Trabajo Final de Grado: Business Plan

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: A	Xari Rovira Llobera	Operaciones, Innovación y Data Sciences	ENG
Sec: A	Maria Jose Parada Balderrama	Dirección General y Estrategia	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: B	Xari Rovira Llobera	Operaciones, Innovación y Data Sciences	ENG
Sec: B	Maria Jose Parada Balderrama	Dirección General y Estrategia	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: C	Maria Jose Parada Balderrama	Dirección General y Estrategia	ENG
Sec: C	Xari Rovira Llobera	Operaciones, Innovación y Data Sciences	ENG

2. Application of knowledge to achieve results
15. Comprehension of relational networks
10. Intellectual curiosity (`enlightened professionalism')
4. Conveying information and/or knowledge
9. Creativity and innovation

CONTENT

1. Introduction This course is different to others because it is not organised in terms of content or thematic sections, but rather into phases that will unfold as the work is completed for each of three modalities. Essentially, the three Final Degree Project options are as follows: - Final Degree Project: Business Plan (FDP:BP), consisting of a company creation project, from a global and multifunctional perspective. - Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project (FDP: IP), consisting of a project to develop in accordance with the proposal made by the company promoting the project, which should be completed with a written report supervised by a tutor. - Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis (FDP: DT), consisting of a tutor guided research project. The completion process will allow students to learn the relevance of aspects such as the formulation of a problem, the methodology to be used, the importance of a rigorous treatment of data, the importance of bibliography, etc. In the following sections specific information is provided on each of the FDP modalities with regard to available resources, schedule and feedback components for tutorials and the completion of the assignment.
2. Final Degree Project: Business Plan (FDPA:BP) What does the FDP Business Plan (FDP:BP) modality consist of? The Business Plan (FDP:BP) modality offers students the opportunity to put into practice and consolidate the knowledge acquired during the BBA programme through the creation of a Business Plan (BP), for which they should use the aforementioned content and select the appropriate tools to seek out and find a business idea, evaluate it and demonstrate that it offers a real opportunity, design a business model that allows the identified opportunity to be exploited and finally, to quantify and plan the deployment of the new company through the implementation of a range of functional strategies. Additionally, both the writing of the Business Plan as well as its final public presentation are considered part of the learning aims and as course assessment activities. To create the Business Plan students will be given support from a tutor throughout the aforementioned search, evaluation, modelling and planning processes of the new company or business. The tutor will be a business expert, primarily with broad experience, as well as an expert in preparing and giving guidance on Business Plans. The support provided by the tutor is both a resource, which students can make recourse of, and a means to help students and provide contacts, as well as a means to monitor the project's progress and also contribute to the final course assessment. The project will be written up in a report, the Business Plan, which the student will present. The writing and presentation of the Business Plan requires: a. A document of no less than 8,000 words and no more than 20,000. The business plan is developed in a progressive manner, whereby, in accordance with the following schedule, the student will have presented one or a number of drafts before submitting the final version: Description and analysis of the opportunity, design the business model, marketing plan, operations plan, human resources plan and financial plan. For the presentation of the Business Plan the student should take into account the instructions received from the course lecturer and/or tutor. The document must be submitted via the course website. b. Give a 10 minute presentation on the project at a set time on the dates established by Programme Management during the exam period in the second semester. c. Actively and responsibly collaborate with the tutor by submitting work or giving presentations as stipulated in the Business Plan schedule in order to monitor the progress made and the drafting of the business plan. What content should be covered by the report? The basic structure of the report is the following: - Identify the business idea for the business plan. - Evaluate the idea in terms of it being a good opportunity. - Design a business model that allows for the viable exploitation of the identified opportunity. - Market analysis and study of the stakeholders involved in the business model to consider its viability and scalability. - Prepare a marketing plan for the deployment of the new business, including a sales forecast and sales plan. - Create an operations plan that enables the efficient implementation of the project. - Create a human resources plan that helps provide the project with adequate personnel. - Prepare a financial plan that allows the new company's economic financial viability to be checked as well as show its possible appeal as an investment opportunity in addition to helping to "sell" the project. In addition, the course