College That Creates Entrepreneurs:
Can we train young people to be entrepreneurs?
When I was ready to enter college, my final choice was between a college of science and an institute of technology. The two seemed interchangeable to me. On no more than a coin flip, I chose Technology.
At even the nation’s most-effective program for would-be entrepreneurs, at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, only 19 percent of graduates becoming entrepreneurs—and the national average is just 3 percent. It should come as no surprise that entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs do not see universities as a go to place for help in their efforts to start ventures. Many consider college programs as time consuming and a costly way to start a business.
About that time Thomas Kuhn’s landmark book came out. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions challenged many prevailing views on the progress of science, especially the idea that scientific progress marches forward rather than developing in curves, spirals, and curlicues. Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift” and exposited on the "profound differences” between science and technology—terms fused together in common usage, but actually independent policies of each other.
In short, the practice of science is the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake while the development of technology creates products to solve problems and improve life. Developing science does not automatically lead to great technologies. It takes pro-activity for knowledge and experimentation to be successfully transferred to process and production. In agriculture, for example, government and university extension programs are created to transfer agricultural scientific research to practicing farmers. In medicine, graduate doctors are required to take up residency to learn to apply in practice the science they learned in medical school.
And that brings us to the study and the process of creating new businesses.
University business schools have long excelled at teaching theories of business. In the past 30 years or so many have made serious attempts to expand to the scientific study of entrepreneurship. However, they have not been successful in helping or developing entrepreneurs. Classes on starting companies are taught in classroom-heavy programs that are lacking experiential components. Often coursework designed for the study of established corporations are considered adequate for the study of new ventures, as though they were merely small versions of large companies.
There are, however, a handful of U.S. business schools helping aspiring entrepreneurs by offering entrepreneur-focused practical programs that go beyond courses to include labs, accelerators, and collaborative computer-programming events. Rather than writing of business plans, the entrepreneurial labs develop a startup as a series of iterative experiments. This provides a careful balance between entrepreneurial zeal and research supported best practices. They have turned science into technology helpful to entrepreneurs.
We need more of such programs in Minnesota, but Macalester College deserves a special shout-out for its efforts to develop entrepreneurs. A practitioner, Kate Reiling, heads the college’s growing entrepreneurship program. She has real-world experience of building a business as well as empathizes with the needs of an entrepreneur. Richard M Schulze Foundation has partially supported some of the initiatives that supplement the student’s classroom experience in innovation and entrepreneurship:
- Live it Dream it, a program started in 2010 aimed at solving global problems through innovative entrepreneurship. The students have demonstrated passion, creativity and incredible embodiment of global citizenship. It provides $500 to $2,000 in funding for entrepreneurial projects followed by an opportunity to receive up to $10,000.
- The Mayo Innovation Scholars Program (MISP), in its 10th year, facilitates university-industry collaboration. A faculty member directs the program, which assists Mayo Clinic departments in the assessment of new product submissions by Mayo researchers. It provides research opportunities and experiential learning for students from a variety of disciplines.
- MacNest, an internship program that provides funding for students to work during summers as unpaid interns in a Twin Cities startup companies while living on campus. Student interns receive grants of $4,500 for full-time, unpaid internships. They also learn and reflect from discussions with others in the community.
- Mac Startups, a summer accelerator program giving students an opportunity to work on their own idea by providing programming, space, a stipend, seed funding and mentorship.
- Entrepreneurial laboratory. The next step is the entrepreneurial space in an entire floor of the library with the potential of promoting rapid learning and the preliminary validation of new-business ideas. The goal is to create a ‘Medici Effect’ between different aspiring entrepreneurs.
Can engineers or doctors practice their profession without practical immersive education? Of course not. So why would aspiring entrepreneurs be expected to succeed without the same? Universities have a crucial role to play beyond research and teaching to train the practitioners of startup businesses. For the sake of Minnesota’s economic future, our Universities need to change their focus from teaching about entrepreneurship to actually creating entrepreneurs.
This first appeared in Twin City Business Magazine October 2017. For other columns see Planting Seeds.
Dr. Rajiv Tandon is an advocate for the future of entrepreneurship in Minnesota. He facilitates peer groups of Minnesota CEOs and runs two programs for propelling ideas into business ventures, the Rocket Network and 100 Launches. He can be reached at rajiv@mn-iie.org
