MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

In the first program phase you established program goals and objectives. Then, during the second phase you performed an assessment focused on setting a baseline to identify the current state of your business and personal life. The purpose of the Feasibility Analysis Phase is to take the results of the first two phases and confirm you are ready to make it happen, to begin identifying any foreseen obstacles and roadblocks you will face, and to look for opportunities. After completing this phase, you will be in a position to begin better leveraging your time and establish priorities. Now that you have realistic goals in place and a sense of the current state of your business it is during this phase that you will start working closely with your mentor to start identifying ways you can make better time management a reality. A key component of creating a healthier work-life balance will be to better leverage your own time while making your actions more intentional and less random. During this phase you will begin market analysis with a focus on identifying any underserved niches in your target market that align with your expertise and vision. Identifying a niche you can leverage at this stage makes your path to success exponentially easier. The preliminary market research you conduct in this phase will also help you in subsequent stages when you begin to test your market. Also during this phase, you will take steps to evaluate the money, risk, earning potential, time frames, legal requirements, available resources, etc. Getting a real handle on these areas of your business now will help streamline the upcoming Priority Identification Phase and All-Star Identification Phase.

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Objectives

01. Feasibility Importance: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. How it works: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Financial Feasibility: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Economic Feasibility: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Market Feasibility: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Technical Feasibility: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Organizational Feasibility: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Legal Feasibility: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Scheduling Feasibility: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Project Durability: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Constraints: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Key decisions: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month

 

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Strategies

01. Feasibility Importance: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. How it works: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Financial Feasibility: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Economic Feasibility: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Market Feasibility: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Technical Feasibility: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Organizational Feasibility: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Legal Feasibility: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Scheduling Feasibility: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Project Durability: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Constraints: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Key decisions: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

 

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Feasibility Importance.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze How it works.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Financial Feasibility.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Economic Feasibility.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Market Feasibility.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Technical Feasibility.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Organizational Feasibility.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Legal Feasibility.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Scheduling Feasibility.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Project Durability.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Constraints.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Key decisions.

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Introduction

Introduction

The goal of a feasibility analysis is to determine the viability of a new enterprise and to identify both needed resources and important difficulties that exist now, so that they may be addressed early in the start-up process (Scarborough, 2012). In general, the feasibility analysis technique, content, and focus are well established (Berry, 2017). Product/service feasibility, industry/market feasibility, financial feasibility, and organizational feasibility are the four different but interrelated components of the new-venture start-up that are covered by feasibility study. Prior to producing the business plan, feasibility analysis sits in the center of recognizing opportunities and developing a business model. If the feasibility analysis is done thoroughly and honestly, the new venture’s chances of success increase. What is frequently overlooked, however, is a recognition of the new venture’s longer-term viability and sustainability concerns, indicating a lack of awareness of required resources both before and after launch (Coad et al., 2016).

While feasibility analyses are widely used and acknowledged as a way to improve the chances of a new venture’s success, the failure rate of new businesses remains high. In the United States, over one-third of all new businesses, both for-profit and non-profit, fail during the first two years of operation, with another considerable number failing within four years (Barringer and Gresock, 2008). Many variables can contribute to the failure of a new enterprise, including the lack of a feasibility analysis in the first place. However, flaws that should have been recognized during the feasibility research may be included among the other variables, particularly in terms of the firm’s long-term viability. The longevity of a new endeavor is predicated on having exceptional opportunity recognition in the first place, followed by a thorough and honest feasibility analysis, business model design, and finally, a business plan.

We emphasize the importance of maintaining a strategic lens, or an over-reaching perspective, throughout the typical four-part feasibility analysis in this work. We also propose that such an analysis focus on items generated by considering the context of the organization to be created, particularly those aspects relating to the organization’s core competencies (Barney, 1991), competitive advantage (Porter, 1996), fit with its environment (Fahey and Narayanan, 1986; Venkatraman, 1989), and the new venture’s overall growth and survival plan. This strategic lens provides a longer-term focused perspective/analysis, which is vital in addition to the conventional new venture’s immediate and urgent issues or needs as explored in the standard feasibility investigation.

By matching the feasibility analysis with strategic management theory, our proposed strategic lens improves its effectiveness. The strategic management literature asserts that organizational success depends on emphasizing differences between the organization and its competitors by relying on valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and non-substitutable resources and capabilities to create superior fit between the organization and its environment (Barney, 1991). (Venkatraman, 1989). The enhanced five-part feasibility analysis is tailored to include a longer-term view, which more effectively assesses the overall feasibility of the new venture after the doors are opened, rather than the traditional what-do-we-need-to-do-to-open-the-doors approach of the traditional four-part analysis.

The strategic lens gives the short-term focused feasibility analysis a long-term framework. The success of a business enterprise is determined not only by its capacity to take off and prosper at first, but also by its ability to maintain that success over time. If a business is to succeed in the long run, considerations such as the sustainability of a competitive advantage, substitutability, and imitability of the business product and procedures must be considered. Such attention ensures that the internal and external environments of the company are in sync.

The paper is divided into four parts. The first section provides an introduction of the standard four-part feasibility analysis, while the second section summarizes entrepreneurship and strategic management concepts. The benefits of the expanded feasibility analysis approach are presented in the third part. The fourth section discusses the model’s contributions and shortcomings, as well as making recommendations for further research.

Traditional Feasibility Analysis

Product/service feasibility, industry/market feasibility, organizational feasibility, and financial feasibility are the four aspects of a feasibility analysis for a new venture start-up (Barringer and Gresock, 2008). The overall appeal of the proposed product or service is evaluated in the product/service feasibility analysis (Klink and Athaide, 2006). The industry/market feasibility analysis assesses the overall attractiveness of the industry as well as the availability of niche markets that the new business may successfully access and serve (Allen, 2016). Managerial prowess, talent, expertise with entrepreneurial and business initiatives, and total resource sufficiency are all factors in determining organizational feasibility (Berry, 2017). Financial feasibility analysis focuses on determining how finance will be given not only for the beginning phase but also for ongoing business operations until break-even is achieved. The four-part feasibility study’ goal is to thoroughly and honestly evaluate a business idea’s potential merits, finding difficulties before they become important, and resolving these issues as early as possible in the start-up process (Scarborough, 2012). It also enables and provides as a basis for completing a variety of other tasks in the start-up process, such as budgeting, capital search, key hires and key hire scheduling, and locating essential professional support.

The feasibility analysis is the next step after recognizing the opportunity (Linder et al., 2019). The first phase in the entrepreneurial process is opportunity recognition (Baron, 2006), and it is usually associated with three factors: active search, personal attentiveness, and prior entrepreneur expertise, including life experience (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Shane, 2000). Social capital, cognitive and personality qualities, and a general knowledge of environmental conditions have all lately been recognized as crucial elements (George et al., 2016). Opportunity recognition (Ardichvili et al., 2003) is described as the discovery of a new way of creating value in the market, which then mixes and extends into feasibility studies. Following the feasibility investigation, the business model depicts the interconnected organizational activities that the firm engages in to produce value (Zott et al., 2011), demonstrating both a positive value proposition and a plan to support it (Zott et al., 2011). (McDonald and Eisenhardt, 2020). The feasibility analysis and the business model both contribute to a company’s long-term survival and growth, which is a fundamental concept (Massa et al., 2017).

