Multi-University Design-based Collaborative A challenge facing many entrepreneurship programs is not just encouraging new business formation, but new business formation and economic development within the immediate geographic market served by the university.
Thirty-six students from Syracuse University, Cornell University and the University of Rochester came together this past fall to work together in a charrette -- sometimes called a design charrette -- which is an intense, design-based collaborative project. Charrettes serve as a way of quickly generating a design solution through collaborative work, integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people. The thirty-six students, all from various disciplines, schools and colleges, were split into six interdisciplinary teams.
The idea for an entrepreneurial collaboration of the three universities came from Neil Tarallo, assistant professor of clinical entrepreneurship at SU's
Whitman School of Management, who had once been an entrepreneur in the Ithaca area. The charrette was called "Work/Play/Stay".
"The entrepreneurship programs at these three institutions were looking for a way to partner on an initiative of common interest," says Bruce Kingma, associate provost for entrepreneurship and innovation at SU, whose office facilitates the Enitiative program. "We anticipate this being a first step in an upstate entrepreneurship partnership that will impact the Upstate New York economy."
Recent statistics show that only 10 percent of SU graduates stay in the region, with Cornell University and University of Rochester facing similar problems, says Kingma. The University of Rochester reports that about 13 percent of the Class of 2008 remained in the region, while so far 26 percent of the Class of 2009 have reported remaining. Other local higher ed institutions show significantly higher retention rates: Monroe Community College—75 percent; SUNY College at Brockport—90 percent; SUNY Geneseo—42 percent; and Wells College—75 percent. These numbers are taken from data collected over the past few years.
In between the work sessions, the students had the opportunity to hear guest lectures from various leaders across the Upstate New York region, including alumni from their universities, both those who stayed and those who left after graduation. Speakers include Dominic Robinson, chairman of 40 Below, and Jeremy Cooney, former chairman of ROC City Coalition, whose mission is focused on attracting, retaining and empowering the young adults of greater Rochester.
A short documentary was produced about the experience, which can be viewed
here. The documentary helps show how the process works.
Campus-based Consulting Business Campus-based businesses are becoming more and more common, as students run coffee shops, art galleries, snack kiosks, and tee shirt stores set up by universities to offer their students opportunities for experiential learning. Most campus-based business programs focus on undergraduate students.
McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada has taken the campus-based business model into their graduate business program.
Focus Business Consulting (FBC) is an MBA-student-run company that provides consulting services, specializing in strategy development and execution, business planning, and marketing services to companies of all sizes.
The students in FBC come from a diverse set of backgrounds, and have access to experienced industry and academic professionals. Canadian businesses are increasingly looking for new ways to become more environmentally friendly as more and more consumers favor green initiatives, and FBC has recently found itself working with this new business trend.
Founded in 2005, FBC has grown each year with the increasing successes of the company. Instead of pursuing a co-op with an external business, a group of senior DeGroote MBA students choose to run the consulting company as entrepreneurs for one year. This choice pays off in more ways than one, as FBC earned nearly $200,000 in 2008.
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