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Dear Anonymous: I agree with Professor Ladd and add these thoughts.

My course at Syracuse University grew from a project where individuals with disabilities received assistance in starting or scaling their ventures. Many came with predetermined and entrenched ideas about what they wanted to do, but almost all of them had not thought out or researched the market feasibility of their ventures. But dreams are important, so we did not invalidate any concept they brought to the table. Instead, we worked with them to more deeply explore their intrinsic motivations for starting that type of business, who supported them, what challenges and barriers they saw, the gifts and skills they brought to their venture,and a variety of other factors related to exploring their entrepreneurial 'core'. After that, we helped them develop research skills to examine their internal operations and external environments that then led to a business feasibility plan as a start, rather than a business plan. In other words, we provided them with tools to develop their own examination and make their own decisions about the business' potential for achieving the goals they set. Many found that although their concept was dear-their goals were best met by another business creation target. Some found that owning a business was not as right for them as they thought, but by examining their gifts, skills, motivations and life goals-working in wage jobs with those attributes was a better alternative. We wrote about that project in a publicly available document: http://nymakesworkpay.org/docs/StartUP_New_York_4-Phase_Model.pdf More about entrepreneurship is available at the site, as well.

My students worked as consultants with many of these entrepreneurs and their businesses by focusing on the core, internal and external aspects of business feasibility. Although your students are trying to start their own ventures rather than assisting others with theirs, some exercises on motivations, insight development, tools for exploration and with the result that they create a business feasibility analysis that holds personal as well as market validity may allow some students to more deeply explore their motivations and test their ideas in a space where they make a go-no/go  decision based upon the facts as they see them. In fact-teaming them up in small groups for the exercises may embed a peer critique/support dynamic into the process.

Hope this helps-good luck.

G

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From: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv <ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU> on behalf of Ted Ladd <ted.ladd@FACULTY.HULT.EDU>
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2015 10:18 PM
To: ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: [ENTREP] Anonymous posting Entrepreneurship teaching advice request

 

Dear Anonymous,

In my professional experience, in my classroom, and in my research, teams that evolve their ideas based on customer interactions perform better than teams that stick with the same idea. I would recommend that you set expectations on the process that your students take - definition and validation of hypotheses, # of customer interviews, # of validated hypotheses, etc. - and let them discover for themselves if their idea will sink or swim. Those who are initially the most adamant have the necessary optimism and conviction to succeed. If they can see for themselves what the "market" desires, you will be teaching (or helping them learn) them a fundamental and valuable skill that transcends the specific venture idea.

Give me a shout if you'd like some specific references and software tools to guide this process.

Ted Ladd
Professor of Entrepreneurship, San Francisco

Direct: +1 307 413 3333

Email:  ted.ladd@faculty.hult.edu

Web:     www.hult.edu

On May 25, 2015, at 4:29 PM, John Bunch wrote:

I have been asked to post the following request for advice from a list member who wished to remain anonymous:

Date: May 25, 2015 at 4:03:03 AM EDT

Thanks John. I prefer you post the below message anomalously for me. I appreciate your help and hope this can be useful to other people facing similar problems. Best regards.

 

Dear Colleagues,

I'm teaching two sections (one online and one onsite) of Entrepreneurship at a State University in the College of Business. The University is open enrollment.  The students have not had any course on Entrepreneurship so far. The College mission highlights experiential learning, thus entrepreneurship is compatible with that mission. However, I have been struggling on conveying the concept of entrepreneurship. About 50% of the students want to work for a company and have no interest in being an Entrepreneur.

I have found opposition from some students, especially when it is required that they formulate their own business idea. I have a process perspective in which students go on collecting information and at the same time they change their idea accordingly. However, some students feel entitled to their ideas before they even collect information, and sometimes their ideas don't really make sense. I found that going against them is a dangerous path as they complaint with administration that the instructor don't respect other people's ideas.  Since students here are very temperamental and the administration seem to support them, I really don't know what to do as my tenure and job position can be at stake.

