Please share your ideas here about what teaching, theory, and entrepreneurship might look like beyond the traditional business plan. Looking forward to it!
hi there! let me start right now so I have the excuse that is late in the night and that I had to much good wine to produce anything plausible. Let's start: 1) first impression: the call is very broad, and it could be difficult to get together what will be put on the table in a meaningful and sharp and legitimate way. As suggested today, you may want to have people voting on the most interesting ideas, an do that step by step, iteratively proving ideas, then selecting out, then another wave of ideas, then selecting out, and so on. I would do that not only for single ideas, but also for the categories to be investigated, so we can narrow down the topic step by step, and for the structure of the paper (sections, what should be said here or there, and so on). Editors get to give shape to the process because they can decide what and how to vote, but the ultimate decision belongs to the community. This may help overcoming coherence issues as well legitimacy problem. 2) on the topic itself (alternative to BP in teaching), being effectuation about doing things, I guess things should be the vehicle for students to present their work. The product does embody all the pieces of the history it comes from. Thus I'd ask students to show me their product, take each part of it, and begin by saying how that part was created, how they came to think about it why in that way, who suggested that idea or made it possible, and so on. We would probably end up discovering that things "reify" more actions than what we /and the students) may think (using Orlikowski's (1992) reification of structures into artifacts may add some more meat to this...) These are my 2 cents, hope they help! Francesco
The starting point is that we do know for a fact that managers and entrepreneurs alike, have limited usage for the traditional business plan. But still there are many stakeholders/institutions (schools, investors, top management teams, shareholders) that demand the business plan as a means to evaluate what is going on/will happen in a business activity. Hense, we still need something like a business plan. Based on my own experience from working in large organizations, and from interacting with entrepreneurs and students I believe the business plan itself is not the problem, it is the fact that we fill it with irrelevant and obsolete facts that is the problem. I hence would like to see a discussion on what would instead be relevant and meaningful content to fill the business plan with. This will of course depend on at what stage the entrepreneur/student/manager is in when writing the business plan AND for what purpose it is written. If for example, we are discussing the business plan as a student deliverable after completing a course on entrepreneurship, I foresee the business plan to contain a mix of 1) sensemaking of the context in which the business is/will be acting within. Meaning relevant notes on competitors, regulations etc. 2) a short description of the steps taken so far in the process and the stakeholders involved in the project and 3) reflections on how your means at hand will contribute to the business 4) reflections about the future steps foreseen as relevant to the progression of the business project. This last step could contain effectual elements such as; estimating the affordable loss, potential stakeholders to contact AND causal elements such as sketching out possible goals (or micro goals) to strive towards and some number crunching to see what you are doing will not put you in financial difficulties etc. Last but not least, I suggest the business plan should be transformed into a living document, like a diary or log book where you can document and reflect upon the steps taken in the venture process. OK, these are my initial thoughts on this. I am looking forward to see what others think! Anette Johansson, PhD candidate at Jönköping International Business School
I don't think a business per se is a bad thing; a BP serves several purposes: it is a way to explicit hypotheses (good) and play with them (good), it is a way for the founders to set some reference points for the future (good), but certainly not a guide they should should follow in any case. So maybe the discussion is not about good vs bad, but about the circumstances in which a BP can be good or can be bad. Also I find the BP process useful to chase out gross inconsistencies in the thinking. It's the same idea as in science: you can prove hypotheses wrong, but only action prove them right. So first you use the BP process to eliminate wrong ideas, then you act to "prove" remaining hypotheses. Another idea with regards to students is to ask them to back every part of the BP with action; ie: "I'll accept your marketing idea only if you have talked about it with 5 potential customers and distributors who are ready to commit to something. Hence the BP is a cognitive map for action.
