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Program Type: Post-baccalaureate credit certificate/licensure/endorsement
Requirements for this program are current for
Fall 2023
Length of program in credits:
12
This program does not require summer semesters for timely completion.
Degree: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pbacc Certificate
Along with the program-specific requirements listed below, please read the
General Information section of
this
website for requirements that apply to all major fields.
How do you take a new idea or technology and turn it into a commercially successful offering? The post-baccalaureate certificate in Entrepreneurship & Innovation brings together a set of courses designed to help take you through that journey: from idea generation and opportunity identification, through business planning, funding, product development and testing, all the way to managing a growing business. Whether your goal is to learn how to start a new firm or grow a creative idea within an existing one, this certificate offers a fundamental understanding of the principles through which new innovations achieve and sustain success.
Program Delivery
partially online (between 50% to 80% of instruction is online)
Prerequisites for Admission
Applicants must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university.
Other requirements to be completed before admission:
Please review the Admissions Checklist online for detailed admissions requirements.
Special Application Requirements:
International students must have an acceptable score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), or the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE).
International students who want to attend this program on a student visa should contact the University's International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) office at https://isss.umn.edu/.
Applicants must submit their test score(s) from the following:
Pearson Test of English Academic(PTE)
International applicants must submit score(s) from one of the following tests:
One Stop for tuition, course registration, financial aid, academic calendars, and more
ENTR 6025 - Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Credits:
2.0
[max 4.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Spring & Summer
The course helps students develop insights on starting and sustaining a successful venture. The course focus is on opportunity identification and evaluation: Where do new venture ideas come from? How do you recognize a good business idea? How can a so-so idea be improved to be a good opportunity? Students will focus on five characteristics of a good entrepreneurial opportunity: Creating significant customer value, profit potential, profit durability, founder and team fit, and amenability to financing.
prereq: MBA or Mgmt Sci MBA student
MGMT 6055 - Management of Innovation and Change
Credits:
2.0
[max 2.0]
Course Equivalencies:
Mgmt 6050/Mgmt6055
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Fall & Spring
How organizations innovate/change. Focuses on innovation in wide variety of new technologies, products, programs, and services. What paths likely to lead to success/failure.
prereq: MBA or Mgmt Sci MBA student
MGMT 6071 - Strategic Management of Technological Change
Credits:
2.0
[max 2.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Fall
This course addresses challenges and opportunities in the strategic management of technology. It will equip students with conceptual frameworks tools, and language for analyzing and managing businesses in environments of technological change. Students will understand how new technologies transform industries and create new markets, ways that firms shape and/or respond to technological evolution in industries, and the strategic decisions for managing technological change and creating and capturing value from new technologies. We will also consider the influences of factors outside the control of a particular firm, such as complementary markets or the organization of innovations in the broader technology developing community. Because innovation and responding to technological change involve changing organizations, we will also consider factors in leading and managing organizational change. The course uses a combination of readings, lectures, case discussions, exercises, and simulations, and includes cases and vignettes on situations of specific companies managing technology strategy.
Anyone who wants to lead innovation or create and capture value from new technologies should take this course. We live in a world of constant technological change and disruption. An understanding of the patterns and processes of innovation and technological change will help students formulate and execute successful technology strategies.
ENTR 6021 - Developing New Ventures
Credits:
2.0
[max 4.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Fall
This seven-week course is for students interested in learning how to design and pitch a new venture (ventures can include for-profit startups, nonprofit startups, or internal corporate product/service development initiatives). Students work in teams to develop and write a business proposal for their ?own? venture and consider the practical aspects associated with securing buy-in. Students will engage in all aspects of the proposal development process including designing, testing, validating, pitching, advancing/defending, iterating, and effectively implementing the proposal. Students will also have the opportunity to observe, analyze, and learn from the development and implementation efforts of others.
ENTR 6023 - Financing Business Ventures
Credits:
2.0
[max 4.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Spring & Summer
This course in entrepreneurship focuses on the financial aspects of new business ventures. Topics covered in the course include:
How to (and how not to) Write a Funding Pitch,
The Landscape of Entrepreneurial Finance,
Bootstrapping,
Getting Started with FFF and OPM,
Creative Financing via Success Payments and Gainsharing,
Rollups and Building Towards Exit via Acquisition, and
Raising Serious Money via Venture Capital and Private Placements
prereq: MBA student
ENTR 6036 - Managing the Growing Business
Credits:
2.0
[max 2.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Spring & Summer
Challenges posed by rapid growth/change in independent startups. Infrastructure development, radical changes in strategy, continuous needs for substantial additional resources. Emphasizes analysis of factors accelerating/impeding growth and review/creation of growth strategies. Integration of concepts from strategy, operations, marketing, finance, and human resource management.
prereq: MBA or Mgmt Sci MBA student
ENTR 6037 - Corporate Venturing
Credits:
2.0
[max 2.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F or Aud
Typically offered:
Every Fall & Summer
Entrepreneurial role of top management in maintaining/increasing stakeholder value through formation/acquisition of new businesses, products, or markets within established corporations. Strategic role of corporate venturing. Cases, guest speakers, group projects.
prereq: MBA or Mgmt Sci MBA student
MGMT 5102 - StartUp: Customer Development and Testing
Credits:
2.0
[max 2.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Fall & Spring
Provides a structured process with faculty and mentor oversight for students at any level and from any college at the University to learn the initial process of customer development by testing market acceptance of a specific new business concept. Students primarily take this course individually and must have an idea or technology that they are interested in pursuing. The goal of the curse is to teach the process to quickly and efficiently test the value and market fit for a new concept.
ENTR 6041 - Initiating New Product Design and Business Development
Credits:
4.0
[max 10.0]
Course Equivalencies:
BMEn 8401/Entr 6041/PDes 8221
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Fall
In this course students work on product development projects sponsored by client companies and/or entrepreneurs. Projects run all year, but students may enroll for either or both terms. Coursework includes a series of assignments concerned with identifying, researching, and specifying the market and technical parameters for a new product. Assignments feed into a series of deliverables that are presented to the client. Market research emphasizes interviews with prospective customers and experts as well as business model development. Technical solutions are developed through rapid prototyping and concept rendering. Project work iterates between attention to market and technical considerations. Fall & Spring terms offer similar content, although project scope narrows in the Spring term.
prereq: MBA student or non-MBA with instructor + MBA program permission.
ENTR 6042 - Implementing New Product Design and Business Development
Credits:
4.0
[max 8.0]
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Typically offered:
Every Spring
Implementation of product development projects begun in the Fall term in Entr 6041. In this course students work on product development projects sponsored by client companies and/or entrepreneurs. Projects run all year, but students may enroll for either or both terms. Coursework includes a series of assignments concerned with identifying, researching, and specifying the market and technical parameters for a new product. Assignments feed into a series of deliverables that are presented to the client. Market research emphasizes interviews with prospective customers and experts as well as business model development. Technical solutions are developed through rapid prototyping and concept rendering. Project work iterates between attention to market and technical considerations. Fall & Spring terms offer similar content, although project scope narrows in the Spring term.
prereq: MBA student or non-MBA with instructor + MBA program permission.