seeks to provide students with the possibility of integrating the knowledge and skills acquired during the BBA degree programme in a practical manner and with a high degree of independence. This is undertaken through the application of these skills and knowledge to the new company creation project, the study of its viability and the creation of a plan to launch it that takes into account both operational aspects as well as the project's necessary legal framework. How is the idea for the Business Plan and assignment tutor chosen? The point of departure with regard to the idea can be of two different types: 1) Students already have an idea they wish to develop in their Business Plan; or 2) Students do not yet have an idea or are considering various options. In the first scenario students will receive the necessary support and resources to develop their Business Plasn on the proposed idea. In the second scenario, the classroom based part of the course will all be devoted to helping students find and configure a business idea. In this latter case the appropriate techniques will be used to simulate students' creativity. In addition, the initial idea for the Business plan can be based on a real company that already exists and is currently in need of restructuring or undergoing strategic change. In this case although it is based on a real situation that conditions the Business Plan's point of departure, the content of the Final Assignment should be adjusted to the parameters and content applied to the rest of the Business Plans undertaken as part of this FDP modality. Each student will receive support from a tutor for the search for and development of the idea, as well as the drafting of the Business Plan. The assignment of a tutor for each project will be made by the course lecturer from amongst the team of ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI) tutors assigned to the course. What resources are available? At the start of the course a presentation will be given on the Guide for the completion of the Final Degree Project: Business Plan, which includes detailed instructions on the format and characteristics the assignment must have. Furthermore, students will be provided with focused yet sufficient information on both the content as well as the formal and discursive characteristics a Business Plan must include.
3. Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project modality (FDP:IP) What does the Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project modality consist of? The Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project modality (FDP:IP) modality offers students the opportunity to broaden and consolidate their knowledge by undertaking a project in a company. The company will preferably be the one in which students completed their internship, although they can complete the project in a different company. The project will be written as a report that students both submit and present on to an assessment panel. The project will allow students to put in to practice and deepen the knowledge they have acquired linked to a specialisation, a function and/or specific area of an organisation's activity: marketing, finance, strategic consultancy, audits, etc. At the same time the project will offer students the opportunity to broaden their relationship with the world of the chosen company and deepen their knowledge of how it functions as an organisation. In addition to the assistance provided by the company's designated staff to carry out the project, students will receive support from a tutor who will advise them on the design of the project and the drafting of the report. If the project is undertaken in the same company as for the internship, the academic tutor the student had for the internship would be the ideal person to act as tutor for the FDP. The project will be written up as a report that students present as their Final Degree Project. The report will be written irrespective of whether the project has been implanted (partially or fully) or not. The writing of and presentation of the report involve: a. A document of no less than 5,000 words and no more than 8,000. The report is to be developed in a progressive manner, whereby, in accordance with their tutors' instructions, students will have presented one or a number of draft sections before the final submission. The submission deadline for the final draft of the thesis is the 25th May 2015 at 23:55 Spanish time. The thesis must be submitted via the course website. b. Give a 10 minute presentation on the project at a set time on the dates established by Programme Management during the exam period in the second semester. c. Collaborate with the tutor and submit draft versions of the report as they are developed and discuss recent progress with the tutor. What should a project report contain? The basic structure of the report will be as follows: - Explanation of the project's raison d'être: what need and/or opportunity does it seek to address, why and what are the desired results (WHY and WHAT). - Detailed description of the activities to be undertaken in order to achieve the project's forecast results (action plan), the schedule for these activities (project phases or stages), the organisation of these (who will do what and with what resources) and the monitoring system to verify the project's progress (HOW). - Justification of methodology to undertake the project (the HOW described in the previous section) supported with arguments on the basis of the knowledge acquired in the courses related to the function or area of activity