Recently in Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Category

In Part I of To Be (or not to be), I mentioned the lifestyle issues that plague students when considering the entrepreneur's path, and the daunting, binary decision-making that business students can fall prey to.  In Part II, I wanted to mention the kinds of academic support our students are encouraged to accept.

The core courses of an entrepreneurship curriculum include topics on innovation, market assessment and feasibility, and business modeling and planning.  They are fundamentally about how to take an idea and advance it to a business opportunity: How to identify, test, and deploy an idea; how to take it from some stage of creative insight to something that is tangible and viable.  Entrepreneurship courses teach students how to do exactly that. 

How many people think they have an idea but have no clue what to do about it?  The world is filled with such people and a huge number of possibly excellent ideas lie dormant for lack of a basic understanding and the skills to act on them.  Those skills and the understanding of the critical thinking and assessment process that are required are critically important to start-up business ideas.  But the same skills are valuable in many organizations including emerging growth companies, established companies who are searching for new business opportunities or simply trying to be more innovative, and even to non-profit organizations. (As I mentioned in Part I, this is often called "Intrapreneurship.")

These courses, especially the feasibility analysis and business planning courses also add another dimension to a business education.  Business planning requires the integration of every aspect of business. It requires a financial plan, a marketing plan, a strategy, the identification of required management skills and an operations plan - and further the integration of all of these different business disciplines.  Students go through many business programs without every understanding the value of that integrative process - the bigger picture.

The process of starting with an idea, analyzing it, organizing a plan for building a business around it and then being able to organize their vision into a business model and being able to articulate it and present it to potential investors is a fundamentally valuable experience.

During the course of my interactions with the wide range of people I meet here on campus and elsewhere, the conversation often turns to the subject of social entrepreneurship. These conversations are usually lively and make for a feel-good interaction, but I'm still asked from time to time: What is a social entrepreneur anyway? 

Social Entrepreneurship, Defined

According to Ashoka.org--the global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs--"social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems."

Wikipedia calls a social entrepreneur "someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change."

While social entrepreneurship isn't a new concept, it has gained renewed traction in a world characterized by a growing divide between freedom and servitude. With this heightened awareness, entrepreneurs are defining and distinguishing themselves from others by considering change as currency. And here we are, at the forefront of social entrepreneurship's latest round of reinvention; interest is exploding among students on college campuses today.  

Social Entrepreneurship On Campus

The Deming Center and Leeds School are very involved in social entrepreneurship through curriculum, particularly as part of our Center for Education in Social Responsibility (CESR).  

The Deming Center participates in SEED @ CU, an organization that started as a funded research project to explore the dynamics and impact of social entrepreneurs in the development of sustainable communities. That interdisciplinary effort has now taken on many roles as a convergence of interest in social entrepreneurship is evolving and with the selection of CU Boulder as an Ashoka ChangeMaker Campus.

And there's now a self-organized student group for social entrepreneurship.

Social Entrepreneurship In Denver/Boulder

 During the 2nd Annual Entrepreneurship Day in the fall of 2008, we heard a presentation by Pete Kellner about Endeavor, the organization he co-founded, which has supported funding for almost 500 social entrepreneurs for close to 300 companies. That meant the creation of over 100,000 jobs.

More recently, in Boulder, we have another wonderful example of an organization created to raise funding for social entrepreneurs: The TouchPoint Trust Group, founded by Casey Verbeck and colleagues. 

One of the most exciting new organizations to be launched in Boulder is The Unreasonable Institute.  Through a wonderfully creative model, the Unreasonable Institute has raised funding to sponsor 25 social entrepreneurs from 17 countries to attend a 10 week intensive summer incubator program.  It will be a 24x7 live-in intensive experience with over 50 mentors and the opportunity to develop amazing networks.  The founders of the Institute are all recent graduates of CU Boulder; the network of mentors, the creativity of their model, and the nature and quality of the social entrepreneurs that were selected for this summer's Unreasonable Institute--their first--are truly extraordinary.

We welcome, as always, your thoughts and observations about this topic, and encourage you to share your experiences with us, either in person, or online. 

To learn more about the Unreasonable Institute, watch episode one of Unreasonable TV.

Something happened on the way to April.  We're all familiar with Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Blink".  I must have blinked as I came to the blinding realization that the spring semester is coming to an end.  This being the last week of classes for our MBA students with finals and project presentations next week, I'd like to take stock of just a few of the remarkable accomplishments and stories of progress that occurred during the past 3 months.

