Introduction of QBS/QREC courses

Shingo IGARASHI

Schumpeter (1912) assigned the role of innovation to newly founded independent firms (startups). Since then, startups have been considered as one of the sources of innovation that act as competitive pressure on existing firms and promote market efficiency. In reality, successful startups, such as Tesla, Uber, and Facebook, have not only grown into global companies but have also become leaders in their countries’ economies and industries.
On the other hand, in recent years, there has also been an increase in the establishment of corporate venture capital (CVC), which involves the management of venture capital (VC) firms that specialize in bringing “ventures” into the company (generally referred to as “corporate venturing”) or investing in startups. This is a way for companies to explore how they can change their corporate culture and achieve disruptive innovation from within.
This lecture aims to improve management skills in launching new businesses by discussing “how to launch a business with few management resources.”

Shingo IGARASHI

This course is offered by Robert T.Huang Entrepreneurship Center of Kyushu University (QREC) (the name of the course at QREC is “Entrepreneurship in Technology (Advanced)”). Recent entrepreneurship research has increased interest in the “entrepreneurial process.” In particular, the discovery (or creation and recognition) of “entrepreneurial opportunities” that are the beginning of the process and ways to translate those opportunities into business are attracting attention. There are two types of business creation: market-pulled (market-driven) and technology-pushed (technology-driven). Technology-pushed business requires staying power in the process of selecting a target mar-ket and forming that market. On the other hand, it is easy to establish a competitive advantage by making full use of the intellectual property rights (for example, patents) of the business. In recent years, there has been a strong demand for MBA holders to have skills in new business creation—that is, how to translate ideas (discoveries and inventions before they become intellectual property) into business and commercialize them. In this class, students will learn these skills through textbooks and case studies.

Takefumi MOKUDAI

Corporate strategy provides guidelines for consistent corporate actions in order to realize the medium and long-term goals of a company. In this lecture, students will learn about the concept and the-ory of strategy, the methods and processes of strategy formation, and the logic that determines strategy functions. In addition to the acquisition of basic theories through lectures, this lecture aims to cultivate strategic thinking through class discussions by using the case method.

Akiya NAGATA

Innovation is change that brings about the creation of new value. In today’s world, where growth based on the input of production factors, such as labor and capital stock, is facing its limits, systematic approaches to innovation are inevitable for companies that pursue sustainable growth. The pu-pose of this lecture is to acquire the basic knowledge required for innovation management as well as the ability to discover and solve problems, which is essential for planning growth strategies.

Megumi TAKATA

In this lecture, students will learn about the purpose, significance, and effects of industry-university collaboration, which has been attracting attention in recent years. Specifically, while taking up specific examples from Japan and abroad, students will learn how to evaluate business opportunities in science and technology at the budding stage (Idea Evaluation) and understand the key points of commercialization. In addition to understanding the key points of commercialization, they will acquire practical knowledge of IP licensing agreements and joint research agreements, methods for acquiring various seed technology information, methods for constructing industry-academia collaboration schemes, and methods for managing conflicts of interest, all of which are required in practice. In addition, by using the science and technology commercialization tool called QuickLook, students will practice Idea Evaluation and market entry strategy planning based on the seed technologies owned by universities and public research institutions.

Hironobu TAMAKI

This course is intended to have students acquire knowledge and skills to develop new projects/businesses within an established corporation through intrapreneurship, open-innovation and/or corporate venture capital (CVC). The teaching formats of the course includes lecuture, group discussion, case study and presentation. English materials will be used.

Masaki KUROKI

Organizational management is essential in order to expand the business size and attain high efficiency at corporations, public institutions, NPOs and other entities. Moreover, at their gestation stage organizations can only secure management resources – particularly personnel – on a small scale, and the needs for people who will constitute the organization grow hand-in-hand with the expansion of that organization, the type of staff required changes, and the very methods with which the organization is run have to be altered. Students on this course will learn how to set up teams from small numbers to large numbers, and how to run those teams.

Hironobu TAMAKI

In this course students acquire an understanding of the theory of fund-raising for launching and growing start-ups. It also covers practical contents such as initial public offerings (IPO) and acquisitions. The aim of the course is to enable students to evaluate startup opportunities from the perspectives of investors and entrepreneurs. In addition to materials and practical exercises devised by the lecturer the teaching materials also utilize English case studies used at the world’s top business schools. A few practitioners in the specific fields may be invited as guest speakers.

Hiromi YAMADA

This course provides an authentic, competitive environment wherein students engage in a management simulation game named MarkStrat. MarkStrat has been developed at INSEAD, a renowned business school in France, and used for management skills training at a variety of enterprises and universities across the world.

Through the experience of playing MarkStrat and reflecting over those experiences, as well as lectures and workshops organized by the course instructor, students will learn how to use data to find market insights, work collaboratively in a small-group setting, and make decisions effectively.