Whatever we find to go beyond the classical business plan, I think it should have these features:
- flexible document allowing for quick changes in each and every area - showing the relations between critical elements of a business idea - allowing for different scenarios (ambiguity) - providing a good basis for stakeholder communication - not a linear text document but a graphical representation - favor the doable as opposed to free floating fantasies - rooted in means at hand - actionable
Looking into what´s there already in terms of ideas, Osterwalder´s business model canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur 2010) would fulfill a number of these criteria (flexible, showing interactions, scenarios, communication, graphical). For the latter criteria (doable, means oriented, actionable) it would take some process enhancements. We therefore propose an “Effectuation App” (= guidelines for the creation / co-creation of the various elements of the canvas) to support students / entrepreneurs in navigating the canvas (go beyond blank-filling). René Mauer and I already prototyped something alike in a contribution to G-Forum this year. To give you an idea, how the App could guide the iterations between thinking and acting:
[business model canvas element]:[“App”] Key partners: “Make offers to allow partners to self-select into the process and create stakeholder commitments with them.” Key resources: “Start with any means (preferences, knowledge, network) at hand and constantly update your inventory of means.” Value proposition: “Co-create value proposition by negotiating a convergence of your and your partners’ goal expectations.” …….
I think we are not quite there yet, but it might be worthwhile to give this some more thought …
Based on the posts so far, I thought about possible (research) sub-questions that could frame parts of the paper, and add some new aspects:
- General questions: What is a business plan actually good for? Are there contexts in which making a business plan is more/less important? What is the value of a business plan as a communication tool? What are the learning effects from making a business plan? And, what are the learning effects when (parts of) the business plan preparation is "outsourced" (eg done by consultants)?
- Do business plans have to be more flexible both in their implementation and in their design? What are elements of the business plan that are valuable under certain conditions, and what elements can be added?
- Specific context: Especially in bottom billion countries competitions for donor grants and participation in business development support programs are often linked to business plans. What is the value of making business plans in these contexts, where environments are uncertain, markets in early emergence, and data to base predictions on is largely not available? Are entrepreneurs in this setting only preparing the plan to win the competition or participate in support programs? What elements in the plan "make winners"? To what extend are business plan followed up on in support programs? Are there more appropriate tools, or ways to extend existing plans with more appropriate elements that support entrepreneurs in taking action?
Multidisciplinary team work Business students, engineering students, desing students, nursing students... Easier to find content for action. Prototyping a a product of service as the starting point. A lot of time should be allocated to team building (self selection). Needs team work of also on the part of instructors (this is an object for learning as well!)
Exemple: my niece participated in a program where students from Stanford and Aalto University designed a prototype for a recyclable laptop, business partner Autodesk.
One way to enhance action is Busines Model Generator. It is a more dynamic approach than business plan.
Evaluation is not difficult, grading is! Pedagogic approach: Kolb's cycle. Reflection is an essential part of all learning, especially true in experimental learning. Self assessment and peer assessmemt can be carried out based on learning journals the students keep and share in a blog.
Two things that should be kept in mind when planning grading criteria: - How can the student get a good grade even if the project turns out a failure?
- How to give individual grades even when work is arried out in teams?
This is just a quick copy-paste, I'll come back and comment other comments latar!
While I can not say whether it can be considered an effectual business plan, however, within my business the way the way I get this done is collaborative and iterative.
My N+1 business plan starts with what was achieved in year N. From there it is composed of large focus areas for priorities derived from my Board for N+1 and a bottom line budget number. Once this has been validated by the Group CFO - the detailing of these priorities is done with inputs from the Business Unit Leaders, HR, L&D, Participants and my team. Through this interaction the priorities become more focused, targets are set and a dashbaord is formalised that will then be used to pilot the year. - Steven Smith
Because of the time pressure only one short comment:
Summarized we want our students to...
- know well what effectuation is (principles and process) - be able to transfer the dynamic effectual process to other settings
A nice assignment could be to let students work out a roleplay in which they bring the theory to life. The theater art could give us ideas how we can evaluate this.
What should or could an effectual Business plan be? Considering a plan, one’s can understand planning activity others can understand mapping activity. That means plan gives you understanding of where you are and brings you coherence, feasibility, plausibility to go from point A to B. In that perspective plan doesn’t require prediction of the futur. Simon argues that it should be sad for humanity to require prediction when designing new things (Simon, 1969). In order to define what could an effectual be, we argue that Innovation is about design, Innovation is a social phenomenon (Schumpeter, 1942), we should say: “ Innovation is a social design” according to Simon (Sarasvathy, Simon, 2000). In this paper we explore near decomposability concept related to effectuation concept: “While effectuation stitches together pieces of entrepreneurial fabric into economic quilts that continue to make sense in an interactive and dynamically changing environment, near-decomposability identifies lines of "tearing" so that pieces can be re-worked in synchrony with the overall pattern as the needs imposed by the environment change” (Sarasvathy et Simon, 2000, p. 18). We suggest that if lines of tearing can be found it should be core elements of the mapping activity that effectual Business plan requires.