One of our greatest assets is the approachability and engagement of Boulder's entrepreneurial business community.  That characteristic of Boulder offers one of the greatest values outside of the classroom that we can offer to our students - but only if the students make the effort to take advantage of it.  Great evidence of how that is thriving at the Deming Center and Leeds School is showcased by various student groups.

We've had a number of Deming Center connected student groups.  They form for many purposes, but most prominently to create points of connection between groups of our students with shared interests and with members of/and organizations within our business community.  Here's a brief summary of some of our leading groups, including a number that are quite new - some having started late in the fall semester but all achieving meaningful traction in this current semester.  This is a summary - more will be coming on each of these as they move forward.

•    GEA (Graduate Entrepreneur's Association) - the Deming Center has sponsored and supported this group for several years.  Never have they had such an active and successful year with Learn-from-the-Best sessions, ideation sessions, and the GEA annual entrepreneurship retreat.  
•    Organics Student Group - this self organized group is the center of gravity for the Deming Center's Organics Business Initiative and has developed a great working relationship with Naturally Boulder
•    CU Energy Club - this group was launched by a group of Leeds School MBA students who immediately set out to create a full campus, inter-disciplinary organization, and now numbers over 500 members from all across the CU Campus. Trent Yang of the Deming Center, who serves as Director, Entrepreneurship and Business Development for RASEI  has been advising this student group in fostering connections with students and researchers around campus, and with entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders in the exploding cleantech industry.
•    Social Entrepreneurship Student group - this is a group of graduate and undergraduate students from the Leeds School, working with students from throughout the campus and all sharing a passion for social entrepreneurship.  The Deming Center and Leeds faculty have been collaborating on research and development of curriculum and programs, particularly though our relationship with SEED@CU; with CU Boulder's recent selection as an ASHOKA ChangeMaker campus, our students have become particularly involved with the program.
•    MBA Biotech Club - this group self-organized during the spring semester, and has already had several meetings with industry business leaders. Further, its work with our colleagues in the Colorado Initiative for Molecular Biology (CIMB)  has already expanded to include Ph.D. Science students from CU Boulder and from Fitzsimmons.
•    Outdoor Industry Student Group - having laid the ground work very thoroughly since last semester, this group has hit the ground running with approximately 40 members and great industry connections, especially with the Outdoor Industry Association  and the ActiveBoulder Business Cluster (supported by the Boulder Chamber.)
•    The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization - led by undergraduate business students committed to the entrepreneurial spirit, this group is open to all CU-Boulder undergraduate students.  CEO's focus is to provide an environment in which students can meet to share ideas, forge new friendships, and develop business skills. The organization, with insight from local business community leaders, strives to promote an environment conducive to brainstorming and new-venture creation. Members learn skills necessary to intelligently develop their own business. Through a series of guest speakers, roundtable discussions, and social and networking events, students have an opportunity to meet and learn from local entrepreneurs and community business leaders.

Of course, there's more. Our developing collaboration with Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology, our recently re-launched Deming Center Venture Fund, the increasing number of students involved with TechStars and their startup companies,  the success of this year's Venture Capital Investment Challenge team, the success of our March Sustainable Opportunities Summit and Cleantech Venture Challenge, and all that is going on with our role in the Renewable And Sustainable Energy Institute immediately come to mind. Not to mention that I'm sure I'm missing some things among my growing lists of other activities and progress that have come to pass this semester. What's most important is acknowledging and saying thanks to the organizations and individuals that make these student activities so valuable. Thanks, too, to our students who see the opportunities and take the initiative to make them happen.  It's been a great year.
 

As interest grows and investment increases in support of the energy sector, a growing number of business leaders have expressed interest in gaining a better understanding of the technologies, markets and opportunities that exist--and lie ahead.

The Deming Center is now offering a four-day certificate program, known as RETool, that provides an in-depth look at all of these topics and more.  RETool addresses questions such as:

•    Which technologies are the most promising and in what time frames?
•    What is changing with costs and pricing of alternative energy sources?
•    What are some of the main challenges with the different technologies and in different sectors of the industry?

That, and a myriad of other topics pertaining to policies, market demographics, and geographical considerations - are included in the curriculum.

