Page 52 - Business Studies 11-12 (2006)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE VENTURE, GRADE 11, COLLEGE PREPARATION (BDI3C) 51
Ideas and Opportunities for New Ventures
Overall Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
• explain the importance of invention and innovation to venture creation;
• analyse various methods of generating ideas and identifying opportunities to satisfy needs and wants;
• generate realistic new ideas and identify possible opportunities for a school-based or student-run business;
• conduct primary and secondary marketing research to evaluate the idea or opportunity for their proposed venture.
Specific Expectations
Invention and Innovation
By the end of this course, students will:
– distinguish between invention (e.g.,Velcro, the Internet, basketball) and innovation (e.g., coloured ketchup, cellphone, plasma screen TV);
– describe the needs and wants that have been satisfied by Canadian inventions (e.g., goalie mask, Pablum) and innovations (e.g., disposable diapers, Fox 40 whistle);
– describe how Canadian entrepreneurs have used inventions and/or innovations to start new ventures (e.g., Cirque du Soleil, Blissymbolics software).
Sources of Opportunities and Ideas
By the end of this course, students will:
– distinguish between an idea and an opportunity;
– explain how new ventures have been developed in response to consumer needs or wants;
– describe how similar needs and wants have been satisfied in different ways (e.g., alter- native methods of healing, such as Aboriginal or Chinese methods, versus Western medicine; organic produce versus genetically modified produce);
– analyse, using a variety of sources (e.g., books, magazines, personal observation, the Internet), current economic trends (e.g., greater discretionary income of youth) and social trends (e.g., aging population, increasing cultural diversity) in order to generate ideas for new ventures.
Generating Ideas and Identifying Opportunities
By the end of this course, students will:
– apply creative-thinking strategies (e.g., mind mapping, brainstorming) to deter- mine possible solutions to unsatisfied needs and wants in the school or the community;
– use a variety of sources (e.g., books, maga- zines, personal observation, the Internet) to identify potential opportunities for new ventures in the school or the community;
– apply a decision-making model to select a feasible idea for a new good or service that can become the basis for a venture plan for a school-based or student-run business.