Master of Entrepreneurship (Enhanced)

This subject introduces entrepreneurship as a key driver of success in all organisations, ranging from start-ups to large, mature organisations and in both public and private settings. A strong practical focus will be taken. Students will learn from benchmarked companies and visiting speakers with entrepreneurial backgrounds about the key dilemmas encountered in the entrepreneurial process and the solutions that they can put into practice. A significant part of the course is designed around hands-on experience in an ‘incubator’ environment, where ideas are generated and refined through collaboration and iteration between all participants. Students are expected to demonstrate entrepreneurial skills and use these to take their own innovation (a solution to a real world problem) to the pre-implementation stage.

Through these practical instances, students are expected to develop a broader theoretical understanding of the critical elements of entrepreneurship, including the entrepreneurial mindset, capabilities and processes, skills that range from financial acumen, through to marketing, production and scale-up, often requiring novel solutions to these matters, under conditions of high uncertainty. Frameworks will be introduced that address the whole process that cover activities from the development and selection of ideas (invention), testing their efficacy and the business planning involved to exploit those ideas (entrepreneurship). The subject will also examine how entrepreneurs can shape their organisations so that they continuously build and commercialize valuable innovations. Many of the examples will focus on how established organisations can become more innovative and entrepreneurial.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject focuses on the design, structure, and processes for creating and managing an entrepreneurial enterprise both operationally and strategically. A key consideration will be the role of leaders and the challenges these leaders need to overcome over the phases in the life of the enterprise, through launch, growth and maturity. An understanding of the alignment of human resources, people and talent, leadership, culture and operational practices to match strategic goals as the entrepreneurial enterprise responds to the changing internal and external challenges is pivotal to the success of any entrepreneurial endeavour and will be a key focus of this subject. Furthermore, the subject will discuss new ways of organising that facilitate entrepreneurial outcomes, like, for example, the holacracy model, platform-based ecosystems, and the Rendanheyi model.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The purpose of this subject is to examine the topics of Managing Innovation in the context of large and small organisations. Innovation is ultimately the lifeblood of organisations, in that it is concerned with the capability to effectively introduce new products and services, new or substantively improved processes or other major initiatives into existing and new organisations. Topics include innovation capability, new product/process technology introduction, and innovation culture and innovation measures The subject addresses the process of innovation exploitation and exploration and the role ambidextrous organisational designs and dynamic organisational capabilities play in this process. The subject will examine the emerging importance of open innovation in the co-evolution of market and customer value and the use of crowd and expert sourcing in this process. Key elements addressed that are part of successful innovation companies are vision and strategy innovation, creativity and idea management, culture and climate, management of technology, organisational structures, intelligence and systems. Firms that have successfully and systematically created such capabilities will be used as case studies.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The purpose of this subject is to study and practice topics on developing an entrepreneurial venture from an idea through to its first ‘minimum viable product’ in the market, and first customer.

The subject closely examines how entrepreneurial ventures are established; the building of attributes and skills of successful entrepreneurs; how product-market fit is established through business models; development of financial models in entrepreneurial ventures; how and with what outcomes meso-level interfacing between the entrepreneur and market incumbents exists; and deployment of a value-adding product in the market.

This subject presents some of the key frameworks and tools needed by entrepreneurs and is for anyone who has an interest in understanding entrepreneurship as either potential founders, those looking to intrapreneurship in large organisations, or those looking to work with entrepreneurs in one way or another. The subject uses a combination of theory building and key entrepreneurial model exploration and intensive ‘bootcamp’ approach, similar to entrepreneurial bootcamps in practice, to build knowledge and skills in the area, recognising that these are transferable and useful to many students will either start or work for non-traditional organisations.

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This subject discusses the business model as the mechanism used by entrepreneurs to deliver value to their selected target markets, as well as the method by which entrepreneurs capture value. This is a dynamic process that underpins the commercialisation of innovation. This subject has a detailed and advanced examination of the challenges of designing and implementing a business model., the skills, resources and relationships needed to manage activities like designing customer value propositions, protecting intellectual property and potentially pivoting, and the strategic execution capabilities that can lead to the creation of successful business model. The subject also considers the way that emerging concepts like shared value can be incorporated into a business model. This is done though comparative analysis of competitors who use different but equally successful business models, as well as considering applications where business models have failed. The subject also examines metrics for assessing the ongoing health of the business model, as well as business models as a form of innovation in their own right, not just a vehicle for entrepreneurship.

