Email: anton.jordaan@adelaide.edu.au

Anton Jordaan was originally trained as an accountant and tax specialist. Five years after setting up an accounting and tax consultancy, he sold his interest to his partners and set out to establish, grow and harvest a number of business ventures in the private education and training sector. In subsequent years, one of his businesses was acquired by a stock exchange listed company; and a few years later his business was involved in an initial public offering (IPO). Following the IPO he served as a founding director of the newly listed stock exchange listed company for a period of 2 years. He has been involved as lead-entrepreneur in a number of startups and has an in
depth understanding of entrepreneurial leadership, challenges of start-up teams,and the new venture mindset.

In addition to corporate strategy, leadership, and financial roles, Anton has maintained an active interest in education and training, and has 25+ years teaching experience in the delivery of education and training courses to postgraduate students and managers in public sector and private sector organisations. He has delivered business improvement and capacity building courses in North America, UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. Courses presented include Strategic Management, Project Management, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Risk Management, and Accounting.  

After attaining a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting, he completed a BCom Honours in Accounting, Master of Commerce in Business Management, a MBA, and a Master of Advanced Business Practice degrees. He completed a PhD at The University of Adelaide and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of Adelaide’s Entrepreneurship Centre for Innovation and Commercialisation (ECIC) and is a member of CPA Australia.

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

Workshop	Topic / Activity	Assessment item
1	What is entrepreneurship? Recognising opportunities
2	Developing opportunities Assessing opportunities - develop a venture concept statement
3	Lean Start-up principles Pitching the venture idea
4	Business model development Business plan development	(i) Assignment 1: Pitch new venture idea to class @ 9am (ii) Assignment 2: Submit after pitch
5	Financing the venture Growth and Exit strategies
6	Business Plan assessment	(i) Assignment 3: Submit @ 9am. (ii) Assignment 4: Business plan assessment activity (in class)

Session topics as listed are indicative only, and workshop discussions will be directed by the course facilitator.

This course is designed to sharpen your ability to:
    
1.   Determine if you could (or should) become involved in a business startup
2.   Recognize and analyse new venture opportunities
3.   Anticipate startup challenges so they can be planned for and managed
4.   Understand different sources of new venture funding
5.   Pitch a new idea

The textbook for this course is The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries (Crown Business, 2011).

There are further required readings and cases which will be listed in MyUni.

See Myuni for specific details

The course uses a mixture of readings, experiential exercises, cases and in-class discussions and presentations.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The course is delivered over 6 days (9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.) sessions. You can expect to spend 5 hours preparing for each class, and
additional time working on assignments. As a rough indication, you could expect to spend in the order of 120 hours of study time to complete the course, including time spent in class and assignments.

Details can be found on MyUni.

Assessment Item	Weighting	Individual / Team	Learning objective
1. Pitching the idea/concept	10%	Individual	1,5
2. Venture concept analysis	20%	Individual	1,2,5
3. Anatomy of a start-up	30%	Team	2,3
4. Business plan assessment	30%	Individual	2,3,4
5. Workshop participation	10%	Individual	2,3,5

Assessment 1: Pitch venture idea/concept (10%, individual)

Early in the course we’ll work on generating and screening venture concepts. Good venture opportunities don’t just happen, they emerge from an iterative process of recognition, research, reflection and refinement. In order for you to understand this process better, each of you should start a venture concept diary, keeping track of your ideas for new ventures. It will probably contain a mix of ideas that you’ve rejected, ideas that you’ve explored a little and are ambiguous about, and ideas that you think might be viable.

particular venture concepts. In order to understand this process better, each student will provide a written analysis of the promising
venture concept that you pitch.

thoroughly. Your analysis should draw on material discussed in the first three days of the workshop and should be structured into two parts:

(i)  A description of the opportunity.  Provide a description of the opportunity, in terms of the product, service, or experience offered, the target market and your value proposition. Summarise what you know now about its technical, market and financial viability and feasibility for you to pursue as a venture. Identify key uncertainties and hypotheses you would need to confirm; and
  
(ii) An analysis of the uncertainties associated with the opportunity. Identify the two hypotheses about your venture concept that are most critical to test. For each, explain why it is important and describe how you could “test early, test cheaply.”


·  You can obtain relevant information about the early years of the venture from multiple sources (e.g. books, articles, the company’s
website and/or interviews). If you're having trouble finding an interesting Australia startup, check out the following: LinkedIn Top Start-ups 2019 - the 25 Hottest Australian Companies to Work For, and Is Australia the next upcoming startup hotspot?



Due date: 17 January (p.m. class). Length of writing time: 2 hours

Assessment 5: Class Contribution (10%, individual)

Your class contribution grade for this course will be based on your contribution to a positive learning environment. If you are not attending the workshops, you can’t contribute, and so regular attendance is a component of this. Please let me know beforehand if you need to miss a class. Your class contribution grade includes participation in class discussions and activities, insights shared about your own experiences and observations, readings and cases, and any assigned work that doesn’t have a specific grade attached to it. Class contribution each day is assessed on the basis of the extent to which your contribution is relevant, insightful, informative and informed. Merely repeating facts or stating the obvious will not contribute to your class contribution grade.

Due date: Throughout workshop sessions

A1: The Venture Idea/Concept Pitch is an oral presentation during class time on the January 15.

A2: The Venture Concept Analysis should be submitted on paper up to an hour after the last pitch ends on January 15.

A3: The Anatomy of a Startup assignment should be submitted before the beginning of the morning class on January 17.

A4: The Business Plan Assessment can be (a) written on paper and submitted during class time; or (b) written on a laptop and then emailed to the facilitator on January 17 (afternoon). If a laptop is used, students are not permitted to access the internet.

Presentation of assignments:
- Make sure you include your name(s) in a footer on each page of your paper assignments.
·  Please must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.   
·  Please attach an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet’, which is signed and dated by you before submission
·  All group assignments must be attached to a ‘Group Assignment Cover Sheet’, which must be signed and dated by all group members before submission. All team members are expected to contribute approximately equally to a group assignment.

Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details - A copy of the Postgraduate Programs: Communication Skills Guide will have been given to you at the beginning of your program. This guide will assist you structure your assignments. A copy of the guide can also be downloaded from http://www.adelaide.edu.au/professions/hub/downloads/MBA-Communication-Skills-Guide.pdf  This publication also provides guidelines on a range of other important communication skills including writing essays and management reports, making oral presentations etc. In preparing any written piece of assessment for your postgraduate studies it is important to draw on the relevant ‘literature’ to support critical analysis. Also essential is to reference the literature used. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas and arguments that you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, and helps to avoid the problem of plagiarism. (Further information on plagiarism is provided later in this course outline.)

The Harvard system is widely used in the Business School. Guidelines for the use of this style of referencing can be found in the Communication Skills Guide. Further assistance with referencing is available from the Faculty’s Learning Support Advisors. The contact details are provided on page 6 of the Communication Skills Guide.
Late Assignment Submission: Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.