within which the project is undertaken. This section should include a brief analysis of the pros and cons of the chosen methodology. - Relevant appendices: bibliography and information sources, graphs, etc. What resources are available? At the start of the course a presentation will be given on the Guide for the completion of the Final Degree Project: In-company Business Project, which includes detailed instructions on the format and characteristics the assignment must have. Furthermore, students will be provided with a hand-out that provides focused yet sufficient information on the content as well as the formal and discursive characteristics academic texts must include. Students will also be offered advice on how to successfully write their report, with the aim that they develop the necessary strategies to achieve results (i.e., texts) of the optimum excellence in terms of quality with the time available for the assignment's completion.
4. Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis (FDP:DT) What does the Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis modality consist of? The Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis (FDP: DT) modality offers students the opportunity to pursue a learning process based on a short research project. This involves: a. A document of no less than 5,000 words and no more than 10,000. The submission deadline for the final draft of the thesis is the 25th May 2015. 2 intermediary draft versions should have already been submitted by the set deadlines and these form part of the course mark. The submission deadline ends at 23:55 Spanish time on the specified date. The thesis must be submitted via the course website. b. Give a 10-minute presentation on the project at a set time on the dates established by Programme Management during the exam period in the second semester. c. Actively and responsibly collaborate with the tutor and comment on the draft versions submitted in order to monitor the progress made and the drafting of the thesis. What is meant by a "research project"? The research project can take a range of forms. The most common types are set out below, ranging from the most conceptual to the more applied and practical: - Thesis based on critical reflection on conceptual issues that draws on a review of the literature on a specific area: this implies identifying research articles, for example: a review of articles that addressed the implications of social responsibility on the functional area of marketing published from 2005 to the present. - Empirical thesis or thesis based on empirical data or research based on the analysis and interpretation of data gathered through an empirical study for example: analysis and interpretation of results obtained in a study on a specific sample of consumers' (e.g. adolescents) perceptions of a specific product (e.g., Apple / iPad) to identify whether the messages the brand intended to transmit have been successfully sent out. - Applied thesis or practitioner based analysis of a case study, for example: analysis of the implantation of a business model in a specific company in order to identify the key factors to bear in mind for the implantation of the said business model. Students can choose between one of these research formats, but this depends to a large extent on the area of research and the selected tutor. In the following section information is provided on these issues. How is the research area and assignment tutor chosen? To ensure that the learning process is as efficient as possible the students will work on their FDP under the supervision of a tutor. There are two ways the tutor may be chosen. a. If a student has a clear idea of what topic they wish to undertaken research on at the outset of the course they should inform the FDP: DT track coordination team. To opt for this modality the student should have contacted and obtained prior agreement from a lecturer who is prepared to act as tutor for their Degree Thesis. b. As an alternative students can choose an area that interests them from a specific range of research projects that are already under way. These projects will be led by researchers, who are either ESADE lecturers or students in the ESADE PhD Programme in Management Sciences. They will act as tutors to the students that wish to undertake research for their Degree Thesis in their area of research. The list of available projects will be published prior to the start of class on the course webpage along with the deadline for the choice of research area. What resources are available? At the start of the course a presentation will be given on the Guide for the completion of the Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis, which includes detailed instructions on the format and characteristics the assignment must have. Furthermore, students will be provided with a hand-out that provides focused yet sufficient information on both the content as well as the formal and discursive characteristics academic texts must include both from a macro perspective (which is to say, attending to the characteristics of the different sections the text must be organised into) and from a micro perspective (which refers to the discursive resources that enable an author to present their own voice or positioning in an academic text). Finally, students will be offered advice on successfully writing up their work, with the aim that they develop the necessary strategies to achieve results (i.e. texts) of the optimum excellence in terms of quality and within the time available for the assignment's completion.

