St. Thomas To Open Entrepreneurship School
The University of St. Thomas' tiny College of Business in Minneapolis wants to become an entrepreneurial powerhouse, on a similar scale as Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. On June 16, the college broke ground on a $22 million building to house its new Schultz School of Entrepreneurship.

"By having a separate school [dedicated to entrepreneurship] within the College, it doesn't dilute its activity," says College of Business Dean Christopher Puto. "People can stay focused on advancing the cause of entrepreneurship."

The new site in downtown Minneapolis was made possible by a $50 million gift given by Best Buy (BBY ) founder Richard Schultz and his wife in 2000. The building is slated to open in September, 2005.

Along with the new school, St. Thomas can now offer entrepreneurship as a concentration within its quickly growing MBA program. (The school expects to enroll at least 45 full-time MBAs in September, vs. 28 in 2003.) Puto also recruited two rookie entrepreneurship professors from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. To cushion its small-business knowledge base, the Schultz School will host an entrepreneur-in-residence every semester, someone who's "already got it going" and can step away from work to give MBAs one-on-one advice, Puto says. Schultz also will be available to meet with students at the company headquarters and when he's on campus.

Puto says the College will host a new business-plan competition in the next year, awarding as much as $70,000 to winners on a regular basis, the kind of money businesses really need to get started, he says. With that kind of cash, and a hefty investment in start-up wisdom, the College hopes budding entrepreneurs will give them a second glance.

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A New MBA Comes to Deutschland

Just when German mangers thought they'd seen enough education, another executive MBA program is toeing the line. Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and Frankfurt University's Goethe Business School are launching a joint executive-MBA program. The 22-month program, dubbed the Duke Goethe Executive MBA, will award graduates with MBA degrees from both Duke and Goethe.

Classes are set to begin in May, 2005, and the schools expect to enroll between 45 and 60 MBAs. The program is aimed at Germans and others living in surrounding countries.

At first glance, a joint B-school program looks like a tough nut to crack. Schools in Europe say that recruiting full-time MBA students from Germany remains a struggle. Many MBA-aged professionals already have a master's degree and don't see the value of getting a B-school stamp. But Ulrich Winkler, managing director of the Goethe Business School, says the executive-MBA market is a different story. "We have around 30 commitments from companies...to send students to the program," he says. "And we're confident this will keep coming." Fortunately, there's not much competition from nearby schools.

Duke professors will teach two-thirds of the initial classes, but Goethe isn't worried that MBAs will feel as if they're being spoon-fed an American point of view. The professors may be from Durham [N.C.], Winkler says, but they've got international experience, have taught across cultures in Fuqua's existing executive-MBA programs, and they'll have back-up from German professors.

Duke already runs a cross-continent MBA program that combines online learning with in-person classes at Duke's Durham campus and in Frankfurt. The Duke Goethe Executive MBA is the school's latest strategy to forge partnerships with a few business schools around the globe in the next five years. Goethe certainly fits the bill, but administrators are hoping that that execs, and the companies that pay for their program, see value in the degree, which costs around $56,500 (46,500 euros).

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Saving Lives in China

Executive MBAs studying at IMD visited Shanghai in late May as part of the school's required, week-long Discovery Expeditions program. In a new segment to the program called Beyond Business, the MBAs came face-to-face with non-business issues affecting locals.

One group of MBAs visited with a doctor who performs heart surgeries on children. Dr. Chun Chen's work is mostly funded by the provisional Rotary Club of Shanghai's Gift of Life project, but the MBAs realized that extra money could help more sick children. "There are 75,000 new cases in China of children who need cardiac surgery to survive," says MBA Ron Kesselmans, 40. Dr. Chen is able to treat just 200 of them.

The students donated $6,000 to fund at least two more heart surgeries for underprivileged children in China. Kesselmans says he and his classmates are looking into additional projects that could help the heart surgeon and her young patients.

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