Course curriculum

  • 1

    WELCOME

    • Welcome

    • Learning Outcomes

    • How you will be trained

    • How you will be coached

    • Signature Assignment Briefing

    • Pre-course Survey

    • Welcome Activity
  • 2

    MODULE 1: The Opportunity Recognition Process

    • Introduction

    • Learning Outcome

    • Opportunity recognition and exploitation

    • The Opportunity Recognition Process

    • Idea to Identifying an Opportunity

    • Summary

    • Quiz

    • Scaffold Assignment 1 | Ideation

    • Check in
  • 3

    MODULE 2: Uncovering your Positional Advantage

    • Introduction

    • Building an Opportunity Mindset

    • Practice 1 | Building an Opportunity Mindset

    • Find your Competitive Edge | Superpower

    • Practice 2 | Know your Superpower

    • Designing your Opportunity Network

    • Practice 3 | Design your Opportunity Network

    • Conclusion

    • Quiz

    • Scaffold Assignment 2 | Superpowers

    • Check in
  • 4

    MODULE 3: Building entrepreneurial alertness

    • Introduction

    • Learning Outcome

    • First Mover Advantage | Problem Discovery

    • Practice 4 | Become a Problem Discoverer

    • Learn to Spot Opportunities

    • Practice 5 | Developing Spotting Abilities

    • Practice 6 | Build a Mental Library of Opportunities

    • Customer Targeting | Getting it Right

    • Practice 7 | Customer Targeting Exercise

    • Conclusion

    • Quiz

    • Scaffold Assignment 3 | Opportunity Identification Pro-Forma

    • Check in
  • 5

    MODULE 4: Designing a Viable Opportunity

    • Introduction

    • Learning Outcome

    • Creating Innovative Opportunities

    • Practice 8 | Measuring the Innovative Quality

    • Identifying customers | Super-spreaders and Fans

    • Practice 9 | Develop a Super-spreader Strategy

    • Revenue Models | Be a Money Maker

    • Practice 10 | Money Maker

    • Downside risks | Calculate affordable losses

    • Practice 11 | Calculate Affordable Loss

    • Pricing Strategically

    • Practice 12 | Pricing Strategy

    • Conclusion

    • Scaffold Assignment 4 | Designing Viability

    • Quiz

    • Check in
  • 6

    MODULE 5: De-risk your Opportunity

    • Introduction

    • Learning Outcome

    • Social Learning | Managing Failure

    • Practice 12 | Start a Creators Guild

    • Future risks and learning

    • Self-regulation and stakeholder engagement

    • Conclusion

    • Scaffold Assignment 5 | De-risking

    • Quiz

    • Check in
  • 7

    MODULE 6: Pre-sales and stakeholder tie-ins

    • Introduction

    • Learning Outcome

    • Pitching and Storytelling

    • Identifying buying signals

    • Practice 13 | Pre-sales and buy-ins

    • Conclusion

    • Quiz

    • Scaffold Activity | Buy-in

    • Check in
  • 8

    MODULE 7: Contracting your Opportunity

    • Introduction

    • Learning Outcome

    • Evaluating your Opportunity

    • Scaffold Activity | Completion of Evaluation

    • A|E Opportunity Evaluation

    • FINAL ASSIGNMENT | EVALUATION
  • 9

    CONCLUSION

    • Conclusion

    • Message from your Instructor

Course Requirements

This is a 4 month course where you will learn by doing. You will be able to create a viable business opportunity by the end of this course. There are short quizzes, scaffold assignments, check ins and practices at the end of each module. Your final signature assignment is an Opportunity Recognition Report (ORR) which contains an evaluation of the viability of your opportunity.

  • QUIZZES : quizzes are meant to improve your ability to quickly retain and recall what you have learnt. You can take the quizzes more than once. The score does not matter. The quizzes are meant to support memorisation. These are meant to help you retain, recall and apply the foundational concepts and theories in this course.

  • ASSIGNMENTS : scaffold assignments are a requirement for this course. They are designed to help you add and develop sections in your final signature assignment which is your Opportunity Recognition Report (ORR). These assignments will help you develop your ORR. They are aimed at helping you build your knowledge and expertise. These are what are known as instructional scaffolding assignments. Instructional scaffolding assignments is an incremental approach to develop expert knowledge.

  • Check ins : Check ins are a requirement of this course. They are short surveys that you will complete at the end of each module. Check ins are important because it helps me as your instructor monitor your progress. This baseline data helps me coach you to higher levels of knowledge acquisition and expertise. This prior knowledge helps support your growth and development throughout the course. My goal is to coach you to achieve higher levels of opportunity recognition and the check ins are the way in which we achieve this.

  • Practice Sessions : practice sessions are a requirement for this course. Each module will contain a number of practices, this is a way for you to practice what you have learnt and apply the knowledge immediately in your work environment or as an entrepreneur. Practice sessions contain tools and templates that can be used and re-used for any business. They also provide insight into the exercises and techniques you can use to enhance your strategic thinking abilities. These are universal and by using these methods repeatedly you are able to improve your expertise as an entrepreneur over time. All the tools, methods, templates and frameworks can be downloaded so that you can use them in any situation. These resources are copyrighted and are only for your own personal use.

  • Final assignment : The final signature assignment is an online evaluation of your Opportunity Recognition Report (ORR) and the ORR itself. The online evaluation is a tool that must be used to technically evaluate your business opportunity. A scoring rubric will be used to evaluate your final assignment. You must achieve 50% or more to receive a completion certificate at the end of this course.

Opportunity Recognition Report (ORR)

This report is a strategic and tactical document as can be used for various practical purposes at the end of the course.

  • Converted into a pitch deck for investors or to get into an incubator

  • An outreach tool for channel partners and stakeholders

  • As a basis to develop a detailed business plan once you have started your business

  • As an opportunity networking tool to solicit feedback and support

Our services

The Creative Guild in a world leader is Learning as Service (LaaS) education for emerging entrepreneurs. We offer cloud based individual and collaborative learning opportunities. Learners can progress at their own pace from anywhere, and have remote access to hands-on activities through a virtual online learning environment. You can choose to subscribe to our learning platform or buy individual courses. 

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