1. Introduction

This course is different to others because it is not organised in terms of content or thematic sections, but rather into phases that will unfold as the work is completed for each of three modalities.
Essentially, the three Final Degree Project options are as follows:

- Final Degree Project: Business Plan (FDP:BP), consisting of a company creation project, from a global and multifunctional perspective.

- Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project (FDP: IP), consisting of a project to develop in accordance with the proposal made by the company promoting the project, which should be completed with a written report supervised by a tutor.

- Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis (FDP: DT), consisting of a tutor guided research project. The completion process will allow students to learn the relevance of aspects such as the formulation of a problem, the methodology to be used, the importance of a rigorous treatment of data, the importance of bibliography, etc.

In the following sections specific information is provided on each of the FDP modalities with regard to available resources, schedule and feedback components for tutorials and the completion of the assignment.

2. Final Degree Project: Business Plan (FDPA:BP)

What does the FDP Business Plan (FDP:BP) modality consist of?

The Business Plan (FDP:BP) modality offers students the opportunity to put into practice and consolidate the knowledge acquired during the BBA programme through the creation of a Business Plan (BP), for which they should use the aforementioned content and select the appropriate tools to seek out and find a business idea, evaluate it and demonstrate that it offers a real opportunity, design a business model that allows the identified opportunity to be exploited and finally, to quantify and plan the deployment of the new company through the implementation of a range of functional strategies.

Additionally, both the writing of the Business Plan as well as its final public presentation are considered part of the learning aims and as course assessment activities.

To create the Business Plan students will be given support from a tutor throughout the aforementioned search, evaluation, modelling and planning processes of the new company or business.

The tutor will be a business expert, primarily with broad experience, as well as an expert in preparing and giving guidance on Business Plans. The support provided by the tutor is both a resource, which students can make recourse of, and a means to help students and provide contacts, as well as a means to monitor the project's progress and also contribute to the final course assessment.

The project will be written up in a report, the Business Plan, which the student will present.

The writing and presentation of the Business Plan requires:

a. A document of no less than 8,000 words and no more than 20,000. The business plan is developed in a progressive manner, whereby, in accordance with the following schedule, the student will have presented one or a number of drafts before submitting the final version: Description and analysis of the opportunity, design the business model, marketing plan, operations plan, human resources plan and financial plan. For the presentation of the Business Plan the student should take into account the instructions received from the course lecturer and/or tutor. The document must be submitted via the course website.

b. Give a 10 minute presentation on the project at a set time on the dates established by Programme Management during the exam period in the second semester.

c. Actively and responsibly collaborate with the tutor by submitting work or giving presentations as stipulated in the Business Plan schedule in order to monitor the progress made and the drafting of the business plan.

What content should be covered by the report?

The basic structure of the report is the following:

- Identify the business idea for the business plan.
- Evaluate the idea in terms of it being a good opportunity.
- Design a business model that allows for the viable exploitation of the identified opportunity.
- Market analysis and study of the stakeholders involved in the business model to consider its viability and scalability.
- Prepare a marketing plan for the deployment of the new business, including a sales forecast and sales plan.
- Create an operations plan that enables the efficient implementation of the project.
- Create a human resources plan that helps provide the project with adequate personnel.
- Prepare a financial plan that allows the new company's economic financial viability to be checked as well as show its possible appeal as an investment opportunity in addition to helping to "sell" the project.

In addition, the course seeks to provide students with the possibility of integrating the knowledge and skills acquired during the BBA degree programme in a practical manner and with a high degree of independence. This is undertaken through the application of these skills and knowledge to the new company creation project, the study of its viability and the creation of a plan to launch it that takes into account both operational aspects as well as the project's necessary legal framework.

How is the idea for the Business Plan and assignment tutor chosen?

The point of departure with regard to the idea can be of two different types: 1) Students already have an idea they wish to develop in their Business Plan; or 2) Students do not yet have an idea or are considering various options. In the first scenario students will receive the necessary support and resources to develop their Business Plasn on the proposed idea. In the second scenario, the classroom based part of the course will all be devoted to helping students find and configure a business idea. In this latter case the appropriate techniques will be used to simulate students' creativity.

In addition, the initial idea for the Business plan can be based on a real company that already exists and is currently in need of restructuring or undergoing strategic change. In this case although it is based on a real situation that conditions the Business Plan's point of departure, the content of the Final Assignment should be adjusted to the parameters and content applied to the rest of the Business Plans undertaken as part of this FDP modality.

Each student will receive support from a tutor for the search for and development of the idea, as well as the drafting of the Business Plan. The assignment of a tutor for each project will be made by the course lecturer from amongst the team of ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI) tutors assigned to the course.

What resources are available?