Conducting a feasibility analysis, like other planning tasks, improves the odds of a new venture’s success (Delmar and Shane, 2003). Planning include determining what the company hopes to achieve, as well as establishing schedules for how and when activities to achieve these objectives will be implemented. Business founders benefit from planning because it improves their ability to make decisions more effectively than trial-and-error experimentation, by assisting them in locating and managing scarce resources, minimizing time-consuming bottlenecks, and more efficiently translating abstract goals into concrete operational activities (Delmar and Shane, 2003). A feasibility analysis can assist detect and avoid many of the usual problems that new venture entrepreneurs face, as well as solve many of the more general challenges that come with starting a business. The classic feasibility study focuses on the immediate demands of starting a firm, attempting to address the questions “what do we need” and “how can we do this” that were raised during the opportunity recognition process.

The planning that emerges from the feasibility analysis extends well beyond the more cursory examinations carried out in the early stages of the startup process, such as the initial recognition or screening of a new business idea. The feasibility study research methodologies examine the viability of the new enterprise with a higher level of specificity (Delmar and Shane, 2003). Importantly, the feasibility analysis also considers implementation, with a focus on organizational and managerial capability to realistically fulfill the tasks (Berry, 2017). Because this data-driven research gives objective answers to crucial problems, the depth and quality of study throughout the feasibility analysis is critical. In this analysis, a high level of objectivity and realistic assumptions are required to reduce the risk of finding favorable results due to overly optimistic convictions, such as whether there is a market for the product or service in the first place, or whether the entrepreneurial team has the ability to successfully open and manage the business given the resources available. Moving on with the startup process requires positive findings in all four areas of the feasibility analysis (Berry, 2017), and displaying positive outcomes in only two or three of the four categories indicates long-term failure, inviting disappointment, frustration, and wasted resources.

Product/Service Feasibility

Product/service feasibility analysis (Klink and Athaide, 2006) evaluates the overall appeal of the product or service being proposed in the marketplace, based on a basic understanding of the financial, marketing, and organizational resources required to bring the product/service to market. The product/service feasibility stage pushes the new business idea beyond the wishful thinking, everyone-will-love-this stage, by employing research-driven data to indicate whether a market not only exists for the product/service, but is also accessible given the new company’s resources. Trend lines or prospective long-term changes to the product or service are frequently neglected. Even if the data for the product/service feasibility analysis is 100% right today, possible problems may be overlooked or neglected without some degree of future emphasis.

Industry/Market Feasibility

An industry/market feasibility analysis assesses the overall attractiveness of the industry, its scale, and the availability of niche markets that the new business may successfully access and serve (Allen, 2016). Given the potential scale advantages or entrenched market control of known competitors, industry/market feasibility analysis looks at existing competitors and substitute products or services, and forces attention on questions of competitive advantage, geographic and demographic market forces, and cost/profit considerations. The information presented thus far is mostly current and historical; nonetheless, rivals are not static and may react fiercely to new entrants into the business. Established players often have built-in cost advantages, giving them a lot of leeway in the market to decrease prices to battle incoming competition. Markets may be expanding, contracting, or saturated with products that are very similar to what the new business proposes to offer, and the new venture must be aware of these market pressures. Because market dynamics are rarely stable, what is true now may not be true tomorrow, as the entry of a new business is a market disruption in and of itself. A degree of future focus is essential, just as it was with the product/service feasibility investigation.

Financial Feasibility

Financial feasibility research focuses on the resources required for startup expenditures, evaluating costs and possible revenues, and establishing the necessary financial reserves to cover losses until break-even, which could take several years. This examination looks at how finance will be provided not only for the startup phase, but also for ongoing business operations, with the goal of assisting entrepreneurs in avoiding the typical problem of running out of cash before they can bring in customers or generate enough sales revenue. Financial feasibility research helps entrepreneurs understand how much money they’ll need, when they’ll need it, and what kind of money they’ll need. These are all elements that are usually misunderstood or underestimated by business owners (Katila and Shane, 2005). Because gross income, total and ongoing expenses, and net revenue streams are difficult to estimate properly, the early stages of financial analysis are generally plagued with more problems than answers. The break-even point is frequently a mystery. The financial feasibility section of a typical feasibility analysis is the most forward-looking of the four parts.

Because proformas are founded on both previous and future assumptions, the new venture is automatically at a disadvantage due to the lack of historical data. Future assumptions are only as good as the entrepreneur’s knowledge while making them, and given the uncertainty of the firm-specific economy, these assumptions may be off the mark if made without a future-oriented eye.

Organizational Feasibility

Organizational feasibility analysis aids in the identification of managerial skills required for the start-up and subsequent management of a new enterprise. Even if the market, industry, and financial feasibility analyses are all good, the business will most likely fail if the entrepreneurial start-up team has the competence or expertise to implement the plan and make the many elements function together. The two fundamental concerns of organizational feasibility study are management expertise/prowess and resource sufficiency. Attention to both areas is vital, because management success without resource success, and vice versa, will almost certainly lead to failure. This is a challenging subject to study because many entrepreneurs prefer to exaggerate their own talents in terms of talent and skill while underestimating their competitors’ capacity to adapt and compete (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000).

The entrepreneur’s ability to grasp the markets the new firm aims to service, entrepreneurial and managerial expertise, and the depth of professional and social networks are all common features when evaluating management prowess (Barringer, 2009). According to some research, essential human attributes of the entrepreneurial team, such as love for the new enterprise, motivation and tenacity, integrity and reliability, should also be considered when evaluating management prowess (Kurato and Hornsby, 2009). Tolerance for ambiguity, as well as the ability to deal with uncertainty and risk, is also valued (Teoh and Foo, 1997).

Entrepreneurs frequently have substantial difficulties in determining their resource requirements and determining how to meet them, as well as attracting and locating resources to assist their fledgling firm (Yusuf, 2010). The ability of a company to locate nonfinancial resources, such as important personnel and others such as consultants, lawyers, and accountants, is also considered during the organizational feasibility analysis (Barringer, 2009). Entrepreneurial time availability and energy, as well as intellectual property and knowledge unique to the new firm, are all considered here. An understanding of the human resources and talent required for business expansion as the new venture scales up is sometimes overlooked in the organizational feasibility analysis. A future view is desperately needed in this situation.

The similarities between opportunity recognition, feasibility study, and business model are generally the result of necessary research aimed at reducing ambiguity and uncovering beneficial insights. Research also necessitates a thorough examination of assumptions, all of which leads to increased confidence in decision-making and a reduction in risk (Raffaelli et al., 2019).

The Needed Strategic Management And Entrepreneurship Link

This section gives an overview of the frameworks for entrepreneurship and strategic management. Following a brief overview of the nature of organizations, a review of the general entrepreneurship process is provided. The key ideas of strategic management are then discussed, providing context for the feasibility analysis process, as well as identifying points of congruence and inconsistency between the feasibility analysis process and its environmental and competitive context. As a result of this link, early creation of tactics to take advantage of points of congruence and minimize points of incongruence is possible.

The nature of organizations

Organizations are defined as goal-driven socioeconomic organizations populated by congeries with diverse interests that interact with the environment in a variety of ways (Scott, 2003). Closed-ended goals serve as benchmarks in the pursuit of open-ended goals, giving the criteria against which organizational performance and health are measured, whereas open-ended goals provide direction, purpose, and mission to the company (Hofer and Schendel, 1978). The strategic objectives of the organizations are instances of closed-ended aims (Drucker et al., 2006; Kaplan and Norton, 1992).

