| Entrepreneurship Program |
Practitioners in organizations suggest there is a need for university graduates who can recognize and solve problems and subsequently implement solutions. Problems occur when newly hired graduates cannot identify problems and are weak in implementation skills. In addition practitioners suggest that new graduates can develop solutions to problems individually, but they have little experience in teamwork within these situations. The School of Business Administration offers a multidisciplinary program for students who wish to study entrepreneurship. The School of Business have courses that emphasize innovation and invention, but the integration of students from other schools offers realism and technical knowledge from the other disciplines.
Students from any major who is sincerely interested working on a project to bring a product or service to market are potential students. Each major in the University has technical knowledge to add to the general knowledge base of the class, whether this knowledge be in education, electronics, science, nursing, agriculture or any other discipline. The current curriculum consists of:
1) a concentration in entrepreneurship
within the management major
2) a certificate of entrepreneurship,
primarily for technical majors such as engineering or
3) a minor in entrepreneurship,
offered for arts and science majors
The courses in this curriculum utilize team based class assignments to encourage students to develop their innovative and creative capabilities. These teams work on projects of their own choosing. Faculty from various schools are involved in teaching and advising students
Each project would be developed by a team including non-business and business students. These teams would be developed around a team concept referred to as and E Team. The "E" is for "Excellence and Entrepreneurship." This concept was championed by the the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance which is based at Hampshire College in Amhearst, MA. Considerable advice and knowledge is drawn from this Hampshire College and the Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Southern California.
This program would be a two-year study beginning in the students' junior year. There would be no course prerequisites, but junior standing is strongly suggested. The program would ideally have equal numbers of non-business and business students.
The first course would be Innovation and Creativity (Management 305) and would be taught during fall semesters only. This course would teach fundamental business concepts with priority made for development of feasibility studies of new and innovative products or services. Existing organizations may initiate these studies. In the case of submissions from existing organizations, they may have identified the problems and need solutions, but the organization has not had time to devote to correcting the problems. In either case students develop feasibility plans to evaluate possible success of products, services or solutions to existing problems. Students would be assigned to teams based on their major within the University. No more than four students would be on a team and teams would include equal representation from the non-business areas and business students. Student teams would explore and expand the opportunities involved in these ideas concerning starting a business or solving a problem supplied by an existing business. The course would be open to all students, but students interested in the two-year program would be given preference for admission to the class. Team teaching by business and non-business faculty would be encouraged to help ensure the viability of products and services from a non-business standpoint. In the engineering curriculum, this might serve as a technical elective.
Ideally, the first course (Management 305) would involve faculty traveling with students to trade shows to help the students generate ideas for products and services. Also, there would be visits to classes by innovators and inventors within the local area. Other speakers from distant sites would speak to the class via interactive distance learning equipment. These speakers may become involved in mentor roles which will be mention later. A possible outcome of this course would be an exposition of the products and services the students have developed. Provisional patents may be suggested or required before these products are displayed. Funding for these activities would need to come primarily from sources outside the University.
The second course would be Entrepreneurship, Management 306, and would be taught spring semester only. Students would again work in teams (three or four students) composed of business and non-business students. This course would use the best of the feasibility studies from Innovation and Creativity (Management 305) to map success steps and develop business start-up plans. The course would center on developing the students' entrepreneurial skills. Students would be expected to develop an effective team to formulate budgets, prepare financial documents, create a marketing plan, and plan for growth. The teams would complete the course with a viable business plan, entrepreneurial strategies, and vision for success. If a project from an existing organization was selected, the team must integrate the product or process into the organization. A secondary goal for the class would be to encourage students to participate in the second year of the program.
This second course would need the involvement of primarily School of Business Administration faculty, but they would need support of the faculty from non-business areas that are involved in the product (engineering, computer science, nursing, agriculture, etc.). Also, involvement with business executives, both active and retired, would be strongly encouraged. These executives would bring a wealth of ideas, experience, and encouragement to the course. The executives may serve as mentors to the teams or as speakers to the whole class. Development of this cadre of executives is underway with involvement of the networks of the faculties of the University. Also, contacts with Corporate Relations within the Office of Development at UT Knoxville enhance this group of business executives.
Between the second and third courses the students are encouraged to increase their knowledge and skills by working as interns with organizations who support the program. Contacts to develop these internships may be initiated by networks with executives involved as mentors or speakers in the program.
The third course would be a technical elective taught within a non-business school within the University and would be taught during fall semester. Products and services from the previous year would be refined. Production processes, product refinement, and fine tuning of the business plan would occur with intent of developing a product that can be patented or a service that can be copyrighted. Teams would do all the work and preferably each team would be a mixture of business students and non-business students. Iterative processes of product development utilizing scientific method would be the central themes of the faculty of the non-business area who teach this class. Involvement of the faculty from the School of Business would be supportive of the students' efforts as they refine the business plans for the products. Business students might be allowed to use this course to satisfy the requirements for laboratory science (due to the iterative nature of the process emphasizing scientific method). Outcomes of this class would include development of prototypes of products and services capable of generating patents and copyrights. Development of prototypes and filing for patents and copyrights by students would be encouraged. The eventual outcome would be intellectual property owned by the students on the team.
The fourth course would be a capstone course for both engineering and business students. In this course the final preparations for starting a business would be made. In projects developed within existing business, plans would be initiated by the team to integrate the process within the organization. From a business standpoint, careful consideration would be devoted to competition, marketing, financing, management and legal consequences. From an technical standpoint students would examine the effectiveness, efficiency, and cost of the new product, process or service. Non-business students would also emphasize implementation of the manufacture of the product, process or service. As in previous courses, team teaching and student teams would be the main emphasis. Due to accreditation requirements students would register for independent study classes in the non-business schools, but they would be graded on their performance in the teams. Investment by donors and supporters of the program would be encouraged within a system that would encourage full or partial ownership of the patents and copyrights by students.
Involvement of executives from organizations would be encouraged with the teams in both the third and fourth courses. Within the School of Business some of the courses might substitute for Business Policy, Management 490.
The overall objectives of the program would be for student teams to:
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