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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | OCTOBER 10, 2000 MANAGEMENT "Entrepreneurs Are Both Born and Made" The University of Maryland's Bob Baum talks about a new program that teaches undergraduates how to launch a startup
Now undergraduates are getting in on the game, too. This fall, the University of Maryland at College Park launched a program to teach juniors and seniors the art of launching a startup. The college offers seminars on small-business basics, and the program is housed in a remodeled dorm complete with a high-tech work space. So far, 84 students have enrolled. Called Hinman CEOs Program, it's a joint effort of the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business and Clark School of Engineering. It was named for alum Brian Hinman, who donated more than $1 million for the project. Business Week Online's Julie Fields recently caught up with Bob Baum, the program's co-director. Here are excerpts of their conversation: Q: Why did you feel this was the right time to introduce entrepreneurship to undergrads? A: The undergraduates today are more accepting and more interested in business success than they had been in the past, and so they're just attracted to the whole notion of making money. But then the other thing that's at work, too, is that in this region, we have a powerful new interest in entrepreneurship. A lot of Web-site businesses have come out of four or five of the large companies in this area, including AOL and MCI. Q: So, the Internet was a big factor in starting the Hinman CEOs Program? A: Absolutely. Q: What's the real goal of your program? To give students a sense of what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Or to have them actually launch their own businesses? A: There are multiple goals. But I guess the sexy goal is, yes, we want to have these students start businesses. Q: Won't that distract from their other studies? A: Yes, and that's an issue. We're learning, and we're watching it carefully, because I know of a student who basically dropped out of his curriculum last year after he started a company, a Web site. Q: And what happened to him? A: He's still here, but he's hanging on by his thumbnails. So that happens, and we need to be careful about that. Q: What types of businesses are the students interested in starting? A: Most are Web sites, or Internet-related businesses. A few are similar to Old Economy companies, but that's really a minority. Q: What are some examples? A: A number of them are very student-oriented, since that's what they know best. For example: "Use our Web site to order dinner tonight." There are some that offer research services to students. And we have a number that envision embellishing things like the golf industry. We like them to think very hard about the quality of the businesses that they start. Delivering pizza is kind of a cool business, but it's not a high-potential business. And if you're an engineer, it certainly does not use your skills. Q: There was so much euphoria over the Internet earlier this year. How has the shakeout affected the students? Have they been discouraged at all? A: Even while the euphoria was going on and we were in the midst of the bubble or balloon or whatever you want to call it, everybody was saying this can't last, including students. So I don't think it has made a difference in their dreams of creating a company. Q: What's the difference between your program and those teaching entrepreneurship at the MBA level? A: On the curriculum side, the MBA courses are very similar to the undergraduate courses in terms of subject matter, but they are much deeper and slightly more theoretical. There's no doubt that we deliver deeper frameworks to the MBA so that they can go to work for venture capitalists and financial firms right out of school. Q: The program is housed in Garrett Hall, where many of the Hinman CEO students live. What makes that dorm different from others on campus? A: The opportunity to use the special wiring and technology that Lucent gave us. Everyone in the dorm has very-high-speed data lines to their rooms, and there are conference rooms that are part of the Hinman program that offer them big video-conferencing screens and a whole lot of workstations with computers. Q: What are the qualities that make students good entrepreneurs? A: Well, first of all, if you had the answer to that question you could write an academic paper that would win awards everywhere. Q: In your experience, then? A: We're trying to figure out the answer to that question. However, there are some personal theories I have, and that many others have. I guess the first is strictly motivation. You have to have strong intentions to want to start a company, and it seems to help if you've worked in one, or had a family member who had one. If, however, someone is just doing this because it's kind of cool right now, then they usually lose interest. Q: How do you teach somebody to be an entrepreneur? A: This is always debated. I think that entrepreneurs are both born and made. Tenacity and an ability to hear somebody say, "No, it won't work" -- those are personality traits that seem to appear across a great variety of entrepreneurs. Bill Gates and Larry Ellison, all of these guys that have built world-class companies went through some pretty amazing failures early on. But then there are some things that they have learned, and this is where I say that education can do some good. It's my belief that if we can present these stories in a framework that is meaningful to students, we can help them learn that they've got to identify their customers, talk to their customers, and find out what it is they really want. I mean, you don't just get your million dollars and rent your space and buy computers and go online. It doesn't work. Q: Is mentoring part of the program? A: Yes, it is. These are two kinds: real practitioners that basically donate their services and some MBAs that will, for a fee, mentor undergrads. Q: What types of things do they learn from these mentors? A: They learn answers to really basic questions: Should I be incorporated? How do you write a business plan? How do you do a market study? Q: What about funding? Are some of the students looking for seed capital now? A: It's a continuous thing here -- the search for money. I don't know how much they've raised. Some of them just need three or four or five thousand dollars. Then some of them need $50,000. Q: Are angel investors wary of funding businesses started by undergraduates? A: No. And you know why? Most of them expect to give not just money but extra help, too. It's kind of interesting to work with undergraduates. They're more flexible. They haven't been shot down so many times that they lose their emotional strength.   | | |
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