Business Schools Turn to Entrepreneurship

Business Schools, facing the dilemna of seeing their grads not get the kind of good jobs they were used to, are turning to entrepreneurship for help:

The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), a not-for-profit initiative that promotes the entrepreneurial culture among institutes, has been approached recently by many top B-schools. NEN is networked with at least 500 high-growth and high-potential start-ups throughout the country and is facilitating the interface between them and the institutes. It has so far enabled 73 students to get placed in start-ups over the last seven months.

Hopefully, the orientation of our B-schools will change from creating job seekers to creating job creators. Starting one’s own enterprise has been one of the least preferred options for students. The other day, B.S. Sahay, director of Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, told me how last year three of his students, who won the best business plan award in a national contest, were still reluctant to convert the plan into an enterprise because they had good job offers. However, Sahay convinced them to start the business instead of running after jobs. This year, such students won’t have the luxury of options.

B-schools, on their part, should also reinvent their academic processes. Curricula need to be revamped, with redundant courses being scrapped; instead, more time should be devoted in identifying growth areas, filling demand-supply gaps and generating good business plans. They should also introduce courses such as how to start a business, write a business plan and raise capital.

Some institutes such as the Birla Institute of Management Technology are trying to reinvent themselves by focusing on areas such as rural business, social entrepreneurship, microfinance, micro-entrepreneurship, green business and clean technology, etc. It’s time B-schools started incubators on campus and helped students get finance for their projects. As of now, not even 10 B-schools have functional incubators.

Only those B-schools that are proactive in reinventing themselves can meet the crisis head-on. Those who just wait for the economy to recover are likely to lose out.

Link: www.livemint.com/2009/01/25215307/Bschools-must-meet-crisis-hea.html?h=B

African American Women Hit Glass Ceiling, Turn to Entrepreneurship

African American women often hit a glass ceiling in the corporate world. Now, many are turning to entrepreneurship as a way to move up. CBS News had the story yesterday (Tuesday, June 17th) and they use the word “entrepreneur” more times than I’ve ever heard any mainstream news org use it in the past.

Here’s the video:



When you think about it, the same reason that entrepreneurship appeals to these women- i.e. a basic lack of opportunity in the traditional workforce- is present in spades in rural communities as well.

Farm Bill Supports Rural Entrepreneurship, But Faces Likely Veto

The good news coming out of the nearly $300 billion farm bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week is that it made available “$15 million in mandatory funding for the establishment of a rural entrepreneurship and microenterprise grant and loan program.”

The bad news is that President Bush has vowed to veto the bill that he calls overly expensive.

Aside from the blurb above, I have little idea about the details of this program. If we were blogging for the whole world to see this would be a good time to call on Rep. Ben Chandler and Rep. Geoff Davis to get their take on this particular line item. It’s possible that it will come back in, in a subsequent revision if the President vetoes and the House and Senate can’t override him.

As for who’d be eligible for the grant: Grants may be made to qualified organizations to provide training, operations support or rural capacity-building services to qualified organizations to assist them in developing microenterprise training, technical assistance, market development assistance, and other related services.

Qualified orgs… like KECI? Is it time for KECI to set up a 501C3 and avoid the red tape inherent in a University system. Maybe this could be our opportunity to move into Eastern Kentucky?

Rural Ausies Want Greater Focus on Outback, Entrepreneurship for the "Hearbeat of the Nation"

Rural delegates in Australia say they want entrepreneurial policy focus. Here’s some of what the Aussie’s said at a recent rural development conference:

Author and Northern Territory farmer Terry Underwood says 40 years ago she became a city convert and now, with four children and three grandchildren on the ground, she knows there are plenty more potential converts out there.

"That is my dream and vision, that we reverse the drift, revitalise the bush, the outback is the heartbeat of the nation," she said.

"We have to have infrastructure, incentives, everything we can do to get the bush up and running and to awake in each of us the profound mystery of simply being Australian."

Dean Belle says the aim should be to better equip rural Australia to cope with and find opportunities in change.

"Rather than just seeing it as a negative along the way," he said. "To do that we need the IT, we need the alternative energy and a range of other subsets to that."

Mr Belle also called for investment in human capital, entrepreneurship and leadership skills.

Catherine McGowen says she is self-employed, running her own business from her small farm.

"I would like to see us think about building on our strengths, and I know in rural Australia our strength is our independence," she said.

"If we could build on our strengths and create millions of self-employed people, then working in that portfolio arrangement to do it, but to give us the infrastructure to do that.

"I want lots more women to be working from home, running small businesses and making lots of money."

Biz Week: Degrees Designed for Rural Business Allow Grads to Apply Skills to Farms and Businesses in Rural America

Colleges across the nation are increasingly creating Rural Entrepreneurship programs. That’s the story from Business Week Magazine. Here are highlights:

The problem of getting business grads to apply their skills to the farms and businesses of rural America is a pressing one in states such as Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Dwindling populations, empty storefronts, and the shutdown of manufacturing plants have made the economic problems facing rural towns even more acute in recent years. Business school administrators are starting to realize they can play a role in helping to reverse—or at least slow down—the economic slide of some of these areas by creating innovative courses and extension programs that will encourage people to move back to these areas and start or work for local businesses.

Some schools, such as Edgewood College in Madison, Wis., are creating master's degree programs in urban and rural economic development. Other large land-grant state universities, such as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are encouraging the growth of rural businesses through entrepreneurship centers, research grants to study rural entrepreneurship, and rural business mentorship programs. One school, Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, is launching an MBA in community economic development for the first time this fall.

Indeed, business schools can play a key role in helping to rejuvenate the nation's rural areas, said John Fernandes, president of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the accrediting agency for business schools. The problem is that most haven't begun to think about developing programs or curricula in this area, he said. Of the AACSB's 671 member schools, only about 40 have programs that mention a focus on rural or local economic development and collaboration in their mission statements. "I think it is one of those things that has kind of flown below the radar of most business schools," he said. "It might be sort of a natural extension of schools in rural areas, but maybe the rest of the world hasn't been paying attention."