Amy Cosper, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, paid a visit to the Deming Center a few weeks ago. She attended our Deming Board Breakfast in the morning (more on that in a moment), followed by a series of discussions with Deming board members, entrepreneurship faculty, MBA students and recent alumni.
Entrepreneur is the largest-selling business magazine on newsstands in America. Its print circulation has been increasing in a declining industry. Additionally, Entrepreneur reaches millions of online subscribers. In about a year and a half as Editor-in-Chief, Amy has engineered an amazing reorganization and strengthened the magazine's positioning.
Surprisingly, Entrepreneur appeals to a diverse age demographic. Her view is that the term "Entrepreneur" inspires an emotional reaction at many age levels.
(As an aside, the magazine's latest issue featured Kim Jordan, founder of Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Company, who recently gave a talk at the Leeds School of Business. New Belgium is a remarkable company -- built from its start on the fundamentals of sustainability.)
During Amy's visit with students and alumni, Leeds School alumna Sarah Schupp joined us. In an undergraduate Leeds School of Business business plan course, Sarah founded University Parent, which enables universities to more effectively communicate with the parents of their students. (She also won the business plan competition here at the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship in 2004.) Launched mainly by bootstrapping, University Parent now serves more than 100 universities!
Needless to say, we at Deming, and Amy, learned a lot at about Boulder's particularly entrepreneurial climate and how the local business community so supportively engages with the entrepreneurship program at the Leeds School of Business. Amy is always looking for good stories about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and I believe she left with a sense that she'll be hearing many more from Boulder.
JOHN MULLINS: GETTING TO PLAN B
As I mentioned, the day began with a Deming Center Board Breakfast. Our VIP guest speaker that day was Prof. John Mullins from the London School of Business. His latest book, Getting to Plan B, co-authored with Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins, has just been published by Harvard Press and is available in bookstores everywhere. John is an entertaining speaker and this latest book, as well as his previous book, The New Business Road Test, are both insightful, thought-provoking handbooks on the realities of starting new businesses. We've had the pleasure of having John visit and speak to us in the past and look forward to the next opportunity. He always inspires great discussions.
ENERGY INSTITUTE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL & RENEWABLE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY INSTITUTE
Two weeks ago, I participated in a meeting of the Energy Institute Leadership Council (EILC) of our Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI). The Leadership Council is a select group of corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, advisors, scientists, policy makers and academics that provide high-level governance and strategic direction to the University of Colorado at Boulder Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI). Created to merge the private sector's market-based experience and perspective with the innovative research capabilities of the scientists and faculty at CU-Boulder, the Council provides a powerful leadership team for RASEI.
The Deming Center plays a central role in promoting and supporting private sector engagement and commercialization activities on behalf of RASEI.
Now - if that's not enough for one week in the life of an entrepreneurship center director -I've also recently had the pleasure of meeting with a faculty delegation from universities in Poland including The Silesian University of Technology and the University of Economics in Katowice. I will soon be addressing about a dozen visitors from the University of Paris - Sorbonne.
These opportunities were inspired by relationships built between these schools and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Additionally, these schools' representatives are interested in learning more about entrepreneurship education, technology commercialization, and the many things that work so well between our university and the entrepreneurial community in Boulder.
Why does the Deming Center find itself so involved in these diverse external activities?
Because of the fundamentally important role of entrepreneurship in making a productive impact on society, based on the results of outstanding research and discovery. Our Center has the privilege of being a catalyst and a connecting hub toward that end. We create benefits for our students by being able to open doors and showcase their capabilities. And in turn, we bring value to the business community by making it easier for them to engage with and support the university, and to tap into the talent pool and resources that we have.
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