New Venture Creation Certificate
Come in with an Idea - Leave with a Business

The Certificate in New Venture Creation is designed to provide technical professionals with the business knowledge required to successfully create a new venture or launch new products.

This certificate will be offered in a 'blended format' featuring weekly online lessons combined with Saturday morning face-to-face meetings once per month. The convenience of this new blended learning format makes it easier than ever for working professionals to earn a graduate-level certificate.

Program Outline
The certificate consists of three required courses and one elective, a total of 12 credits.

The required courses:(3)
66.515 Foundations of New Venture Creation - Available Fall 2007!
66.516 New Product Development - Available Fall 2007!
66.517 New Venture Practicum

Elective:
Students select one appropriate graduate-level course in a business or science related area in consultation with the Program Director.
 

Course Descriptions

66.515 New Venture Creation 
This course is designed to meet the needs of engineering and science professionals who may be involved in and taking new science and technology from idea to market commercialization. This course will provide a working understanding of the business concepts that lay at the foundation of a business plan:

• Idea and Market Validation
• Competitive and Market Intelligence
• Finance: Cash flow, Capitalization Tables, Venture Investment
• IP/Legal: Basics of IP Law, Basics of Business Law
• Linking Technology and Markets via Technology Roadmaping
• Marketing: Value Proposition, Distribution, Pricing
• Sales: Product Sales, Joint Ventures & Negotiations
• Business Plan Development

Course Schedule:
Please note Face-to-Face Meeting Dates appear in bold.

66.516 New Product Development
New product development practitioners have developed an impressive body of knowledge of effective NPD practices and processes over the past decade and a half. NPPD will provide modules on:

• Product management and new product strategy
• Developing products that meet customer needs via qualitative market research and principles of industrial design
• the product development process and managing new product teams
• Emerging issues in NPD: the digital revolution; collaboration, partnerships, and outsourcing

Course Schedule:
Please note Face-to-Face Meeting Dates appear in bold.

66.517 New Venture Practicum
the Practicum is a hands-on course that focuses upon the implementation of your business plan. An experienced entrepreneur will guide you as you assemble the necessary resources and create the relationships required to get your business started.

Admissions
Students applying for this certificate program must already have a bachelors degree. Certificate students will be required to have an entrance interview with the program directors prior to admission and will typically be expected to have a particular new venture/product idea in mind as the focus of their program of study.

To arrange an informational and/or admittance review, please send a résumé and contact information to the program director, Valerie Kijewski.

Faculty

Valerie Kijewski, Program Director
Valerie brings over 30 years in business design and analysis into the New Venture program. While consulting, she worked with new product development in the top firms in the world, and as a faculty member at UML, she has led more than 30 technology commercialization projects with University technology. Valerie is the founder of the CoM Venture Lab.

Beatrice Nelson
Beebe is a well-known and well-respected consultant in the field of innovation. She was Book Review Editor for the Journal of Product Innovation Management and Lead Facilitator of PDMA's Frontier Dialogues. She is currently co-director of the International Association for Product Development. Her book, New Product Development for Dummies, is now a top seller in the field.