Module 1: Entrepreneurship
Today
Instructor Materials
Discovering Entrepreneurship
Instructor Materials – Module 1 Planning Guide
This PowerPoint deck is divided in two parts:
• Instructor Planning Guide
○ Information to help you become familiar with the module
○ Teaching aids
• Instructor Class Presentation
○ Optional slides that you can use in the classroom
○ Begins on slide # 10
Note: Remove the Planning Guide from this presentation before sharing with anyone.
For additional help and resources go to the Instructor Home Page and Course Resources for this
course. You also can visit the professional development site on netacad.com, the official Cisco
Networking Academy Facebook page, or Instructor Only FB group.
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What to Expect in this Module
To facilitate learning, the following features may be included in this module:
Feature Description
Links to Learning External links extend learning and provide real-
world examples.
Videos Expose learners to new skills and concepts.
Your Turn Non-graded, self-assessments that integrate
concepts and skills learned throughout the series of
topics presented in the module.
Reflection - Dream Venture Opportunities to extend learning by reflecting on
personal experiences and using those experiences
to successfully draft an entrepreneurial plan.
Simulation Game Simulation activities designed to explore, acquire,
reinforce, and expand skills.
Module Review Provides review questions in preparation for the
quiz and briefly recaps module content.
Module Quizzes Per topic online quiz to help learners gauge content
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understanding.
Your Turn
• Your Turn activities help students learn by doing as they work through the course.
• They are scenario-based, and are designed to help the student be able to apply the concepts rather
than simply remembering them.
• They contain answer options that represent common student mistakes and misconceptions,
and offer targeted feedback designed to correct those misconceptions.
• Your Turn activities do not affect student grades.
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Module 1: Activities
Page # Activity Type Activity Name Optional?
1.1.2 Video Simon Sinek on Entrepreneurship and Elon Musk recommended
1.1.3 Your Turn Which of the following scenarios is an example of an required
entrepreneur?
1.1.6 Your Turn Match each entrepreneurial venture to the entrepreneur type it required
aligns to.
1.1.7 Reflection Defining Success required
1.2.3 Your Turn As an entrepreneur, it is important to do due diligence. Which required
scenario below illustrates this process?
1.2.6 Your Turn Which of the following scenarios illustrates an entrepreneur required
taking on a lifestyle venture?
1.2.8 Reflection - Dream How can you put your strengths to work? required
Venture
1.3.4 Video Business Growth Tip: How to Identify Opportunities for recommended
Innovation
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Module 1: Activities (cont.)
Page # Activity Type Activity Name Optional?
1.3.7 Your Turn Luis notices that hand sanitizer stations at the shopping mall required
are often empty or clogged. After giving it some thought, Luis
believes that this seems like a simple problem to solve. What
about solving it illustrates that Luis has an entrepreneurial
mindset?
1.3.9 Reflection - Dream Recognizing Problems required
Venture
1.4.2 Your Turn Suzanne recently lost her employment because of increased required
automation of her job duties due to technology. She disagrees
with the use of technology for this particular task. Which of the
following factors would most likely drive her to an
entrepreneurial venture?
1.4.4 Your Turn Which of the following scenarios illustrates an individual who required
may be ready for an entrepreneurial venture?
1.5.5 Link to Learning Transparency International website recommended
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Module 1: Activities (cont.)
Page # Activity Type Activity Name Optional?
1.5.8 Your Turn According to the Global Entrepreneurship Index, the United required
States is the leading country when it comes to the number of
entrepreneurial ventures. Which of the following might be a
contributing factor?
1.5.9 Reflection Consider your personal experiences required
1.5.13 Your Turn David is interested in solving a problem related to the spread required
of RSV in children from lower-income neighborhoods. He
would like to start a nonprofit venture that will facilitate the
distribution of and education around personal protective
equipment (PPE) in low-income schools. What type of
entrepreneur is David?
1.5.14 Reflection Entrepreneur in Action required
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Module 1: Best Practices
Prior to teaching Module 1, the instructor should:
• Review the activities and assessments for this module.
• Try to include as many questions/activities as possible to keep students engaged during classroom
presentation.
Review Questions
• What is an entrepreneur?
• How is Roxanne Quimby of Burt’s Bees an example of an entrepreneur?
• In the early stages of developing an entrepreneurial venture, the entrepreneur might seek funding
from which group?
• What factors contribute to a growing interest in entrepreneurship?