Organizations are open systems (Bertalanffy, 1968), and their existence and growth are ultimately dependent on their surroundings. The company has problems as it interacts with its external environment, ranging from favorable opportunities and collaboration to negative threats and resistance. The activities of the organization are primarily orchestrated to meet the problems posed by the environment (Fahey and Narayanan, 1986). The organization obtains required resources from the outside world (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978) and then exports its product or service to the same environment or the entire world. Inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, and service are among the major value chain activities used by the business to generate and deliver its products or services to the external environment (Porter, 1985). Procurement, technology development, human resource management, and firm infrastructure activities are all examples of value chain support activities. For most new ventures, systemic evaluation of these value chains is difficult, and the feasibility analysis barely touches on these value chain activities because the alternatives’ possibilities are relatively unknown, and this uncertainty is compounded because the new venture does not yet know enough about its suppliers or customers.

Entrepreneurship And Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is widely characterized as the process of forming new businesses in a context-dependent, resource-constrained, innovative, social, and economic environment (Aldrich, 2005). The ability of these new companies to connect available resources with available possibilities, as defined by the entrepreneur, creates value (Garnsey, 1998). By its very nature, the entrepreneurial process is accompanied with a high amount of uncertainty, tempered assumptions, and the entrepreneur’s essential willingness to bear some risk.

Because entrepreneurship is the process of forming a new company that offers an innovative product or service, or at the very least a “new” product or service in a different geographic location, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for any specific enterprise. The discovery of a legitimate opportunity and a suitable arrangement of resources to capture it are critical to the success of an entrepreneurial endeavour. In practical terms, an opportunity does not exist if resources are insufficient to allow it to be taken (Hulhert et al., 1997). A new venture’s failure is frequently caused by misidentification or excessively optimistic interpretation of opportunities, as well as underestimating of required resources or competitors. The feasibility analysis tries to create a realistic analysis of both the opportunity and the needed and/or available resources, but with the limits that have already been mentioned, resulting in data-driven estimations. The feasibility analysis is a useful tool, but it is incomplete without a strategic focus on sustainability, survival, and future change/growth.

Strategic Management In The Context Of The New Venture Start Up

At all levels of the organization, strategy is a collection of activities that establish a pattern while continually changing and adapting to diverse conditions and environments. Strategic management acts as a method for aligning an organization with its environment (Miles and Snow, 1984), with alignment achieved through internal activity coordination and outward adaptation to environmental conditions. Strategic decisions and commitments are made by identifying the firm’s and the environment’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and dangers (Weihrich, 1982). These choices are “action-oriented” (Rumelt, 2010, p. 87) and address the issue “what are we going to do now?” (p. 4 in Spender, 2014). Strategic decisions differ from other types of decisions in that they are “critical in regard to the enterprise’s overarching business objective… [and] are complementary with one another” (Grant and Baden-Fuller, 2018, p. 324).

The strategy of the new enterprise is solely based on assumption-based analysis, but the strategy of the established firm is based on assumptions moderated by data-based operational practice and experience. The established firms’ future operations are predicated on prior performance, which is then modified with data-driven future expectations.

A successful strategy is founded on the organization’s core competencies, which are firm-specific and valuable, rare, expensive to copy, and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991), as well as the fit of these core competences with the competitive industry and broader societal environment. Environmental opportunities and dangers are discovered through meticulous study, and strategic implementation engages with them (Fahey and Narayanan, 1986). When opportunities are viewed through the prism of the organization’s core capabilities, a strategy emerges that highlights the organization’s uniqueness and differentiates it from its competitors (Porter, 1996). Competitors find it difficult to duplicate or match this specific use of core competencies since it creates a fit between the firm and its environment (Venkatraman, 1989). However, due to a lack of exact information about their own performance, as well as a lack of an experience-based reading of the competitive landscape, which is further compounded by the competitive response to the new venture’s introduction into that environment, the new venture is at a disadvantage.

Managers must have a strategic management competency in order to establish and execute a successful strategy. This capability necessitates managers to excel not just in the application of analytical techniques, but also in “judgment, insight, intuition, creativity, and social and communicative skills” (Grant and Baden-Fuller, 2018, p. 322).

In a strategic and market competitive sense, the typical four-part feasibility analysis ignores much of the context or originality of the organization to be built. Rather, it is created in isolation from the strategic management framework of resources and competencies, on which the organization’s success is predicated. According to the improved feasibility analysis described in this study, organization-specific and unique things should be recognized first as the foundation for the classic feasibility analysis’ four components. A perspective/focus that is related to the environment is required; otherwise, the longer-term strategic, sustainability, and survival advantage is overlooked or lost entirely. Because the venture’s success is based on its strategy’s effectiveness, these things would be identified with a focus on internal coordination and external adaptability, as well as how they relate to the strategy’s components: resources, scope, synergy, and competitive advantage (Hofer and Schendel, 1978). This not only clarifies the emphasis of the feasibility research, but it also warns of side-bar pathways that may divert attention away from the core.

Strategy focused organizational feasibility analysis

Context Dependency: Presence And Sufficiency

The standard four-part feasibility study already includes a lesser level of strategic awareness, as well as a degree of alignment between the feasibility analysis and the entrepreneurial process, which includes opportunity recognition, business model, and business plan. For example, during an assessment of an entrepreneur’s/entrepreneurial team’s managerial prowess, the assessment aims to guarantee that the team not only has the skill set required to operate the new enterprise, but also to find and obtain the resources required for its success. Entrepreneurs with a short track record, limited company development experience, and narrow expertise are less likely to be able to run the firm and quickly identify and fill resource shortfalls (Carayannopoulos, 2009). Still, the standard four-part feasibility analysis focuses on the near-term and on getting the new company off the ground. Planning for long-term profitability or the sequence of expansion, product/service development, and survival receives less attention, time, and energy.

Based on a very rigorous and detailed analysis of that environment, an organization’s strategy should focus on the distinctive features of the organization that allow it to achieve fit with its environment (Porter, 1996; Venkatraman, 1989). (Fahey and Narayanan, 1986). Because these criteria highlight originality, feasibility analysis success attributes must also look for distinctive aspects. This is a difficult task because the macro environment is continually changing, and thus organizational fit with the environment is also changing.

A feasibility analysis evaluates a potential organization’s chances of success. The feasibility of a prospective organization’s ability to achieve internal integration and external adaptation, as well as create a fit (Venkatraman, 1989) between the organization’s internal and external environments, is defined in strategic management terms. As a result, a feasibility analysis should be conducted based on a thorough understanding of the organization’s environment as well as the strategic fit and competitive advantage that the plan wants to achieve. This match is not just for the near future, but also for the long term (Figure 1).

When the feasibility analysis is combined with the strategic management framework, it will be more effective (see Figure 1). Prior to the previous four-step study, the new enhanced feasibility analysis focuses on the organization’s and its environment’s unique characteristics. This initial stage is more than generic; it must be investigated, developed, and built specifically for each individual company. Figure 2 depicts a four-phase methodology for conducting a sustainability and strategy feasibility examination. The organizational context’s specific attributes are defined in the first step. These features refer to the competitive marketplace, industry life-cycle stage, specific direct competitors, and ease of entry for new competitors in the unique organizational environment in which the organization intends to operate (Fahey and Narayanan, 1986). This approach looks beyond the here and now to the near future, highlighting that what “works” today may not function in the future.

Adding a strategic framework to the feasibility analysis improves the new venture’s capacity to discover “new discoveries and possibilities in the direction of corporate goals and targets [italics added].” Guven et al., 2020). Continuity must be maintained throughout the venture’s lifespan. The feasibility analysis, which is concerned with opening the doors to a new enterprise, cannot be carried out independently of the venture’s long-term strategy; it must be carried out in the framework of the long-term strategy.

