Creating Entrepreneurial Impact for a Sustainable Future Summer School

30 contact hours spread over one week covering lectures, workshops, tutorials, project work, social activities and relevant visit.  Classes will be delivered on weekdays.

Students will be allocated in small groups for Project work which will be done through team-based learning with supervision. Final project will be presented in groups to a panel of experts on the last day of the programme. A prize will be awarded to the team with the best project.

The entire programme will be taught in English.

On completion of this programme, students will be able to:

• Understand societal challenges and identify solutions
• Differentiate between product & business model innovation
• Analyse and evaluate your organisations using a SWOT analysis
• Understand finance, strategies and competitive advantage for new business models
• Basics of entrepreneurial finance and introduction to financial forecasting template
• Build & maintain effective networks for commercial benefits (networking)
• Pitching ideas and making impact

In addition, students will have an opportunity to make new friends, get to know student ambassadors from Imperial College London through social activities and discuss opportunities for future study and experience what it is like to study in a world class university.

The goal of the group project is to consolidate learning while inspiring potential ideas and solutions to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Students will be allocated in small groups, identify a business idea to address a problem from one of the UN’s SDGs. 

Based off the learnings of the course, each student group/team will develop a business model for this idea and pitch their business idea to a panel on the last day of the programme.  The group project will enable students to develop their team building skills as part of the learning.

Societal ‘Grand’ Challenges & Introduction to Business Model Innovation

In this session we introduce students to the course and discuss the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework and discuss characteristics of business models and business model innovation. This course gives a strong foundation for students to learn key entrepreneurial skills.

Content

• Societal ‘Grand’ Challenges and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
• Defining solutions and designing your own Business Models
• Systematically understand, design & differentiate new business models
• Facilitate innovative ideas for novel products and services
• Difference between market-pull and technology-push
• Real life examples to understand innovation in business models

Learning outcome

• Critical understanding of societal ‘grand’ challenges, business models and innovation

Project Introduction & briefing

Students will be allocated in small groups, identify a business idea to address a problem from one of the UN’s SDGs. 

Designing Business Models, Rapid Prototyping and ‘Open’ Innovation

In this session we discuss the business model canvas and review business model canvas characteristics of business models and business model innovation.

Content

• Business model canvas
• Rapid Prototyping of business models for real life examples
• Four steps to developing a business idea
• Analyse and evaluate your own enterprising skills and entrepreneurial attributes using a SWOT analysis
• ‘Open’ Innovation

Learning outcome

• Critical understanding of what you do well, to address what you're lacking, to minimize risks, and to take the greatest possible advantage of chances for success.

Creativity and Ideas Generation

This session helps students "to think outside the box" to generate ideas. The techniques presented and tried during the session are particularly useful for people who do not believe they have time to think differently due to the pressures of daily life.  The session will take students through a pragmatic 6 stage problem solving process. Students will apply the process from problem definition through to implementation.

Team building Workshop

Through the medium of practical exercises and guided review, students will explore ways in which team performance can be enhanced.  The session will give students the opportunity to participate in a range of fun tasks designed to highlight common ways in which team performance can come unstuck and the behaviours that can mitigate against this.

Sustainable Cities and Communities

As the world's population continues to grow and urbanize there is an urgent need to create cities that are sustainable, liveable, and resilient. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a roadmap for achieving this vision, and technology is playing a key role in enabling us to reach these ambitious targets.  In this lecture we will explore some of the most promising technology themes that are driving the development of sustainable cities and communities. From smart grids and energy storage systems to circular economy technologies, digital platforms for citizen engagement, and advanced water management systems. These technologies are helping us to reduce waste, promote resource efficiency and create more equitable and liveable urban environments. We will also examine several case studies that illustrate how these technologies are being applied in practice and their impact on achieving the SDGs. We will conclude with a roadmap of technologies for sustainable cities for the year 2050. 

Entrepreneurial Finance

In this session we introduce the fundamentals of developing a successful business. The students will learn about finance for entrepreneurial ventures.

Content

• Understand key elements of Entrepreneurial Finance
• Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet), Profit & Loss a/c, Cashflow Statements
• Net Present Value – valuation models
• Introduction to financial forecasting template
• Competitive advantage for new business models

Learning outcome

• Developing fundamentals for successful business

Strategic Management & Competitive Advantage

In this session, students will be exposed to various frameworks used to cultivate enduring competitive advantage by business.

