ET5215 Entrepreneurial Business Development (3 AU)

This course aims to introduce students to a framework of business development strategy, equip students with theories and tools to develop strategies, engage students in the application of these theories and tools to real-life business cases. This course focuses on strategic decisions, which will have a long-term impact on the organisation.

The course enables students to discover how adopting entrepreneurial marketing thinking will help them to:

1. Gain an understanding on the functional role of marketing in the wider context of a business and entrepreneurship setting.
2. Answer crucial questions of “What am I selling, to whom and why, and how can I be a market leader?” 
3. Appreciate marketing strategies applied conceptually and in real-world enterprises.

For more details, please download the full course outline here. 

Pre-requisite: Nil

ET5217 Design & Systems Thinking for Entrepreneurs (4 AU)

From high-tech electronic products to low-tech children’s toys, human-centered design leads to the creation of great products or services through a deep understanding of human needs. The key to any start-up success is the quick and accurate identification of its customer base, and the value to its target market. Design behaviours – collaboration, empathy towards others, prototyping new ideas, and continuous improvement – are important when delving into any new experience.

On another note, entrepreneurs spend most of the time interacting with all kinds of systems, which are often complex mixes of technology, people, and issues. Even in a simple system there can be several subtle cause-and-effects that we have to deal with if we want to change or improve things. Learning about systems thinking means learning about these behavioural properties and characteristics.

 This course consists of two parts:

• Part A discusses the roles that innovation and design play in entrepreneurship, and specially design thinking and its application to developing new products, services and the organisation of businesses are introduced; and
• Part B focuses on systems thinking, which enables entrepreneurs to develop, and take advantage of, the potential to a more holistic way of managing and growing startup teams, ventures, and the businesses.

For more details, please download the full course outline here. 

Pre-requisite: Nil

*BU5302 Law of Intellectual Property and New Media (3 AU)

The knowledge-based economy is underpinned by laws which protect information assets, shapes transactions and provides security for the various parties of interest to electronic transactions. Topics covered include protection and management of intellectual property, validation and protection of electronic agreements, data security and privacy, cyber-crime and the laws that apply to virtual worlds. This course is designed to give an understanding on the relationship between law and intellectual capital and new forms of media as well as how businesses work within the rules affecting the knowledge-based economy. The approaches to this subject will involve both critical thinking and practical work.

Contact the course offering school, Nanyang Business School (NBS), for more details.

Pre-requisite: Nil

*CB4216 Entrepreneurship in Medtech and Biotechnology (3 AU) 

This course provides students with interest in medical innovation and entrepreneurship with a systematic scientific framework towards a commercialization pathway for biotechnology and medical devices. Entrepreneurship is not only a mindset, but can be taught as a skillset to significantly improve the odds of creating a successful and impactful ventures. The course is designed as an integrated toolbox by introducing key lean start-up fundamentals and presenting practical guides in customer discovery and market validation, MedTech product development and regulation, and business model design. These concepts will also be illustrated with selected case study of biotech and medtech start-ups.

Contact the course offering school, School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CCEB), for more details.

Pre-requisite: Nil

*DN1016 Visual Storytelling (3 AU) [ADM students ONLY]

Writing pictures: Overview of the key visual and audio media that build narratives through the sequence of images: Photography, comics, film, animation and interactive media. Introduction to the principles of linear and non-linear storytelling and their implementation in the different media. Differences and similarities explored between time-based media versus comics and photography. What’s in a picture? An investigation of the single image as the elemental unit for creating narratives. Telling a story in a single image. The function of the single image in the chain of narrative events. The basic concepts of composition, staging, lighting and colour within a single frame. Building visual narratives: An exploration of strategies to construct a variety of narratives in and through different media. Practising concepts through connecting images in sequence: Comics, storyboards, animatics, photo-series and/or live action short films. Students will learn how to apply basic concepts of editing and cinematography in communicating a story. The role of sound for audio-visual media: Through analysis of a variety of examples from film and animation, students will learn about the role of sound in narrative context. Basic concepts of sound design and scoring will be explored as elements of the filmmaking process. Beyond traditional narrativity: An introduction into newly emerging and rapidly evolving story-formats that deviate from traditional forms in structure and format: spatial and fragmented storytelling (installations/exhibitions), interactive storytelling, immersive environments (dome and VR), augmented reality. This will be a basic introduction that familiarizes students with the terms and helps them understand the different requirements for conceiving narratives. Class assignments: Four creative projects, which explore the adaptation of narratives for visual and audio-visual storytelling composition of a single image, image sequences in various forms, storyboard and full audio-visual animatic, live action short film or photographic sequence. Developed through lectures, tutorials, class exercises and peer/instructor feedback sessions.