Organization-specific success competencies are discovered in the second phase. This phase concentrates on the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses. Core competencies are defined as “capabilities and resources that are valuable, scarce, expensive to imitate, and non-substitutable” (Barney, 1991), and comprise both material and human resources, as well as skill, experience, and ability. The essential four-part feasibility analysis is conducted in the third step, based on the outcomes of the first two phases. These skills should be tailored to the specific needs of each company and its environment, both now and in the future. In the fourth phase, the feasibility assessment items are re-examined and further developed, with the goal of discovering future possibilities and risks that may necessitate some strength items being reinforced and specific feasibility weakness items being mitigated. Organizational success is dependent on the ability of the organization to emphasize its uniqueness through a customised strategy, hence feasibility analysis items will differ from one organization to the next and must be defined for different companies and situations.

Discussion

The approach given in this study shows how a strategic focus can be added to the typical four-part feasibility analysis as an augmented phase. According to the study, a strategic feasibility analysis based on the environmental circumstances of the to-be-created firm, with an emphasis on longer-term and sustainability features, as well as core competency internal qualities, would improve the new venture’s chances of success. The new five-part feasibility analysis will be more contextually relevant the more probable the organization will succeed.

When the study is driven by the context of the organization to be built in the long run and the principles of the strategic management framework, a more effective feasibility analysis is obtained (Barney, 1991; Porter, 1996; Venkatraman, 1989). The feasibility analysis is created for each specific firm and should be directed by the predicted strategic fit and competitive advantage it intends to attain in the coming years, rather than just the hurdles of getting the new endeavor off the ground. Once the new endeavor is started and known competing forces have responded to the new venture’s entry, the feasibility analysis should focus on the new venture’s competitive advantage in the long run.

Because certain aspects are generic, but many others are not, feasibility analysis factors should be generated as well as generically prescribed. The calculation is based on the broader and longer-term organizational environment, the organization’s core competences, the strategic fit that the organization requires and expects to achieve, and the required entrepreneur/entrepreneurial team competencies.

Beginning with opportunity recognition, the improved feasibility analysis conducts research to gather data and information. This study feeds the business model and company plan, which are both important components of the entrepreneurial process. The feasibility analysis is not a stand-alone work, but rather an important part of the entrepreneurial process that leads to organizational success, sustainability, growth potential, and durability.

This work adds to the body of knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship by increasing the feasibility analysis component of the process, which leads to stronger business models and business plans, and hence stronger companies with a better chance of surviving and thriving. The relationship between opportunity recognition, feasibility analysis, the business model, and the business plan, which are generally taught as independent entities with their own specific areas of specialty, is a critical learning for business students. It is necessary to place entrepreneurial scholarship more firmly into the research and learning streams common to business school students by focusing on long-term sustainability and survival through the addition of a longer-term strategic viewpoint.

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Executive Summary

Course Manual 1: Feasibility Importance

The Value of a Feasibility Study to a Business Owner

The dynamic nature of today’s business world has increased the risks and uncertainties that firms must deal with. Customers’ increasing awareness has resulted in a huge increase in competition, as more and more businesses try to meet their requirements. It has become critical for businesses to outperform their competitors when it comes to providing value to their customers. Surviving in the marketplace has gotten challenging, but getting into it is a completely different story. The failure of entrants is due to a lack of sufficient planning and thinking. As a result, conducting some form of analysis before entering the market becomes necessary to secure profitability. The feasibility study is a good example of this type of examination.

Why Should You, As A Company, Not Overlook The Value Of A Feasibility Study?

A feasibility study is a research method used to evaluate a prospective business’s potential, viability, and practicability. Feasibility studies have a few key characteristics:

• It is a good tool for predicting the possibility of a new company venture’s success or failure, and it may also be used to include new items or ideas into the business mix.
• A feasibility study entails all of the steps necessary to determine whether a business idea has a good chance of succeeding.
• It is a step-by-step procedure that aids in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each phase before moving forward with the process;
• It delivers outcomes for crucial decisions such as moving forward with the idea, improving it, or abandoning it completely.

The feasibility study is the foundation of the business plan. A feasibility study also identifies alternatives and solutions that would otherwise go unnoticed. As a result, conducting this study before to committing business resources, time, and money to a business idea that may not work out as intended is crucial, as this just leads to additional investment to fix previous mistakes. The gathering of this information aids in making educated decisions about which path is the most profitable. This document examines all of the many aspects of the business’s incorporation and execution.

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Course Manual 2: How It Works

How a Feasibility Study can ensure your business will be on track

• A well-executed feasibility study aids the company in gaining a broad image as well as a detailed examination of its potential business viability.
• It can learn more about a project before committing money, time, or other resources to it. • The feasibility study ensures that all decisions are taken before entering the business and discovering the flaws afterwards. Various business conduct choices are developed, and the most optimal one is chosen.
• This research gives essential information and a thorough examination of the complete business picture.
• It improves the success rate by evaluating a variety of parameters; it is also a good source of information for future business investors. They will be able to get a thorough picture of the venture’s many aspects.
• Feasibility studies are used in a variety of businesses, including the hotel, hospitality, restaurant, real estate, medical, office, and industrial sectors. To ensure that the business gets off to a good start, detailed instructions are supplied. This research aids in the smooth operation of the company and prepares the way for efficient operations.
• It allows the company to concentrate on both immediate and long-term objectives. The importance of this document cannot be overstated, since it determines whether the company succeeds or fails.

Prepare A Risk Assessment Strategy

Stumbling hurdles are unavoidable in the early stages of a business. On the contrary, if you are aware of the blocks ahead of time, your chances of falling are greatly reduced.

A risk assessment strategy will assist you in identifying all of the important risk variables that may develop during the course of your company’s operations.

You’ll then devise a strategy to mitigate those threats, ensuring that your company is spared any substantial damage.

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Course Manual 3: Financial Feasibility

A feasibility study is used to determine the financial attractiveness of a company proposal. Any action cannot be carried out without financial resources. This includes estimating all costs that will be important from the start of the project to the operational costs in the later phases of its existence. The initial money is one of the most crucial charges. The goal of the research is to figure out how much money you’ll need to establish a business. After these have been determined, the potential sources of capital generation are presented. The return on investment is another crucial metric (ROI). The degree to which a particular activity generates monetary gains is developed. The future prospective cash flows are calculated. It also brings up the payback period, which is the amount of time it takes for an investment to break even.

Track Your financial Feasibility

Finance is the backbone of any company. As a result, it is a critical component of a feasibility study. Consider your start-up costs, cash flow, and ongoing expenses when evaluating the economic viability of your business plan.

Payroll proved to be the most expensive start-up cost, costing approximately $ 300,500 for five employees across the United States, according to a smart asset survey.

Financial feasibility research will assist you in determining the commercial success of your company by allowing you to analyze areas such as sales volume, price structure, return on investment, and profitability.

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Course Manual 4: Economic Feasibility

Under any economic environment, starting a new firm, developing a new product line, or expanding into a new market is risky. An economic feasibility analysis, also known as an economic feasibility study or economic viability analysis, is a crucial stage in determining the costs, benefits, risks, and rewards of a new business initiative. Feasibility studies assist companies in planning operations, identifying opportunities and risks, and attracting investors. A feasibility analysis does not have to be complex or costly, but it must be comprehensive, taking into account all potential challenges and concerns.

A feasibility study determines the financial benefits that the company will receive. It aids in determining the extent to which the idea’s economic benefits outweigh the idea’s economic costs. An accurate comparison of all of the expenditures to be incurred and the benefits to be received is carried out. This not only assesses the project’s viability, but also steers the company toward avoiding an insufficient resource allocation. The idea’s believability is evaluated, and management obtains a detailed summary of all the costs it will incur from project inception to completion. When these costs are balanced against the potential benefits, the project’s overall economic viability is determined.

