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Hi Jeff,

The argument I made in my business school for Entrepreneurship to be made a compulsory course, was as follows: Unemployment has been a global challenge for a while. Nevertheless, business schools have continued to emphasise job eligibility, which simply makes MBAs more eligible for available jobs. However, as supply continues to exceed demand, even MBAs have joined the unemployment market...little wonder that some people are questioning the relevance of business schools.  What the world needs right now are job-creators and not job-seekers. However if universities or business schools, continue with a curriculum that "programmes" students with a job-seeking orientation, they will only continue to compound the problem, along with frustration and the attendant consequences. However, by making Entrepreneurship compulsory (and taught in the practical way that it should be), students are enabled to  exploit the options of creating jobs or seeking paid employment. They can also transit from one situation to the other, if they have been educated with both goals in mind. This is important because in the event that they lose their jobs (which is not such an impossibility these days), they are equipped to regain their financial future through entrepreneurship. We actually do students a disservice, when we focus mainly on job-eligibility in a world where few jobs are available (thanks to technology). If we teach Executives and business owners about the importance of adapting to changes in the environment and market, it is surprising that we "harbingers of knowledge",  therefore fail to see and respond to the changes in our environment, especially since the 2008 financial crisis. While recognising that not everyone can be an entrepreneur, we owe it to our students to equip them with the required "weapons" to survive in present times.

In addition, social problems exist in every country, developed or developing, and these are all profitable business opportunities in disguise. We can actually work towards fostering not just entrepreneurship, but businesses that are based on social problems, in other words, for-profit businesses with a social mission. We can thereby foster entrepreneurs that will accelerate better societies, better countries and ultimately a better world. These arguments worked in my school...they might work in yours also.  

Regards,

Henrietta

P.D. Examples of what I have tried to do in my Entrepreneurship courses are shown in the videos below.

Dear colleagues,

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!

Dear Colleagues,

At CSU, Chico, we require students to take a course their freshman year called "Understanding Global Business" (BADM 101). I taught this course last summer, and taught it from an "Introduction to Entrepreneurship" perspective (although, technically, I am a financial accounting professor). Students used their creativity and innovation to come up with a business idea, write a business plan, and present it to peers and other professors at the end of the semester. The 12 lessons that were used can be found here: http://sagetris.com.

Starting this fall, I will teach the course again, but it will be team-taught in a "disruptive education" mode.

The classroom, with 120 students, will be reconfigured to accommodate teamwork and self-paced learning, and the freshmen will get six units of credit: three for business, and three for math. The tentative name for the course is "Digital and Financial Literacy in a Global World."

This is an exciting prospect for me. At 58 years old, I am ready to step into the 21^st century and do my best to motivate by asking them to CREATE rather than merely REACT, using available technology.

Below is a bit more information. Anyone who wants to know more can shoot me a personal email.

Miles of Smiles,

Curt

Dr. Curtis L. DeBerg

College of Business

California State University, Chico

Chico, CA 95929-0011

530-898-4824 (phone)

cdeberg@csuchico.edu

Skype: cdeberg

Founder, SAGEGLOBAL (http://sageglobal.org)

Here are the learning objectives for BADM 101:

The course is designed to accomplish two important interrelated objectives in order to provide freshmen with a solid foundation to their business education.

Objective 1: To provide introductory knowledge about what a business is and how one operates. The focus here is on the global context of business. This business arena will be most important throughout your careers.

Objective 2: To ensure that all freshmen possess introductory basic business survival skills. Here, the course will focus on imparting four such skills:

§  computer literacy (e.g., word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, digital imaging, Internet research)

§  informational competence - the ability to retrieve a broad spectrum of business related information from both hard copy and electronic sources

§  written, oral and electronic presentational skills

§  team-building skills.

To accomplish Objective 1, I will be relying heavily on materials created by Dr. Rethans. I will also be using a 12-lesson notebook that I authored, called "Turning Risk into Success."

To accomplish Objective 2, I will use a hybrid model of blended learning, as described by Horn and Staker in their recent book, "Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools." In my 3-hour segment each Friday, I plan to "lecture" 1/3 of the period; 1/3 of the period, students will work in groups (with each group assigned a junior student mentor, who will be trained in your mentor program) to complete a "makerspace" project that requires them to complete a "team" business plan throughout the semester, and then present the plan to a group of community leaders at the end of the semester; this addresses team-building, written, oral and electronic presentation skills); the other 1/3 of the time will be spent on completing individual on-line exercises that help students become "financially literate", where students can learn at their own pace. These exercises will be designed to demonstrate computer literacy and informational competence.

