USE OF AN ENTREPRENEUR’S BOOT CAMP AS A STUDENT OUTREACH MECHANISM Arvid C. Johnson, Dominican University, School of Business, 7900 W. Division St., River Forest, IL, 60305 708-524-6465; [email protected] ABSTRACT This paper reports on a day-long “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” held at Dominican University in April 2005. This event targeted providing non-business students (although business students were also welcome) with the fundamentals of the entrepreneurship process as well as an opportunity to interact with “real-life” entrepreneurs. Based upon attendee feedback and 20052006 pre-registration patterns, the Boot Camp successfully increased students’ knowledge of and interest in entrepreneurship – especially among non-business students. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY At Dominican University, many business students and virtually all non-business students take no course in entrepreneurship as part of their undergraduate curriculum. Moreover, informal surveys of alumni in several non-business majors indicate that the incidence of self-employment and business ownership is at least as high as among business majors. How can the University reach out to this constituency to provide them with at least some of the fundamentals of the entrepreneurship process (as a minimum) and/or to increase their likelihood of formal study of entrepreneurship (as a goal)? Dominican University’s day-long “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” – inaugurated in April 2005 – is one means of answering this question and meeting the need. By bringing together students, faculty, and entrepreneurs within the context of a four-component (morning plenary, core, afternoon plenary, and elective sessions) “Boot Camp” experience, students’ knowledge of and interest in entrepreneurship was substantially increased, based upon attendee feedback. In addition, 2005-2006 pre-registration results for the University’s introductory entrepreneurship course show that over 55% of students are non-business majors – substantially higher than the historical level of 20-30% and an all-time-record for the University! The morning keynote speaker focused on understanding, identifying, and overcoming paradigms as a source of creative inspiration and business opportunity. Students, then, attended four “Core Sessions” on the topics of “Basics of Getting Started” (entrepreneur-led), “Creativity & Innovation” (faculty-led), “Guerilla Marketing” (entrepreneur-led), and “Mastering Financials” (faculty-led). The afternoon (luncheon) keynote speaker discussed some of the ethical and business challenges associated with international business. The students, then, were able to choose two of four “Elective Sessions” in the afternoon: “Fashion Show Production” focus session (entrepreneur-led), “Franchising” focus session (entrepreneur-led), “Managing Cash” (entrepreneur-led), and “Opportunity Assessment” (faculty-led).

BACKGROUND Entrepreneurship Across the Curriculum In his recent article in Peer Review, (Hines, 2005) – in noting that many schools are experimenting with introducing entrepreneurship into their curricula – suggests that “a liberal arts education might be viewed as a metaphor for entrepreneurship” and, indeed, that “the fundamental elements of a liberal education are essential to the development of an ‘entrepreneurial mindset.”’ In the same issue, (Shaver, 2005) sees the relationship from the opposite (and complementary) perspective saying that “the ‘doing’ that is essential to entrepreneurship has something valuable to contribute to the ‘thinking’ that is fundamental to the liberal arts tradition.” At Dominican University, undergraduate entrepreneurship education consists of a single, introductory course that, until recently, had been offered once each academic year. (Since the Fall 2004 term, student demand has been high enough that the course is now offered two times each year.) This course is a required class only for students seeking a “management” concentration within the business administration major – and an elective for all other business and liberal arts students. Despite its elective status for non-business students, such students have historically comprised 20-30% of the classes’ enrollments – with students from Nutrition and Dietetics (Food Science), Fashion Design and Merchandising, and Graphic Design regularly electing to take the course. While only a small fraction of students in these majors take the entrepreneurship class, informal surveys of alumni in these majors indicate that their incidence of entrepreneurial activity is at least as high as among business alumni. Indeed, a recent study by the American Dietetic Association indicated that a large number of dieticians are self-employed at some point in their careers. [(Rogers, 2003)] As part of the School of Business’ strategic priority of Leveraging Entrepreneurship Across Dominican (LEAD), Dominican University has several initiatives planned to reach out to the large number of undergraduate students who have no formal exposure to entrepreneurship while at the University. The “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” is the first of these initiatives. “Boot Camps” for Entrepreneurs The concept of using a “Boot Camp”-like approach for personnel training and development in a business context was, perhaps, first suggested by (Carrison and Walsh, 1998) in their book, Semper Fi. In Entrepreneur America, (Ryan and Hise, 2001) describe Ryan’s “Boot Camp” for high-technology, start-up companies. Indeed, in the midst of the “dot-com” boom, articles about “Boot Camp”-oriented training sessions for entrepreneurs-in-the-making appeared regularly in publications such as Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In the university setting, (Weaver, Schoen, and Dorland, 2004) have used a “Boot Camp” format for outreach to science and technology professionals (and students) at Rowan University. Rowan University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship also uses this method to engage nonbusiness faculty. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has conducted a “Boot Camp” for junior faculty interested in minority and women’s entrepreneurship research. Several other

