BUS B328F (2021 Autumn)
Investigating Entrepreneurial Opportunities
ASSIGNMENTS
These assignments are to give you, in teams, an opportunity to demonstrate how well
you understand and are able to use concepts and methods of analysis learnt in this
course. The task, which runs across the assignments, is to develop your own
entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial idea. Each assignment builds on the previous one
and addresses different aspects of your idea. In order to satisfy the learning outcomes,
it is important to select and apply appropriate course concepts and frameworks in each
of the assignments to analyze, develop, test and redevelop your idea. It is not necessary
to get it to the launch stage, but by second and third assignments you should be prepared
to present your idea to a potential investor. Even if you decide ultimately to defer or
reject an initially promising idea, you can still satisfy the academic objectives of the
course by applying relevant course concepts and frameworks in your assignments. The
last (fourth) assignment provides a further opportunity for you to reflect on these
decisions.
Teams of 4-5 students will be formed in each tutorial group. Students form their teams,
under the guidance of their tutors, which consist of members of different streams.
Normally, there should not be more than 6 teams within a tutorial group and the number
of students within each subgroup should be either 4 or 5 persons.
Please note that, while you are encouraged to discuss your approach to entrepreneurship
and potential business ideas with tutors and fellow students, each assignment that you
or your team submits must be entirely your or the team’s own work. It is not acceptable
practice to share draft assignment or individual tutor feedback on assignments
with students other than your teammates. Assignment and associated feedback
remain confidential between project team and tutor. Tutors are under an obligation not
to release any information from assignments to any third party unless the team explicitly
wants this to happen. For quality assurance purposes a small sample of assignments
marked by the tutor will be marked by another tutor. These individuals operate under
the same confidentiality principles. However, since it is not possible to provide formal
intellectual property (IP) protection for you, you should avoid using ideas that you
consider commercially sensitive as the basis for the assignments.
Take a first look at the assignment questions. Here is a checklist of important points to
help you prepare your assignments:
Select and apply appropriate concepts, frameworks and tools that we introduced
to you through the design thinking workshop, online materials, lectures and
tutorials. The assignments are designed to assess your ability to make effective use
of them to analyze your entrepreneurial idea.
Write concise, well-structured answers that address the questions.
Use figures and tables to provide supporting evidence and/or diagrams to illustrate
key analytical points. Ensure that material is formatted correctly and fully
BUS B328F Assignment 1 2 / 4
incorporated into your Word document (i.e. do not upload separate files).
Do not exceed the word limit. Use your word count facility to check word length
as you draft your answers. Edit your work and make effective use of diagrams to
ensure that your answers are clear and concise.
Submission of assignments:
As a mechanism to maintain academic integrity, students are required to submit the
soft copies of their assignments as below:
i. Submission of soft copy
Students should upload a soft copy of the assignment to the OLE of the course
by 5:00 pm on the submission due date. Files uploaded to the OLE should be
prepared in Microsoft Word. Please refer to the quick start guide on how to
submit assignment with Turnitin.
ii. 10% of the marks awarded to the assignment will be deducted for each
calendar day overdue until soft copies are submitted.
Once plagiarism is found on a submitted report, zero mark will be scored to all
members of the team concerned.
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Assignment 1: The Idea & Business Model
Cut-off date: 12 November 2021
Weighting: This assignment is marked out of 100 and is worth 20% of the total
continuous assessment. You should answer both questions.
Word limit: 1,000 words (excluding text in lean canvas and appendices)
This is an individual assignment.
The world is shifting to “sustainable capitalism – an economic system in which value is
created in a sustainable manner”. Business is meant to profitably solve the problems of
people and the planet, not profit from creating problems.
To complete BUS B328F, you are expected to showcase how this fundamental
reorientation of the purpose of a company can be turned into reality. You are, therefore,
required to propose a new business that creates value for the society. The business idea
should meet ALL of the following criteria:
Your idea can be EITHER a new business from scratch OR a new operation (a new
product and/or service) of an established business;
Your idea must not be identical to any existing business operations in Hong Kong;
Your idea must be tied to one or more of the 17 United Nations Sustainability
Development Goals (UNSDGs) (Reference:
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/) ; and
Your idea must be feasible meaning that, with your technological know-hows and
the resources you can access, you can develop a prototype for testing and
experiments.
Prepare a completed one-page lean canvas developed by Alex Osterwalder. You then
elaborate each of the following items presenting a complete picture of your business
idea and its model:
1. Problem(s)/Need(s): Describe precisely the pain points people have in performing
certain activities. Explain why it is worth solving.
2. Solution(s): Describe precisely what you are going to do and explain in detail how
it is different from the existing solution.
3. Unique Value Proposition: Describe precisely what value your product/service has
for your customers/clients.
4. Customer Segment(s): Describe precisely whom you are going to serve and their
demographic and psychological characteristics, if relevant. Identify as well the
early adopters, if applicable, whom you need to reach first.
5. Channels: Specify briefly how you will reach these customers/clients.
6. Revenue Streams: Describe what you receive in return for your offer, from whom,
how and when.
7. Cost Structure: Describe what your fixed and variable costs are. [No figures are
required in Assignment 1]
8. Key Metrics: Specify the key measures that you use to monitor progress and define
milestones in your business.
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9. Unfair/Competitive Advantage(s): Describe how you will defend against
competition and whether you will master some “know-hows”, if any, which cannot
be easily copied.
10. Potential Risks: Describe the difficulties in putting the idea in practice and the
risks you foresee.
Marking will be based on clarity of the business model; and its originality, feasibility
and sustainability.
Your answer should take into account:
the concepts covered in the design thinking workshop cum hackathon and the first
lecture session
analyses made using the tools you learned in the Hackathon and the lecture.
To illustrate how (1), (2), (3) and (4) match one another, you may submit a one-
page value proposition canvas developed by Alex Osterwalder.
online and/or face-to-face discussion with your tutor and his/her feedback.
Note: Appendices do not count towards the word limit but they are limited to six pages,
and marks may be deducted if the page limit is exceeded.
Guidance
You will need to think carefully about how your idea is likely to be seen by other
important groups in your chosen market. Share your idea with people in the market and
anyone you trust. Their reactions could give you a