Hands-on learning will be emphasized as much as "traditional" learning from online and text reading assignments. My approach here will use many of the concepts discussed in "World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students," by Oregon professor Yong Zhao.

I am still exploring the possibility of students completing a "service-learning project," either through CAVE or through SAGE. The big issue, I think, will be liability and risk management issues should we decide to send all these students off campus.

Hi Jeff,

The argument I made in my business school for Entrepreneurship to be made a compulsory course, was as follows: Unemployment has been a global challenge for a while. Nevertheless, business schools have continued to emphasise job eligibility, which simply makes MBAs more eligible for available jobs. However, as supply continues to exceed demand, even MBAs have joined the unemployment market...little wonder that some people are questioning the relevance of business schools.  What the world needs right now are job-creators and not job-seekers. However if universities or business schools, continue with a curriculum that "programmes" students with a job-seeking orientation, they will only continue to compound the problem, along with frustration and the attendant consequences. However, by making Entrepreneurship compulsory (and taught in the practical way that it should be), students are enabled to  exploit the options of creating jobs or seeking paid employment. They can also transit from one situation to the other, if they have been educated with both goals in mind. This is important because in the event that they lose their jobs (which is not such an impossibility these days), they are equipped to regain their financial future through entrepreneurship. We actually do students a disservice, when we focus mainly on job-eligibility in a world where few jobs are available (thanks to technology). If we teach Executives and business owners about the importance of adapting to changes in the environment and market, it is surprising that we "harbingers of knowledge",  therefore fail to see and respond to the changes in our environment, especially since the 2008 financial crisis. While recognising that not everyone can be an entrepreneur, we owe it to our students to equip them with the required "weapons" to survive in present times.

In addition, social problems exist in every country, developed or developing, and these are all profitable business opportunities in disguise. We can actually work towards fostering not just entrepreneurship, but businesses that are based on social problems, in other words, for-profit businesses with a social mission. We can thereby foster entrepreneurs that will accelerate better societies, better countries and ultimately a better world. These arguments worked in my school...they might work in yours also.  

Regards,

Henrietta

P.D. Examples of what I have tried to do in my Entrepreneurship courses are shown in the videos below.

Dear colleagues,

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!

Disclaimer: The information transmitted via this email or any attachments thereto are intended for the named addressee(s) except where any addressee(s) was/were so named in error. The said information and/or attachments may contain confidential, privileged or copyright material and any amendment, dissemination, disclosure, transmission or distribution is hereby strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient or where same has been received in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all copies of the email and attachments thereto. Please note that no opinion, commitment or representation expressed or implied by the sender necessarily constitutes the opinion, commitment or representation of Lagos Business School/ Pan-Atlantic University (LBS/PAU) and no such opinion, commitment or representation shall be binding on LBS/PAU excepting where same has been so communicated and affirmed in writing by a duly authorised representative of LBS/PAU. LBS/PAU shall not be responsible for any loss, damage, claim or any inconvenience whatsoever that may be suffered as a result of a reliance on the contents of the email or attachments thereof.

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!

Hello Jeff,

I completely agree with Professor Onwuegbuzie's point about a university's need to produce job creators along with job seekers.

In addition, I have often made the argument that whereas some majors (like accounting) train students for a profession, entrepreneurship develops their ability to foresee and adapt to a changing world.  In fact, I hand out the (admittedly over-the-top) infographic about why everyone will need to be an entrepreneur to all our business majors  (see http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228176).

Based on this view, my mantra the last few years has been that an entrepreneurship major hones students' mindset and provides them a toolbox.   They'll need both because we are training some of them for jobs that don't exist yet (For example, how many business schools were teaching students about social media ten years ago?).

One other point I've raised, which looks like it applies at NCSU, is that all the other majors/concentrations have core classes.  We have one for every major (like Principles of Finance) and some majors (like accounting and economics) actually have two at my school.  If entrepreneurship is important enough to be a program, then it should be important enough for all business students to be exposed to it.

