THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF ZANZIBAR

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

COURSE OUTLINE
Course Code: CS 2212
Course Name: IT Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Number of Credits: 10
Duration: 15 weeks of classes
Number of contact hours: 3 lecture hours or its equivalent per week
Prerequisites: None, 4th semester
Course offered by: Department of Computer Science and IT
Course description:
Course will mix theory and practice on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Students will learn how to generate ideas, recognize needs and opportunities
around them, develop concepts, commercialize ideas and apply basic marketing
and sales skills. Students will be exposed to practical real-world problems,
innovating new solutions and implementing ideas and solutions for real
customers. Students will work in multidisciplinary teams of 3-5 participants,
utilizing resources and ideas from different disciplines and the surrounding
society. For example, collaboration in the projects is planned to include students
of finance, tourism and environment.
Course will also cover setting up one's own enterprise and understanding basic
cash flow and tax duties of a small business. Course will be implemented on the
4th semester with a mix of lectures, practical sessions, showcases, interactions,
and is the prerequisite to CS 2229 IT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Industrial
Placement, which students will work full-time on implementation of their idea
with partner organizations and customers for those students who wish to
continue to implement their ideas.
Learning outcomes:
At the end of the course students will be able to:

understand the role of innovation in value generation

use creativity, brainstorming and problem-solving techniques

conceptualize and express their ideas and solutions clearly

commercialize and market new ideas

understand role of leadership in motivating their teams and stakeholders

understand and manage basic small business cash flows and tax
administration

setup and establish a small business

carry out real-world innovation process from idea to evaluation.

Course outline:
Week 1: Orientation

- Understanding concepts innovation and entrepreneurship

- Why are they important for businesses and society?
Seminar 1: personal reflection on entrepreneurship
Seminar 2: identifying cases of innovation and entrepreneurship utilizing IT in
Zanzibar & East Africa
Week 2-3: Creativity and Innovation
How does innovation processes work
How does innovation add value to people, organizations and society
What is innovation ecosystem
Seminar 1: Using creativity and brainstorming techniques to find new ideas and
solutions
Seminar 2: Mapping IT ecosystem on Zanzibar
Week 4: Identify problems and innovation opportunities utilizing IT
- Outreach: students visiting external organizations on identifying problems,
needs and opportunities for the innovation process / practical project
Week 5 - 6: Conceptualization
- How to create and describe your idea as a concept?
- How to present your concept visually and verbally?
Seminar 1: Writing a concept paper and presentation on the idea
Seminar 2: Pitching clinic on being able to express the idea verbally
Guest lecture: Industry case on conceptualization of an idea
Week 7 - 9: Commercialization and marketing
- Understanding different IT business models
- Simple marketing approaches for small business
- Developing sales strategies
Seminar 1: Create a business model for your concept
Seminar 2: Generate marketing materials for your concept
Outreach: Present developed concept to stakeholders
Week 10-11: Leadership and motivation
- Defining leaders and their roles
- How can you motivate people and yourself?
- Different leadership styles and tools
Seminar 1: Teambuilding and team leadership
Guest lecture: Leadership and management
Week 12-13: Cash flows
- Understanding cash flows in a project and small company
- Understanding basic accounting terminologies
- Invoicing and tax duties in business and project
- Seminar 1: Cash flow planning and projections for the project
Week 14 - 15: Setting up a small business
- How to set up and register a new company
- Options for financing startup company
- IT incubation programs
Guest lecture: Banks, other financial institutions, government registrars

Method of Instruction: Mix of lectures, seminars, guest lecturers,

presentations, outreach activities, practical project work, reading list. Students
from similar groups are encouraged to read different books.
Assessment methods: The course assessment is based on individual and
group assignments comprising of deliverables and a written exam (40 %).
Deliverables consist of an individual essay on innovation and entrepreneurship
based on reading list (20 %) and final project setup report (40 %). The project
setup report shall comprise of details on how that project was proposed, agreed
with customer, expected end result and the plan for execution of the project
during 8 weeks placement. The essay will be delivered at the 12 th week. A full
project setup shall be presented on the 13 th week for discussion and feedback
and the final report must be delivered before the final day of the semester
exams. Final marks graded from A to C as pass, D and E as fail.
Reading list:
1. W. Chan Kim & Rene Mauborgne (2005). Blue Ocean Strategy
2. Mihaly Csikszentmihailyi (2003). Good Business.
3. Frans Johansson (2004). The Medici Effect.
4. Seth Godin (2008). Tribes.
5. John Kotter & Holger Rathgeber (2006). Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing
and Succeeding Under Any Conditions.
6. Jason Fried (2010). Rework.
7. Eric Ries. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use
Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.
8. Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur (2010). Business Model Generation:
A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers.
Additional reading:
1. William Isaacs (1999). Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
2. Gary Hamel (2008). Future of Management.
3. Ikujiro Nonaka & Hirotaka Takeuchi (1995). The Knowledge-Creating
Company.
4. Richard Florida (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. And How Its
Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life.
5. Anita Roddick (2005). Business as Unusual.
6. Jack & Suzy Welch (2005). Winning.
7. Jim Collins (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...
and Others Dont.
8. Peter Drucker (2001). The Essential Drucker: In One Volume the Best of
Sixty Years of Peter Druckers Essential Writings on Management.