Discussion Questions
• One of Roxanne Quimby’s motivations in starting businesses included helping employ people in her
community. How does or doesn’t this motivation fit in the definition of an entrepreneur as someone
who identifies a problem and solves that problem?
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Module 1: Best Practices (Cont.)
Discussion Questions (cont.)
• What are the similarities and differences between the business ventures of Wander Girls and
Roxanne Quimby?
• Why are there more entrepreneurial opportunities in some countries compared to others?
• What commonalities do the top five countries have that put them in the lead for entrepreneurial
ventures?
Case Questions
• What suggestions could you make to Angad Daryani on other products that would fit his focus on
improving the lives of people?
• On Angad Daryani’s website, he says he believes “that the path humanity follows, needs to be pivoted
for the better.” What other needs or problems do humans have? Create a list of twenty needs that
would fit Angad Daryani’s belief statement.
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Module 1:
Entrepreneurship Today
Discovering Entrepreneurship
Module Objectives
Module Title: Entrepreneurship Today
Module Objective: Describe entrepreneurship in the United States and around the world.
Topic Title Topic Objective
Entrepreneurs and Explain entrepreneur and entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneurial Describe types of entrepreneurial careers and lifestyles.
Lifestyle and Career
Factors Driving the Understand entrepreneurs as problem solvers.
Growth of
Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneur as Explain current factors driving the growth of entrepreneurship.
a Problem Solver
Entrepreneurship Compare differences in entrepreneurial opportunities around the globe.
Around the Globe
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Module 1 Introduction
There are “lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there’s only one good, legitimate
reason . . . it’s to change the world.”1 - Phil Libin, co-founder and former CEO of Evernote
Around the globe, individuals, communities, and organizations advocate for and support the
entrepreneurship movement. Many colleges and universities offer courses, degrees, and competitions for
entrepreneurship teams. Communities provide support through services such as incubators that foster
planning and startup activities.
Becoming aware of problems that need to be solved, then solving the problem to make our lives easier
or better is part of the entrepreneurial perspective. Entrepreneurial products may focus on the use of
technology and improving lives.
Footnotes: 1 Robin Wauters. “Evernote CEO Phil Libin: ‘My Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs? Don’t Do It.’” The Next Web. April 27, 2012.
https://thenextweb.com/video/2012/04/27/evernote-ceo-phil-libin-my-advice-to-aspiring-entrepreneurs-dont-do-it-video/
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1.1 Entrepreneurs and
Entrepreneurship
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Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur can be defined as:
● Someone who identifies and acts on an idea or problem that no one else has identified or acted on
● A person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money
Key concepts from these definitions:
● Willing to take a risk
● Willing to risk loss
● Far-sightedness and innovation
Two things entrepreneurs do is:
● Recognize opportunity
● Create something new
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Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
Watch this video and think about what the difference is between a small business owner and an
entrepreneur.
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Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
Are small business owners and franchisees entrepreneurs?
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Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
● What people consider an entrepreneur can vary - some strictly differentiate between entrepreneurs
and small business owners while others acknowledge that a person could be both.
● Essentially, an entrepreneur is someone who creates and runs a new business where one did not
exist before.
● Entrepreneurship is about risk, problem solving, and filling a gap where no-one else is.
● An entrepreneurial venture is the creation of any business, organization, project, or operation of
interest that includes a level of risk in acting on an opportunity that has not previously been
established.
○ Can be for profit or not-for-profit.
○ Entrepreneurs may approach their entrepreneurial venture as innovators, creators, market
makers, or expanders and scalers.
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Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
● Entrepreneurship is an unusual journey - you’ve got to be certain it’s how you want to live your life
and what you want to use your life for.
● You and your business are inextricably linked. Your business derives its purpose from your purpose;
your business derives its meaning from your life.
● The BIG question every entrepreneur or would-be entrepreneur must answer: Who are you?
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Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
Reflection
● How do you define success?
● What is your personal definition of success?
● How would you define success for your venture idea?
● What kind of entrepreneur will you be?
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1.2 The Entrepreneurial
Lifestyle and Career
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The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle and Career
● Being an entrepreneur has become synonymous with being an innovator, a change agent, or a
risk taker.
● The difference between risk and calculated risk is due diligence, or conducting the necessary
research and investigation to make informed decisions that minimize risk.
● To minimize personal financial risk, some startup entrepreneurs continue with their current
employment while working on the side to develop their idea into a venture that eventually will
generate an income.
○ Example: Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker
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The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle and Career
● A lifestyle venture is a business in which the founders’ primary focus is the lifestyle they will attain
through becoming entrepreneurs, rather than a primary interest in financial rewards through selling
the business.
