|
Preparing Scientists for the “Real World”
 Universities increasingly provide chemists with the knowledge to become entrepreneurs.
There was a time, not so long ago, when students who graduated from colleges and universities with either undergraduate or graduate degrees went to work for, and immediately became engulfed in, large corporations. The prevailing rule of thumb in most industries was that M.B.A.s would manage the business while Ph.D.s would manage the science.
In today’s corporate environment, however, large companies routinely spin off new organizations dedicated to novel scientific applications, with the appropriate management decisions made not by business leaders, but by the scientists themselves. In addition, increasing integration of commercial industries and academic research centers are providing students with previously unimaginable opportunities to create, patent, and market new scientific technologies; develop venture capital; and, ultimately, launch new businesses.
As a result, success in the corporate world requires an understanding of managerial, financial, and legal concepts. Unfortunately, most academic institutions rarely provide an opportunity for their technical students to develop such skills. Recently, though, several schools have recognized this need and are rapidly discovering novel ways to incorporate opportunities for entrepreneurial experience into their already rigorous technical curricula.
The Ivy League Model
Modern-day “captains of industry” have largely been the product of M.B.A. programs offered by prestigious institutions such as the Harvard Business School (HBS). In fact, the HBS model is followed by most academic business centers throughout the United States. With course topics that incorporate leadership, finance, marketing, and management, students who graduate from the HBS are among the best prepared leaders in the corporate world.
Unfortunately for scientists and engineers, the HBS curriculum is not open to just anyone; only HBS enrollees may participate in these classes, a common situation at most American business schools. Only in rare instances are introductory courses made available to graduate students pursuing technical degrees, and undergraduates are almost uniformly excluded from the management courses that could help them excel in their employment efforts and assist them in advancing their career choices.
To combat this dearth of business topics available to scientifically focused students, many schools offer some form of “entrepreneurship club”. For example, since 1994, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has offered a student-run, faculty-sponsored club that routinely brings alumni and outside speakers to the university to discuss aspects of, and provide strategic advice for, developing new business opportunities. In addition, the club provides a means for its members to gain experience in running a business by arranging for their participation in the management of local start-up companies. Further, the club affords the students significant networking possibilities through informal meetings with venture capitalists, patent attorneys, chief executives, and other experienced corporate leaders.
Model Alternatives
In terms of providing detailed, sophisticated introductions to entrepreneurship for students, however, three schools are leading the way. The University of Arizona (UA) is one of the first universities to offer an undergraduate major in entrepreneurship and one of the only ones to allow engineering and natural science students to participate in it as an elective concentration. The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) offers a “certificate of entrepreneurship” for both undergraduates and graduates in scientific disciplines, and Rice University provides an in-depth, hands-on experience that invites students to sort out the complexities of bringing a new technology to market.
The UA program is offered only to undergraduate students who have just completed their regular course of study at the university. Essentially, the curriculum, which begins immediately after spring commencement, involves two semesters of hands-on and coursework training in the areas of management, business development, finance, marketing, and corporate strategy. Beginning in the summer session, students work independently to create business plans for new ventures. Then, during the fall, half of the plans are chosen for development, with the students paired into teams that work toward their implementation. At the end of the fall session, a group of experts, composed of alumni, regional and national business leaders, venture capitalists, and others from within the university community, judge the competing corporate “blueprints”, providing crucial feedback to the participants.
In its program, Georgia Tech offers a somewhat different approach in that, after completing an extensive series of classes, it provides a certificate of accomplishment for undergraduate engineering and graduate-level scientists. Specifically, the undergraduate curriculum includes 12 semester hours of introductory coursework, while the graduate program requires that students complete a core series of management courses (10 in all) in addition to the entrepreneurship classes offered to the undergraduates. In contrast to the UA approach, however, Georgia Tech offers no direct, hands-on experience. Still, the university maintains that its curriculum prepares students to work “as self-employed individuals, as members of new and/or small businesses, or as members of larger firms that practice entrepreneurial management.”