Contact the course offering school, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), for more details.

Pre-requisite: Nil

ET5122 E-startups and Social Media Strategies (3 AU)

This course aims to provide students with the essential knowledge on social media marketing, especially for start-ups. For this purpose, various social media tools that start-ups may explore will be introduced. The concept of social commerce will be covered. Students will also learn how to carry out strategic planning with social media. Topics such as social media metrics and social models and monetisation will be covered to give a holistic understanding of social media marketing.

For more details, please download the full course outline here.

Pre-requisite: Nil

ET5134 Enterprise Strategy (3 AU)

This is an immersive experiential learning course which provides a platform for students to experience the process of managing a business. Students are exposed to some of the major business decisions that entrepreneurs face when growing their ventures and competing with other companies in the same industry.

Students will be grouped into teams to compete with one another. As students work through the organisation's life cycle in the simulation, external forces and managerial dilemmas are added. Students will apply the various tools, case-studies, and theories from previous courses and subsequently tackle new tasks, take on additional responsibilities and make difficult decisions.

For more details, please download the full course outline here.

Pre-requisite: ET5211 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology Innovation (3 AU)

ET5135 Business Venture Implementation (3 AU)

*There are two parts to this course.

PART A: This course allows students to learn the importance of opportunity recognition and creation, and to learn how to evaluate new venture concepts. This course is a continuation of earlier courses students covered in MiE and SMiE. Students will be exposed to the ups and downs that start-ups face and the challenges of operating new business ventures. They will appreciate and learn from the lessons of under-performing or ‘turn-around’ companies.

PART B: The objectives of the course are to cultivate a proactive mindset in students, to tap on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore through meeting and mingling with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, angel investors, government officers, and intellectual property lawyers. The course will provide opportunities for forums and discussions, where students get to explore and test potential business ideas with like-minded people. In addition, students will understand the importance of networking and professionalism at work.

For more details, please download the full course outline here.

Pre-requisite: ET5211 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology Innovation (3 AU)
Co-requisite: ET5214 Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures (3 AU)

*AB0603 Social Entrepreneurship (3 AU)

Social entrepreneurship is rapidly emerging. These entrepreneurs help solve social and environmental challenges which are ignored or missed by businesses and pursue predominately donor-driven models of the nonprofit sector.  This field includes “social intrapreneurship,” where employees in companies develop new income opportunities for their firms by addressing social and environmental challenges in a profitable and scalable manner. In this evolving social entrepreneurship landscape, the traditional lines blur among nonprofits, government, and business. Through use of case studies and class discussions, lectures, guest speakers, and a field project, students will gain better understanding on the opportunities and challenges in this landscape. Students will learn what a social enterprise is and its similarities and differences with other types of business, engage in problem/ opportunity assessment, and learn about the trade-offs between social and financial returns on investment.  

Contact the course offering school, Nanyang Business School (NBS), for more details.

Pre-requisite: Nil

*DV2003 Beyond the Logo: Introduction to Branding (3 AU)

In this introductory level course, you will be introduced to a theoretical overview of how branding is situated in our contemporary society and its roles through the lens of art, design and media. You will gain a broad understanding of the evolution of corporate brand communication and identity, brand consumption theories and patterns which led to the rise of various alternate brand movements. A basic anthropological analysis of brands as an economic force to becoming a cultural artefact will also be discussed.  Through various analytical in-class exercises and hands-on assignments, you will gain theoretical and practical knowledge to develop a critical voice to make brand creation decisions. 

Contact the course offering school, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), for more details.

Pre-requisite: Nil