Resources for Students

[ Presentations ]    [ Scholarly writing ]    [ Entrepreneurship ]    [ Financing innovation ]

Presentations

Communications coach Carmine Gallo is a frequent contributor to Business Week on the topic of business presentations. Here are some of my favourite columns. I suggest reading them in the following order:

• Mastering the Presentation Game (June 29 2006)
• It's Not Your Mouth That Speaks Volumes (February 8 2007)
• How to Polish Your Presentations (November 2 2005)
• Grab Your Audience Fast (September 12 2006)
• Actions Do Speak Louder Than Words (November 17 2005)
• How to PowerPoint Like a Pro (June 2 2006)

How To Not Throw Up is packed with practical presentation advice for "professional nerds".  It's written by Silicon Valley blogger and author Rands In Repose.

Scholarly Writing

My favourite resource for scholarly writing is the book Writing with Sources: A Guide for Students by Gordon Harvey (Hacket Publishing, 1998) [amazon.com].  The Harvard Writing Center has an on-line version. 

• Writing with Sources [Rich Text Format]

Carleton University's own Academic Writing Centre has links to some excellent on-line resources on writing topics such as organization, editing (grammar, punctuation, etc.), academic integrity, and citation.  You can also drop by the centre in-person for a one-on-one consultation with an experienced academic writing coach.

Avoid weasel words and unsupported generalizations.  The Wikipedia Manual of Style offers some practical advice about how to purge weasel words and eliminate peacock terms from your own writing.

For formal writing on engineering management topics, I recommend the Academy of Management referencing style.  It's employed by some of the top-ranked journals in the field of Management, including the Academy of Management Journal and the Academy of Management Review.  

Alternatively, the APA referencing style of the American Psychological Association is also a good choice.  

• Using the APA Style is a concise 4-page handout from the Carleton University Learning Commons.
• Dewey, R.A. (2004). APA Research Style Crib Sheet. Psychweb.
  [Click on the "Reference Formats" link to jump directly to the sections on citations and references]

Entrepreneurship

I recommend the following websites for advice on writing business plans:

• PriceWaterhouseCoopers: Vision to Reality: Tools and Techniques [pwc.com]
• Knowledge Center: Understanding Financial Statements [us.etrade.com]
• Bplans.com
• About.com: Small Business Information - Business Plan Writing [about.com]
• Garage Technology Ventures: Resources for Entrepreneurs [garage.com]

Many promising technology start-ups are anchored around software or services offerings rather than "traditional" products.  Eric Sink [ericsink.com] writes in an irreverent and entertaining way about entrepreneurship and management for "geeks" -- software engineers, computer scientists, and programmers -- addressing important practical differences between traditional business and the business of software.  Start with the following articles:

• Finance for Geeks (November 24 2003)
• Product Pricing Primer (August 18 2004)
• Marketing for Geeks (July 30 2003)
• Comments on "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" (June 1 2004) [pdf]
• Five Things Every Micro-ISV Should Know About Intellectual Property (June 23 2006)

Before you present your business plan to potential investors, be sure to read the following advice (as well as the advice in the presentations section above):

All Carleton students should enter their business plans into the Nicol Competition and Tech Venture Challenge.

• Wesley Nicol Business Plan Competition [carleton.ca]
• Student Technology Venture Challenge [carleton.ca]

 Financing Innovation

• The Ottawa Capital Network is trove of useful information for aspiring entrepreneurs.  The Local Ottawa VCs page is particularly useful.

Steven M. Muegge
Biography
List of Publications
Resources for Students
Technology Innovation Management at Carleton University