new venture business idea
focusing particularly on:
• Your own self-assessment for starting and managing a new venture (30%).
• Your thoughts and ideas about the source of the business/social venture/project
idea/innovation (20%).
• How you identified the opportunities that led you to the consider idea for the new venture
(25%).
• How you intend to go about developing the idea, resourcing it, identifying its market and its
business viability, and developing an outline enterprise model (25%).
Word Count: 5000 words (+/- 10%)
Submission Date: Wednesday 26 April 2023
What should you consider in detail for your IAP?
What follows is a guide for the Individual Action Plan including the key points that should be
covered:
• Your own Self- Assessment: How have you conducted your self-assessment? What tools did
you use?
• The Business Idea and Unique Value Proposition: Explain the main idea/innovation you
intend to bring to market, along with the uniqueness of the idea i.e., the unique value proposition.
How does it address an economic and/or a social problem? Think about the new value your business
brings to your customers. (Note: This is an important part of your assignment. You should focus on
explaining the uniqueness of your idea and the value it adds to your potential customers), and why it
should work in the marketplace.
• Source(s) of ideas/innovation: Explain the main source(s) of ideas/innovation for your new
venture. For example, you can focus on explaining sources of idea based on Drucker’s seven sources
of innovation. Consider how you thought about the idea, how you explored its validity, and what
made you think it was innovative.
• Identification of resources: Explain the main resources (finance, people, networks) you will
need to start your new venture. You should focus on explaining the resources you will be using,
taking into consideration their advantages and disadvantages. You do not need to be exact about a
financial plan; you should consider how much you need and when, what will be the best source(s)
and why, and how you might use the funds.
• Consider also who could be your suppliers and distributors? Justify why and where you
might find them.
• The Market for your Venture: Here, you should provide a summary of the market you wish
to enter and why, your knowledge and understanding of the market and how it works, how will you
enter and what share of the market you might obtain, why it is a good market to enter and what are
the alternatives. You should also explain who your customers are going to be and how will you
attract them to your venture.
• The Possible Business Model: Consider what will be the overall value of the business to you
and your customers; how will this value be generated (income streams; brand value; value of goods
and products; sustainability, etc.) Do not get too bogged down by any specific template for a
business model. Think about what it means and how it applies to your venture.
• You, your team and Your Network: focus on the mix of competencies and capabilities of your
team, how you complement each other, how that will be relevant to your business; what are your
current and prospective networks, who will you connect with and why?
• Conclusion and Implications – Conclude with suggestions of what can be learned from your
Individual Action Plan.
Additional Notes for your IAP:
• Remember you are writing an Individual Action Plan (not a Business Plan) showing both your
understanding of key issues and themes related to starting a new venture and how you will go about
developing them in practice.
• Remember also that the IAP is about YOU and how you can and wish to prepare for starting
or growing a new venture. So, in relation to each of the issues outlined above you need to explore
and express how you believe each of those aspects can be developed. For example, what do you
need to do to source ideas and validate them; what are the different resources available to you and
which ones do you think you should use to set up your new venture, what are the different markets
that you can enter first, and so on.
• Use any format you like (report/essay/) but state why you chose the format. This is because
you may wish to present a formal report for someone to validate your ideas or an essay where you
are exploring the critical issues. Whichever format you choose you must ensure that you cover all
the key points. You are not being judged for the format but how you choose to put across your
ideas, facts, and demonstrate your understanding of the issues. Incorporate visualisation if you wish,
but make sure you cover the key elements referred to above.
• You should conclude your plan in full
• You should also present your critical reflection on what can be learned from your Individual
Action Plan.
• References – The work should be well referenced
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2. The Group Project
The Group Project is based on the idea of developing a new team-based venture. You will work on:
a) Information about your motivations and how you can mix and match different interests,
especially if you are composed of students from different national or other backgrounds
(25%).
b) The type of venturing activity you propose to set up as a team, and how such a venture
could address the set of economic and social problems of our day (15%).
c) The type of organisation you propose to set up and why, and how to make it sustainable
(15%).
d) The environment in which you might consider establishing such an organisation (10%).
e) The viability of your enterprise proposition, your organisational and social responsibilities
(20%),
f) How you will bring varied technological capabilities and resources, ways in which you might
raise financial resources, and how you think the firm might grow (15%).