An Enhanced Blend
Beginning three years ago, under the direction of chemistry and materials science professor Andrew R. Barron, Rice University began offering a program jointly conducted by the Weiss School of Natural Sciences, the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. This program is an enhanced blend of the UA and Georgia Tech approaches: It is open to undergraduates and graduates alike, combines both hands-on training and coursework exposure, is completed in just two semesters, and can be taken as an elective during the normal academic process. However, distinct from the other programs, the Rice experience also allows students to participate in a one-time case study that involves a real technology.
In the first-semester course, outside specialists and Rice faculty cooperatively team-teach a series of “modules” that introduce fundamental concepts of accounting, marketing, organization theory, business strategy, intellectual property rights, and corporate organization. During this phase of the program, students are encouraged to participate through group discussions and case studies, while the lecture topics themselves often follow their interests, motivations, and desires, rather than a more traditional “textbook” approach.
The second semester course has some components in common with the UA program but pushes students further toward the development of a specific product-based business. Initially, students are presented with a new technology to consider developing. The inventor, who may be the owner of an outside company or is a university researcher interested in spinning off an idea, makes the presentation. Teams consisting of three or four students then consider the viability of the novel technology. This is accomplished by conducting patent searches, considering potential competitors, studying marketing approaches, and determining possible business strategies. In an effort to assist them in their deliberations, speakers with expertise in venture capital, business structuring, and patent law are brought in to meet with the teams.
Once a superficial evaluation of the concept is complete, students are asked to develop a business plan for a new application of the technology, an application that they themselves must propose. Then, while still in teams, they conduct patent searches, (limited) marketing surveys, and capital analyses, and, ultimately, develop the framework for the creation of a new venture.
Because of its unique tie-in with real technical inventions, the Rice program, while making no guarantees, does offer students the possibility of an in-class project developing into a real-world opportunity. Last year, in fact, students proposed using a technology initially designed to measure human blood sugar levels to conduct oil pipeline analyses. As a result of the students’ combined efforts, the owner company asked them to join it in spinning off the new application. Although this may not prove to be the norm, participants will leave each year with an understanding of ways to turn technical possibilities into business probabilities. Further, with a new technology presented each year, students have the unique opportunity to work through problems no one has previously considered and for which no “correct” answer exists.
Endless Opportunities
Given today’s business world, technically trained students are increasingly likely to work for start-up companies, develop their own ventures, or be employed by large firms that routinely spin off technology groups. As a result, students have a keen interest in learning the skills necessary to excel in this corporate climate and to use their scientific expertise in novel ways. Thus, there is increased pressure on universities to find the means for meeting their students’ evolving needs.
Of the three curriculum-based models discussed, only the Rice program offers undergraduate and graduate students alike a significant benefit without requiring a significant investment of time. It is similar to many business school offerings in terms of its case-study approach, but it also differs in that it considers cases that have no certain outcome. Subsequently, students take ownership of their ideas and struggle with the possibilities of those very ideas in realistic ways.
The UA model, while lacking a graduate-level component, is of great value because it offers a degree in entrepreneurship. Although Georgia Tech offers a solution to this deficiency, it also pushes its students into an extensive collection of courses that may not easily be accommodated by graduate students facing other significant degree requirements. Unfortunately, though, neither of these programs is sharply focused on developing technical opportunities.
All three programs, however, and to some extent the more traditional entrepreneurial clubs, offer students the ability to develop, even if only superficially, the business skills that can help them advance their careers. Ultimately, they help students develop the contacts and knowledge to turn their bright benchtop ideas into even brighter commercial successes.
Further Reading
Cullen T. Vogelson is an assistant editor of Today’s Chemist at Work. Send your comments or questions regarding this article to tcaw@acs.org or the Editorial Office 1155 16th St N.W., Washington, DC 20036. |
