Greater China Business School Academics are Learning Latest Entrepreneurial Teaching Methods at Babson College

WELLESLEY, Mass., March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Business school academics from Greater China's most elite universities are gathering March 11-24 at Babson College in Wellesley, MA, to learn the #1 entrepreneurship school's signature Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® teaching method.

Teaching Entrepreneurial Thought & Action is a 12-day program designed by Babson faculty to help 60 professors from 24 business schools in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore prepare current and future generations of their business leaders for a world that - more than ever - demands entrepreneurial activity to revitalize global economies. This is the first faculty development program designed to provide Chinese educators with the tools to develop business leaders who create Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™.

"Traditional educational programs no longer meet the needs of today's Chinese managers, who are facing increased levels of change and uncertainty," said John Chen, Vice President, Asia Pacific/Special Assistant to the President at Babson College. "Teaching Entrepreneurial Thought & Action provides a new logic and framework through which top-tier educators can support Chinese business leaders in their drive to transform business models."

Babson's ETA® participants learn how to:

• Transform business ideas into opportunities that create both social and economic value.
• Embrace uncertainty to create new products, services, markets, and organizations, which generate job, income, and other social benefits to communities, countries, and the world.
• Build a portfolio of techniques to help students engage in Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. The method goes beyond understanding, knowing, and talking, and requires action, application, and practice.
• Cultivate entrepreneurs at every level of a business organization.

Program Topics

• The philosophy of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action
• Components of an academic entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Entrepreneurial identity
• Idea generation
• Design thinking
• Opportunity identification and evaluation
• Market tests
• Business models
• Business planning versus feasibility planning
• Building entrepreneurial teams
• Managing growing businesses
• Financing entrepreneurial ventures
• Corporate entrepreneurship
• New venture creation
• Social entrepreneurship
• Family enterprising
• Tolerating and learning from failure

Process Topics

• The evolution of teaching entrepreneurship
• Teaching entrepreneurship as a method
• Becoming an entrepreneurial teacher
• Teaching with cases
• Using experiential exercises/games in the classroom
• Practicing entrepreneurship through project-based learning
• Developing an entrepreneurial mindset among students
• Effective course development
• Managing the entrepreneurship classroom
• Building a classroom culture
• Cultivating your teaching style
• Classroom observation
• Reflective practice
• Curriculum development and design
• Technology in the classroom

The sessions consist of experiential exercises, case-based discussions, interactive lectures, group work, and project-based learning. All sessions are conducted in English.

Program Faculty
Teaching Entrepreneurial Thought & Action is taught by a team of faculty members whose field-based research, industry involvement, and teaching interests keep them on the cutting edge in their areas of specialization. The program design team is led by Heidi Neck, the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College, and Leonard A. Schlesinger, the president of Babson College, and other Babson faculty.

Candida Brush is a professor, the F.W. Olin Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship, and the chair for Babson's Entrepreneurship Division. She is well known for her pioneering research in women's entrepreneurship. She conducted the first and largest study of women entrepreneurs in the early 1980s, resulting in one of the earliest books on the topic. With four other researchers, she founded the Diana Project, a research consortium investigating women's access to growth capital internationally. Her research investigates resource acquisition, strategy, and financing of new ventures. She is the author of more than 90 articles published in many scholarly journals.

Les Charm is a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Babson, and has been a partner in the firm of Youngman & Charm since 1972. The firm specializes in directorship functions for firms owned and operated by entrepreneurs and in assisting companies that are experiencing operating and/or financial problems. From 1977 through 1990, he was chairman and president of a major distributor and specialty retail chain. He has taught throughout the world on a variety of topics regarding entrepreneurship and governance. He is on the President's Council at Babson, and is the recipient of the Appel Award for Entrepreneurship.

Patricia G. Greene is a professor of entrepreneurship at Babson, where she also is the President's Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship. Her current assignment is to lead the curriculum design team for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative. She previously served as provost at Babson, and before that as the dean of the Undergraduate School. Her research focuses on the identification, acquisition, and combination of entrepreneurial resources, particularly by women and minority entrepreneurs. She is a founding member of the Diana Project, a research group focusing on women and the venture capital industry.

Heidi Neck is the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson. As faculty director of the Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE), she passionately works to improve the pedagogy of entrepreneurship education because new venture creation is the engine of society. She has published numerous book chapters, research monographs, and refereed articles in such journals as Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, and International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education. Recognized for her contributions to innovative teaching and curriculum developments, she has received numerous awards including Babson's Deans' Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Angelo Santinelli is an experienced leader and innovator in creating business strategy, marketing, and delivering results. His more than 20 years of business experience covers a broad range of disciplines and responsibilities, including business development, strategic planning, M&A, IPO, private equity financing, customer service, all aspects of marketing, and international operations. He has served on numerous boards of directors participating in both audit and compensation committees, and is the founder of Dakin Management, a strategy consultancy focusing on small- to medium-sized businesses. He was previously a partner with North Bridge Venture Partners, where he began his investing career in 1998.

Leonard A. Schlesinger became Babson's 12th president on July 1, 2008, bringing to the College leadership experience in academia and industry. He formulated the conversations that led to the development of today's strategy, starting with a community-wide discussion and decisions around Babson's strategic direction. That work resulted in a strategy focused on Entrepreneurial Thought & Action as the core of Babson's distinctive expertise and culture; integrating social, environmental, economic responsibility, and sustainability into the core of the curriculum and educational experience; building a generation of leaders representing Entrepreneurship of All Kinds; and creating a Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Education to disseminate Entrepreneurial Thought & Action to the world through a network of educators and institutions.

Andrew "Zach" Zacharakis is the John H. Muller Jr. Chair in Entrepreneurship at Babson. His primary research areas include the venture capital process and entrepreneurial growth strategies. The editors of Journal of Small Business Management selected "Differing Perceptions of New Venture Failure" as the 1999 best article. His dissertation, The Venture Capital Investment Decision, received the 1995 Certificate of Distinction from the Academy of Management and Mr. Edgar F. Heizer, recognizing outstanding research in the field of new enterprise development. He has taught seminars to leading corporations, such as Boeing, Met Life, Lucent, and Intel.

About Babson
Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®. The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society--while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.

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SOURCE Babson College