How should you structure and organise your group report?
For this project you will be part of a small group of no more than -5-6 students who will prepare a
report covering the issues stated above.
The report should contain:
a) An introduction explaining the scope and purpose of the report.
b) A section on how you have prepared the report including methods used to compile the
report.
c) A brief literature review of enterprise creation and growth, the importance of combining
business and social objectives, understanding of the commericialisation of new technologies and the
development of new products.
d) An analytical framework for doing your research and conducting your investigation.
e) Findings from your research and investigation of issues (as stated above).
f) A discussion of your findings together with your observations and comments.
g) Concluding observations and recommendations.
Please ensure that you use a typical report format which will be explained during your lectures. Do
not forget your references. Please also compile a brief individual learning log as explained below.
Avoid choosing the same business case as your IAP unless you have a compelling reason for doing so.
Notes on Group Work
Group work is an essential component of entrepreneurship and business programmes in all good
business and management Schools around the world. They constitute a critical form of learning as
students learn to obtain a critical understanding of the dynamics of teamwork, transferring and
sharing of skills and knowledge necessary to run business and entrepreneurial projects in different
organisational scenarios. Group work is also considered essential to individual development as the
process of working in a team enables students to learn about individual roles, the value of
networking, and the connection between personal achievement and the collective responsibility for
meeting organisational goals. Group work is also an integral component of the assessment process
constituting 25% of the overall marks for this module. All individual members are required to keep
an independent, individual reflective journal which should be submitted with the Group Report (see
below).
All members of any one group will be awarded the same mark unless there is a dispute concerning
one (or more) member(s) of the team. In addition to the marking criteria adopted for assignments,
group work assessment will also account for the preparation of an Individual Reflective Log:
Why is it necessary for everyone to work as part of a team and what happens if there is a
dispute?
In the event of any irreconcilable dispute, the group (or any individual member) must draw the
attention of the course leader who will take responsibility as soon as possible so that prompt action
can be taken to resolve the problem. Every attempt will be made to reconcile the individual(s) with
the group but where this is not appropriate, the individual(s) concerned will be required to submit a
separate assignment (an essay) based on the theme of the group work.
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Coursework Submission Requirements
The Individual Action Plan should not exceed 3,000 words in length (+/- 10%).
(Submission Date: Check Faser)
The Group Project should not exceed 5,000 words in length (+/-10%)
(Submission Date: Check Faser)
Both components of your assessment should include a full list of references for all articles, books
and other sources (e.g., Internet sites) that have been cited in the body of the text. Use the Harvard
format for referencing and citing materials.
All written work should be word processed, double spaced, and written in an appropriately
academic style which can also be understood in practice (i.e., by business people, the wider
community, potential funders, policy makers). This means avoiding jargon and ensuring that you
explain key, critical concepts and ideas. The idea is to communicate clearly, simply and thoroughly.
Students should ensure that they have fully acknowledged the work of others in the body of the
text. Coursework will be subjected to plagiarism detection software.
All coursework will be anonymous from 2017-2018 academic year, so students should ensure that
only their registration number is included in the header.
Assignments should be submitted electronically to FASER by 9.00am on the given deadline date.
For details on electronic submission, see:
http://faser.essex.ac.uk/
Academic Offences Procedure
For details of the University’s Academic Offences Procedure, see:
www.essex.ac.uk/see/academic-offence
It is your responsibility to make yourself aware of the Academic Offences Procedure, the regulations
governing examinations, and how to correctly reference and cite the work of others.
Additional Support
EBS Learning Team
Lorcan Whitehead and Hugh Kilmister provide support for all students at the school. You can use this
support to have a general discussion on study skills to help you with your programme, to talk
through any difficulties you are experiencing or for feedback on your coursework and advice on how
to improve your grades. You can make an appointment for a one-to-one tutorial. The team also runs
a series of practical skills development sessions to help students with their studies. You will receive
regular emails with details of the development sessions that are scheduled. You can contact the
team on ebslearningteam@essex.ac.uk or 01206 872314. You can also find study skills
resources on Moodle on the EBS Student Resources page.