schools – including Southwest Michigan, Sonoma State University, and University of Maryland – have hosted “Boot Camps” for entrepreneurs; however, these have focused primarily on nonstudent constituencies. Howard University requires all incoming freshmen to enroll in a semester-long “Entrepreneurship Boot Camp,” which discusses the operation, management, and launching of businesses. Dominican University’s “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” differed from these approaches in focusing on providing business and non-business undergraduate students with an intensive, day-long exposure to the fundamentals of the Entrepreneurship process as well as an opportunity to interact with “real-life” entrepreneurs. This Boot Camp also differed from other student-oriented programs – notably, those at Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Southern Methodist University, and Vanderbilt University – in that the focus of these programs is more on assisting students with a business idea to exploit the opportunity, whereas the intent of Dominican’s program is outreach – i.e., increasing student interest in and knowledge of entrepreneurship. The Boot Camp was held on the University campus on a Saturday in April 2005 (the 23rd) and consisted of an experientially-oriented, 7-hour program with refreshments and materials provided to attendees at no charge. BOOT CAMP STRUCTURE AND CONTENT The structure and content of Dominican University’s “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” were developed in consultation with students enrolled in the Spring 2005 entrepreneurship class – 20% of whom were non-business majors. This not only helped to insure the relevance of the Boot Camp but also provided a ready and willing source of “owners” to assist in the promotion, recruitment, and operation of the event. In fact, one of these students – a Graphic Design major – worked with a professor from that department to develop the Boot Camp logo shown in Figure 1. This logo was used on all of the student-developed promotional materials, in the course materials developed for the Boot Camp, and on the T-shirts provided to attendees.

Figure 1 – Student-developed “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” logo. Boot Camp Structure The “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” had a four-component structure – morning plenary session, core sessions, afternoon plenary session, and elective sessions. The overall schedule for the day

is shown in Table 1. (The entrepreneurship class students felt that an 8am Saturday morning start time was consistent with the Boot Camp theme!) Time 08:00 – 08:15 08:15 – 09:30 09:30 – 12:30 12:30 – 13:30 13:30 – 15:00 15:00

Segment Continental Breakfast Morning Plenary Session Core Sessions Afternoon Plenary Session and Lunch Elective Sessions Adjourn

Location Dining/Social Hall Dining/Social Hall Break-out Rooms Dining/Social Hall Break-out Rooms

Table 1 – Overall Schedule for the “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” The morning and afternoon plenary sessions were led by successful entrepreneurs and served a visionary/motivational function within the context of the day’s activities. These sessions also provided a forum in which students, faculty, and entrepreneurs could interact informally over meals. The “core sessions” focused on providing an overview of the fundamentals of the entrepreneurship process. Attendees were divided into four approximately equally-sized groups for the core sessions. Each of these 45-minute sessions was repeated four times – with attendees cycling through all four sessions in the three-hour period. The “elective sessions,” then, allowed attendees to customize the Boot Camp to meet their specific needs and interests. Students could choose to attend any two out of the four elective sessions – each of which was repeated twice (45-minutes each). Attendees were provided with a binder that included biographies of the speakers/facilitators, copies of the presentations, and a copy of (Peabody, 2004). Boot Camp Content Several factors played a role in determining the content to be included in the Boot Camp. First and foremost, the material had to meet the Boot Camp’s objective of providing an introduction to the “fundamentals of the entrepreneurship process.” Second, subjects had to have the potential to be relevant and interesting to the attendees – i.e., undergraduate (including non-business) students, who (likely) had never taken a course on entrepreneurship. Third, there needed to be a sense of balance amongst the topics. (Maranville, 1992)’s suggestion of three broad objectives for entrepreneurship curricula were used as a guide in this regard: (1) exploring “the economic nature and role of entrepreneurship,” (2) study of “the principles of innovation,” and (3) understanding “the historical perspective” of entrepreneurship and innovation. Finally, appropriate speakers/facilitators had to be located and available. Morning Plenary Session: The morning plenary session focused on understanding, identifying, and overcoming paradigms as a source of creative inspiration and business opportunity – drawing heavily from (Barker, 1993). The speaker/facilitator was a “serial entrepreneur” with a long history of launching and growing innovation-based businesses – each of which provided examples to illustrate his key points. This session helped attendees to envision the possibilities/opportunities inherent in a situation and included a highly-interactive give-and-take between the entrepreneur and the attendees.