○ Within the entrepreneurial world, harvesting is the typical exit strategy. The harvest is the point
at which the investors and entrepreneurial team receive their return on creating and building
the venture.
● For a lifestyle venture, the entrepreneur is more likely to be a solo entrepreneur and funded through
family/friends and more traditional methods, such as bank or small business loans.
● This lifestyle includes greater freedom to decide areas of responsibilities, hours of contribution to the
venture, and other decisions that support the desired lifestyle, enabling alignment of values,
interests, and passions to create a balance.
● Examples: The Wander Girls; Roxanne Quimby of Burt’s Bees Corporation
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The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle and Career
Reflection
● How can you put your strengths to work?
● Create a list of ten strengths that you currently possess. If you need help creating your list, ask your
friends or family what they believe you are good at doing.
● Think about what achievements you have accomplished, what compliments you have received, and
what people say about you. The answers to these questions will help you identify your strengths.
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1.3 The Entrepreneur as a
Problem Solver
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The Entrepreneur as a Problem Solver
● We often have a tendency to jump quickly from noticing a problem to selecting a solution, with little
understanding of whether we have even correctly identified the problem.
● Identifying the problem—and testing the potential, novelty, and feasibility of your solution—is an
important part of resolving the problem.
● Problems often have multiple causes:
○ The need for something to be better, faster, or easier
○ The effects of changes in the world on your industry, product, or service
○ Market trends based on geography, demographics, or the psychology of the customers
● Entrepreneurial problem-solving is the process of using innovation and creative solutions to resolve
societal, business, or technological problems.
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The Entrepreneur as a Problem Solver
Problem-solving is a step-by-step approach:
1. Identify the problem. What needs to be fixed?
2. Determines the root causes. Once you have identified what your problem is, you need to figure out why it
is.
3. Find multiple solutions. Thinking innovatively. Do not settle for the first solution you find. Find as many
alternative solutions as you can.
4. Determine the solution that will work best. Go about it logically. Consider viability, scalability, available
resources, risks, benefits, and how it can be measured.
5. Plan and implement your solution. Build a plan to execute your solution. You will need to cover who,
what, when, and how you will implement your plan.
6. Measure the success of your solution. How does it measure against your goals, objectives, and budget?
Can you see a measurable outcome? © 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 26
The Entrepreneur as a Problem Solver
● One characteristic of a savvy entrepreneur is recognizing the ability to identify a problem from an
opportunity-identification perspective.
● This means turning how to solve a problem for one person into how to solve it for multiple people.
● Example: We might identify feeling hungry as a problem. An entrepreneur would determine how the
problem could be translated into an opportunity to create a new venture—perhaps addressing the
problem of feeling hungry between meals into a street kiosk or a vending machine, or creating a new
snack that is nutritious, satisfying, and portable.
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The Entrepreneur as a Problem Solver
Watch this video and ask yourself whether an opportunity can exist even where there may not be a gap or
problem to solve.
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1.4 Factors Driving the Growth
of Entrepreneurship
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Factors Driving the Growth of Entrepreneurship
● Research shows that nearly 50 percent of all US employment is at risk due to artificial intelligence
and other technologies.
● Losing a job, being rejected or mistreated at work, or having your income reduced or benefits
removed might be an impetus to start your own business.
● When we have our own business, we have greater control—in exchange, we also carry the risk for
all decisions we make.
● This control over decision-making is one reason that some people find the world of
entrepreneurship attractive.
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Factors Driving the Growth of Entrepreneurship
More reasons why people become entrepreneurs:
● The excitement and fun of creating something new and moving the idea from concept to reality
● The combination of having available time and a desire for continued earnings encourages some
older adults to explore entrepreneurial opportunities
● The expanding awareness and support of entrepreneurship as a viable career choice, and moving
away from the older model of employment (i.e., long-term employment with a corporation)
● The expanding opportunities and support for individuals by communities and organizations that see
how entrepreneurial ventures add economic development and enhancements worth supporting
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1.5 Entrepreneurship Around
the Globe
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
What are the key takeaways of this chart?
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
● One of the key takeaways from the previous chart is that the United States leads the world in
entrepreneurial ventures with Switzerland not far behind.
● What is it about all the countries noted in the chart that enables them to be leaders in
entrepreneurial ventures?
● What does it take to become an entrepreneur?