I think there's a more creative way to present an idea. Like producing a video. I took part of a jury who had to choose the most innovative and valuable idea from a video make by the entrepreneurs.
The YOU Innovate Canada tournament show Canadians that the spark of a great business idea simply comes from looking at an ordinary thing in an extraordinary way, an entrepreneurial way. A national tournament organized by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, YOU Innovate Canada is an opportunity for every Canadian to engage with, connect to and see the value of entrepreneurship in their everyday lives. This fall, tournament participants used the everyday household object at the centre of this tournament – a coffee cup – to create new value. A very common household item. You’re probably thinking, ‘What else could a cup be used for?’ The beauty of the competition is, it could be used for anything! The value of the product can be social, financial, for charity purposes, entertainment, environmental, etc. There is no limit on what is considered valuable. The participants then submit a brief video about their innovation. The main criterion is that you are a post-secondary student. They just have to create an idea and promote it as much as they can.
The judges view each participant’s ideas online. The judging of the videos are done by a voting panel. A short video showcasing the innovation is submitted through the website. The tournament originally began to foster excitement for entrepreneurship. The contestant just has to prove the value of their idea to the voting panel of judges. The idea must be original. The value can be a variety of things. The winner will prove that their innovative idea is worthy of national recognition. This tournament is unique because of the simple rules. Basically, it is encouraging you to be as creative as you can and to think outside the box. Changing the object from its normal use to an entirely different use is the challenge. This is a great opportunity to showcase your talents in creating something new from the given object.
hi there!
ReplyDeletelet me start right now so I have the excuse that is late in the night and that I had to much good wine to produce anything plausible.
Let's start:
1) first impression: the call is very broad, and it could be difficult to get together what will be put on the table in a meaningful and sharp and legitimate way. As suggested today, you may want to have people voting on the most interesting ideas, an do that step by step, iteratively proving ideas, then selecting out, then another wave of ideas, then selecting out, and so on. I would do that not only for single ideas, but also for the categories to be investigated, so we can narrow down the topic step by step, and for the structure of the paper (sections, what should be said here or there, and so on). Editors get to give shape to the process because they can decide what and how to vote, but the ultimate decision belongs to the community. This may help overcoming coherence issues as well legitimacy problem.
2) on the topic itself (alternative to BP in teaching), being effectuation about doing things, I guess things should be the vehicle for students to present their work. The product does embody all the pieces of the history it comes from. Thus I'd ask students to show me their product, take each part of it, and begin by saying how that part was created, how they came to think about it why in that way, who suggested that idea or made it possible, and so on. We would probably end up discovering that things "reify" more actions than what we /and the students) may think (using Orlikowski's (1992) reification of structures into artifacts may add some more meat to this...)
These are my 2 cents, hope they help!
Francesco
The starting point is that we do know for a fact that managers and entrepreneurs alike, have limited usage for the traditional business plan. But still there are many stakeholders/institutions (schools, investors, top management teams, shareholders) that demand the business plan as a means to evaluate what is going on/will happen in a business activity. Hense, we still need something like a business plan. Based on my own experience from working in large organizations, and from interacting with entrepreneurs and students I believe the business plan itself is not the problem, it is the fact that we fill it with irrelevant and obsolete facts that is the problem. I hence would like to see a discussion on what would instead be relevant and meaningful content to fill the business plan with. This will of course depend on at what stage the entrepreneur/student/manager is in when writing the business plan AND for what purpose it is written. If for example, we are discussing the business plan as a student deliverable after completing a course on entrepreneurship, I foresee the business plan to contain a mix of 1) sensemaking of the context in which the business is/will be acting within. Meaning relevant notes on competitors, regulations etc. 2) a short description of the steps taken so far in the process and the stakeholders involved in the project and 3) reflections on how your means at hand will contribute to the business 4) reflections about the future steps foreseen as relevant to the progression of the business project. This last step could contain effectual elements such as; estimating the affordable loss, potential stakeholders to contact AND causal elements such as sketching out possible goals (or micro goals) to strive towards and some number crunching to see what you are doing will not put you in financial difficulties etc. Last but not least, I suggest the business plan should be transformed into a living document, like a diary or log book where you can document and reflect upon the steps taken in the venture process.
