BMM5102 - Business Development 1

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to: Understand the principles behind business development and be able to identify potential business opportunities that will help maximise a business’s capability. Explore and assess the impact of various environmental/market/ competitor factors upon the growth of revenues of an existing enterprise or within the development of new business. Develop key business development skills such as sales techniques, effective communication, project management, negotiation, and analytical skills to produce effective strategy and implementation plans. To be able to produce an effect business development proposal with supporting evidence and research.

Content:

The Business Development modules provide a balanced outline which will give the students a broad understanding of business development practices and prepare students for a fulfilling career in business development after graduation. Consultancy is core to Business Development I & II. By working on real-world consultancy projects, students will link their experience and learning and enhance it through the application of recommendations for real business clients. Furthermore, by working with real businesses (clients), students can practically learn how businesses grow and develop to face challenges and make use of opportunities on the market.

The students will work closely with external employers and mentors and the sessions will be designed to support students in the endeavour of value creation and problem solving. This will be achieved by preparing students to consider the reality of different approaches to revenue generation within a commercial enterprise by looking into the nature of the product/ service, the potential and/ or existing customer base. The key difference of this module is the theoretical nature of the material which will give the students a sound base of the key commercial aspects an enterprise has to consider and implement.

The Module will give all students the foundations and skills to develop various new feasible business opportunities such as new products, new markets, new partnerships, new distribution channels or review existing business activities which may be improved. Students will develop key business development skills such as sales techniques, effective communication, project management, negotiation and analytical skills to enhance their ability to produce an effective business development plan.

The content and assessment strategy will encourage students to review and understand how to conduct research and to use various tools and models to identify suitable business opportunities that will enable a new or existing business to growth or expand its business potential. The students will be required to use their placement and or seek an internship and complete assignments that blends theory and ‘real life’ applications. They will need to use these analytical tools in order to write a critical report on an existing enterprise and thus look at a real life scenario that they can draw from their placements or by tapping into the start-up enterprise environment through the enterprise centre or local business contacts. The fundamentals of the theoretical knowledge-base will be delivered by the academic input.

The detailed module content will therefore vary according to the available expertise (guest speakers) and contemporary factors affecting business start-ups and will include a broad coverage of topics such as (but not limited to):

• Product evaluation and understanding.
• Market segmentation and targeting, channel identification and development, POS/ Communication and support. Customer/ Client support.
• Business Planning and understanding the competitive environment.
• Financial issues: pricing, costing, discounts, promotions

In addition, practical skill elements of the module will include:
• Development of sales materials and pitches based on strategy and operational plans.

Evidence skills in communicating with their client in terms of professionalism and managing their business development project.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Weekly lectures and workshops from the module co-ordinator will support the students in preparing to take full advantage of the theoretical and practical materials used.

Lectures
Hours: 40
Intended Group Size: Cohort

Seminars
Hours: 10
Intended Group Size: Cohort

Guided independent study
Hours: 150

Further details relating to assessment
Assessments 1 and 2 can be run as individual or group assessments and this will be partly dependent on cohort size and student negotiation.

Assessment 3 (individual report) will be based on a real-world client brief sourced by tutors and a number of students / groups might work on the same brief. Students who have their own business or business contacts to source a project can negotiate and agree this with tutors.

Assessment:

001 Client presentation Q&A; 10 min indv; 20 min group; week 4 20%
002 Poster pitch delivery;1 Poster + 90 second Pitch indv; 1 Poster + 5 mins pitch group; week 8 20%
003 Individual report; 2,500 words; end of semester 1 60%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Vasilios Tavlaridis
Level - 5
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 5S1

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