Those Who Do,
Teach!
Those Who Do, Teach; Forget The Ivory Tower Imagery. And Drop The Old Cliche That 'Those Who Can't Do, Teach.' From Entrepreneurship To Venture Funding, Even Research And Curriculum, Today's Business Schools Are Players In The Real Economy
Financial Post Business
Tue Oct 6 2009
Page: 28
By: Mark Anderson
Link to full text
An article on the value of business schools singles out the Sauder School of Business for its innovative method of introducing entrepreneurship at the undergraduate level.
The Sauder New Venture Design program brings together groups of three engineering students with three business students to form entrepreneurial teams. "The idea," says marketing professor Darren Dahl, who co-founded the program back in 2005, "is for the teams to come up with an idea for a new product, design and build a prototype, get a patent, raise venture capital, and bring the product to market as a new business. Along the way they get mentoring in market research, finance, patent law -- everything they need to start a successful business."
In 2005, one of the New Venture Design teams launched Energy Aware Technology Inc., which manufactures in-house displays to let building occupants know how much energy they're using at any given time, and how much it is costing them. The devices are even now being installed in the Olympic Village. In 2007, another Sauder design team came up with PeerFX, an online currency-exchange system that allows people and businesses to trade Canadian and U.S. dollars, while saving on bank transaction fees. The company is currently valued at more than $2 million.
