Best Free MOOCs In Business In October

Planning: Principled, Proposing, Proofing, and Practicing to a Success Plan

School: Michigan State University

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link:  REGISTER HERE

Start Date: October 9, 2017 (6 Weeks Long)

Workload: 2-4 Hours Per Week

Instructors: Ken Szymusiak, Forrest S. Carter, David Wheeler

Credentials: Szymusiak is the Managing Director, Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Michigan State’s Broad College of Business. He was previously a director at the Lansing Economic Development Corporation, where he was involved in economic development and revitalizing depressed business properties. Carter is the Institute’s faculty director and associate professor of marketing, teaching courses in market research, marketing strategy, and entrepreneurship. Wheeler is the director of Michigan State’s Media Sandbox. He was previously involved in developing broadcast journalism, film, television and commercials for CBS. He has also been heavily involved in developing and directing video games in his career.

Graded: Students must complete all assignments to finish the course.

Description: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” That axiom is drilled into every student, athlete, and entrepreneur the world over. The question is, what constitutes a plan? Is a plan a product – or has it become a process in a lean startup world where rapid prototyping and testing has replaced and detailed steps to curry funding. In this course, planning is equated with learning. Notably, the professors dismiss the proverbial 50 page business plan in lieu of a model that “organizes the key assumptions determining what value the business will offer to whom, and how it will make money.” As part of this course, students will learn the following:

• The process and milestones inherent to new venture development.
• Strategies to “think different” and create models and solutions that differentiate them from competitors.
• Mindset needed to step into customers’ shoes and understand their goals, day-to-day routines and pain points so they can prepare value propositions that will differentiate a solution and entice a customer to action.
• Best practices in engaging with the marketplace to better understand the concept and test its viability, uniqueness, and drawing power.

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Additional Note: This course is the third course in Michigan State’s “How to Start Your Own Business” specialization. To learn more about this courses, click here.