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The objective of this subject is to give students an understanding of how financing from venture capital and private equity funds and angel investors finds its way to entrepreneurial ventures. The subject’s framework consists of (1) venture opportunity recognition and evaluation, (2) valuation, terms of financing, and financial analysis, (3) business plan execution, and (4) capturing value from the investment. Another important topic includes governance. The subject is case oriented with real world cases used throughout to illustrate key concepts and challenges and to understand what happened and why.

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New entrepreneurial ventures, once successfully past the formation stage (incubators and accelerators), often encounter problems caused by their very rapid growth. The activities of the entrepreneur have to change, from innovation to delegation, communication, and organization as different functional and technical skills are needed, new external relationships such as bankers, lawyers and investors are formed and new company employees have to be integrated into the goals and operations of the enterprise. This is a very basic change that many entrepreneurs never make. The purpose of the subject is to recognise that managing growth is the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs, to consider and evaluate the alternative pathways to growth and to consider processes for identifying a preferred approach. The subject identifies methods for assessing customer and market opportunities, the need for revised business models, marketing strategies, the development or acquisition of appropriate skills and resources and the adoption of management control systems that should be used to monitor and analyse growth, with the additional challenge of international growth also considered. Participants in the subject will use case studies and meetings with entrepreneurs to develop a pragmatic understanding of the challenges of growth, as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome. At the conclusion of the subject, students should be able to identify the different pathways to market including commercialisation.

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The purpose of this subject is to help students develop the personal insights, ethical decision-making skills, and problem-solving methods that will be critical to being a successful entrepreneur. The subject will look at four interrelated cognitive and emotional domains. First, self-understanding, which will address where being an entrepreneur fits into the student’s life and career, what strengths they bring, what the particular challenges will be for them, and how to set up and use opportunities for reflective learning. Second, self-management skills, which will focus on those which are especially important for entrepreneurs, including the resilience skills to handle pressure and failure, time and priority management skills, and the skills to manage success, including thinking critically and creatively. Third, ethical decision making, which will explore a person’s values, different methods of making ethical decisions, the identification and management of cognitive biases, and the application of ethical decision-making skills to the type of concrete dilemmas faced by entrepreneurs.

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This subject is designed to provide a strong foundation in marketing techniques for startup businesses by reconciling the practical and theoretical concepts of building new brands. This will involve an examination and understanding of various topics including: idea generation, market analysis, customer alignment, and maximum impact branding techniques. The emphasis of this course will be on the application of marketing paradigms to increase entrepreneurial success, with a particularly strong emphasis on brand building.

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The purpose of this subject is to lay the foundations of launching a viable entrepreneurial venture based on modern entrepreneurship theory and practice. The subject includes the provision of tools and methods to assist in market ideation and opportunity identification. First, all students learn ideation and opportunity identification through case studies. Next, students will translate their ideas into an initial proposal and develop testable entrepreneurial hypotheses. While doing so, students will recapitulate learnings from Prerequisites. At the end of the subject term, students will produce a pitch document and give a presentation.

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The purpose of this subject is to further develop the ideas explored in the subject New Venture Creation: Initiation and conduct validation to launch a viable entrepreneurial venture. Students are expected to work according to their entrepreneurial interests and to extend learning from Semester 1. The project is best done in teams of 3-4 students but can also be done individually or in pairs with permission of the instructor.

During the subject, students will learn how to test and validate their business idea, develop a minimum viable product (MVP) and iterate using feedback from customers and other stakeholders. In addition, they will learn to develop a market entry strategy that takes into account competitors and collaborators. Students also learn pitching skills to communicate their ideas, with the goal of persuading investors and acquiring resources for growth. In this process, students learn skills to establish viability of their entrepreneurial concepts and pivot their initial models.

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New Product development is an important source of growth and profitability as existing markets become price competitive and saturated. However, the process of new product development is fraught with risk. In this course we study the process of managing products and how companies can manage their introduction and elimination from the product portfolio. We review how these decisions are made within the context of profit seeking and not-for-profit organizations. We then review the implication of these decisions for performance.

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Existing companies are under unyielding pressure to discover new ways to grow and become more innovative. To cope with this pressure, companies may revert to intrapreneurship (i.e., corporate entrepreneurship) – engaging in activities that are in unfamiliar ("far from core") areas in which success is uncertain. To do so, organizations need to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset and adopt entrepreneurial approaches. While more and more companies acknowledge the need for corporate entrepreneurship to remain competitive, how to do it is often poorly understood and managed, and inherently resisted. This subject will address both why and when organizations engage in corporate entrepreneurship and the challenges of making an established organization entrepreneurial. This subject will also discuss different forms of corporate entrepreneurship: the organizational “toolkit” available.