○ Besides an entrepreneurial mindset, its takes education and funding.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
Globally, entrepreneurs typically seek three primary sources of funding:
● Family and friends are sometimes willing and able to invest money in the entrepreneurial team.
● Angel investors are often entrepreneurs who have successfully launched and harvested their own
ventures and have an interest in helping other entrepreneurs in their startups, staying active in the
entrepreneurial world, and receiving a return on their investment in the venture. They often provide
funding early in the life of a venture.
● Venture capitalists are a group of people (or organizations) who pool resources to invest in
entrepreneurial ventures, contributing larger sums of funds than are available through angel
investors. In each funding round, investors receive an equity stake in the venture with expectations
that at some point in the future, the venture will be sold or harvested, at which time the investors will
receive a return on their investment.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
● As shown in the chart, in 2015,
VCs contributed
○ $72.3 billion for 3916
deals, or funding rounds,
in the United States
○ $49.2 billion for 1611
ventures in China
● VCs also contributed $14.4
billion for 1598 deals in Europe.
● Tracking VC funding over time
shows steady increases as
entrepreneurial ventures have
become more common.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
Other factors that can affect entrepreneurial opportunity:
● employment rates
● government policies
● trade issues
Example: In Saudi Arabia, a newer driver of entrepreneurship includes a high unemployment rate with a large
percentage of the population in its prime earning years. In the past, employment was less of a concern
because of dependency on state support from oil revenue. More recently, the population has become
restless, with a desire to become productive and have greater control over their own resources. And the rulers
recognize that oil production income is volatile and unsustainable.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
Why do some countries provide for more entrepreneurial opportunities than others?
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
● Factors that promote entrepreneurial opportunities in a country include
○ Independent thinking being encouraged - Countries like the United States have large
populations of immigrants and few prescribed traditions that encourage conformity, while other
cultures emphasize political, cultural, and economic unity and place a strong value on not being
noticed, blending in, and following prescribed habits and traditions.
○ Minimal bureaucracy - Some countries have complex bureaucracies that prevent quick
responses and place barriers to entrepreneurial activities.
○ Easy access to information inspiring creativity and open-mindedness - Some cultures and
bureaucracies may prevent people from finding access to information necessary for the
successful advancement of an idea.
● Transparency International is an organization that tracks corruption, which can be an inhibitor to
entrepreneurship.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
● Key characteristics that encourage entrepreneurship include support for freedom to create and
innovate.
● What conditions encourage creativity and innovation?
○ Acceptance of failure
■ Example: Thomas Edison and the light bulb
○ Ability and opportunity to connect with other people to discuss ideas, problems, challenges,
and solutions
○ Role of internet in identifying and solving problems around the world
● What we need is an efficient and transparent way to form companies and enable constructive
competition, along with continued free and fair trade.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
Reflection
● Consider your personal experiences.
● In what kind of environment do you thrive?
● Have you experienced failure? How did you move past it?
● Are you comfortable sharing ideas in an open exchange with others in an effort to encourage
creativity and innovation?
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
● Increasing opportunities in entrepreneurial education are also driving growth.
○ More colleges and universities are teaching entrepreneurial studies and opening
entrepreneurial centers.
○ Some institutions offer courses to prepare students for work in the gig economy as the
employment landscape evolves.
○ Groups of students in different majors are now collaborating to create ideas that meet specific
needs and challenges in today’s world.
○ Students from different universities around the globe are connecting to come up with business
ideas to solve global problems.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
● A social entrepreneur identifies a problem with a
social or community focus, a concern for quality
of life, or concern for our entire planet’s health.
● Example: Angad Daryani, a young inventor who
joined the Media Lab at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States
to work on an industrial-scale air filter to clean
pollutants and carcinogens out of our planet’s air.
Daryani’s home country of India is the world’s
third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
● Daryani is also an example of a serial entrepreneur, or someone who starts and harvests multiple
entrepreneurial ventures.
● Daryani’s various entrepreneurial ventures include the following products:
○ Sharkits (a do-it-yourself-kit company that teaches children how to build technology)
○ SharkBot 3D Printer (an attractive, low-cost, and reliable 3D printer)
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Entrepreneurship Around the Globe
Reflection
● Research Angad Daryani and his technology to remove air pollution.
(https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/health/angad-daryani-tomorrows-hero/index.html).
● What other products could this technology or methodology be used for, besides the originally
intended application of improving air quality?
● What critical decisions would you anticipate that Daryani will face in creating and commercializing
his product?
● How would you define success for Daryani or this air-cleaning company?
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