It’s time to determine business feasibility when the technical feasibility and market investigations are completed. The initial goal of this project is to develop a financial model for the business potential and conduct a break-even analysis. In other words, how much income earned from units sold is required to break-even, and over what period of time, depending on expenses of products sold, capital costs, and management and administration?

Following the development of a break-even analysis, the entrepreneurs can create accurate financial estimates for best and worst case situations. Strategic planning, milestone development, and venture valuation research will all benefit from these scenarios. The simple goal is to figure out how much revenue is needed to meet the founder’s and/or investors’ expectations for a return on investment.

The economic feasibility stage of business development is the time when a break-even financial model of the business endeavor is produced based on all costs connected with bringing a product from concept to market and producing sales sufficient to meet loan or investment requirements.

The goal of the economic feasibility study is to create a financial model for the business enterprise. This step’s output is a thorough integration of technical product information and market research into one or more break-even financial models.

Entrepreneurial Activities.
This step includes all of the business activities required to establish a conceptual plan for a new endeavor based on one or more financial scenarios.

The following tasks must be done at the economic feasibility stage:

• Create a financial study to determine break-even scenarios based on unit prices, sales volume, and costs.
• Determine whether the profit margins on the business potential are sufficient to justify a venture.
• Examine the benefits of licensing the opportunity versus going it alone.

Milestones: A financial model that accurately represents the business possibility is a milestone.

Funding Sources:Personal funds, as well as friends and family, are sources of funding.

Business Information: The completion of the economic feasibility step usually results in a yes/no decision on the business endeavor, and if the decision is affirmative, identification of seed capital sources and uses for the development phase.

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Course Manual 5: Market Feasibility

The market feasibility is an important aspect of the feasibility research. This section contains all of the relevant industry information. Important information is acquired, such as the industry’s size, retail value, and trends. The specific market is also examined, as well as the market’s future potential. To ensure the business’s success, a thorough assessment is essential. The competitive environment has also been prepared. As a result, the company chooses the best strategy for positioning itself against the competition.

The product/service description is also determined. All of the possibilities are reviewed and analyzed in order to select the most profitable option. A profile of possible customers is created, as well as an assessment of the market’s size in terms of potential buyers. Sales estimates can be estimated with the help of previous data. The target audience’s various places are investigated, and the most beneficial audience and location may be chosen. The suggested target audience’s level of acceptability of the delivery can be determined. It guarantees that the correct product is created for the correct customers. Pricing decisions and tactics are made. It guides decision-makers toward finding the most advantageous possibilities.

An industry/market feasibility analysis assesses the overall attractiveness of the industry, its scale, and the availability of niche markets that the new business may successfully access and serve (Allen, 2016). Given the potential scale advantages or entrenched market control of known competitors, industry/market feasibility analysis looks at existing competitors and substitute products or services, and forces attention on questions of competitive advantage, geographic and demographic market forces, and cost/profit considerations.

The information presented thus far is mostly current and historical; nonetheless, rivals are not static and may react fiercely to new entrants into the business. Established players often have built-in cost advantages, giving them a lot of leeway in the market to decrease prices to battle incoming competition. Markets may be expanding, contracting, or saturated with products that are very similar to what the new business proposes to offer, and the new venture must be aware of these market pressures. Because market dynamics are rarely stable, what is true now may not be true tomorrow, as the entry of a new business is a market disruption in and of itself. A degree of future focus is essential, just as it was with the product/service feasibility investigation.

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Course Manual 6: Technical Feasibility

Another important aspect is the support system required for the firm to run smoothly. It’s possible to find differences in logistical alternatives. It aids in the discovery of available resources in terms of labor, materials, and related technology. The firm’s technological resources are evaluated for their potential. An evaluation of the technical team’s abilities is carried out. Any flaws are investigated, as well as potential solutions. It also entails a review of critical systems, such as hardware, software, and technological needs for the entire system.

Track Your financial Feasibility

Finance is the backbone of any company. As a result, it is a critical component of a feasibility study. Consider your start-up costs, cash flow, and ongoing expenses when evaluating the economic viability of your business plan.

Payroll proved to be the most expensive start-up cost, costing approximately $ 300,500 for five employees across the United States, according to a smart asset survey.

Financial feasibility research will assist you in determining the commercial success of your company by allowing you to analyze areas such as sales volume, price structure, return on investment, and profitability.

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Course Manual 7: Organizational Feasibility

The organizational feasibility of a proposed information system is determined by how well it assumes the organization’s goal and strategic plan for an information system. This could include details about the founders, their professional backgrounds, and the abilities they need to get the business off the ground and keep it running. It also determines whether or not the new system will receive sufficient support from participants to be deployed successfully, as well as whether or not participants will be able to operate the system. Projects that do not directly contribute to achieving a strategic goal of the company, for example, are often not financed. It refers to how well a proposed information system serves the goals of an organization’s information systems strategic plan.
Organizational Feasibility Analysis comprises an examination of:

• What non financial resources are required, such as human resources (management, staff), facilities/location, equipment, intellectual property protection, and so on?

• Management prowess: what is the initial management team’s ability?

The human resource requirements are also examined. This category includes the professional skills required and an estimate of the firm’s capacity. The required professional background is examined, as well as any shortcomings in the current human resource of the new firm or project. In the absence of an effective team, the feasibility study may be used to make employment decisions. The entire legal and organizational framework of the company has been planned properly. Similarly, this research aids in ensuring that the company has sufficient resources to run smoothly.

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Course Manual 8: Legal Feasibility

Every country’s legal ramifications are different. Any legal regulations that may obstruct business activities must be taken into account. This investigation looks into all of the legal issues that may arise as a result of the planned enterprise. All applicable legislation and protective acts are considered. By learning about any form of locational limits that its firm may face due to legal regulations, an organization may save a lot of time and work.

The due diligence procedure should guarantee that the project is procured in compliance with current legal standards, both domestically and internationally, and that essential components of the project have been legalized. Legal due diligence should involve at least three critical processes, as outlined below, in order to analyze the project’s legal feasibility.

The first step is to examine the legal structure in place. This includes locating and analyzing relevant legislation and regulations that may have an impact on the project. The following are some of the legal and regulatory issues that must be addressed.

• The enabling PPP legislation, particularly in search of specific project requirements such as a minimum capital value and maximum contractual duration;
• The public procurement law, which may be partially applicable, particularly in search of general contractual and procurement guidelines;
• Legislation relating to foreign investment, property, and labor issues;
• Legislation relating to land use planning and environmental laws;
• Sector specific legislation

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Course Manual 9: Scheduling Feasibility

The many stages of the business’s lifetime are planned and taken into consideration. The most important milestones, as well as the timeline for achieving them, are mentioned. The various stages of company activity are estimated based on future estimates. All of the necessary activities are given, along with their completion dates.

The following are the steps to creating a project schedule:

Step 1: Create a work breakdown structure, or WBS

Step 2: Calculate the time of each project phase.

Step 3: Determine the necessary resources, including funding, technology, and team members.

Step 4: Determine which tasks or predecessors must be completed before the next one may begin.

Step 5: Establish project milestones to track progress.

Step 6: Determine any dependencies that may have an influence on deliverables and collaboration.

What is the goal of project planning?

Teams would seldom finish projects on schedule if project scheduling was not in place, and projects would frequently exceed budgets.

Project scheduling can be as basic or as complicated as required. Even if it’s only penciling in project details on a calendar and communicating with teams via email, most firms perform some type of project scheduling.