ReplyDeleteOK, these are my initial thoughts on this. I am looking forward to see what others think!
Anette Johansson, PhD candidate at Jönköping International Business School
I don't think a business per se is a bad thing; a BP serves several purposes: it is a way to explicit hypotheses (good) and play with them (good), it is a way for the founders to set some reference points for the future (good), but certainly not a guide they should should follow in any case. So maybe the discussion is not about good vs bad, but about the circumstances in which a BP can be good or can be bad. Also I find the BP process useful to chase out gross inconsistencies in the thinking. It's the same idea as in science: you can prove hypotheses wrong, but only action prove them right. So first you use the BP process to eliminate wrong ideas, then you act to "prove" remaining hypotheses.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea with regards to students is to ask them to back every part of the BP with action; ie: "I'll accept your marketing idea only if you have talked about it with 5 potential customers and distributors who are ready to commit to something. Hence the BP is a cognitive map for action.
Whatever we find to go beyond the classical business plan, I think it should have these features:
ReplyDelete- flexible document allowing for quick changes in each and every area
- showing the relations between critical elements of a business idea
- allowing for different scenarios (ambiguity)
- providing a good basis for stakeholder communication
- not a linear text document but a graphical representation
- favor the doable as opposed to free floating fantasies
- rooted in means at hand
- actionable
Looking into what´s there already in terms of ideas, Osterwalder´s business model canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur 2010) would fulfill a number of these criteria (flexible, showing interactions, scenarios, communication, graphical). For the latter criteria (doable, means oriented, actionable) it would take some process enhancements. We therefore propose an “Effectuation App” (= guidelines for the creation / co-creation of the various elements of the canvas) to support students / entrepreneurs in navigating the canvas (go beyond blank-filling). René Mauer and I already prototyped something alike in a contribution to G-Forum this year. To give you an idea, how the App could guide the iterations between thinking and acting:
[business model canvas element]:[“App”]
Key partners: “Make offers to allow partners to self-select into the process and create stakeholder commitments with them.”
Key resources: “Start with any means (preferences, knowledge, network) at hand and constantly update your inventory of means.”
Value proposition: “Co-create value proposition by negotiating a convergence of your and your partners’ goal expectations.”
…….
I think we are not quite there yet, but it might be worthwhile to give this some more thought …
Best,
Michael Faschingbauer
Based on the posts so far, I thought about possible (research) sub-questions that could frame parts of the paper, and add some new aspects:
ReplyDelete- General questions:
What is a business plan actually good for? Are there contexts in which making a business plan is more/less important? What is the value of a business plan as a communication tool? What are the learning effects from making a business plan? And, what are the learning effects when (parts of) the business plan preparation is "outsourced" (eg done by consultants)?
- Do business plans have to be more flexible both in their implementation and in their design? What are elements of the business plan that are valuable under certain conditions, and what elements can be added?
- Specific context:
Especially in bottom billion countries competitions for donor grants and participation in business development support programs are often linked to business plans. What is the value of making business plans in these contexts, where environments are uncertain, markets in early emergence, and data to base predictions on is largely not available? Are entrepreneurs in this setting only preparing the plan to win the competition or participate in support programs? What elements in the plan "make winners"? To what extend are business plan followed up on in support programs? Are there more appropriate tools, or ways to extend existing plans with more appropriate elements that support entrepreneurs in taking action?
Best,
Katharina Poetz
I lost my previous comment (bad wifi at the hotel), so this is a quick rerun on some of the points.
ReplyDeleteEntrepreneurship refers to an individuals ability to turn ideas into action. EU Commission.
Multidisciplinary team work
Business students, engineering students, desing students, nursing students... Easier to find content for action. Prototyping a a product of service as the starting point. A lot of time should be allocated to team building (self selection). Needs team work of also on the part of instructors (this is an object for learning as well!)