Best regards,

Franz

Hi Jeff,

The argument I made in my business school for Entrepreneurship to be made a compulsory course, was as follows: Unemployment has been a global challenge for a while. Nevertheless, business schools have continued to emphasise job eligibility, which simply makes MBAs more eligible for available jobs. However, as supply continues to exceed demand, even MBAs have joined the unemployment market...little wonder that some people are questioning the relevance of business schools.  What the world needs right now are job-creators and not job-seekers. However if universities or business schools, continue with a curriculum that "programmes" students with a job-seeking orientation, they will only continue to compound the problem, along with frustration and the attendant consequences. However, by making Entrepreneurship compulsory (and taught in the practical way that it should be), students are enabled to  exploit the options of creating jobs or seeking paid employment. They can also transit from one situation to the other, if they have been educated with both goals in mind. This is important because in the event that they lose their jobs (which is not such an impossibility these days), they are equipped to regain their financial future through entrepreneurship. We actually do students a disservice, when we focus mainly on job-eligibility in a world where few jobs are available (thanks to technology). If we teach Executives and business owners about the importance of adapting to changes in the environment and market, it is surprising that we "harbingers of knowledge",  therefore fail to see and respond to the changes in our environment, especially since the 2008 financial crisis. While recognising that not everyone can be an entrepreneur, we owe it to our students to equip them with the required "weapons" to survive in present times.

In addition, social problems exist in every country, developed or developing, and these are all profitable business opportunities in disguise. We can actually work towards fostering not just entrepreneurship, but businesses that are based on social problems, in other words, for-profit businesses with a social mission. We can thereby foster entrepreneurs that will accelerate better societies, better countries and ultimately a better world. These arguments worked in my school...they might work in yours also.  

Regards,

Henrietta

P.D. Examples of what I have tried to do in my Entrepreneurship courses are shown in the videos below.

Dear colleagues,

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!

Disclaimer: The information transmitted via this email or any attachments thereto are intended for the named addressee(s) except where any addressee(s) was/were so named in error. The said information and/or attachments may contain confidential, privileged or copyright material and any amendment, dissemination, disclosure, transmission or distribution is hereby strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient or where same has been received in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all copies of the email and attachments thereto. Please note that no opinion, commitment or representation expressed or implied by the sender necessarily constitutes the opinion, commitment or representation of Lagos Business School/ Pan-Atlantic University (LBS/PAU) and no such opinion, commitment or representation shall be binding on LBS/PAU excepting where same has been so communicated and affirmed in writing by a duly authorised representative of LBS/PAU. LBS/PAU shall not be responsible for any loss, damage, claim or any inconvenience whatsoever that may be suffered as a result of a reliance on the contents of the email or attachments thereof.

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!

Hi all and to contribute to the discussion:

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!
************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!

Hi Jeff,

Here in Brazil, Higher Education increased their awareness of the need to direct their courses to entrepreneurial drive since three years ago, especially after a report launched by Endeavor Institute in Brazil two years ago stating that more than 60% of undergraduate students were expecting to launch their own business after graduation. Although I am the academic member of Endeavor research team, I can assure the report is far from scientific reliable methods, so far, but it has generated a huge impact in the mass media. So, this is the first hint: Find studies about students career expectations in US territory that sustain the idea of reinforcing entrepreneurship education.

Second, job orientation should not be the only career orientation a University should offer to their students. An Introduction to Entrepreneurship discipline in the first year of a Business Administration course, is not intended to push the students to entrepreneurial career, but to show them another career path and offer them the possibility to choose an executive career or an entrepreneurial career (and why not, an intrapreneurial career?). In Brazil, we are orienting professors of this introductory discipline not to deliver a boring course, with concepts, theories and exams, but an open minded course, showing them successful entrepreneurs case, behavior appealing, with inspirational stories in order to motivate them to follow the entrepreneurship track disciplines (or minor).

Third, Introduction to Entrepreneurship discipline in a BA course, is not restricted to describe the step-by-step of starting a new business. It should comprise the essence of the entrepreneurial activity, which is to act as the protagonist on the process of creating and delivering high impact changes to the world, and this can be done through a regular business, an innovation, a social endeavor or an internal corporate project. In other words, try to amplify the scope of what is the Entrepreneurship course. This is the aggregated entrepreneurial thinking and action you've mentioned.

Finally, I've been training entrepreneurship professors for the last three years and I am noticing a growing number of non-entrep teachers coming to my classes. Some of them are willing to assume entrepreneurship related disciplines, but some of them just want to learn some entrepreneurship concepts to talk about entrepreneurship to the students in their classes. So, a possibility is to engage other Faculty members of the curriculum committee to the entrepreneurship subject. Once they know what it is, they are more willing to accept and understand the need of the discipline.

Wish you luck, best regards

Marcos Hashimoto

Faccamp

Brazil

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!