Business Schools with Winning Student Entrepreneur Teams (Part I)

Why do some graduate student entrepreneur teams do better than others? Beyond their own talent and drive, we believe that some schools' entrepreneurship programs do a particularly good job of preparing their student entrepreneurs. To explore our hypothesis, we spoke with some of the deans and professors of business schools whose teams did particularly well in the University of San Francisco 2003 International Business Plan Competition. What follows is the first of a two-part series of our discussions.

Our panel of experts includes:

• Babson College: Dr. Mark Rice, Dean, Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business
• Case Western Reserve University: Dr. Julia Grant, Professor, Weatherhead School of Business
• MIT: Dr. Margaret C. Andrews, Executive Director, Sloan MBA Program
• U.C. Berkeley: Dr. Jerry Engel, Professor, Walter A. Haas School of Business
• University of Georgia: Dr. Melvin R. Crask, Director, Terry MBA Program
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Dr. Avijit Ghosh, Dean, School of Business
• University of Michigan: Dr. Timothy Faley, Managing Director, Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
  

1. Please discuss the highlights of your entrepreneurship program.

Babson - Dean Rice: At Babson, entrepreneurship is in the air we breathe and in the water we drink. It permeates the place. It is our strategic focus -- recently renewed in our new strategic plan. Entrepreneurship is built into the core curriculum -- not just in the entrepreneurship electives. So all of our students -- whether they start companies or not -- leave Babson with an entrepreneurial mindset that is one of their distinctive and distinguishing characteristics. Our commitment to helping students who want to be entrepreneurs or want to be part of an entrepreneurial venture is very strong -- through the curriculum and extracurricular programs, and also through mentoring. Students have the opportunity to start their ventures in our Entrepreneurial Intensity Track and to explore their opportunity through business plan development, business incubation and a wide variety of networking events.

The faculty who teach entrepreneurship -- from the entrepreneurship division and from other divisions -- are outstanding teachers and researchers. Many also have substantial experience as practitioners. The diversity of research interests of our faculty is amazing -- new venture creation, venture capital, corporate entrepreneurship, franchising, family controlled enterprises, technology entrepreneurship, public policy, social entrepreneurship, and women and minority entrepreneurship. The intellectual vitality of the faculty is critical to the development of the capabilities of our students. The intellectual output shows up in leading academic journals and in business books and textbooks that shape the field.

Case Western - Professor Grant: We have a very strong, nationally known core group of entrepreneurship faculty who are among our most effective teachers. This allows us to offer a strong (and heavily demanded) set of electives for students who want to specialize in this area of study.

Through one of our affiliate programs, we have created an Enterprise Scholars Program where selected students are able to complete their (required) action learning curriculum component in startup firms. Other students with strong international studies interests can apply to be matched with firms in Central and Eastern Europe. We also have created a Bioscience Entrepreneurship specialization that partners with other parts of the CWRU campus to focus on entrepreneurship training for lab scientists. We also provide some incubator space in the Peter B. Lewis Building for selected student teams.

MIT - Director Andrews: Our mission is to train the men and women who make start-up companies successful. Our 21 courses have 1400-1500 students each year. Student organizations such as the $50K Business Plan Competition and the Venture Capital Club are a dynamic complement to our classroom.

U.C. Berkeley - Professor Engel: At Cal, we offer a strong academic program and two rigorous business plan competitions, the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition in partnership with the College of Engineering and the Global Social Venture Competition in partnership with Columbia Business School, London Business School, and The Goldman Sachs Foundation; vast experiential learning opportunities, including two business plans competitions, fellowships, internships, and consulting opportunities that provide students with practice-oriented hands-on experience with real companies; the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Forum, a monthly networking and speaker event on entrepreneurship topics for practitioners from around the Bay Area and Silicon Valley; and strong student clubs focused on entrepreneurship. For example, the Entrepreneurship Association houses an initiative where students identify internships with high-tech high growth companies and the Berkeley Solutions Group, which connects students to local companies in need of business consulting services, as well as Vertex, a club of business and engineering students interested in promoting technologies developed on campus and bringing them to market.

Georgia - Director Crask: Our students can take several courses that are entrepreneurial in nature, such as small business management, venture capital financing, developing business plans, and business strategy. We have a strong business plan competition focus and, in fact, put on a competition ourselves.