Other firms, on the other hand, utilize spreadsheets to manage their projects, however many have switched to cloud-based project management platforms and other project scheduling software that makes it easier to manage with visual planning solutions. But we’ll get to that later.

What are some methods for project scheduling?

Project managers employ a variety of tools and approaches for project scheduling. Before you become overwhelmed by terms like Kanban boards and Scrum, keep in mind that the best technique for you is determined by your timeframe, goals, and task list.

The Critical Path Method, Program Evaluation and Review Technique, Fast-tracking and Crashing, and Gantt charts are four common scheduling approaches used by project managers.

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Course Manual 10: Project durability

Despite the fact that individuals have been writing and opining on what it takes to start a new business for years, roughly seven out of ten new firms fail within the first two years. What is the reason for this? It’s due to the fact that they haven’t yet acquired Durability.

Durability comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. One is monetary. You write a business plan that includes a cash flow analysis and forecasts that your company will be cash flow positive in 18 months. You may figure out how much capital you’ll need by adding up the total cash shortage up to the point where you’ll be cash flow positive. Do you have enough cash on hand or credit available? Because if you don’t, it’s irrational to believe that your company will succeed.

If your study indicates that you’ll need 18 months to achieve cash flow positive status, you should budget for at least 24 months of outlay. Because your income will most likely be lower than your pro forma and your costs will likely be higher. How many firms collapse just a few months before they reach a critical mass of success?

A significant amount of money and valuable resources are invested in a single project. These must be utilized to the fullest extent possible. A feasibility study lays out the whole course that the project could take. It contains crucial information such as financial estimates. It is only prudent to choose the business idea or project that will be the most long-lasting and will withstand future financial dangers.

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Course Manual 11: Constraints

The feasibility study outlines all of the business’s potential constraints as a consequence of the investigation. Monetary, technical, resource-related, technological, financial, marketing, logistical, legal, and environmental restraints are only a few examples. Estimating these limitations gives you a clear picture of all the problem areas where the project can run into problems in the future, as well as their primary causes.

Find The Silver Lining

Look objectively for your company’s constraints and scope. Examine the results carefully and objectively.

During the course of your feasibility research, you may come across amazing solutions or walk uncharted territory in terms of possible customers and demands. This may pave the way for new business prospects.

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Course Manual 12: Key decisions

The choice to proceed with the business is one of the main objectives of the feasibility study. Because all business-related factors are included, a clear picture of the many aspects is generated. Due to the limited nature of resources, it is critical to ensure that they are used effectively. The most advantageous option should be chosen since valuable resources are not only saved from being wasted on ineffective projects, but are also invested in more profitable ones in the future. A company avoids losses by determining whether or not to pursue a new initiative based on how the return is weighed against the investment. A feasibility study, on the other hand, gives tangible reasons for avoiding the prospective business. The research is exploratory in nature, since it aids in the evaluation of numerous choices and their effects. The go/no-go decision is one of the most important in business development because judgments cannot be reversed, and it is always better to make reasoned decisions than to correct mistakes later.

Action Plan for After the Feasibility Study

Choosing whether to go or not to go: Before you take the plunge, you must brainstorm and undertake extensive research to assess all of the critical components for the successful execution of your start-up idea.

To avoid wasting valuable time, money, resources, and, most importantly, your credibility, your final judgment should be neutral and take into account all of the advantages and disadvantages of the concept.

Form your business idea into a corporation: This is the stage at which your vision becomes a concrete reality. You plan capital allocation, employee hiring, and application for required licenses and permits. You also provide instructions to help your company’s procedures run more smoothly.

Make A Feasibility Study Template For Yourself

By using the above-mentioned points, you may develop your own feasibility study template. The template can be used to create a consistent and repeatable model for your company.

This template can also be used to evaluate future company ideas.

All of the aforementioned elements assist you in strategizing and planning a successful event without spending too much time or resources.

If you have a project that is in cascade (predictive) or incremental (stages or phases), a phase gate is frequently used as a Go/No-Go decision. It could be at the end of a phase that is finished and ready to be handed off to another team, or it could be paused till we resume and go on to the next portion.

That is the Go/No-Go idea. It’s not just a matter of yes or no. It’s all about verifying and validating. It’s not validate first because we don’t validate till after the go. “We’re going to show it to the customer,” it says.

It’s the maître d’ or head chef’s final inspection of all the food being picked up and delivered to the clients. Make sure the presentation is correct, not just the flavor, and that the hot and cold items are served separately. Everything is served at the proper temperature, and the champagne is in perfect condition before we pop the cork and taste it, serve it, and so on.

The following are the elements that will determine whether we will do the Go/No-Go:
Go/No-Go Drivers
• Project Lifecycle
• Corporate Constraints
• Regulations
• Type of Project
• Type of Product

Many projects have informal checks in place, but no-go decisions are a formal check.

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Curriculum

Balancing Entrepreneurship – Workshop 3 – Feasibility Analysis

1. Feasibility Importance
2. How it works
3. Financial Feasibility
4. Economic Feasibility
5. Market Feasibility
6. Technical Feasibility
7. Organizational Feasibility
8. Legal Feasibility
9. Scheduling Feasibility
10. Project Durability
11. Constraints
12. Key decisions

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Distance Learning

Introduction

Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Balancing Entrepreneurship corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.

Study environment

You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.

Study tools & rules

Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.

Successful distance-learning

Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.

Self-assessment

Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.

Accepting responsibility as a student

Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.

Planning

By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.

Management

Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.

Study objectives & tasks

The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.

Study forecast

As a guide, the Appleton Greene Balancing Entrepreneurship corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.

Performance management

It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.

With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.

With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.

Keeping in touch

You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.

Work colleagues and family

You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.

Making it relevant

The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.

Distance-learning check-list

Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.

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Tutorial Support

Programs

Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.

 

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Support available

You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.

 

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Support Process

Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.

 

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Time Management

It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Balancing Entrepreneurship corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Balancing Entrepreneurship program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.

 

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Distance Learning Guide

The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.

 

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How To Study

The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).

 

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Tutorial Support

Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Balancing Entrepreneurship corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.

 

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Tutorial Support Tips

Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.

Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails

Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.

Think about the impression that you want to create

Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.

Remember that quality is preferred to quantity

Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.

Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers

Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.

Keep a record of your tutorial support emails

It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.

 

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Individual training workshops or telephone support

Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.

 

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Tutorial Support Email Format

You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.

Subject line of your email

Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.

Main body of your email

Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)

Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.

Question 1

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 3

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 4

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 5

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.

 

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Procedure

* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.

 

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How To Study

Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.

Planning your study environment

Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.

Planning your program objectives

It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.

Planning how and when to study

Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.

Planning your study tasks

You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.

Planning your time

You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.

Keeping in touch

Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.

Charting your progress

Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.

Making it work

To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.

Reading methods

Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.

Speed reading

When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.

Content reading

Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.

Making structured notes on the course manuals

When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.

Organizing structured notes separately

You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.

Question your understanding

Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.

Clarifying your understanding

If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.

Question your interpretation

Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.

Clarifying your interpretation

If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.

 

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Qualification Requirements

The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Balancing Entrepreneurship corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Balancing EntrepreneurshipSpecialist (APTS). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.

Balancing Entrepreneurship– Grading Contribution

Project Study – Grading Contribution

Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%

Qualification grades

A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.

