Training Programmes

Target group

1. Undergraduate students, PhD Students (mainly engineering specialization)

2. SMEs

3. Students and SMEs

Objectives of the course

The course will support trainees in:

- Business planning - structure, tools, financial analysis (cash flow)

- Networking – important regional and national players, policies and programs

- Project management – tools, resource allocation, valuation, risk management

- Research and Development, innovation

- Knowledge management, intellectual capital

- Soft skills (creativity – tools and techniques, team work, conflict resolution, etc)

Main contents

PART I- Entrepreneurship attitude, entrepreneurship as a possible career, entrepreneurial process

• What is entrepreneurship, goals of entrepreneurship

• Who is the entrepreneur, personal traits, risk attitude

• Critical factors for starting a new enterprise

• Evaluating opportunities for new businesses: from idea to business opportunity

PART II- Business model and strategy

The business model – costs and revenues

• Formulating a winning strategy

• Entry and growth strategy

Part III- Introduction to management for starting business – marketing, HRM

• Why marketing is critical

• Acquiring market information

• Segmentation, targeting and positioning

• The marketing mix

• Marketing skills

• Team roles, stages of team development

• Building the founding team

• Keeping the team together

• Motivation, compensation

PART IV- Legal environment of business in the Czech Republic

• Choice of legal form

• Legal and tax issues

• Social and health insurance, property and liability insurance

• Support of SMEs in the Czech Republic and in the EU

Part V- Business planning, financial management

• Business plan purpose and structure

• Financial statement overview

• Financial plans

• Cash flow, computer support

• Fixed and variable expenses, break-even

• Net present value, expected commercial value

• Business plan presentation

PART VI- Financing entrepreneurial ventures, raising money for starting and growing business; debt and other forms of financing

• Financing a new venture: business angels, seed capital

• Financing the growth: venture capital

• Cash conversion cycle, working capital

• Loans

Part VII- WORKSHOP 1: team work – from business idea to business plan

Part VIII- Project and process management

• General concepts of PM

• SW support of PM (Microsoft Project)

• Soft skills in PM (leadership, team building, communication, conflict resolution, etc)

• Risk management

• Project budgeting and resourcing

• New product development, stage gate process

Part IX- Research and development, innovation

• R&D and company performance

• Models of innovation (incremental-radical; open-closed; sustaining-disruptive)

• Innovation process, front end of innovation

• Innovation strategy

• Innovation potential of a company

• Overview of public support for R&D projects in the Czech Republic and EU

Part X- Knowledge management, intellectual capital

• Tacit and explicit knowledge

• Knowledge intensive enterprise’s creation and management

• Intellectual Property and the evolution of the IP system

Part XI- Soft skills in entrepreneurship (creativity, team work)

• Creativity – creative process, methods, tools

• Team work – formal and informal teams, stages of team development, team roles, communication, conflict resolution

Part XII- WORKSHOP 2: presentation of team projects

Part XIII- FINAL – course evaluation

Duration/articulation

Target group 1:

1 semester course (13 weeks: 2/3 hours a week)

+ 2 workshops

Target group 2:

Customized strongly focused trainings (evenings, weekends) to be fine-tuned on the basis of demands and requirements of the target group (duration 4-8 hours)

Target group 3:

Summer courses (1 week)

Teaching methods

Mix of classroom lectures and workshop, business planning, case studies, consulting for SMEs, interactive sessions, role playing in simulated practical environment.

Contacts

doc. Ing. Jiří Vacek, Ph.D.

Katedra managementu, inovací a projektů

Západočeská univerzita v Plzni

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Τel. + 420 377 3204

Fax +420 377 3202

http://faster.zcu.cz