The program was created by and is led by our own Steve Lawrence, Professor and Chair of the Management and Entrepreneurship Division of the Leeds School of Business and Paul Komor, who is a lecturer in the Environmental Studies Department, and also a researcher, author, business advisor, and the Energy Education Director for RASEI (Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute).

The energy industry is undergoing a transformation, the complexities and scale of which are  almost unimaginable. ReTool provides a terrific opportunity for people to substantially advance their understanding of this emerging industry. We're proud to offer it to the community and our colleagues in the energy sector and beyond. 

Learn more about RETool.

It's not that we throw caution to wind, or that we like to invite mid-March madness.  It's that we're entrepreneurs; we're comfortable with taking some level of risk. And perhaps that's why CU's Entrepreneurship Week is taking place now--during the ides of March.  And so far, things are shaping up fine. No offense, Shakespeare.  In celebration of entrepreneurs everywhere, some nice events are taking place from March 11-19 all around the CU campus.  Entrepreneurship lovers, risk-takers, movers and shakers, take note of some key events:

The CU New Venture Challenge is in full swing right now, with the semi-finals, finals, and winner announcements happening today--Friday, March 12, 2010 at ATLAS.

The Deming Center and Silicon Flatirons will welcome an all-star cast of entrepreneurs including Tyler Tisdal of Mantucket Capital and Brad Feld of Foundry Group at Entrepreneurs Unplugged on Monday, March 15, 2010.  See the Silicon Flatirons site for more information and to register to attend free.

In further keeping with our commitment to cross-campus cooperation, the Deming Center is teaming up with CU's Tech Transfer Office and CIMB--Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology--to bring you a special lunch and networking event we're calling "Entrepreneurship Under the Microscope:  A Celebration of CU Research and Technology."  This gathering of biotechnology, entrepreneurship, and technology enthusiasts takes place Thursday, March 18, 2010 at Folsom Stadium Club.  For more information, location, agenda, speakers, and tickets, please visit the E-Week Luncheon Web site at http://eweek2.eventbrite.com/ 

We hope to see you this week and beyond.  How are you spending E-Week?

Five years ago, a group of us, including C.O.R.E and the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, converged around a vision for an event that would enable businesses of all types to showcase opportunities that they were finding from the drivers of sustainability.  From that first discussion sprang the annual Sustainable Opportunities Summit (SOS). 

At that time (ca. 2005) many of the companies in attendance could legitimately be considered as first movers.  It was a remarkable event - violating almost all of the rules of focus and specialization.  Participating companies came from every sector of the business world.  As one attendee commented, "I admit to being a serial conference attendee, but I was very skeptical about SOS.  What I now realize is that I attend conferences on the same topics with the same speakers and the same attendees.  But this (SOS) was one of the most thought provoking and refreshing experiences that I've had.  It is clear that sustainability is a whole new way to think about how to create and run businesses, and is unquestionably the way of business in the future.  This conference is an incredible forum at which to learn more and to better understand where the trends will lead us."

In 2009 the City of Denver became a partner - recognizing that the success of the summit had created a powerful platform for the city, the university, and the business community at which to showcase the extraordinary advances being made by companies, cities and schools pertaining to sustainability.  Colorado has emerged as one of the most successful regions of sustainable business leadership, cleantech and renewable energy, organic foods and products, and progressive public/private collaborations around business, government, the environment, water and energy. 

Please join us for the 5^th annual Sustainable Opportunities Summit and Cleantech Venture Challenge. This year's Summit will take place next week, from March 2^nd to the 4^th at the Denver Convention Center.  Once again you will hear from and be able to network with remarkable thought leaders . Join us or learn more here.

For the second year in a row we were offered the extraordinary opportunity of having a group of students from our MBA program spend the better part of a day with Warren Buffett in Omaha.  Mr. Buffett regularly sets aside days to meet with graduate students, usually inviting groups from about five schools at a time.  This year our students joined graduate students from IBMEC from Brazil, Texas A&M, Harvard Business School,   University of Southern California, and UCLA.  Last year I accompanied the group.  This year Prof. Chris Leach made the trip; here is his guest blog about his experience.  First year MBA student Matt Reisman will also be contributing his account of the trip in a second installment.
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I love it when it all comes together!  I arrived Thursday night early enough to connect with Matt Reisman on the schedule for the next day.  My initial stress of wondering if everything would click on this quick turn visit to Omaha dissipated.  Looking out of my hotel window into the frigid Nebraska weather, I wondered how much outside walking around we had in store.  
The day started early, and after a buffet breakfast with one of the other early risers, I had the good fortune to be asked to join three of the second years (all former students of mine) in a rental car parked in the garage.  Accepting the offer made luggage storage, staying warm, and that evening's free transfer back to the airport easier.  Who could refuse? 

