Those who can do, teach

Entrepreneurs pass on to students what they never learned in college

Years ago, the idea of an entrepreneurship major at WPI had no takers. Recruitment firms said they did not want to try to place grads who would gain their initial experience with area companies, only to become competition when they left to launch their own businesses. 

But today, headhunters have changed their tune, says Mac Banks, director of
the Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innova-tion at WPI. Companies are now looking for qualified grads who can think independently. Instead of turning these kids away, employers now reward them for their initiative.

George Gendron, executive director of Clark's University's Innovation & Entrepreneur-ship Program, tells a similar story. Large-company executives want to hire workers with demonstrated entrepreneurial skills and the ability to think and act on their own. "These have become vital life skills," he says. "These students will need them no matter what they choose to do in life. For-profit, non-profit, start their own company, work for somebody else - these are becoming survival skills."

Clark program emphasizes opportunity

Clark launched its Innovation & Entrepreneur-ship program in 2005. It's a campus-wide undergraduate curriculum that attracts students from all majors. Founder and Executive Director George Gendron teaches a class called Entrepreneurship 215, a broad-based introduction to the subject that emphasizes how the skill sets of an entrepreneur are transferable across a wide spectrum of for-profit and non-profit ventures.

The program's Entrepreneurs In Residence (see pullouts) are established business and nonprofit leaders from varying professional backgrounds who bring real-world experiences to the classroom. Students can take entrepreneurship courses as electives, or as a minor. The minor includes workshops, programs for students in specific majors such as literature and the performing arts, and mentoring contact for a minimum three hours a month per student. The guest teachers work on useful skills and approaches to teach students whose future careers may differ largely from their teachers.

One of the most important lessons is how to communicate effectively. Clark EIR Ron Ranauro will teach communication and influence - how to sell a product or idea. He'll also likely pass on his experience in accessing a defined audience - and determining the best use for company resources. Douglas Mellinger, who started his first company at age 10 and who now runs FoundationSource, which provides support services for private foundations, seeks to bring business practices into the academic setting. Lawrence Lapides, vice president of worldwide sales at California-based Averant, will focus on startup company sales and what he calls the "discipline" of sales - and will use real-life case studies as examples of what not to do when defining a target market. Many of the six EIRs for the 2006-2007 season also joined to serve as resources for Clark students, seeking to team them up with outside business contacts. "These students get to meet world-class people that, frankly, a lot of seasoned executives would kill to meet," Gendron says.

Gendron's own background exemplifies the approach the program has taken. In college, he majored in American Literature and went on to a 20-year career as editor-in-chief at Inc. Magazine. "I wish somebody had made me a little less na•ve about the business world," he says. The goal of the EIR program at Clark, he says, "was to create the program I wish I could have taken when I was 20."

Gendron says he expects to return to the faculty review committee this spring to make program changes that would optimize students' experiences. The measuring stick will be not only academic, he says, but in terms of students' confidence levels, their ability to identify opportunities, and communicate those opportunities.

C-Suite speakers at Holy Cross

"I need to change student culture to think business, to think competitively," says David Chu, director of the Entrepreneurial Studies program at The College of the Holy Cross. "We want to maintain student interest in business not because they have to, but because they want to."
Though the Entrepreneurial Studies program at Holy Cross is in its infancy, several high-profile alums have already come on campus to talk to students. Chu has taken a hiatus from teaching to concentrate full-time on growing both the student base and the alumni participation. He is also an advisor with the school's Pre-business program, which exposes undergrads to the business world. The Entrepreneurial segment complements the Prebusiness offerings.

Chu says the workshops expose the students to the "C-Suite" speakers - CEOs and chairmen. Chu wants students to recognize that these top-level executives started out with a liberal arts degree from Holy Cross  during the '70s and '80s.

The guest teachers serve as examples, but they also create connections for students who participate in summer internships at their companies. History and marketing majors can end up working for financial firms on Wall Street. A Holy Cross alum now working for Lehman Brothers in New York has hosted a career night for HC students for the past two years.  The goal: for students to know exactly what it takes to get a job in that field.  Chu says the school will bring 20 students to the firm's Wall Street headquarters, and listen to speakers talk about how to enter their field. 

WPI trains current entrepreneurs

While Holy Cross concentrates on exposing students to the potential of entrepreneurship, WPI hopes to capitalize on students who have already become entrepreneurs. The Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innovation brings self-made entrepreneurs to campus to tell WPI students about their experiences and the lessons they learned.  

Banks says that the school realized early on that the initially low attendance figures for the forums were the result of students spending their free time developing their own businesses. "Fifty students showed up to the first program in 2000," he says. "Thirty of them already had their own businesses."  Despite their prior engagement in entrepreneurial activities, the students have much to learn.  For example, Banks says many students may have a product, but do not know how to make an elevator pitch.  No matter how strong the product is, a poor presentation could severely diminish its chances of success. 

