Making The Grade
Capitalizing on student interest, UK's MBA program now offers entrepreneur course

The Center for Entrepreneurship within UK's Gatton College of Business and Economics hopes to share in the new enthusiasm that spring semester always brings to campus – in this case, in the form of a new graduate course for second-year MBA students called "Entrepreneurship."

For the first time, the Gatton College is taking the leap into developing UK faculty research into viable businesses. Using a program designed by the Entrepreneurial Education Foundation, instructors Dean Richard W. Furst, Janet Holloway, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, and staff will guide small groups of MBA students through development of business plans for start-up companies derived from selected faculty research programs.

"We thought the time was right to at least experiment with using MBAs to help some of these researchers develop business plans," says Dean Furst. "We're going to identify a limited number of research projects that are underway that have great potential for commercial value. We have already met with three researchers, and they're all eager to take part in the program."

According to Furst, the need for this type of course is inherent in Governor Patton's challenge to higher education. The Governor wants to see a return on investment in university research in the form of spin-off companies and economic development initiatives. In addition, student interest points to entrepreneurial activity as a burgeoning area, given the current career marketplace.

"We are working in a very exciting area," Furst says. "The University has not figured out a way to do this before – the lack of economic activity at Coldstream is evidence of our lack of success. Until now, in order to take bright ideas and make them into viable commercial concepts, people have had to leave the University, or in other cases, the rights to develop the research ideas into commercial products are sold to out-of-state companies.

"Universities like MIT are well-known for developing businesses within a university setting. We don't do it well. One reason is that we have never had the correct infrastructure in place. We have also tried to do it without understanding the need for capital. Most universities that have had success in this area have either developed their own venture capital fund or have developed close ties to one or more venture capital funds. We've never done that here."

The course will be limited to a maximum of 12 MBA students. Business plan development will be the core, with supplemental topics to include initial public offerings (IPO), venture capital sourcing, and mergers and acquisitions. Plans call for guest entrepreneurs from the community to share their experiences with the students and researchers.

But is entrepreneurship, like leadership, something you can really teach? According to Furst, all indications are yes.

"The foundation that developed this course addressed this issue early on. They came to the conclusion that you can teach successful entrepreneurs, because behind every success is a good business plan, and that's what this course focuses on.

"There's more than one possible outcome. One is that the research result has no commercial value. The second is that it has value, but we'd be better off selling the rights – it may not be possible for the University to develop the product. And of course the third possibility is what we're all hoping for – that we can take some of these and convert them into new start-up companies to be located here in Lexington and in the Commonwealth."

Like entrepreneurs the world over, Dean Furst and his colleagues know there are limits to even the best-laid plans.

"Since we've never done it, we don't know how successful we'll be," Furst admits, "but we figured it was about time we jumped off to see if we could swim."

Adam Bruns is a staff writer for The Lane Report.

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