Have anyone else had this issue and what would you suggest I do? I was thinking in the following options:  1. let them go with their ideas even if they don't make sense, and once they have the feedback from venture capitalists, then I can suggest improvement.  2. I can tell them the feedback but leave the door open so they can proceed as they wish. 3. Assign them projects that require them to make suggestions for an existing business (consultant role) instead of letting them propose their ideas freely.  4 Other (please explain which)

If you have any suggestions about the materials and/or methodology for teaching entrepreneurship for this type of students, I would really appreciate your advice.

************************************** 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!

I do not think the teacher should choose products for the students, as this may cut down on their interest and learning, but feedback is highly appropriate. 

When I teach our introduction to entrepreneurship class (no pre-requisites), I have the students proceed through several steps.  First, I explain the difference between an idea and a fully developed opportunity, and how most new product ideas never see the light of day.  I tell them that gathering research and feedback on their concepts will be painful as they will not always hear what they want. Nevertheless, it is important for them to learn from this feedback to improve their concept.

After several brainstorming sessions, I have the students come up with 5 innovative (new or N+1) products.  Each product description must also identify the market, the problem/pain being solved (value proposition) for this market, the method of distribution, and an appropriate name for the product. Next, the students are partnered up to discuss their ideas.  Feedback is then supposed to be incorporated into their 5 concepts.  Next, the students submit the concepts to me for a grade and additional feedback.  The grade is objective – did they clearly define the product, market, value proposition and proper method of distribution as well as an appropriate name. Then, the students announce two concepts to the class.  I assign teams (mixing majors, genders, availability and GPAs) and the team members choose one of their collective concepts for market research. The team conducts primary and secondary research (I teach them about surveys and schedule a class with a research librarian to aid them in secondary research) and reports their findings.  I make it clear that incorporating feedback from the research is very important. The final exam is a presentation where the team presents their concept, summarizes the research and what they learned, and demonstrates the desired marketing pitch (commercial, ads, etc.)

Students will not know, at the beginning, if their product concept will be successful.  I tell them that after conducting their research, they will need to reevaluate the concept based on everything they learned during the semester. 

I hope this helps,

Lee Zane

Rider University

If I can add something to the valuable contributions posted so far, I would add that for an introductory course of entrepreneurship as you mention, I would try to make all the possible to show the students what is the entrepreneurial career path. Normally, my objective is not to ask them to develop a business idea, instead, I try to show them what entrepreneurship is and that it could be a viable career choice. There are many of the 50% students you mentioned that want to work in a company that don't understand what exactly is to work in a company and could have a wrong perception of what means to be an entrepreneur.

In the very beginning of the course, I take these 50% and split them into two groups. The first half have to raise all the reasons why they don't want to follow an entrepreneurial career. The other half I ask to raise all the advantages of the executive career. The other 50% I also split into two groups. The first group has to raise all the disadvantages of the executive career and the second group has to list all the reasons they want to be an entrepreneur. After 20 mins discussions, each of the four groups present their lists and a very rich discussion starts among themselves, each of them defending their point of view. You will see that after this class, all of them have a more clear vision of the both sides and eventually change sides.

To those who still wants to work in a company I explain them some fundamentals of corporate entrepreneurship, clarifying that they can become intrapreneurs. Being this the case, they would still need to develop a project to present to their bosses and get approval to be implemented inside the corporation and use this as their career ladder. They will conclude that no matter the career path they choose, they will always need to develop their entrepreneurial soft skills and implement high impact projects (not necessarily business projects). By the time you ask them to develop their ideas, you will see that both, intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs, will be equally motivated.