Illinois - Dean Ghosh: Two aspects of our program stand out: learning the fundamentals and providing hands-on opportunities for experiential learning. The Illinois MBA emphasizes translating theory into practice. During their first year, students take a core curriculum that gives them the fundamental skills and understanding they need to be successful in business. As part of that core, entrepreneurial topics are integrated into many of our classes. In the second year many students take electives in entrepreneurial courses. The College's Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is staffed by MBA students who provide a portfolio of service offerings to clients in the new University of Illinois Research Park and Incubator and in the central Illinois area. Services include assessment reports, business plan reviews, marketing feasibility studies, and financial modeling.

Michigan - Director Faley: We offer over twenty courses taught by 22 full and adjunct faculty members. Our combination of courses and faculty provides our students a rich blend of sound fundamental principles along with a "been there, done that" practical perspective. Our entrepreneurial programs allow us to go beyond the classroom by providing hands-on student experiences from venture creation (Dare-to-Dream grants to student start-ups and participation in Plan Competitions, for example), to venture financing (Wolverine Venture Fund), to new venture development (internship and entrepreneurial multi-action team projects).

2. What accounts for your MBA students' success in very competitive global business plan competitions?

Babson - Dean Rice: Our students come to Babson because of its long commitment to entrepreneurship and its track record of success, so in that sense there is a powerful self-selection process at work. But just as important, Babson's developmental process for these entrepreneurially-inclined students is very robust.

Case Western - Professor Grant: Our groups do a lot of prep work -- dry runs, faculty and student consultation. We also have particularly strong students with a lot of entrepreneurial interest. Such students naturally want to focus their considerable talents on these competitions.

MIT - Director Andrews: Vision, focus, hard work, empathy, and proper preparation.

U.C. Berkeley - Professor Engel: Haas attracts entrepreneurially minded students. We also offer strong academic programs, a broad range of extracurricular opportunities to participate in, strong interdisciplinary ties between business school and engineering schools, strong mentorship programs that exist within the business plan competition, as well as through the Fellows Program at the Lester Center, and the availability of internships and fellowships.

Georgia - Director Crask: We are fortunate to have Dr. Charles Hofer as a mentor to the students. His knowledge of these competitions helps them tremendously in tuning their plans for maximum success.

Illinois - Dean Ghosh: Illinois students enjoy strong support from our faculty as they prepare
for business plan competitions. Students work closely with our faculty, who are from different departments and have very different areas of expertise. Our faculty offer students various perspectives that are reflected in the quality and depth of their business plan presentations. Important, too, is exposure to the wealth of intellectual ideas and new technologies that are created at the University of Illinois. This creates an exciting and interesting incubator for entrepreneurial ideas. The Illinois MBA also stresses teamwork and collaboration. Being on a business plan team gives students a chance to develop communication and interpersonal skills that spill over into their final presentations to the judges and into the classroom.

Michigan - Director Faley: One key to the success of these student teams is that these student groups are self selecting and internally motivated. There is no credit awarded for participation in the intercollegiate contests; these teams participate for the experience. The Institute channels their efforts, supports many of their expenses associated with competing, puts them in direct contact with a variety of coaches and guides their development. While much of our students' success is grounded in their coursework and other hands-on experiences they can gain through the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, another differentiating element is our Program Manager, Paul Kirsch. Paul works tirelessly to coordinate with the competition hosts and, more importantly, with the U-M student teams to ensure they are ready for the competitions. I believe his dedicated efforts go a long way to explaining our success in external competitions.

3. Does your business school coordinate its efforts with the science or engineering schools at your university? If so, how?

Babson - Dean Rice: Babson only offers business degrees; however for the past several years we have had a close partnership with the Olin College of Engineering, a green field engineering school dedicated to superb engineering, entrepreneurship and creativity. Olin and Babson are implementing an East Coast version of the Claremont Colleges model. Olin College made the strategic choice to co-locate with Babson, specifically to build ties between engineering and entrepreneurship. Right now we are collaborating on the design of an MS degree program with a concentration in entrepreneurship for Olin Engineering students who want to combine these disciplines.

Case Western - Professor Grant: Yes. Our students attend entrepreneurship courses with MS students in the Physics Entrepreneurship and the Engineering and Management programs.