When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:

Pass with merit

A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory

Pass with distinction

An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory

 

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Preliminary Analysis

Research Article:Improving Entrepreneurship Team Performance through Market Feasibility Analysis, Early Identification of Technical Requirements, and Intellectual Property Support

Abstract

Choosing the wrong technology—due to insurmountable technical hurdles, market limitations, or resource constraints—can be devastating to a start-up company. Either the company deftly changes directions or it ceases to exist. While experiencing these realities may provide invaluable entrepreneurial life lessons, because of structured academic calendars, course commitments, the requirement for grades, and other factors, it is very difficult to drop a technology or disband a company staffed by students fulfilling university educational requirements. Many university-based entrepreneurial education centers provide real-world projects for participating students. The University of Florida Integrated Technology Ventures (ITV) program, launched in Fall 2003, is designed to provide engineering, business and law students with an intense, immersive entrepreneurial experience. Participating students are members of a virtual company led by a serial entrepreneur who acts as a volunteer CEO. The focus of the company is to commercialize university intellectual property. To improve the chances of successfully adopting a new technological innovation and boosting entrepreneurial team performance, we propose an improved way to select suitable technologies, better timing for delivering market-driven requirements to product designers, and enhanced understanding of the implications of business and technical decisions with regards to impact on intellectual property.

Introduction

Life in a start-up technology business is no doubt a rich learning experience. Resources such as capital, facilities, people, and ideas are severely constrained. This environment forces one to adapt quickly or find another activity. While it may not be feasible to replicate all the chaos and pressure associated with such an endeavor in an academic environment, researchers at the University of Florida believe it is possible to come close. The Integrated Technology Ventures (ITV) program provides a conduit for business, engineering and law students to gain valuable entrepreneurial experience developing emerging technologies from the university’s intellectual property portfolio. The students work in virtual companies under the guidance of seasoned CEO consultants, university inventors, and business, engineering, and law school faculty mentors. The ITV program has been in operation since fall 2003. Since that time nine virtual companies have been formed and over 70 students have participated. After the pilot offering, it was recognized that several issues were limiting the overall “Proceedings of the 2007 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2007, American Society for Engineering Education”

If you would like to know more, click Here.

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Research Article: Determining Stakeholders For Feasibility Analysis

Abstract

Most techniques for stakeholder identification and salience in the pre-start up phase of a tourism development are not systematic in approach. This paper explores the utility of a systematic stakeholder analysis within a feasibility analysis. For a more inclusive assessment of stakeholder salience in the context of sustainable development, balancing the managerial lack of intrinsic stakeholder commitment, a third party perspective is added to the evaluation process. Contributing to the final evaluation of a development proposal, the coding scheme provides practitioners with parameters for stakeholder identification and salience. While application of the theory bears limitations in quantitative measurement, the results suggest that systematic stakeholder analysis is beneficial and useful in the context of feasibility analysis.

Introduction

Stakeholder and collaboration theory is often referenced in the literature on sustainable tourism development. The argument is in order to produce equitable and environmentally sustainable tourism developments multiple stakeholders must be involved in the process of planning and implementing the project. At the site level, however, tourism developers have few theory-based or analytic resources to assist in achieving stakeholder involvement. They need a planning framework that supports both the ideals of sustainability and the practical application of policy.

Feasibility analysis offers a potential framework for planning and assessing a proposed development including identifying stakeholders. At the pre-development phase, most planners attempt to identify potential stakeholders, producing often unsatisfactory results. While the literature announces stakeholder involvement as a vital aspect of pre-start up planning, most of the techniques for identifying and assessing stakeholder orientation at this stage are not theory driven or systematic in approach. This paper, therefore, turns to the stakeholder theory literature for an identification and salience typology and then, through field research, explores the utility of this systematic stakeholder analysis within feasibility analysis context.

Feasibility and systematic stakeholder analysis

A significant challenge for planners and practitioners of sustainable tourism developments is the implementation of sustainability principles at the tourism site level, where regional and destination contexts yield tangible results (Marcouiller 1997). In terms of stakeholder involvement in the planning process, often stakeholder issues and orientations will be site-specific. Considering the need for multiple stakeholder involvement in the planning process and subsequent operations, tourism operators and planners need to address the identification and voice of stakeholders in the early stages of strategic planning.

Feasibility Analysis

Feasibility analysis is a pre-start up and strategic planning tool, conducted in the pre-business plan phase of a development. It involves a process of “collecting and analyzing data prior to the new business start up, and then using knowledge thus gained to formulate the business plan itself” (Castrogiovanni 1996:803). Implementing a detailed feasibility analysis during the project planning process demonstrates how the development will operate under a specific set of assumptions (Matson 2004) considering all economic and non-economic factors (Graaskamp 1970). It is conducted at a key juncture allowing for an informed go/no go decision on a proposed development before considerable investment is made.

While feasibility analysis is generally considered an important business tool, it is also subject to the debate on the usefulness and benefits of strategic planning to business success. Critics of strategic planning usually refer to the rigidity and suppression of creative solutions that planning can produce (Miller and Cardinal 1994). Some studies, however, argue convincingly that pre-start up planning has concrete advantages depending on certain contexts and contingencies (Castrogiovanni, 1996, Delmar and Shane, 2003, Soteriou and Roberts, 1998). Such contexts include a number of environmental conditions, such as uncertainty, munificence, and industry maturity, and founder conditions, such as knowledge and capital (Castrogiovanni 1996). The various contexts have either positive or negative results on the effectiveness of strategic planning efforts. Basing their evaluation on the contexts in Yip’s (1985) article, Murphy and Murphy (2004) claim that strategic planning is particularly relevant in the tourism industry provided a plan remains flexible and fluid. Reflecting the complexity of the tourism context and a new tourism planning paradigm, Costa states,

Tourism planning ought to be viewed from a rational and technical point of view (professionalism), which has to be matched against the particularity of every place, the needs and wishes of the people that live in the area, market forces, the availability of manpower and funding, and the position of the place in the world market. (2001:439).

In other words, strategic planning in the tourism industry is crucial in so far as it integrates multiple stakeholders, and remains adaptable to changing environmental, social and economic conditions.

Castrogiovanni (1996) argues that, with all contexts considered, pre-start up planning has no direct result on financial performance, survival or other outcomes. Planning does, however, yield direct benefits that bear upon the firm’s ability to act in a way conducive to achieving its goals and objectives. These benefits include legitimization of the business, improving communication with external stakeholders, meeting expectations of many people who simply believe in pre-planning, learning through planning, increased efficiency and cooperation through improved communication within the organization, and streamlining certain procedures before starting up the business (Castrogiovanni 1996). Lyles, Baird, Orris, and Kuratko (1993) propose that formal planning offers small firms a comprehensive strategic decision making process including a wide variety of alternative strategies and this in turn leads to higher levels of performance and profitability.

Engaging the debate on the usefulness of strategic planning, numerous studies assess the relationship of pre-start up planning to business performance, yielding mixed results. A number of authors conclude that the literature does not provide a comprehensive and consistent conclusion: that formal strategic planning results in performance success (Pearce et al., 1987, Powell, 1992, Schwenk and Shrader, 1993). Methodological differences are potential explanations of these inconsistencies (Miller and Cardinal 1994). Despite the ambiguity in the study results, taken as a whole they do suggest that strategic planning is a beneficial activity. Rue and Ibrahim (1998) find enough support in the literature to argue that planning in small business formation can increase performance and success rate. Powell notes that among the number of studies he reviewed “positive planning-performance relationships outnumbered negative ones” (1992:552). And Schwenk and Shrader conclude from their meta-analysis, “the overall relationship between formal planning and performance across studies is positive and significant” (1993:53).

