New noncredit program will teach business fundamentals
and provide insight to faculty, graduate students
Each year hundreds of University research ideas and scientific breakthroughs are commercialized, resulting in patented inventions, technology agreements and a handful of business startups.
With the help of a new program offered by the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and its Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, perhaps even more ingenuity will translate into commercial success.
The MBA Essentials and Entrepreneurship program, beginning January 2009, is designed to provide U-M’s innovative thinkers in all fields with business fundamentals and entrepreneurial insight.
The seven-week program is open to faculty and graduate students, U-M Health System residents and interns, and others at the University who hold fellowships or other post-doctoral positions. Ross School faculty, graduate students and post-docs are not eligible.
“Given the volume of research at the University, we have a large number of specialists working on projects that have the potential for new products, new services, new businesses and new forms of partnerships,” says George Siedel, the program’s faculty director and professor of business law at the Ross School.
Ross School Dean Robert Dolan says the program complements existing resources at the University that operate at the intersection of breakthrough ideas and commercialization.
“MBA Essentials and Entrepreneurship is an exciting addition to the University’s robust commitment to bringing creative ideas into the marketplace in the state of Michigan and beyond,” he says. “We’ve designed the content for people who can envision themselves developing an idea or starting a company at some point in the future.”
Participants in the noncredit program will attend class every Friday and Saturday beginning Jan. 9-March 7, with the exception of the last two weekends in February. Classes will run from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. each day.
There are two components to the Ross MBA Essentials and Entrepreneurship Program. The first component covers concepts, frameworks and tools from key first-year MBA core courses such as accounting, finance and marketing.
The second part, the entrepreneurial essentials, focuses on what it takes to develop, finance and launch a business. Topics covered will include idea generation and protection, commercialization, feasibility analysis, competitive landscape, finance, business planning, finding the right people and how to fund a new venture. Program participants are expected to commit to attending all sessions.
To apply for the program, go to www.bus.umich.edu/MBAEE; applications must be received electronically by 5 p.m. Oct. 17. For the inaugural 2009 session, all admitted participants will be provided financial support for program costs. Status of financial support will accompany notification of admission to the program on or about Nov. 5. For subsequent offerings, there will be a cost per participant in the range of $4,000-$5,000. Scholarship support for future sessions of the program will be announced at a later date.
A one-hour information session will be held at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 8 in Room E0530 of the Executive Residence. Contact Susan Slavin at [email protected] or 763-2376 for more information about this event.