The subject will discuss these topics both from the perspective of the organization at large and the perspective of the change agent, the ‘entrepreneur in residence’ who needs to manage themselves, their manager(s), and their peers to navigate the larger corporate system and structures. The subject will particularly focus on how to identify opportunities for change and new ways to grow when engaged in corporate entrepreneurship.

This subject will give you tools, methods and logic that will enable you to participate in or lead successful efforts in corporate entrepreneurship – in particular efforts to identify entrepreneurial opportunities.

View detailed information in the Handbook

More and more companies engage in intrapreneurship (I.e., corporate entrepreneurship) to discover new ways to grow and become more innovative. Corporate entrepreneurship requires an entrepreneurial mindset and the adoption of approaches that help companies to identify new business opportunities. However, to be successful, it is not sufficient to identify new business opportunities; companies also need to successfully implement these opportunities. In this subject, we will focus on how companies can successfully do so.

The subject will discuss the topic from two perspectives. First, from the perspective of the organization at large: how to create an environment in which great ideas for new business opportunities are considered, nurtured and implemented? Second, from the perspective of the change agent, the ‘entrepreneur in residence’: how does the entrepreneur in residence make sure that their ideas are heard and acted upon?

The subject will particularly focus on how to implement (rather than identify) opportunities for change and new ways to grow in a successful way, resulting in sustainable value creation for the organization.

This subject will give you tools, methods and logic that will enable you to participate in or lead successful efforts in corporate entrepreneurship – in particular efforts to implement entrepreneurial opportunities.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. The central issues of this course deal with understanding the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations in the context of competitive situations. The purpose of this course is to understand the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. The course is designed to be relevant to the broad spectrum of negotiation problems that are faced by the manager and professional, often in a global context.

This course is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other courses at MBS. A basic premise of the course is that while a manager needs analytical skills to discover optimal solutions to problems, a broad array of negotiation skills is needed in order for these solutions to be accepted and implemented. The course will give you the opportunity to develop these skills experientially and to understand negotiation in useful analytical frameworks.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This course will cover the emergence of the peer to peer economy in which buyers and sellers, borrowers and lenders and other partners to transactions deal directly with one another, bypassing intermediaries such as retailers and banks. Students will be introduced to different types of peer to peer markets and will learn the theory and application of different financial instruments and technology infrastructures that facilitate the operation of the peer to peer economy. These include digital currencies, cryptographic tokens, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and blockchains. Students will learn how these new instruments and technologies are disrupting traditional ways of doing business, successful and unsuccessful, applied in the peer to peer economy. Students will learn how different sectors of the economy can function without intermediaries while depending on consensus and distributed ledgers. The course will start by explaining the nature of money and traditional payment and banking systems. It will then study the emergence of stateless, decentralized, cloud-based digital currency systems since 2009, and progress to investment products, derivatives, and innovations such as initial coin offerings within the peer to peer economy. Other related issues to be discussed include marketing, smart contracts, investment risk and return, governance, and regulation.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Product Managers are the all-rounders in a technology team. Product managers understand customer and business needs, and drive the conception of digital products that meet those needs. They are the owners and drivers of what digital product is build, and partners of the software engineers that design, build, and deliver the products. They work throughout the digital product lifecycle, from the beginning steps of writing product requirements documents, through the tradeoffs and prioritisation during development, to the delivery of the digital products to users, and its subsequent improvement through iteration. Along the way, they are the communicators and evangelists that work up, across and inside the organisation to ensure information flows effectively.

The subject is designed to give students a real-world understanding of the craft of product management. The subject will give students an introductory grounding in ten critical competency areas of product management, and bring together practical examples, contemporary thinking, and also masterclasses from industry.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The brain is a remarkable biological machine, moulded through millions of years of evolutionary pressure. More recent changes in human history have created a gap between the world for which our brains were developed, and the world in which we currently live. This mismatch creates constraints for many aspects of management and leadership. We suffer from strong biases that hinder good decision-making, we are more emotionally sensitive to threat than we need to be, and we often fail to develop realistic perceptions of others and of ourselves. Fortunately, scientists have generated a great deal of knowledge that allows us to identify these deficiencies and to find remedies for them, and there are many applications of these findings that provide opportunities for the improvement of management. This subject is based on state-of-the-art neurobiological research that sheds light on the obstacles we face when making decisions and managing our emotions. By discovering the roots of many of these difficulties we can also learn solutions to the problems created by our biological history.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject involves the completion of a professional work placement (internship) either:

off campus at an approved host organisation in Australia or overseas OR

on campus at the 'WorkHub'

Integrating academic learning in business & economics areas of study, students will gain an improved knowledge of employability skills, workplace culture, and career pathways. Students will be required to undertake pre-placement online modules designed to equip students with employability skills and techniques for creative problem solving, as well as learning tasks throughout the placement period. The placement will draw on students' specific discipline skills associated with the specialisation of their degree.