Exemple: my niece participated in a program where students from Stanford and Aalto University designed a prototype for a recyclable laptop, business partner Autodesk.
One way to enhance action is Busines Model Generator. It is a more dynamic approach than business plan.
Evaluation is not difficult, grading is!
Pedagogic approach: Kolb's cycle. Reflection is an essential part of all learning, especially true in experimental learning. Self assessment and peer assessmemt can be carried out based on learning journals the students keep and share in a blog.
Two things that should be kept in mind when planning grading criteria:
- How can the student get a good grade even if the project turns out a failure?
- How to give individual grades even when work is arried out in teams?
This is just a quick copy-paste, I'll come back and comment other comments latar!
Irmeli Pietilä
While I can not say whether it can be considered an effectual business plan, however, within my business the way the way I get this done is collaborative and iterative.
ReplyDeleteMy N+1 business plan starts with what was achieved in year N. From there it is composed of large focus areas for priorities derived from my Board for N+1 and a bottom line budget number. Once this has been validated by the Group CFO - the detailing of these priorities is done with inputs from the Business Unit Leaders, HR, L&D, Participants and my team.
Through this interaction the priorities become more focused, targets are set and a dashbaord is formalised that will then be used to pilot the year. - Steven Smith
Because of the time pressure only one short comment:
ReplyDeleteSummarized we want our students to...
- know well what effectuation is (principles and process)
- be able to transfer the dynamic effectual process to other settings
A nice assignment could be to let students work out a roleplay in which they bring the theory to life. The theater art could give us ideas how we can evaluate this.
Best, Laura
What should or could an effectual Business plan be?
ReplyDeleteConsidering a plan, one’s can understand planning activity others can understand mapping activity. That means plan gives you understanding of where you are and brings you coherence, feasibility, plausibility to go from point A to B. In that perspective plan doesn’t require prediction of the futur. Simon argues that it should be sad for humanity to require prediction when designing new things (Simon, 1969). In order to define what could an effectual be, we argue that Innovation is about design, Innovation is a social phenomenon (Schumpeter, 1942), we should say: “ Innovation is a social design” according to Simon (Sarasvathy, Simon, 2000). In this paper we explore near decomposability concept related to effectuation concept: “While effectuation stitches together pieces of entrepreneurial fabric into economic quilts that continue to make sense in an interactive and dynamically changing environment, near-decomposability identifies lines of "tearing" so that pieces can be re-worked in synchrony with the overall pattern as the needs imposed by the environment change” (Sarasvathy et Simon, 2000, p. 18). We suggest that if lines of tearing can be found it should be core elements of the mapping activity that effectual Business plan requires.
Dominique Vian
I think there's a more creative way to present an idea. Like producing a video. I took part of a jury who had to choose the most innovative and valuable idea from a video make by the entrepreneurs.
ReplyDeleteThe YOU Innovate Canada tournament show Canadians that the spark of a great business idea simply comes from looking at an ordinary thing in an extraordinary way, an entrepreneurial way.
A national tournament organized by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, YOU Innovate Canada is an opportunity for every Canadian to engage with, connect to and see the value of entrepreneurship in their everyday lives.
This fall, tournament participants used the everyday household object at the centre of this tournament – a coffee cup – to create new value. A very common household item. You’re probably thinking, ‘What else could a cup be used for?’ The beauty of the competition is, it could be used for anything! The value of the product can be social, financial, for charity purposes, entertainment, environmental, etc. There is no limit on what is considered valuable.
The participants then submit a brief video about their innovation. The main criterion is that you are a post-secondary student. They just have to create an idea and promote it as much as they can.
The judges view each participant’s ideas online. The judging of the videos are done by a voting panel. A short video showcasing the innovation is submitted through the website. The tournament originally began to foster excitement for entrepreneurship.
The contestant just has to prove the value of their idea to the voting panel of judges. The idea must be original. The value can be a variety of things. The winner will prove that their innovative idea is worthy of national recognition.
This tournament is unique because of the simple rules. Basically, it is encouraging you to be as creative as you can and to think outside the box. Changing the object from its normal use to an entirely different use is the challenge. This is a great opportunity to showcase your talents in creating something new from the given object.