MIT - Director Andrews: Yes, yes. The $50K leaders and participants are over 50% Science and Engineering. We have removed all potentially blocking pre-requisite requirements and changed our class schedules to make it easier for engineers and scientists to sit side-by-side with our MBAs. In the Entrepreneurship Lab Course (where we work in teams on problems from young entrepreneurial firms), we require all internship teams to have at least one technologist. It works well for all, and makes our teams far more attractive to host company CEOs than teams from other schools that are unable to blend the best of both.

U.C. Berkeley - Professor Engel: The Haas School works very closely with the College of Engineering in marketing the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition. UC Berkeley's Management of Technology Program is one of the largest in the nation. This partnership between the Haas School, the College of Engineering, and the School of Information Management and Systems brings students from all three departments together in the classroom to work together and to learn from and with each other, as they would in the workplace. The Lester Center supports Vertex, a student club housed at the College of Engineering. Our students in the Entrepreneurs Association and in Vertex work closely together and the Lester Center strongly encourage that. Vertex members also work with and are encouraged to participate in the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition.

Entrepreneurship and Biotechnology classes are open to graduate students from the Life Sciences.
The Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forums, the monthly networking and speaker event organized by the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, is very technology focused.

Georgia - Director Crask: We often take ideas or patented processes from one of our science areas to use as the crux of a business plan. These areas are aware of what we have done in the past and funnel potential project ideas through Dr. Hofer.

Illinois - Dean Ghosh: The Illinois MBA Program offers joint degrees with other colleges at Illinois, including the top-ranked College of Engineering. Our students can take elective courses in other colleges, which gives them opportunities to challenge themselves academically and augment their educational experience. The MBA Program collaborates with faculty and administrators across the campus to enhance the quality, depth, and breadth of the program.

Michigan - Director Faley: One of the advantages of being at Michigan is the breadth and top-notch schools and colleges here. The sheer size of the university often makes it difficult to bridge, and cross-unit collaboration continues to expand with each passing semester. One way we promote interactions is through the summer internship "Tech Start" program. In conjunction with the Office of Technology Transfer at Michigan, we build diverse teams of graduate students from across campus, which can include students from Engineering, Law, Business, School of Information, and so on. These student teams work on multiple projects together over the summer ranging from identifying new potential venture opportunities, to assessing new ventures, to supporting previously launched new ventures. We also utilize student-based groups and clubs to help recruit students from other units to most of our experiential programs.

4. Do you encourage your MBA students to compete in other university competitions? If so, how is that communicated and supported?

Babson - Dean Rice: Yes, selectively. The staff and faculty of Babson's Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship are continually putting developmental opportunities in front of our students.

Case Western - Professor Grant: Yes, we do, with opportunities typically communicated through our student life office and the professional programs offices. We provide some travel support, faculty advisory support and consultation. Another arena for grooming teams is provided in a local business plan competition, the Keithley Business Plan Launch. This competition attracts competitors from around our university.

MIT - Director Andrews: Yes. If they come and ask for help, I provide it quickly.

U.C. Berkeley - Professor Engel: Yes. - we do, but it's not something we focus on - we basically disseminate information as it comes to us, but the students pursue this on their own (Iris AO is a perfect example - they've won just about every competition they've entered). We recognize our MBAs' participation in other universities' competitions by publishing it in the Lester Center's seasonal newsletter. We alert our local weekly news publication Haas NewsWire of student accomplishment/participation in such competitions and provide limited financial support to attend out-of-area competitions (Carrot Capital and Jungle).

Georgia - Director Crask: We do. Students are aware of what past students have achieved and those who enroll in the business plan development course are those who are groomed for the competitions. We help pay for travel expenses of the teams that we send to competitions.

Illinois - Dean Ghosh: Yes. This year, the program appointed a case competition student committee whose members are students and administrators who work together to select participants for various competitions. The committee encourages participation, and, frankly, does not have to sell the idea! Our students are eager for opportunities to collaborate on these kinds of challenges.

Michigan - Director Faley: We encourage our students to compete as a way of shaping and molding their business plans. The competition format provides learning and growth opportunities that other venues cannot. We work closely with several student groups, faculty members and entrepreneurial classes to spread the word about these intercollegiate opportunities. We time our internal competition to precede most of the global competitions to help identify the most motivated teams.

We appreciate the insights of the deans and professors in this discussion on preparing exceptional student entrepreneur teams. Please watch for our next issue, where the second part of this article will describe how these leading business schools have used their entrepreneurship programs to prepare successful entrepreneurial leaders as well as successful student entrepreneur teams.