Center to help students create businesses
At the most recent meeting of the USU Board of Trustees, a proposal from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business got approval to create the Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence.
Jim Davis and Mike Glauser, who were hired by the Huntsman School this summer to develop the center, presented the idea to the board. The two described the center as a way to provide students with opportunities “to bridge the gap between formal classroom education and real-world experience.”
Davis is department head of management, while Glauser is the executive director for entrepreneurial programs.
The purpose of the center is to help students gain an understanding of the key elements of business, Davis said, such as developing business models and low-cost marketing strategies. Emphasizing unique aspects of entrepreneurship, including fostering innovation and planning the launch of the new venture are also taught.
Brigham Young University, University of Utah, Weber State University, Utah Valley University and Westminster all have entrepreneurial programs. Glauser said the creation of a similar center at USU will make the program more competitive throughout the state and on a national level.
Ben Daniel, a USU freshman who owns an application development business for cell phones, iPods and other electronic equipment, said he got involved in entrepreneurship because he “absolutely hated working for somebody else and never wanted to do it again.”
However, Daniel said it was still important to get an education this kind of center will improve that education.
“There are a lot of things I don’t know,” he said. “The best way to become an entrepreneur is to just jump right in, like I did, but there’s a lot of concepts I don’t understand yet.”
“It’s very possible to teach entrepreneurship,” Glauser said.
Glauser said the Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence will act as an “umbrella program” for all the entrepreneurism-related programs already offered at USU.
“We have a lot of programs for entrepreneurs on campus already, but we don’t have a one-stop shop yet,” Glauser said.
“What a business school gives is a way to manage risk, a way to build your network,” Davis said, “a way to get mentoring that you cannot get any other way. To me, one of the most essential things is it teaches you the way to approach business.”
Daniel said most of entrepreneurship is instinctual and based on a love of risk and a knack for creativity. However, he said, an entrepreneurial center will help teach the classic basics for success like developing business strategies, while also offering new ideas.
“College helps expose yourself to new people, new ideas and helps to keep gaining creativity,” he said.
The center will provide classes, mentors and competitions for student entrepreneurs. It will also allow students the opportunity to get feedback on ideas and help create a brand for themselves.
There will be venture capital groups and angel investors available for any students’ ideas that are exceptionally ready to be tested in the market.
“The Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence will help students speed up and facilitate the process,” Glauser said.
With the opening of the center will come the introduction of a new speaker series, Glauser said. Each Wednesday, a well-known and successful entrepreneur will present to faculty and students.
That is one thing, Glauser said, that will be uniquely useful about the center — students from all over campus can come with good ideas for a business and use the center’s resources to turn them into realistic business models.
“Wouldn’t it be great to graduate with keys to your own business? We’re about launch, not about talk,” Davis said. “We will have a top-ranked management program, and we will have a top-ranked entrepreneurship program.”
Before he came to USU, Davis worked at Notre Dame University where he launched the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The program was ranked as second-best entrepreneurial program in the nation under his direction and remained in the top-five entrepreneurial programs by the time he left.
He said he saw the school as one on the verge of greatness and only needed some structuring and development.
“Entrepreneurial spirit” is one of four pillars of the Huntsman School, so the creation of the center will only add to achieving that goal, Glauser said. The center will play a key part in fulfilling the college’s mission statement, which states that it’s “a career generator.”
Glauser said a center like this has the potential to dramatically improve the college’s brand.
“It helps the school start companies and build existing companies in a way that gets the name out into the community,” he said.
“I can tell you in a college of business this is the place to pick it up,” Davis said. “I’ve had people try to pick it up on the street as they grow their business. Now that’s the school of hard knocks, man. It is very unforgiving.”
– bracken_allen@yahoo.com