Regarding the quality of their ideas, don't worry, it happens a lot with undergrad students. They are not mature and experienced enough to have great ideas. Their mental repository is very limited to make good connections in that age. I would suggest you not to kill their ideas. They will realize that the idea is not good by themselves, hopefully before the end of the course. You can speed this process up by exposing their ideas to peer scrutiny. The student present his/her idea to the class and the other students should raise all the idea potential flaws. Peer comments use to be easier to be accepted but the student than professor's critics. I call this exercise The Devil's Advocate session. Sometimes, a bad idea inspires them to jump to the next idea, and the next, improving and testing, until they finally develop a great idea, most of the time, after the College, so don't get frustrated. We are only the sowers, we should not expect them to flourish during the College term. I only see the fruits of my seeds years after their graduation, when I open a newspaper or a business magazine and see them being interviewed as successful entrepreneurs.

Reinforcing Sengupta's words, the Millennials are very difficult to deal with. They come to the College full of ideas and excessive self confidence. They feel themselves as they are already winners. They are not used to fail or get frustrated. Not only the administration but it seems that the whole society and family support them. As an educator, I try to raise these emotions at my course so they won't suffer that much when they face the first barriers and difficulties with their own businesses, but to reach this stage, I have to gain their confidence and trust before. They have to respect and honor you in order to get ready to learn what life is outside. For me, it never happens in the first year, but as an elective at the fourth year, when they already know me and are ready to learn real lessons. In conclusion, in the first year I give a very inspirational course, I make them (or at least most of them) to love entrepreneurship and when I meet them again I show them the hard side (sometimes the dark side) of entrepreneurship. After this, if he/she stills keeps the intention to become an entrepreneur, than I know he/she will have more chances to be successful.

I hope this helps. Let me know If you have additional questions, I would be glad to contribute.

Marcos Hashimoto

Faccamp Business School

Brazil

Date: May 25, 2015 at 4:03:03 AM EDT

Thanks John. I prefer you post the below message anomalously for me. I appreciate your help and hope this can be useful to other people facing similar problems. Best regards.

 

Dear Colleagues,

I'm teaching two sections (one online and one onsite) of Entrepreneurship at a State University in the College of Business. The University is open enrollment.  The students have not had any course on Entrepreneurship so far. The College mission highlights experiential learning, thus entrepreneurship is compatible with that mission. However, I have been struggling on conveying the concept of entrepreneurship. About 50% of the students want to work for a company and have no interest in being an Entrepreneur.

I have found opposition from some students, especially when it is required that they formulate their own business idea. I have a process perspective in which students go on collecting information and at the same time they change their idea accordingly. However, some students feel entitled to their ideas before they even collect information, and sometimes their ideas don't really make sense. I found that going against them is a dangerous path as they complaint with administration that the instructor don't respect other people's ideas.  Since students here are very temperamental and the administration seem to support them, I really don't know what to do as my tenure and job position can be at stake.

Have anyone else had this issue and what would you suggest I do? I was thinking in the following options:  1. let them go with their ideas even if they don't make sense, and once they have the feedback from venture capitalists, then I can suggest improvement.  2. I can tell them the feedback but leave the door open so they can proceed as they wish. 3. Assign them projects that require them to make suggestions for an existing business (consultant role) instead of letting them propose their ideas freely.  4 Other (please explain which)

If you have any suggestions about the materials and/or methodology for teaching entrepreneurship for this type of students, I would really appreciate your advice.

