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MMBA8106 – Innovation & Business Development: Competing on the Rate of Learning

2025 – Term 3, In person-scheduled-weekday, City

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Roger Moser
roger.moser@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Admission to MBA
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

Embrace the essence of innovation and business development practices as you work on a business project of your choice. This unit helps you explore pivotal hypotheses - the "what must be true" - for your project to succeed. Mastering this skill enables you to construct solid foundations for any business development project, so it’s desirable, feasible and viable. You learn to identify the critical requirements for a successful business development project and expertly formulate assumptions, the crucial step preceding any successful project development. This unit also shows how to develop robust testing strategies to validate these assumptions based on expert opinions and artificial intelligence. This comprehensive approach ensures that you, as a project manager, corporate executive or potential entrepreneur, work on business development projects grounded in reality and survive when market conditions change.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Identify the "What must be true?" requirements for a successful business development project.
  • ULO2: Learn to formulate testable hypotheses that lead to better decision-making.
  • ULO3: Apply different advanced testing strategies that are based on expert opinions.
  • ULO4: Develop the ability to conduct pre-mortem analyses for business development projects.

General Assessment Information

Late Assessment Submission Penalty (written assessments) 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical concern. For any late submissions of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, students need to apply for Special Consideration.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Professional Practice: Root Cause Analysis (Post-Mortem) 40% No Week 9
Skills Development: Delphi Expert Panel Design 20% No Week 6
Professional Practice: Hypothesis Identification and Formulation 40% No Week 4

Professional Practice: Root Cause Analysis (Post-Mortem)

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Week 9
Weighting: 40%

 

The purpose of this assessment is for you to demonstrate your entrepreneurial and innovative thinking as well as your logical reasoning and ability to perform an appropriate (pre-)post-mortem analysis  for your business ideas.  

You will perform a (pre-)post-mortem analysis of your business idea and develop a written report outlining the business idea, a structured analysis of hypothetical objectives and outcomes, key successes and failures, lessons learned and recommendations based on the outcomes. 

Skills in focus : 

  • Critical thinking 
  • Problem solving 
  • Communication 
  • Work readiness 

Deliverable: Written submission [max. 2,000 words] 

This is an individual assessment. 

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Learn to formulate testable hypotheses that lead to better decision-making.
  • Apply different advanced testing strategies that are based on expert opinions.
  • Develop the ability to conduct pre-mortem analyses for business development projects.

Skills Development: Delphi Expert Panel Design

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: Week 6
Weighting: 20%

 

The purpose of this assessment is for you to demonstrate your ability to develop survey methodology skills  by structuring a Delphi expert panel study as part of your testing strategy for key hypotheses (what must be true?). 

You will design a Delphi (Expert Panel) Study or similar questionnaire approach to test a set of hypotheses you developed for your chosen business project. 

Skills in focus : 

  • Critical thinking 
  • Discipline knowledge 
  • Work readiness 

Deliverable: Written submission [max. 1,000 words] 

This is an individual assessment. 

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify the "What must be true?" requirements for a successful business development project.
  • Learn to formulate testable hypotheses that lead to better decision-making.
  • Apply different advanced testing strategies that are based on expert opinions.

Professional Practice: Hypothesis Identification and Formulation

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 25 hours
Due: Week 4
Weighting: 40%

 

The purpose of this assessment is for you to develop your strategic and critical thinking by defining default and alternative actions, formulating meaningful null hypotheses and identifying “what must be true” hypotheses.  

You will conduct analyses to identify a set of ‘what must be true’ hypotheses for your business project and formulate them so that they can be tested using alternative testing strategies. 

Skills in focus : 

  • Critical thinking 
  • Problem solving 
  • Work readiness 
  • Communication 

Deliverable: Written submission [max. 1000 words] 

This is an individual assessment.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify the "What must be true?" requirements for a successful business development project.
  • Learn to formulate testable hypotheses that lead to better decision-making.
  • Develop the ability to conduct pre-mortem analyses for business development projects.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

Resources: Please check iLearn for details. 

Location: Room 2305, CBD Campus

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit connect.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Academic Success

Academic Success provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via the Service Connect Portal, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Unit information based on version 2025.07 of the Handbook