Internships may be paid, or unpaid provided they comply with the Fair Work Act.

This subject is intended to provide students with the opportunity to apply their business knowledge in an industry setting under the joint supervision of an industry and an academic mentor. Students can either apply for a University-sourced internship or apply to have a self-sourced internship approved for credit. Applications should be submitted by the due dates published on the MBS website. Selection into this subject is based on suitability of the placement, and demonstrated motivation to benefit from the program, and timely submission of the application.

The on-campus 'WorkHub' provides a modern collaborative and supportive office environment for students to complete internship tasks in groups, and connect with industry professionals both on-campus, virtually, and at the host organisation.

Students will either enrol in the off campus or on campus availability following selection.

The subject coordinator will have final approval of all selected students. Enrolment will be capped and subject to meeting the relevant academic program requirements and availability of appropriate internship opportunities.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides an insight into the complexities and challenges of making business decisions in an Australian setting. Working in small teams, students will conduct research, analyse, evaluate and propose practical solutions to an assigned business planning or business development exercise. This will be supported by online modules and seminar work equipping the students with knowledge of approaches, tools and techniques for completing the task and an understanding of report formats appropriate for conveying the results. During the practicum, in-depth research will be undertaken in identifying the scope, opportunities constraints and recommendations of the exercise. Students will learn to: work with unstructured and incomplete information in Australian business settings, to develop research and networks to support their enquiry, to work successfully in teams, to present their findings and seek and receive constructive feedback in a range of settings. Students will also be encouraged to plan, reflect and modify their approaches to improve the outcomes of their efforts in managing the business project.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides an insight into the complexities and challenges of making business decisions in an international setting. Students will be assigned in small groups to research a business problem in an international context. Working in teams, they will conduct research, analyse, evaluate and propose practical solutions to an assigned business planning or business development exercise. This will be supported by online modules and seminar work equipping the students with knowledge of approaches, tools and techniques for completing the task and an understanding of report formats appropriate for conveying the results. During the practicum, in-depth research will be undertaken in identifying the scope, opportunities, constraints and recommendations of the exercise. Students will learn to work with unstructured and incomplete information in international business settings, to develop research and networks to support their enquiry, to work successfully in teams, to present their findings and seek and receive constructive feedback in a range of settings. Students will also be encouraged to plan, reflect and modify their approaches to improve the outcomes of their efforts in managing the business project.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Social entrepreneurs are individuals who establish an enterprise with the goal of solving complex social or environmental problems, including poverty, access to health, homelessness, climate change and food waste. They have been credited with success in disrupting the traditional forms and purpose of business and charity by creating innovative social enterprises that meld the best features of business and the non-profit sector. This subject seeks to equip students with a critical understanding of the social enterprise form and support them in developing a startup social enterprise with the purpose of solving a social and/or environmental problem. Designed and delivered with input from leaders in the social enterprise sector, the subject features lectures and workshops on social enterprise design, business modelling, pitching, social finance and measurement, as well as addressing the difficulties and dark side of social enterprise. In the subject students will develop an idea for a startup social enterprise and develop a business plan which they will pitch to a Shark Tank panel of experts. Prizes will be awarded to the best ideas to help develop these solutions into successful social enterprises.

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Brand Management is a course designed to prepare the student for the challenges of building, protecting and strengthening a brand. The course examines branding from across a range of different industries and is relevant for those interested in managerial, entrepreneurial, not for profit and government sectors. This is a very applied elective and examines all the the key areas of brand management including brand research, brand building, brand strategy, brand positioning, brand extension and brand architecture. The course is case based and uses examples from across the major areas of branding including consumer goods, services, B2B, retail branding and luxury goods.

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This course addresses the challenges facing executives running multi-business firms and the way they develop strategies aimed at creating value across the businesses owned by the corporation.

One of the most significant changes that occurred during the last century was the emergence of conglomerates, diversified corporation which grow via acquistion and are characterized by a separate headquarters and relatively autonomous and discrete operating units. This economic form was subsequently challenged by new forms of economic organization such as private equity and multi-sided platforms.

Corporate strategy can be defined as the way a corporation seeks to create value through the configuration and coordination of its multi-market activities – how it generates and preserves corporate advantage. Corporate advantage can be defined as the extent to which a corporation enhances the competitive advantage of its businesses, over and above that of (the best) alternative ownership structure.