Content

• Industry Analysis – Michael Porter 5 Forces
• Value Chains
• Competitive Advantage
• Core Competencies – Hamel and Prahalad

Learning outcome

Understanding of parameters that drive enterprise competitive advantage

Business plans and Effective Pitching Skills Workshop

In this practical session, students will learn about business plans consolidating learning from earlier weeks and be exposed to importance of pitching skills for entrepreneurial impact. This session will prepare the learners for the final week of pitching.

Content

• Introduction to writing Entrepreneurial Business Plans
• Synthesising from first principles
• How to write an impactful business plan
• What investors look for?
• Pitching skills for your idea to raise investments and generate revenue

Learning outcome

• Effective entrepreneurial communication

Implementation for Impact and Risk Management

In this session, students will be exposed to various techniques in project implementation/management and other practical issues for entrepreneurship. This session will be focused on implementation concerns for entrepreneurship and risk.

Content

• Project Management
• Project Planning and Control
• Practical Matters – Legal etc.
• Risk Management

Learning outcome

• Effective in early stages of entrepreneurship implementation and risk management

Developing effective networks and communicating your idea for investment

In this session, students will be exposed to various techniques to be effective in networking and communicating their entrepreneurial idea with a business plan and an effective business pitch.

Content

• How to build and maintain effective networks (networking)
• Real life examples of commercial gains from networking
• How to write an impactful business plan
• Pitching your idea to raise investments and generate revenue

Learning outcome

• Effective in early stages of entrepreneurship through networking and effective communication

Project presentation - pitching to panel

The goal of the group coursework is to consolidate learning while inspiring potential ideas and solutions to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In your pre-defined groups, identify a business idea to address a problem from one of the UN’s SDGs. Based off the learnings of the course, you need to develop a business model for this idea.

Content

• Pitch your business idea
• Best presentation award
• Feedback from jury

Students need to prepare a PowerPoint and financial excel with an elevator pitch. This pitch should include the following: Introduction to team; details of the goal selected, and why; a business opportunity that addresses that SDG; using the required reading (Porters 5 forces), an analysis of the current market environment for that business opportunity.

The summer school will be taught by Dr Ebrahim Mohamed and a multi-disciplinary teaching faculty from the other departments.

Dr Ebrahim Mohamed is an innovation expert and formerly Director of Executive MBA programmes at Imperial College Business School where he worked for over 20 years. Ebrahim was one of the founding team members of the Imperial Entrepreneurship HUB and received the prestigious Imperial College Graduate School Award for contribution to Innovation/Entrepreneurship (transferable skills) programme. Ebrahim has mentored executives, young professionals and entrepreneurs for over two decades from the elite institutions of the UK and Europe.

Ebrahim held one of the most significant roles in Europe as the Director of Education at Climate-KIC where he was mandated to define the new paradigm for climate innovation education. Climate-KIC is Europe’s leading organisation focused on innovation opportunities to mitigate and adapt to societal grand challenge of climate change. It is a public-private partnership with an impressive array of over 200 organisations including academic partners (Imperial College, ETH Zurich, UPMC and Oxford University), research institutes (Grantham and Potsdam) and a multitude of corporate partners from across Europe (KLM, ENGIE, Velux, Knight Frank). Through this work Ebrahim has a strong foundation on the innovation agenda of grand challenges. He is a specialist in the field of entrepreneurship education and helped spearhead Climate-KIC’s reputation in technology and innovation in Europe.

Ebrahim continues to work with a number of prestigious international Business Schools such as INSEAD, DUKE-FUQUA, Columbia and Stanford University on the challenges of education and business. He has been an expert advisor to multiple EU Agencies, EU Skills Agenda and the new EU Framework Programme. Ebrahim is currently working on initiatives empowering women as technology innovators and leaders. Also, he is focusing on MedTech and Cybersecurity entrepreneurship training. Ebrahim works as a freelance teacher at the London School of Economics and the Open University.

Ebrahim has received accolades for innovation in entrepreneurship education from the European Commission, OECD, Comite21, The Guardian and Forbes. Ebrahim is an ESRC (UK Economic and Social Research Council) Scholarship Winner, a graduate form the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and has contributed regularly to the Financial Times, Independent, Times, Guardian and other media channels.

Students will receive a Imperial College London certificate of attendance on successful completion of this programme and a prize will be awarded to the best project team.

Each student will also receive a document for their project marks.