Mary L Kish, 10/25/2008 · 0 comments
The Department of Strategic Communication is offering a mini-course in spring 2009, entitled, "Communications in Entrepreneurship: Making Lemonade (and a living) in a Difficult Economy." The course instructor will be Michael Zupke '00, lawyer, currently employed by ICANN, and alumnus of the communication management and design program.
This mini-course will help students develop the communication skills and analyze the technical and legal considerations involved in successfully organizing and operating a start-up venture after graduation. It will offer an introductory lesson in business organization (e.g., planning, incorporation, funding, structure, etc.) but will focus primarily on the importance of communications to successful entrepreneurship.
The course will focus on the creative communication needs of small and new businesses. In particular, students will learn and practice techniques for targeting and approaching potential clients by understanding their needs, negotiating with vendors, responding to corporate crises, and dancing for shareholders and directors.
Communications in Entrepreneurship will be predominantly a participatory class. Traditional lecturing will only be used to convey technical, legal, and other discrete concepts. Most learning will be problem-based, through use of simulation. Like the Game of Life, students will work in teams in the Game of Entrepreneurship. Each team will be dealt a business idea (all in varied stages of development, and with unique available startup resources) and will interact with the other teams to survive in the marketplace.
By the end of the course, students should:
• understand the differences between various legal entity types and risks associated with each
• understand the importance of a coherent business plan as a communications tool
• be able to develop and execute effective communications strategies to identify potential clients and promote a new business on a limited budget
• be able to anticipate the communications challenges associated with outsourcing work to contractors and team members overseas
• appreciate the importance of relationship building among peers and even competitors
• understand the importance of proactive communications with investors and other stakeholders
• have confidence in their negotiation skills to be able to successfully engage vendors and clients
• be able to respond to organizationally stressful situations while maintaining critical business functions
Credits: One
Course Number: STCM 29200-01
CRN Number: 43406
Dates: Friday, March 27, 6:00-9:00pm
Saturday, March 28, 9:00am-4:00pm (with a lunch break)
Sunday, March 29, 10:00am-1:00pm
Instructor: Michael Zupke
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