At the start of the course a presentation will be given on the Guide for the completion of the Final Degree Project: Business Plan, which includes detailed instructions on the format and characteristics the assignment must have. Furthermore, students will be provided with focused yet sufficient information on both the content as well as the formal and discursive characteristics a Business Plan must include.

3. Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project modality (FDP:IP)

What does the Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project modality consist of?

The Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project modality (FDP:IP) modality offers students the opportunity to broaden and consolidate their knowledge by undertaking a project in a company. The company will preferably be the one in which students completed their internship, although they can complete the project in a different company. The project will be written as a report that students both submit and present on to an assessment panel.

The project will allow students to put in to practice and deepen the knowledge they have acquired linked to a specialisation, a function and/or specific area of an organisation's activity: marketing, finance, strategic consultancy, audits, etc. At the same time the project will offer students the opportunity to broaden their relationship with the world of the chosen company and deepen their knowledge of how it functions as an organisation.

In addition to the assistance provided by the company's designated staff to carry out the project, students will receive support from a tutor who will advise them on the design of the project and the drafting of the report. If the project is undertaken in the same company as for the internship, the academic tutor the student had for the internship would be the ideal person to act as tutor for the FDP.

The project will be written up as a report that students present as their Final Degree Project. The report will be written irrespective of whether the project has been implanted (partially or fully) or not.

The writing of and presentation of the report involve:
a. A document of no less than 5,000 words and no more than 8,000. The report is to be developed in a progressive manner, whereby, in accordance with their tutors' instructions, students will have presented one or a number of draft sections before the final submission. The submission deadline for the final draft of the thesis is the 25th May 2015 at 23:55 Spanish time. The thesis must be submitted via the course website.

b. Give a 10 minute presentation on the project at a set time on the dates established by Programme Management during the exam period in the second semester.

c. Collaborate with the tutor and submit draft versions of the report as they are developed and discuss recent progress with the tutor.

What should a project report contain?

The basic structure of the report will be as follows:
- Explanation of the project's raison d'être: what need and/or opportunity does it seek to address, why and what are the desired results (WHY and WHAT).
- Detailed description of the activities to be undertaken in order to achieve the project's forecast results (action plan), the schedule for these activities (project phases or stages), the organisation of these (who will do what and with what resources) and the monitoring system to verify the project's progress (HOW).

- Justification of methodology to undertake the project (the HOW described in the previous section) supported with arguments on the basis of the knowledge acquired in the courses related to the function or area of activity within which the project is undertaken. This section should include a brief analysis of the pros and cons of the chosen methodology.
- Relevant appendices: bibliography and information sources, graphs, etc.

What resources are available?

At the start of the course a presentation will be given on the Guide for the completion of the Final Degree Project: In-company Business Project, which includes detailed instructions on the format and characteristics the assignment must have. Furthermore, students will be provided with a hand-out that provides focused yet sufficient information on the content as well as the formal and discursive characteristics academic texts must include. Students will also be offered advice on how to successfully write their report, with the aim that they develop the necessary strategies to achieve results (i.e., texts) of the optimum excellence in terms of quality with the time available for the assignment's completion.

4. Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis (FDP:DT)

What does the Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis modality consist of?

The Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis (FDP: DT) modality offers students the opportunity to pursue a learning process based on a short research project. This involves:
a. A document of no less than 5,000 words and no more than 10,000. The submission deadline for the final draft of the thesis is the 25th May 2015. 2 intermediary draft versions should have already been submitted by the set deadlines and these form part of the course mark. The submission deadline ends at 23:55 Spanish time on the specified date. The thesis must be submitted via the course website.

b. Give a 10-minute presentation on the project at a set time on the dates established by Programme Management during the exam period in the second semester.

c. Actively and responsibly collaborate with the tutor and comment on the draft versions submitted in order to monitor the progress made and the drafting of the thesis.

What is meant by a "research project"?

The research project can take a range of forms. The most common types are set out below, ranging from the most conceptual to the more applied and practical:
- Thesis based on critical reflection on conceptual issues that draws on a review of the literature on a specific area: this implies identifying research articles, for example: a review of articles that addressed the implications of social responsibility on the functional area of marketing published from 2005 to the present.

