Final year Executive MBA students taking the Entrepreneurship and Innovation elective with Dr Nathaniel Massa at the Faculty of Economics, Management & Accountancy, have recently completed their Feasibility Analysis project pertaining to an identified start-up business idea or intrapreneurial concept.
This semester-long, team-based applied business start-up project formed an integral part of the elective. It entailed identifying a novel business idea or concept targeting a market need or value generation potential. Following fine-tuning, the FEMA MBA participants worked in teams respectively researching and undertaking a full feasibility analysis under the guidance of Dr Massa.
Deliverables included submitting a comprehensive feasibility report and delivering a final presentation pitch including working prototypes and live demos. Together with Maltese participants, the international class forming this year’s Executive MBA cohort included students of Indian origin, German, Italian and Russian nationalities. Engaging in extensive research, in various instances they conducted surveys, focus groups and leveraged contacts and networks, including technical expertise – in order to assess product, technical, market, organisational and financial feasibility, as well as a competitor analysis, for their business start-up concepts.
During the semester, the FEMA MBA start-up project teams also had the opportunity to stress-test and present their early-stage ideas to a panel of seasoned professionals active in the entrepreneurship scene hailing from areas associated with mentoring, foresight and creativity, knowledge management and IP, crowdfunding, and business consulting—at a Global Entrepreneurship Week event— as part of a broader international network spanning 170 countries powered by the Kauffman Foundation, locally hosted by the Edward de Bono Institute at the University of Malta. The Executive MBA cohort was also hosted by TAKEOFF, the University’s incubator and start-up facilitator, and given an overview of the support and facilities on offer.
The MBAs' business start-up concepts ranged across a spread of lifestyle, convenience-oriented and health related services, onto tech-based sourcing and mobility solutions.
Following this Executive MBA entrepreneurship project, various participants are now looking into the prospects of possibly taking their enterprise idea further.
