MFBS-580: Food Business Playbook

The Food Business Playbook course serves as a capstone seminar, designed to provide MPS learners with the opportunity to apply, demonstrate, integrate, and synthesize the competencies and learning outcomes obtained and developed throughout the MPS program and overall course of study. After completing a 10-course sequence of specialized instruction, which includes two preparatory residencies, MPS learners will develop their Food Business Playbook in this seminar, in anticipation of presenting the outcome in a final residency, which will include the conferring of their MPS degree. Through the successful completion of a series of structured research and development checkpoints, MPS learners will demonstrate that they possess the knowledge, skills, and mindsets required to obtain a graduate degree in food business, advance their professional position, and/or launch their unique food business venture. Building on the competencies achieved in their previous courses, and including the information shared during their second residency (MPS_501B: Framing the Capstone Project), MPS learners will enter this course with a proficient knowledge of research methods, customer interview skills, financial forecasting, marketing plans, food system analysis, ethical leadership skills, basic legal strategies, and the operational management principles that best support their food business venture (whether a foodservice concept, or connected to consumer packaged goods). As a true graduate-level capstone course, successful progress in this asynchronous, online seminar will include the expected hallmarks of self-directed, graduate-level learning. This will include demonstrated proficiency in areas that include an ability to conduct and report on independent research; write clear, professional, written reports; deliver high-quality, professional presentations (written and oral); and conduct appropriate field work and practical applications of theory - including customer interviews, site visits, and test runs of product or recipe / menu offerings.