MANAGEMENT
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 273
TECHNOLOGY
VENTURE FORMATION
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Course Policies
(1) There are only ten weeks in this course, barely the minimum necessary to cover the essentials of this topic area. If you anticipate missing more than one class, we recommend that you take another course and wait on this one. More than one unexcused absence may result in a full letter grade penalty.
(2) If you expect to miss a class, please let the teaching assistants know ahead of time via email. It will be your responsibility to find out from your classmates or the teaching assistants what material was covered, what additional assignments were made, and to obtain any handouts you may have missed.
(3) You are expected to be prepared for every session. It is our practice to spread participation over the class; we may cold call upon you. It is never our intention to embarrass anyone -- if you are not prepared, let one of us know before class and we will not call on you.
(4) Given the importance of class participation and its grading, we will try to memorize your names quickly. In order to do that, and to allow the speakers to be able to call you by name, we ask that you use a name card during every session of the quarter. This is an absolute requirement. You should put your name on the front and back of the card to make it easier for everyone to see.
(5) Feel free to discuss the course and your learning progress with the instructors at any time. We are always happy to discuss items of interest. The teaching assistants are also available for questions you have about any issue.
(6) In preparation for case discussion, group interaction is acceptable and strongly encouraged. Notes or papers from other courses may not be used. The work to be turned in for this class must be original and may not be used for any other class.
(7) Please use the following basic guidelines when contacting a mentor or someone else whom you have been introduced to by one of the teaching staff for this course.
- Copy the member of the teaching staff who gave the contact to you on the email.
- Be concise with your request and be respectful of their time. As an example, asking them to reply to you ASAP or within 24 hours in not acceptable so be sure to plan ahead to allow for a reasonable amount of time for a reply.
- Use polite language and you MUST send a thank you email to them once they have helped you with your request.
Outside of these guidelines just use common sense and understand that these people are extremely busy and helping you voluntarily.
(8) Given the pace of this course, whether you hope to become an entrepreneur or only wish to gain a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship, we will do all that we can to use class time effectively and ask you to do the same. This includes starting and ending on time. The teaching assistants will take attendance in the first five minutes of the class and we will end on time. Do not take this class if you are habitually late! This is discourteous and disruptful to everyone.
(9) Our distinguished guest speakers are aggressive, successful, and articulate. Interrupt and ask them questions at any time! They will be forewarned. They will display an earnest desire to help you understand new ventures.
(10) This is a class for those who are motivated. It is very, very demanding. By accepting a place in the class, you simultaneously prohibit someone else from taking it and you establish obligations to your fellow business plan team members. Please accept this responsibility with serious intent. Students who become "free riders" on their team will receive at least a full letter grade penalty.
(11) Because our cases and other readings are sufficient, we do not place past business plans on reserve as samples. Confidentiality is another reason. In addition, we prohibit the use of business plan software to automatically write the plan through a "fill-in-the-blank" approach.
(12) Please, please turn off all cellular phones, beepers, pagers, etc. before coming in to class so you will not disrupt the flow of the class.
