Growing and Exiting a Venture

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1 COURSE DESCRIPTION You have turned your great idea into a startup venture, and you have proven that your business model works and generates revenue from real customers. Or perhaps you have joined the management team of an early stage growth venture. In either case, the organization s focus is shifting to growth. Your goal is to help the organization overcome the many hurdles ahead, to successfully scale up for growth, and to plan for exit and other alternative future paths. In this course students will become familiar with the management challenges facing ventures as they grow and mature beyond the early stages. You ll learn to identify the issues and systematically apply practical, industry-relevant tools to address them. The course will build on your prior experiences in business or not-for-profit ventures. Topics include growing customer acquisition through various sales models; scaling operations; growth financing; leadership and human resource issues for the growing firm; board evolution; and exit and other long term future path strategies. This course is a complement to other courses in the entrepreneurship and innovation track. It is also a standalone course for students in other tracks who have an interest in the management challenges in growing an organization. Many of the concepts in the course are also applicable to growing a not-for-profit venture. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Students will be able to Recognize the challenges involved in growing an early stage venture. Apply practical, industry-relevant models and tools to build and evolve execution plans that will further the growth path of the venture. Assess and influence the human factors such as leadership and culture that are necessary for successful organizational evolution in a growth environment. Evaluate and prepare for the potential future paths for the organization, including exits and alternative long term strategies. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY 1. Class participation: 20% 2. Individual assignments: 40% 3. Project: 40% DETAILS Assessments of class participation will be based on attendance at classes and the level of participation quality. Consider the class as a management meeting where you - 1 -

2 contribute your relevant experience, insights, and questions with appropriate professional courtesy. Quality pertains to the relevance, insight and clarity of your remarks, questions, and presentations. Participation that would be judged well in a management team environment will earn high participation grades in class. Individual assignments will consist of assigned cases or scenarios. Assignments may be a combination of individual written submissions, and group presentations in class. Further details will be provided in class. The project will be your analysis and growth/exit plan for a real world organization from your own experience (students may request a case organization be provided if they do not have an appropriate organization from their experience). Working in small teams you will create a practical and executable plan that could be presented to that organization. The project outcome will be in the form of a presentation to executive management. As would be the case in the business world, you ll be assessed on the quality and completeness of your plan, as well as on your ability to communicate it. PROGRAM GOALS (Check those that apply) MBA Critical & Analytical Thinking Integration Communication Ethics & Social Responsibility COURSE INFORMATION Division: Instructor: Blair Simonite blair.simonite@sauder.ubc.ca Phone: Course duration: September 2 October 9, 2014 Class meeting times: Tuesday/Thursday 2:00 4:00 pm Classroom location: HA

3 COURSE OVERVIEW CLASS TOPICS Sep 2: Growth Strategy Learning objective: understand the fundamental growth strategies and factors that affect them - Scalable, saleable, or social purpose - Strategic choices for growing the venture - Strategies for growth - In-class case Sep 4: Pace & Pitfalls Learning objective: understand the management challenges facing growth ventures - Early stage growth & early stage pitfalls - Designing org structures - Introduction to assignment 1 Sep 9: Executing Growth - Sales Learning objective: understand the fundamentals of managing sales execution for growth - Sales models, designing & scaling the sales organization - The sales funnel - Managing with sales metrics Sep 11: Solution Selling and Other Models Learning objective: learn to apply complex sales methodologies - Solution and strategic selling - Guest speaker using technology to manage sales in the early stage growth venture - Assignment 1 due - Sep 16: Scaling Operations Learning objective: understand how management systems and operations scale - Scaling the growing venture: management systems & operations - 3 -

4 Sep 18: Leadership Evolution Learning objective: understand typical challenges as early stage ventures transition to professional management, and how to be effective in these environments - Case - Introduction to assignment 2. Sep 23: Building Culture, Talent, and Boards Learning objective: understand how to build human resources for growth, and building and working with boards - Building culture, and other human factors - Boards and advisory boards Sep 25: Financing Growth Learning objective: become familiar with government funding sources, and the role of debt in financing growth - Free money government funding - Types of debt and situations where they are appropriate. Structures, covenants, pros and cons. - Guest speaker real-world debt financing for growth businesses Sep 30: Exits Learning objective: understand potential exit paths and the management challenges of preparing for them - Managing through IPOs or company sale - - Assignment 2 due Oct 2: Exits and Other Future Paths Learning objective: understand managing the growth venture where current strategy does not involve driving for an exit outcome - Case - Franchising and Licensing - Guest speaker Week of October 7: Project presentations - 4 -

5 SAMPLE READINGS The final list of course materials will be provided prior to the course commencing. Required Reading available on Connect The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer, Amar Bhide (Nov-Dec, 1996, HBR 96603). Growing Ventures Can Anticipate Marketing Stages, T. Tyebjee, A. Bruno, S. McIntyre (HBR 83116) Why Entrepreneurs Don t Scale, J Hamm, (Dec 2002, HBR R0212J) Required Reading access at the links shown Smart Growth Building an Enduring Business by Managing the Risks of Growth by Edward D. Hess. Optimizing Sales Effectiveness to Achieve High Performance Accenture Download pdf at: Required Reading Pack Selected HBS Cases A Note on Managing the Growing Venture, R Hamermesh, J Heskett, M Roberts (Aug 2005, HBS ) Scaling a Startup Pacing Issues, T. Eisenmann (Nov 2011 HBS ) Scaling a Startup People and Organizational Issues, T. Eisenmann & A.B. Wagonfeld (Feb 2012 HBS ) Building Sustainable High-Growth Startup Companies: Management Systems as an Accelerator, by A. Davila, G. Foster, N Jia (Spring 2010 California Management Review CMR 459) The New Strategic Selling, Chapter 1, Miller, Heiman and Tuleja, (Grand Central Publishing 1998) - 5 -

6 Suggested Supplementary Readings (Optional) How Entrepreneurs Craft Strategies That Work, Amar Bhide (March-April, 1994 HBR 94202) available on Connect. Blue Ocean Strategy W. Chan Kim & R. Mauborgne (book or HBR summary) The Startup Owner s Manual S. Blank & B. Dorf (K&S Ranch Publishing 2012) NOTE This course builds on courses in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation track, focusing on the entrepreneurial and management challenges of growing and potentially exiting a venture. Branding, marketing and product development strategies are covered in detail in other courses and are not part of this course