The central questions a corporate strategy revolve around the following issues:

• The firm’s scope – the mix of industries in which the firm competes; what businesses should we be in?
• The allocation of resources between businesses? Corporate advantage comes from corporate resources being brought to bear on the component businesses such that their competitive advantage is enhanced.
• The way a firm organizes itself; what is the appropriate level of coordination across the businesses and how should it occur? What is the appropriate role of the corporate office in the coordination of resources and the control of decentralized decision-making?

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The effect of the Internet and related technologies on business has been profound and continues to offer businesses both opportunities and challenges. Arguably, the marketing function has been impacted more than any other function. All aspects of marketing from promotion to distribution to pricing have been affected by developments in the digital marketplace leading to new and innovative business models. At its core, the digital economy is a knowledge economy in which a firm’s value chain is electronically interconnected. The business models for electronic commerce are being simultaneously developed and market tested by firms who are already doing business electronically and by entrepreneurs who wish to establish a presence in this dynamic marketplace.

In theory, small companies should be able to reach large numbers of customers without regard to geography or time zone while large companies should increase customer intimacy by better use of information and more integration. Internet marketing and electronic commerce will continue to significantly reduce the transaction costs of sellers and increase the penetration of the sellers’ message into the marketplace. The digital marketplace is also a brutally competitive environment so that traditional business fundamentals such as trust, branding, and sound financial management have become more important to ensure success.

The focus of the subject is to understand and develop the viable business models for Internet marketing and electronic commerce. The challenges facing existing, traditional and successful firms that must operate in both physical and virtual marketplaces will be addressed in detail. This subject builds on and integrates material covered in other MBA subjects including Marketing, Business Strategy, Managing People, Operations, and Managerial Economics.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. The central issues of this course deal with understanding the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations in the context of competitive situations. The purpose of this course is to understand the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. The course is designed to be relevant to the broad spectrum of negotiation problems that are faced by the manager and professional, often in a global context.

This course is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other courses at MBS. A basic premise of the course is that while a manager needs analytical skills to discover optimal solutions to problems, a broad array of negotiation skills is needed in order for these solutions to be accepted and implemented. The course will give you the opportunity to develop these skills experientially and to understand negotiation in useful analytical frameworks.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This course will cover the emergence of the peer to peer economy in which buyers and sellers, borrowers and lenders and other partners to transactions deal directly with one another, bypassing intermediaries such as retailers and banks. Students will be introduced to different types of peer to peer markets and will learn the theory and application of different financial instruments and technology infrastructures that facilitate the operation of the peer to peer economy. These include digital currencies, cryptographic tokens, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and blockchains. Students will learn how these new instruments and technologies are disrupting traditional ways of doing business, successful and unsuccessful, applied in the peer to peer economy. Students will learn how different sectors of the economy can function without intermediaries while depending on consensus and distributed ledgers. The course will start by explaining the nature of money and traditional payment and banking systems. It will then study the emergence of stateless, decentralized, cloud-based digital currency systems since 2009, and progress to investment products, derivatives, and innovations such as initial coin offerings within the peer to peer economy. Other related issues to be discussed include marketing, smart contracts, investment risk and return, governance, and regulation.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Product Managers are the all-rounders in a technology team. Product managers understand customer and business needs, and drive the conception of digital products that meet those needs. They are the owners and drivers of what digital product is build, and partners of the software engineers that design, build, and deliver the products. They work throughout the digital product lifecycle, from the beginning steps of writing product requirements documents, through the tradeoffs and prioritisation during development, to the delivery of the digital products to users, and its subsequent improvement through iteration. Along the way, they are the communicators and evangelists that work up, across and inside the organisation to ensure information flows effectively.

The subject is designed to give students a real-world understanding of the craft of product management. The subject will give students an introductory grounding in ten critical competency areas of product management, and bring together practical examples, contemporary thinking, and also masterclasses from industry.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The brain is a remarkable biological machine, moulded through millions of years of evolutionary pressure. More recent changes in human history have created a gap between the world for which our brains were developed, and the world in which we currently live. This mismatch creates constraints for many aspects of management and leadership. We suffer from strong biases that hinder good decision-making, we are more emotionally sensitive to threat than we need to be, and we often fail to develop realistic perceptions of others and of ourselves. Fortunately, scientists have generated a great deal of knowledge that allows us to identify these deficiencies and to find remedies for them, and there are many applications of these findings that provide opportunities for the improvement of management. This subject is based on state-of-the-art neurobiological research that sheds light on the obstacles we face when making decisions and managing our emotions. By discovering the roots of many of these difficulties we can also learn solutions to the problems created by our biological history.

View detailed information in the Handbook