Page 67 - Business Studies 11-12 (2006)

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THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12: BUSINESS STUDIES
The Venture Concept
Overall Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
• analyse the challenges and opportunities of the start-up phase of a business life cycle;
• identify and evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities in their community in order to select one well suited to their interests and capabilities;
• generate ideas that match their selected entrepreneurial opportunity and assess the idea that is most appropriate for a new venture;
• analyse the factors that would influence the form and type of their venture.
Specific Expectations
Start-up Challenges and Opportunities
By the end of this course, students will:
– explain the stages in the life cycle of a business;
– summarize the factors that contribute to the success or failure of a new venture (e.g., technological skills and equipment; adequacy of capitalization; management and risk-management skills; ability to adapt to changes in economic conditions; envi- ronmental issues; effects of globalization; government policies);
– analyse the conditions (e.g., competitive, regulatory, economic, social, technological) facing ventures starting up in various markets.
Identifying and Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities
By the end of this course, students will:
– identify community problems, needs, or wants, and explain how selected problems, needs, or wants could be addressed;
– analyse the opportunities for creating a new venture that are most suited to their particular entrepreneurial abilities and determine which opportunity is the most promising;
– identify community problems, needs, or wants that could best be addressed by a not-for-profit venture, and explain why.
Generating, Selecting, and Assessing Ideas
By the end of this course, students will:
– identify ways in which creative ideas can be generated (e.g., mind mapping, brain- storming) and describe the situations and conditions in which students tend to be most creative (e.g., when drawing or writ- ing, in drama productions, when working as part of a team, when researching on the Internet);
– list possible ideas with regard to the iden- tified new venture opportunity and select one idea that has the greatest potential for success;
– collect and compile feedback on what others think of the idea (e.g., present their idea to the class and summarize the feed- back received) and, using the feedback, evaluate the idea in terms of its feasibility (e.g., its merit compared with alternatives, its match with their own interests and experience).