The day of meetings began.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Nebraska Furniture Mart visit - particularly the disclaimer regarding IKEA as a threat.  I had the good fortune there to meet up with a research colleague chaperoning the team from University of Southern California.  Having known him since my early professor days on the East Coast, it was easy to renew acquaintance and receive a recommendation for  a recent paper of mutual interest.  (Some of my historical research contributions and his are closely related.  He hired one of my PhD students while at the Securities Exchange Commission; after the SEC, he hired her again for a California-based trade facilitation firm.)  From there it was onto headquarters and Mr. Buffet who was already talking to students prior to the arrival of most of the visitors.
 
It is really striking how much Mr. Buffet enjoys the interaction and how he genuinely expresses his concerns and hopes for business students and their impact on future business practice and success.  As usual, his advice was "down to earth," practical, and touched on personal and professional aspects.  From the perspective of a Finance Professor who has spent some time trying to interpret some of Mr. Buffet's remarks, I was happy to hear him urge the students to delve into companies' financials making sure they can see a path to extracting investment returns.  So often, Mr. Buffet's public remarks are interpreted as broadly hostile to financial analysis and modeling; it was great to hear him more clearly advocate a role of traditional fundamental analysis (even if it involves modeling financial statements).  At lunch, it was clear that Mr. Buffet was a most generous host with a welcome seated lunch for everyone and patience during the prolonged photo shoot with literally all of the visitors (the best I can tell). 

After lunch, we were off to visit another jewel in the Berkshire crown - Borsheim's jewelry store.  The management and retail representatives were gracious in overestimating my tastes, wealth and income (or at least pretending to do so) and were friendly and accommodating to our large group.  On the ride to the airport the "free ride" hit a rough patch.  In a previous meeting with some of these same MBA students, we had discussed my class usage of brain teaser interview questions and how the group was looking to add one or two to their class presentation.  Given the background, why not introduce a new brain teaser puzzle they encountered on the airplane ride to Omaha, and see if I could solve it before arriving at the Omaha airport?  The ante was upped with the added wrinkle of having the teaser officially marked as "Intermediate" to increase the pressure.  Fortunately, I didn't spend all those years in sports to crumble under the pressure of a brain teaser airport transfer in Cornhusker territory.  There's no substitute for training in hostile conditions.  But fair is fair, and finance is known for its "no free lunch" and "no free ride" maxims.  So, I went to work ...

Overall, it was a great trip; quick and to the point; fun for all involved.  Thanks to all those who planned and supported.

--Chris Leach, CU Boulder

Great news for all entrepreneurs to kick off 2010:  We now have it on good authority that caffeinated coffee is the ultimate new health food--no joke.  If coffee has been the fuel of choice for the 24/7 entrepreneurial lifestyle, according to WebMD, it's now OK!
What's more, my own anecdotal evidence suggests that knowing about the health benefits of coffee may be one of the most effective sales tools available.  I'm continuously meeting with people to tell them about the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, about the extraordinary talent pool of our students, and to convince folks of the excitement and value of our work here and at the Leeds School of Business.

Typically I've relied on eloquence and compelling reasoning (feedback invited), and most of my meetings take place over coffee; all too often the person with whom I am meeting orders de-caf, or tragically passes on coffee altogether.  When I ask why, I find that mostly misimpressions of the effects of coffee on health are to blame. When I then share the good news, enabling them to shed those negative feelings of guilt and concern, the years of self-sacrifice, I'm almost always successful in closing the deal--and almost always over a pot of freshly brewed. Conversion!

Try it out--and best wishes for your entrepreneurial adventures in 2010.

DISCLAIMER:  The WebMD article speaks for itself.  The writer disavows any claims or representations of offering healthcare advice.  All you have to do is take a look at him, a long-term 4 to 6 cup a day caffeinated coffee drinker, and draw your own conclusions.  Just don't hurt his feelings.