The program includes entrepreneurs who didn't strike gold their first time out. Banks recalls one speaker who reminded the students to do market research for any proposed product to ensure that a buyer actually exists.  While developing a product and bringing it to market is a challenge on its own, Banks says the program helps to show students that the process is far more complex, and guest speakers help to show students what steps they can take to avoid costly mistakes. 

A December 6 presentation by CytRx' Mark Tepper was an example. Tepper, co-founder of CytRx in 2003, was a guest speaker at an Innovation to Venture forum hosted by WPI. He described being a technology entrepreneur as "a rollercoaster ride without the nausea." Coming off 15 years' experience in big pharma companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb and Serono, he said, he joined a small drug technology company in April 2002 as its second CEO, but the company's technology ended up getting wrapped into another firm. "Technology alone is not going to get you what you want...It ended very abruptly, but it didn't end badly," he said. He co-founded CytRx in 2003 with UMass Medical School's Michael Czech and future Nobel winner Craig Mello in his group, raising $8.7 million - enough for a two year budget with 20 fulltime equivalents. But the technology and funding pipelines still need to be fed. Looking back, he says, there is little difference between the uncertainties of big pharma and the roller coaster ride of a small company. 

That old business school religion

Nichols College in Dudley prides itself on being a dedicated business school, and says its students receive more required business courses than their liberal arts counterparts. Dorothy Millhofer, director of communications for Nichols, says courses at Nichols are taught to simulate real-world conditions. Millhofer cites strict attendance policies, and faculty members who stress that typical college behavior like oversleeping is not allowed in the professional world. 

That type of experience is furthered by an alumni-mentoring program in which students partner with alums on a yearly basis for professional experience. Millhofer says that the mentoring initiative helps students gain insight into how the professional world functions. Additionally, students enrolled in the sports management, business communications, and human resource management programs are required to take an internship as part of their course load. 

Nichols also implements a board of overseers, comprised of roughly 25 professionals who are invited into class to provide reality checks for the students. These individuals participate in classroom discussions, and in the past have included Stephen Buchalter, president of Enterprise Cleaning Corp., and Michael Lehr, president of the Worcester Sharks minor league hockey team. Millhofer says that one in 10 of Nichols alumni are either a CEO, president, or business owner, and those connections help students find internships and post-collegiate opportunities.

Bridging community involvement with business learning

Joan Mahoney, associate professor of business administration and economics at Worcester State College, says students there engage in a variety of activities that reflect entrepreneurial spirit. They include developing leadership programs for youth cheerleaders and bringing Internet service to an Albanian high school. "We're not out there raking leaves," says Mahoney. "Business decisions set the tone for social good."

Worcester State is home to a local chapter of Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), a university based organization that applies classroom learning to outreach programs teaching the community about market economics and entrepreneurship. In one project, students from Worcester State are researching the feasibility of developing sustainable wind energy at a site in the town of Rutland, as well as researching funding options and explaining to the community the value of the proposed site.  In another, students investigated how food allergies are affecting the vendor business at venues such as sporting events.  Students learned to handle disappointment from vendors who scoffed at their research.  "It's a wonderful laboratory for experience," she says. 

At Anna Maria College in Paxton, both graduate and undergraduates can take entrepreneurial classes, but MBA students perform a project outside of the classroom as a final project. Elzbieta Manos, chair of the division of Law, Business, and Public Policy, says the school was founded by nuns embodying the entrepreneurial spirit, which is carried out today in collaborations with local non-profits. Anna Maria students developed a business plan for the Trappist Monks in Spencer, to build up their jelly manufacturing operations. "It's one of the best experiences for students," Manos says.

Keep growing the brain trust

Leaders of entrepreneurial programs through Central Mass. say there's a dedicated base of students participating in the programs, but there can always be more. Chu, at Holy Cross, wants to put more students in the seats, but also to adjust their outlook. "I want to change student culture," Chu says. "I want them to think business, to think competitively."

WPI's Banks says that students need to extend beyond their engineering environment into one of shaking hands and chasing leads. "(Entrepreneurs) are social animals," Banks says. "You have to be willing to talk to other people if you want to launch a business."

Gendron says Clark's program, still in its infancy, will track its graduates and compare their trajectories with that of students who didn't go through the program, to see what they end up doing with their skills. "I think if you get these skills, instead of relying on luck, you are able to enhance the possibilities and take control of your own destiny," he says. "And I think that's what these students want."

Jeffrey T. Lavery can be reached at jlavery@wbjournal.com; Christina P. O'Neill can be reached at coneill@wbjournal.com