- Empirical thesis or thesis based on empirical data or research based on the analysis and interpretation of data gathered through an empirical study for example: analysis and interpretation of results obtained in a study on a specific sample of consumers' (e.g. adolescents) perceptions of a specific product (e.g., Apple / iPad) to identify whether the messages the brand intended to transmit have been successfully sent out.

- Applied thesis or practitioner based analysis of a case study, for example: analysis of the implantation of a business model in a specific company in order to identify the key factors to bear in mind for the implantation of the said business model.

Students can choose between one of these research formats, but this depends to a large extent on the area of research and the selected tutor. In the following section information is provided on these issues.

How is the research area and assignment tutor chosen?

To ensure that the learning process is as efficient as possible the students will work on their FDP under the supervision of a tutor. There are two ways the tutor may be chosen.

a. If a student has a clear idea of what topic they wish to undertaken research on at the outset of the course they should inform the FDP: DT track coordination team. To opt for this modality the student should have contacted and obtained prior agreement from a lecturer who is prepared to act as tutor for their Degree Thesis.

b. As an alternative students can choose an area that interests them from a specific range of research projects that are already under way. These projects will be led by researchers, who are either ESADE lecturers or students in the ESADE PhD Programme in Management Sciences. They will act as tutors to the students that wish to undertake research for their Degree Thesis in their area of research. The list of available projects will be published prior to the start of class on the course webpage along with the deadline for the choice of research area.

What resources are available?

At the start of the course a presentation will be given on the Guide for the completion of the Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis, which includes detailed instructions on the format and characteristics the assignment must have. Furthermore, students will be provided with a hand-out that provides focused yet sufficient information on both the content as well as the formal and discursive characteristics academic texts must include both from a macro perspective (which is to say, attending to the characteristics of the different sections the text must be organised into) and from a micro perspective (which refers to the discursive resources that enable an author to present their own voice or positioning in an academic text). Finally, students will be offered advice on successfully writing up their work, with the aim that they develop the necessary strategies to achieve results (i.e. texts) of the optimum excellence in terms of quality and within the time available for the assignment's completion.

Methodology

The FDP is designed as a learning opportunity that is essentially based on independent study for which students will be provided with what can be referred to as "milestones" to guide their completion of the task.

These milestones are the following:

- Classroom sessions:
1st introductory session, which will explain what the chosen FDP modality involves, learning aims, study dynamics, resolution of initial queries and presentation of available resources and tools.

Lectures and participatory sessions, during which the coordinators or tutors for each FDP modality will offer the general guidance needed to successfully undertake the work.

- Individual tutorials, during which the FDP tutors will monitor progress and offer one-to-one feedback on study progress.

- FDP presentation sessions: 26th and 27th of May 2015, given in the pre-established registration order to panels consisting of three lecturers.

- Course website:
Each FDP modality has its own website in order to guarantee the useful nature of its resources as well as the on-line interactions with students.

- Communication with tutors

Both the classroom sessions and the one-on-one tutorials can vary with regard to the chosen FDP modality. The specific methodology of each modality is set out in detail on the relevant course website.

Students choose the modality they're interested in when registering for the 4th year programme at the end of July. During the first week of the fourth academic year a deadline will be set for those who wish to change modality, although we recommend that students not change their initial choice except for a clearly justified reason. Once this deadline has passed, students will not be able to request a change. It is therefore important that students consult the guide when making their decisions and, if necessary, contact the relevant lecturers if they need further information.

Type:	TFP	Curs:	4	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	6 ECTS

Trabajo Final de Grado: Business Plan (BBA99021)

General information

Type:

Curs:

Period:

ECTS Credits:

Teaching Staff:

Previous Knowledge

Workload distribution

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

Course Learning Objectives

Competences

CONTENT

1. Introduction

2. Final Degree Project: Business Plan (FDPA:BP)

3. Final Degree Project: In-Company Business Project modality (FDP:IP)

4. Final Degree Project: Degree Thesis (FDP:DT)

Methodology

Assessment criteria

Bibliography

Timetable and sections

Horari Sec: A

Horari Sec: B

Horari Sec: C