Together the five of us have established SSES, our joint school devoted to offering our students education, training and inspiration in applied entrepreneurship. So, if you are a student of ours: a special welcome! If not, check out our events and seminars.

Growth – Managing Your Firm

Course number

KTH: ME2817, SSE: 8064, KI: 2XX051, KFK: SSES09, SU: FE6603

Schedule

Spring 2013
Autumn 2013
Spring 2014

Dates

Spring 2013: 15 Apr - 22 May
Autumn 2013: 28 Oct - 11 Dec
Spring 2014: 31 Mar - 21 May

Structure

The course runs after 5 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays in 2-3 hour sessions

Worth: 7.5 ECTS-credits

Taught at

Stockholm School of Economics

Swedish course name

Tillväxt

NB: BSc-participants need to be admitted to the BSc-programme at SSE

Running an expanding business demands a whole lot from any entrepreneur. Growth shares skills and insights needed to manage entrepreneurial firms under those challenging but exciting conditions.

The course is built around case-studies of previous participants of the course, their entrepreneurial journey and way of solving specific growth-related issues. Thereby Growth focuses on the decisions and actions you as an owner/manager take in recognising and choosing opportunities, obtaining and allocating resources, challenging and directing personnel and adapting personal goals and corporate strategies to changing conditions. As an entrepreneur you are probably someone on your way into, or currently at, one of our member-schools' incubators. If not, you probably will be after the course.

Intended learning outcomes

After this course you should be able to: 

  • analyse and explain why firms grow and what it means for society as a whole
  • explain different kinds of resources and its importance for firm growth
  • explain the concept of competitive advantage  and analyse the competitive advantages of high growth enterprises
  • describe the concept of international growth and explain for whom and why it may be appropriate
  • describe different kinds of venture capital, use basic models of corporate valuation and argue for its importance for ventures in different growth stages
  • explain the concept of exit model, for whom and why a certain exit model would be appropriate
  • adapt personal goals and corporate strategies to change personal and business conditions
  • argue for common challenges when deciding to expand and grow a venture
  • understand and demonstrate how a company can remain entrepreneurial when entering a growth phase.

Structure

In order for you as a student to be able to take SSES courses they are all scheduled after your daily classes (or workday), with some margin time to ensure you can commute to campus, pick up a coffee and arrive on time. 

This course runs on Mondays and Wednesdays in two to three hour sessions for some seven weeks, but for a detailed timing check out the schedule in the box to the right. Teaching will incorporate lectures, debates, and exercises, as well as presentation from leaders in the field.

Assessment

Examination
The students grade will depend on three factors:

  • Individual pre-class case analysis
  • Literature Review
  • Field report

Teacher(s)

Mikael Samuelsson

Course Director

Assistant Professor, SSE & Director, SSE Business Lab
Mob: +46 (0)76 864 70 68
mikael.samuelsson@hhs.se

Dr. Mikael Samuelsson is an Assistant Professor at Stockholm School of Economics and the Growth Course Director at SSES. He also heads the Stockholm School of Economics business incubator: SSE Business Lab. Furthermore, Mikael holds a Ph.D. from Jönköping University in entrepreneurship.

Peter Kelly

Course Director, Guest Faculty

Professor, Aalto University
Mob: +358 (0)41-503 45 08
peter.kelly@aalto.fi

Dr. Peter Kelly completed his doctorate in entrepreneurship at London Business School and is a leading international authority on business angels. He also holds an MBA (University of Notre Dame, USA), and MA in International Affairs (Carleton University, Canada) and a BA in Political Science (Wilfrid Laurier, Canada).

Prior to being appointed as a Professor at the newly created Aalto University, Peter was Executive Director of the Helsinki School of Creative Entrepreneurship (HSCE). Among many other initiatives, HSCE seed funded the creation of the world’s largest student entrepreneurship society (Aalto Entrepreneurship Society), a student led and inspired movement that supports applied entrepreneurship at the university.

Peter’s experience includes a period as an investment and corporate banker in Canada where he managed a portfolio of high profile clients in the cable television and publishing industries, as well as teaching positions and faculty appointments at Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, London Business School, University of Notre Dame, and Wilfrid Laurier University. He has been involved with SSES since its founding.