Darius Mahdjoubi on Models of Innovation and Action Business Planning November 7, 2008

"Darius Mahdjoubi of the IC² Institute of the University of Texas at Austin will give a presentation on the following topics:

1) Paradigms of Innovation
2) Action Business Planning

You may be familiar with the linear procedure of making a formal business plan. Formal business plans follow a linear and sequential procedure that often starts with description of intended products and finishes with estimation of financial capital needed, usually from external sources such as banks or venture capitalists. A formal business plan alone, however, may not give you the competitive edge you need. There are numerous sources for writing formal business plans, varying from “how to” books to entire academic courses. But what such formal business plans may not do is to serve the real-world challenges you will immediately face when you use it to actuate your plan. What you need is an Action Business Plan for Venture Development.

No two ventures are identical. This presentation will help you to navigate in the process of entrepreneurship, beyond the writing of a formal business plan. You will learn to recognize the Structural and Variable factors that are unique to your venture, and the potential stages of your venture. Structural factors are those that entrepreneurs must address but over which they have limited control, like government rules and industrial norms (both explicit and implicit). Variable factors are those over which entrepreneurs have some sort of control.

Selecting the initial sources of capital, choosing proper survival strategies to reach from the point of startup to sustainable cash-flow, and using proper change and innovation are among the major decisions that entrepreneurs must take to develop their own Action Business Plans. In the Survival stage (across the Valley of Death), initial sources of capital are like food and fuel, survival strategies are like mode of transportation, and change and innovation are like navigational systems that let a new venture survival and proceed.

As part of the Action Business Planning , entrepreneurs may have the option of selecting different survival strategies to cross the Valley of Death of Entrepreneurship.

Darius Mahdjoubi bio:

Dr. Darius Mahdjoubi is Research Associate at the Innovation, Creativity and Capital (IC2) Institute of UT Austin, Adjunct Professor at the MBA Entrepreneurship program of St. Edward's University in Austin, and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Art and Technology Institute (ATEC) of UT-Dallas. In 2005 he was an advisor to the Innovation School in Norway to set up a new Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He studies, teaches and provides consulting services on Action Business Planning, Business Ideation, Innovation Commercialization and Regional Systems of Innovation. He has offered training workshops on Action Business Planning at the VECTOR-E (IST, Lisbon), the MIETE Program (University of Porto), as well as other places.

Darius has an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He conducted his interdisciplinary dissertation - entitled Knowledge, Innovation and Entrepreneurship - under the mentorship of the late Dr. George Kozmetsky. Darius is also a professional engineer and focuses his practice in management of innovation, engineering management, intrapreneurship, and factory design."

The lecture will take place in the library auditorium at FCT/UNL, Quinta da Torre, Monte da Caparica, Portugal.

Official Website: http://utaustinportugal.org/Events.aspx?event=223