Course description
This course aims to be a multidisciplinary seminar that requires students to explore a potentially profitable business idea and to develop an appropriate business plan. The central focus of this course is the business plan as a document increasingly adopted for the submission and evaluation of business proposals.

This interactive business laboratory will lead students from the assessment of their business idea to the definition of a detailed market research and the description of a trustable strategic planning. Finally, students will be also required to devise an accurate budget and a basic pro-forma financial statement in order to give accounting consistency to the business idea described in the first part of their business plans. Topics covered include: market analysis, strategic planning and organizational structure, cost definition & analysis, break-even point, budgeting and performance representation.

Course objectives
The basic goal of this class is to provide each student with the opportunity to formulate and implement a business idea through the realization of a comprehensive document that could attract banks, venture capitalists, business partners, employees, managers and stakeholders in general. This course focuses on the proactive writing of an effective business plan; in addition this class also highlights students’ competence in evaluating a detailed business proposal. Accordingly, the objective of this course is to encourage the development of teamwork skills, but also to improve students’ ability to underline potential weak points and latent inconsistencies of a business proposal.