November 27, 2021
Feedback by Runjhun Goswami, Graduated in 2020, Architecture and Regional Planning
“Innovation, entrepreneurship, and enterprise are inextricably related. An executive is expected to possess entrepreneurial qualities for effective decision making that call for innovative thinking about enterprise resources. The proposed micro specialization has been structured to impart knowledge in a balanced way so as to equip the future executives with the necessary inputs to effectively use innovative thinking for maximizing value creation for the enterprise”
Source: Brief Description of the micro specialization curricula
Q.1. In the holistic view how much and in what ways does this micro specialization course actually impacts or reshapes your skillset, thinking architecture and execution strategies as the brief description promises?
Response: It is a well structured course considering the modern real-world applications and hype(for good reasons) about startups. The course starts with the very basics, covering up a variety of topics like business plans, vision, mission, business model, supply chain, value proposition and funding sources. Apart from imparting knowledge about entrepreneurial ventures it also helps during placements a lot, as many similar terms quite frequently pop up during interviews.
The only drawback of this micro is that many students enroll into the advanced courses of Component-2 and 3 without ever erolling into the foundation course priorly which is actually needed for all of them. Seeing this composition of class, the faculties teaching the course have to repeat the same basic topics in the beginning every course.
Q.2 The general structure of all micro specialization curricula is composed of 3-components where the 1st one is the mandatory Foundation Course which is supposed to provide a firm base for the advanced courses. In your case, it was the Foundations of Entrepreneurship. What do you have to say about this course and additionally how important was it to catch up with the advanced courses you took later on?
Response: The course is very intriguing and framed especially for beginners, complete with various real life examples that the students can easily relate to. Yes definitely, as the name suggests the course quite literally lays the basic foundation brick for any other further courses covering up all the basics and giving a brief overview of the entire curriculum. I personally feel this justifies being a prerequisite course for all the advanced courses offered.
Q.3. In the 2nd component you had to complete any 2 subjects from the 8 options you had. What were the subjects you chose and what was the thought procedure of choosing them? Also, tell us a bit about each of the subjects.
Response: I chose Engineering B-Plan Development -1 and Engineering Design Process. B-Plan Development consisted of the basics of a business plan, the value and supply chain, feasibility analysis, business model analysis, industry and competitor analysis, market analysis and marketing plan, operations and financial plan along with coming up with your own strategies and business ideas.
The second subject gives more of an insight into the manufacturing and design part of any product. The best scenario or quality that can be achieved for a particular amount, the maximum manufacturing limit and how to exploit it for the benefit of the enterprise. I mostly opted for these subjects because of their availability without any clashes in my final year. Other than that I would recommend taking Engineering B-Plan-1 as it makes your basics stronger and it also includes a few HBS case studies which give a better grip onto your concepts for easy future applications.
Q.4. Most other micros have project/term paper as component-3 or a laboratory/advanced theory course as an alternative option in some cases. You had Techno — Entrepreneurial Leadership, Innovation Management, Economics of Entrepreneurship as options which are well diverged from each other, as one expects at the final stages of advancement, covering crucially large sectors of entrepreneurship but quite disjunct from each other. How did you converge upon choosing one of them and how much impact does it make?
Also, do you feel a project or more of a case-study would have been a better Component-3 for this micro?
Response: I went with Techno-Entrepreneurial Leadership because I think it has more applications and a wider base in the near future for a developing economy like ours. How modern day technology is changing the economy and can be used efficiently to enhance value, what is the dire need of the hour and how it is going to impact the future execution of all the enterprises, how to exploit local arts and cultures of india using technology, were a few of the topics that were covered.
The Techno-Entrepreneurial Leadership course itself includes various case studies from Harvard Business School like Starbucks and Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd. apart from others. From problem assessment to analyzing strategies all the possible details of any business execution of an enterprise are closely looked into. In total about three to five case studies were covered which I felt were very much enough to give a fair idea about the future applications and scope. These multiple case studies and discussions about the same with the professor during classes helped me much more than what an individual project or case study would have.