Most of these planning-performance studies examine the impact of strategic planning on financial performance only (Bracker et al., 1988, Pearce et al., 1987, Powell, 1992, Rhyne, 1986, Robinson and Pearce, 1983, Schwenk and Shrader, 1993). Introducing an alternative indicator for performance success, Castrogiovanni (1996) argues for business survival to be the defining success factor. In recent years, however, measuring the success of a business must involve an evaluation that goes beyond the financials or survival. Elkington (1999) articulates the need for businesses to implement policies and practices that aim for economic, social and environmental sustainability. While previous articles on strategic planning focus on financial success, an increasing number of studies reflect the changing attitudes that “strategic planning can and should have an impact beyond the financial performance of the firm” (Judge and Douglas 1998). Those studies that do examine the incorporation of environmental and social concerns into strategic planning and the subsequent results on performance are concerned with large existing firms well past the start up phase (Hart and Ahuja, 1998, Judge and Douglas, 1998, Ruf et al., 2001). Very few studies measure the impact of pre-start up planning on long-term social, economic and environmental success. In the ecotourism industry, one case study examines how a pre-business plan environmental management and control system, developed in conjunction with multiple stakeholders has resulted in a successful sustainable tourism business (Herremans and Welsh, 1999, Herremans and Welsh, 2001, Welsh and Herremans, 1998).

Success, then, refers to much more than financial profitability. In the tourism industry specifically, the push for sustainable tourism certification (UNWTO 2003) and the recent declarations of organizations such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO 2002), reflects the pressure for a sustainable tourism industry, one that measures success by environmental and social indicators as well as financial.

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Research Article: A Contemporary Approach To Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

Entrepreneurial education is the process of providing individuals with the ability to recognise commercial opportunities and the insight, self‐esteem, knowledge and skills to act on them. It includes instruction in opportunity recognition, commercialising a concept, marshalling resources in the face of risk, and initiating a business venture. It also includes instruction in traditional business disciplines such as management, marketing, information systems and finance. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and introduction of a new programme in entrepreneurship at the University of Tasmania. Within this programme the process and responsibility of learning has largely been reversed through the process of student centred learning. This method of learning represents a challenging departure from traditional mainstream teaching practices. In considering the benefits achievable from this teaching method, this paper also considers the difficulties in transferring increased responsibility to students to manage their futures.

Introduction

The growing literature on entrepreneurship education tends to argue that a different learning environment is required to support the study of entrepreneurship within a university setting (e.g. Gibb, 2002). Essentially, a teaching style that is action‐oriented, encourages experiential learning, problem solving, project‐based learning, creativity, and is supportive of peer evaluation. It is thought that such a process best provides the mix of enterprising skills and behaviours akin to those required to create and manage a small business. However, the departure from a traditional lecturer‐centred, passive learning approach is all the more difficult when instruction in traditional business disciplines such as management, marketing, information systems and finance also contribute to the development of entrepreneurship knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of designing and introducing a new programme in entrepreneurship at the University of Tasmania in 2002. The paper is set out as follows. First, the local and global importance of entrepreneurial education is discussed. Second, a review of the extant literature provides support for the chosen curriculum. Third, the choices of teaching and delivery strategies that support a contemporary approach to entrepreneurship education are outlined. Finally, the outcomes to date are considered with possible future amendments to the existing entrepreneurship major canvassed.

Why entrepreneurial education is important

On 29 January 2001, the Australian Federal Government released its long‐awaited innovations statement – Backing Australia’s Ability. The programme provides $2.9 billion over five years to promote innovation in Australia. It consists of three key elements: strengthening our ability to generate ideas and undertake research; accelerating the commercial application of these ideas; and developing and retaining skills. One of the initiatives includes 2,000 additional university places to foster a culture of enterprise and innovation.

New entrepreneurship programmes have been emerging at business schools in Australia and overseas. In the USA, they have been launched at such prestigious institutions as Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. In 1999, there were 170 American universities offering courses in entrepreneurship. Less than half of them existed three years earlier (Lord, 1999). Similarly, a growing number of Australian universities are offering entrepreneurship programmes in response to developments in overseas universities and accelerated by the Australian Federal Government’s innovations statement.

The rise of these programmes has also been fuelled by unprecedented student demand as students look for a style of business education that will provide them with the transferable skills (Cooper et al., 2004) needed to succeed in an increasingly divergent business environment. In the not too distant past, business schools might nod in the direction of entrepreneurship by offering an elective. Students today are demanding integrated programmes that teach practical skills for starting and expanding business enterprises (Farrell, 1994). Traditional business education programmes, although well attended, have come under criticism for failing to be relevant to the needs of the changing business environment.

For example, entrepreneurial education emphasises imagination, creativity, and risk taking in business whereas traditional business schools tend to over‐emphasise quantitative and corporate techniques at the expense of more creative skills (Porter, 1994). Traditional business school programmes emphasise the large established corporation over the small or start‐up venture and nurture the follower and steward over the leader, creator and risk taker (Chia, 1996). However, entrepreneurial education has firmly established a beachhead in academia as a result of a shift in academic thinking about the value of this field. It is now recognised that entrepreneurship is an important educational innovation that provides the impetus to learning about learning (Charney and Libecap, 2003) Interest in entrepreneurship as a field of research and teaching has been fuelled by the growing demand for entrepreneurship courses by business students.

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Research Article: Entrepreneurship Education: Towards A Discipline‐Based Framework

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory research was to investigate whether: entrepreneurship in the higher education context can be distinguished by disciplined‐based needs; and curricula can be developed around these needs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors reviewed the literature related to the development of professions in order to establish a sound theoretical base to distinguish disciplines that require stringent criteria, and which potentially would challenge the introduction of a more flexible curriculum that includes contemporary concepts such as entrepreneurship. The research then focused on two other groups of disciplines which lead to entrepreneurial opportunities with distinct needs in (principally) people management and intellectual property law. This discussion was couched in the occupational motivation literature. Semi‐structured interviews (n=31) were conducted with individuals randomly selected from three groups associated with an American Land Grant Research University. Additional survey data were collected from 58 respondents.

Findings

The research found support for the categorization of disciplines into the framework of profession‐, industry‐, or invention‐based entrepreneurial ventures.

Originality/value

Although this is an exploratory investigation, the framework sets out clear pathways through the entrepreneurial processes and has crucial implications for a variety of stakeholders. For example: curriculum designers will be better able to understand and address the demands and vagaries of multiple disciplines; critical assumptions (that often plague those involved with technology transfer) will be able to be addressed prior to or in the early stage of the commercialization process because inventors will be better informed and prepared; equity stakeholder negotiations (particularly those that involve government‐operated institutions) will be more realistic as both parties, over time, become increasingly “market‐savvy”; and students (tomorrow’s entrepreneurs) will be better able to plan for an entrepreneurially‐focused career.

Introduction

Entrepreneurship is a complex multi‐faceted concept that has received increasing attention in recent times (Davidsson and Wiklund, 2000; Low, 2001; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000; Venkataraman, 1997). Even so, the topic of entrepreneurship education remains contentious (Fiet, 2002). While most agree that entrepreneurs have and do contribute to economic development and that the role of entrepreneurship needs to be acknowledged and valued, pedagogically, entrepreneurship is still a conundrum to many. Among the reasons for this is that although entrepreneurship is synonymous with and usually linked to business colleges and educators, increasingly it is becoming a campus‐wide responsibility (Laukkanen, 2000).

Historically, when the worlds of entrepreneurship and higher education collided, it was largely a dyadic relationship that saw the technically‐focused create and the business‐focused commercialize. This relationship has proved to be problematic and continues to challenge researchers, administrators, policy makers and industry. In a ra