************************************** 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!

• Issue 1: Delivery of relevant materials to a bi-modally "motivated" students:  Those that seek entrepreneurship, and those that seek traditional employment. 
• I interpret your question as implying that you are teaching one course, which is perhaps either the ONLY course in entrepreneurship at your institution, or is the first in a very brief series of offerings.  This makes a difference, because in a single course,  it is difficult to engage students with more than a survey approach;  familiarity, but not sufficient time to develop skills.  Your expectations may have to be tailored to the constraints (class size, general ability of students, other courses, pre-requisite's, etc.)
• Approximately 15 years ago, someone from Southern California (I seem to think it was from San Diego or UCLS (possibly) Santa Barbara) who posted on a website their argument that we are performing an injustice by focusing on entrepreneurship and debating what constitutes entrepreneurship; we should be focusing on entrepreneurism.  He made a very logical argument that resonated within my soul (I had 7 businesses), that we should not be focusing on the concept, topic or person; we should be focusing on the process, the underlying attitudes, behaviors, or actions.  I heartily apologize that I no longer have the citation [lost in a total system crash in 2006, and in spite of repeated searches, am unable to find it], but the idea is that the attitudes and behaviors (think innovative behavior, risk-taking within the parameters of control, impassioned commitment, etc.), at it is very easy to present the concepts as serving entrepreneurs as well as organizations.  As one of the respondents indicated, corporations also seek this behavior, but most students don't know this!
• Tie this to the studies that show what employers are looking for. 
• Tie the educational objectives to both (e.g., either a table or a forked flow chart) showing the "value-added" by understanding the conceptual processes. (for instance, I would much rather hire an entrepreneurship student that has successfully completed a course of study (understanding how every aspect of a small business is interrelated to the others) as a project manager that a student that had a course in project management, but otherwise took a generic business program.
• The process of driving a vehicle is virtually identical in the U.S. as in Great Britain;  just from another "perspective." 
• For most students that I've worked with internationally, there may be a dream of "striking it rich," but I've found that 95% are seeking a combination of independence and economic stability.  Most scholars here call that self-employment, most persons in other countries call that entrepreneurship.
• Develop a reasonable set of deliverables and assessment methodology that can accommodate both types of students, and have this clearly spelled out.   Given the "open enrollment," your distribution on abilities will vary greatly. 
• Issue 2:  Two forms of delivering the same course (matching sections)
• At our institution, there is an expectation of the content being similar (same core requirements, content inclusions, assessment methodologies, etc.), with the difference being in delivery methods.  While we have not been doing on-line education as long (or necessarily as well) as others, we have found that students communicate with each other far better than with us;  If it works to their advantage, they're silent.  If it works to their disadvantage, they scream to Administration.  For this simple reason, it's less problematic to go to the extra work to parallel the courses before they go live. 
• I have found it very helpful to offer "face-to-face" students access to the on-line materials, and on-line students a welcome to attend physical classes.  This has been most helpful to students who had to travel, or in some cases, were mobilized for military service.  This is also a GREAT way to give students access to practice quizzes.
• Guest speakers (as suggested by another) is a great vehicle for short injections.  This can be paralleled with on-line video sources (Stanford and Cornell both have exceptional videos on line, and I've also used PBS's series effectively.)
• Conceptual issues that might help bridge between the bi-modal motivation
• Many programs seek a "business plan" as the principal deliverable.  What about using a combination of feasibility (business concept and the individual) and viability (the ability for it to be economically self-supporting) as the two principal deliverables?  Whether one works for themselves, ABB, Ikea, or 3M, or GM, project proposals need to address the same issues; business idea, worthiness of the champion to the task, understanding the market, and having a revenue model.   
• I use a 3-way assessment of conceptual plans: My assessment as the instructor, a small panel of entrepreneurs (one is an incubator administrator, one a serial entrepreneur, the third an "investor"), and lastly, a peer-review system.  Within the peer review, students are not assessed on whether or not they "liked" the plan, but how thoroughly the conceptual plan addressed the necessary elements.  One evaluation question I generally use (that makes them very uncomfortable) is asking whether they are willing to work for 2 years at no salary, only to bring the idea to fruition.  (Almost all say no.)  Then I ask if they would work for minimum wage for 1 year, however, they would have to sign over 60% ownership, and at the end of the year we would negotiate their salary.    There are very creative ways to challenge students, and I find that they become engaged if they know ahead of time what is expected of them.

Dr. Emeric Solymossy  (Dr. E.)

Fulbright Senior Specialist: Technology Transfer (Argentina, 2010)

Fulbright-Hall Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship for Central Europe (2008-2009)
Professor of Entrepreneurship, Ethics, and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Management</st1:placename> - <st1:placename w:st="on">Western</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Illinois</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> - Quad Cities
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