BUSINESS PLAN - 2025/6

Module Overview

Students will have the opportunity to learn about the different approaches that aim to answer the question: how do I plan, assess and implement a new business venture? Business plans are essential not just for the successful implementation of start-up ventures, but also for continued business growth, including strategic competitiveness. A good business plan underpins business success on all levels and becomes a major guideline to sound management practices.

All students will find much value in the business principles inherent to the planning process, which will lead to an enhanced commercial understanding. This module's content and outcomes build solidly upon undergraduate business-related courses from level 4, 5 and 6, as well as any accumulated business experience.

It doesn't just reiterate much of the theory previously learnt, but also applies it in a create and innovate way to emphasise creative business development, profitability, growth, and sustainability. It holistically addresses preferred business outcomes and brings all its components together. This module is also designed to give students an entrepreneurial- and industry-focused alternative to the traditional academic dissertation (MANM387).

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

VAN ACHTERBERGH Leon (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 30

ECTS Credits: 15

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

• Entrepreneurship in hospitality, tourism and events


• Stakeholder management (customers, employees, investors etc.)


• Business models


• Feasibility studies


• Business plan writing, structure, content and concepts


• Resource planning


• Financing the operation and financing trends


• Marketing principles, public relations.


• New business start-up operational issues


• Administration, management, and ownership


• Strategic issues


• Quality and performance measurement


• Project management and risk assessment


• Ethics and environmental issues

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

• When an individual student needs to do an alternative Group Presentation (Assignment 1), then it will be required as an individual report, on the same topic, to a max. of 2000 words.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding, knowledge, creativity and execution of a Business Plan.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

1. Group presenatation - The first assessment for this module requires students to work in a group to effectively demonstrate their understanding and present a feasibility study for a business concept of their group's choice within the hospitality, tourism or events sector, whereby they present the findings of their study, orally in front of the whole cohort. This requires the students to creatively and collaboratively develop a business startup plan that illustrates their initial understanding of the module's content and outcomes thus far in the semester.

2. Individual Business plan - For the second assignment, each student is expected to further reflect and develop what they've learnt from the feasibility assignment, into an understanding of the effective analysis of a business plan. Thereby each student needs to create a hypothetical business concept, and then further plan their business accordingly, as written in a 7500-word Business Plan. This plan will show clear evidence of their applied understanding of the process of effective business planning. Evidence of their financial knowledge, strategic thinking, market demand and operational requirements are also assessed.

Formative Assessment and Feedback:

• During the first tutorial, the assignments and the feedback process is explained


• General assignment information is also provided during and after in-class discussions


• Pre-assignment Q&A sessions are an integral part of this module and are offered during the semester for both assignments


• Group presentation feedback and individual report preparation is given, based on supporting literature.


• Once marking is completed, students can access online reports, which contains generic feedback as well as a breakdown of the module marks.


• Each week the topic is directly relevant to the students' understanding of both the assignments' outcomes.

• For the group presentation and individual report, students receive online written feedback as well as a breakdown of the module marks.


• A formal feedback sheet outlines students' strong points, areas for improvements and suggestions on how to improve students' performance for other presentations.


• A post-assignment 1 feedback session is designed to help students to fully understand the feedback given.


• The written feedback for the individual Business Plan will enable students to increase their knowledge and understanding of the appropriate skills for intra-/entrepreneurship.


•  Workshops and lectures are given to support both assignments prior to hand in.

Module aims

• Develop students with the skills and knowledge necessary to be an effective hospitality, tourism, and events entrepreneur.
• Apply relevant management theories and principles to business practice.
• Examine management practice within a wider economic and political context.
• Develop a multi-disciplinary and integrative approach to business problem solving.
• Explore business practice in international contexts and varied working environments.
• Develop an ability to define and evaluate strategic management issues in the hospitality, tourism and event sectors.
• Provide a comprehensive understanding of business planning.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

Encourage students not to just think critically about the business environment, but understand how to plan, research, and implement a viable plan to initiate, evolve and grow a business. The overall teaching and learning strategy are designed to foster the active and reflective engagement of students in the learning process.

The principal teaching and learning methods are a combination of recorded lectures, online and on-campus tutorials, which incorporate feedback- and supervisory workshops, and discussions of practical examples/cases:

i. Multiple recorded short theory lectures are designed to illustrate theoretical models and explain their application in methods to create an effective business plan.

ii. The learning and teaching methods include the two weekly 1-hour tutorial discussions that consist of discussions, practical applications of theory, project preparation and relevant case studies.

iii. Additional supervision of the business plan writing will be conducted in 10x 1-hour sessions.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM514

Other information

1. When students are eligible and accepted for February intakes, they will follow the same curriculum as far possible with similar contact hours in a shorter timeframe, with a similar amount of supervision hours as indicated under the section 'student workload'.

2. Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing postgraduate students with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. See the indicated catagorisation thereof, as per the 'learning outcomes' section.

Further explanation of the five pillars:

i. Employability: This module provides students with a working knowledge of the key planning tools used by entrepreneurs in practice. These tools will be demonstrated with the students' understanding and presentation of their assignments. Many key transferable skills will be practiced during the semester that will test their entrepreneurial approach to business challenges.

ii. Resourcefulness and Resilience: The approach of this module focusses on tutorial topics where students are consistently critically challenged with business issues that require creative and innovate thinking. This adds to their understanding of the resourcefulness needed to make a business profitable and sustainable.

iii. Global and Cultural Capabilities: The module also addresses global perspectives, highlighted by best business practices and case studies across the world. Students are encouraged to share experiences and knowledge from their own cultures and backgrounds, and to respect and value differences in entrepreneurial experience.

iv. Digital Capabilities: Learning to navigate the VLE, SurreyLearn, is an essential part of this module. Teaching and learning materials are provided in several formats, and students are encouraged to use discussion boards for communication. Students are also encouraged to communicate with one another for preparation of their group presentations using various electronic means. Specific teaching on conducting literature searches and using referencing software is included in this module. Students are encouraged to work together in groups, utilising collaborative tools to communicate. Their Excel skills, among other software, would be enhanced, in expressing and publishing their assignment findings.

v. Sustainability: All approaches to business should refer to environmental and social impacts, and therefore a sustainable approach is integral to planning business. In each of the topics covered, the sustainable current issues and challenges are discussed, and assessed in the assignment outcomes.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.