Core Sessions: Four core sessions formed the “heart” of the Boot Camp “curriculum”: • “Basics of Getting Started” – Led by an entrepreneur who had recently launched his own company, this session focused on the easily-overlooked “mechanics” of the start-up process – including incorporation, obtaining professional support (e.g., accountants, lawyers, insurance agents), and locating a business – as well as the challenges of planning, pricing, employees, and managing cash. • “Creativity and Innovation” – This faculty-led session used experiential learning methods to help attendees understand ways to unlock their creative potential and, then, turn that creative spark into a realized innovation. • “Guerilla Marketing” – This session was led by a consultant-practitioner with an entrepreneurial background and discussed the many low- or no-cost ways to generate “buzz” around a new product or company. • “Mastering Your Financials” – In this faculty-led session, students worked through a simple set of financial statements to understand their value and purpose – including how to use them to diagnose and avert problems. Afternoon Plenary Session: The entrepreneur who led the afternoon plenary session was responsible for the substantial growth of the equipment manufacturing company founded by his father. The success of this socially-responsible company was due, in large part, to its aggressive pursuit of international business opportunities. This session focused on the many challenges of doing business internationally for a small business – including ethical challenges. Elective Sessions: The four elective sessions afforded attendees the opportunity to “customize” the Boot Camp to meet their specific needs and interests. Two of the four sessions were designated as “focused sessions,” as described below: • “Managing Cash” – This session, led by a small-business banker, provided a more detailed look at cash management principles – building upon the coverage in the “Mastering Your Financials” and “Basics of Getting Started” sessions in the morning. • “Opportunity Assessment” – For those attendees who felt that they already had an idea/opportunity to work with, this faculty-led session provided an overview of the opportunity assessment process. • “Franchising” (Focused Session) – This focused session on franchising was facilitated by two entrepreneurs. One entrepreneur, who owns a franchise that helps prospective franchisees identify potential “fits” with franchise opportunities, provided an overview of how franchising works and how to identify franchises that meet one’s needs. The other entrepreneur is a successful franchisee who had made the “jump” from the airline industry and discovered his passion in men’s fitness. • “Fashion Show Production” (Focused Session) – An entrepreneur whose business in event planning has a focus on producing fashion shows was joined by a faculty member from the Fashion Design and Merchandising department in this focused session’s discussion of the industry’s challenges and rewards. ASSESSING RESULTS AND IMPACT The overarching goal of Dominican University’s LEAD vision is to increase dramatically the opportunities for non-business students to develop entrepreneurial skills and thinking. The short-

term success of the Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp in achieving this objective was measured via attendee feedback, which was surveyed at the end of the Camp. Long-term success will be evidenced by increased enrollments in the undergraduate Entrepreneurship classes, high participation rates in future Boot Camps, and increased student involvement in entrepreneuriallyoriented activities at the University. The on-going sustainability of the Boot Camp was an additional outcome to be assessed. The short-term success of the Boot Camp was measured via a survey distributed to every attendee. Sixty-four out of 85 attendees submitted a survey – for a response rate of just over 75%. (Attendees who submitted a survey were given a Boot Camp T-shirt.) In terms of the attendees themselves, 95% were undergraduate students, and 38% of the attendees were nonbusiness majors. Most attendees (75%) heard about the Boot Camp from a teacher versus flyers (12%), e-mail (8%), and other (5%). The attendees’ overall evaluation of the Boot Camp was extremely positive. On a five-point scale (5 being the highest), attendees responded as follows: • Did your knowledge of entrepreneurship increase? 4.33 out of 5 • Did your interest in entrepreneurship increase? 4.38 out of 5 • Would you recommend the Boot Camp to others? 4.44 out of 5 “Basics of Getting Started” and “Guerilla Marketing” were the most highly rated of the core sessions. Three of the electives – “Managing Cash,” “Franchising” (Focused), and “Fashion Show Production” (Focused) – were more highly rated than any of the core sessions. In terms of the elective sessions, 72% of attendees chose “Managing Cash,” 60% chose “Franchising,” 30% chose “Fashion Show Production,” and 19% chose “Opportunity Assessment.” Although it is too early to evaluate fully the long-term objectives of the Boot Camp, one available piece of evidence is quite promising. Historically, 20-30% of students taking the introductory entrepreneurship course have been from non-business majors. As of this point in the registration process (July 2005), the 2005-2006 enrollments are among the highest experienced at the school – and, more significantly, over 55% of students registered for the fall and spring course sections are non-business majors. (This is a first in the University’s history!) Also, perhaps as a result of the “Fashion Show Production” focused (elective) session, the number of Fashion Design and Merchandising majors registered is at an all-time high. LESSONS LEARNED Content • The present mix of the Keynote and Core sessions appears about right; however, more team-led, focused afternoon sessions would be desirable. • Team-led sessions – particularly entrepreneurs teamed with faculty members – hold great potential for future Boot Camps. The attendees loved interacting with the entrepreneurs, but the entrepreneurs sometimes need help in generalizing their own lessons learned. • Having the keynote sessions led by highly-successful entrepreneurs and the core/elective sessions facilitated by much earlier-stage (or smaller-scale) entrepreneurs was effective.

Attendees were inspired by the visions but were more easily able to relate to people “more like themselves.” Process/Planning • Entrepreneurs – especially the “smaller” business owners – were incredibly willing to participate…and inspired the students with their passion. This could translate into a larger number of session options in the afternoon. • Although it was not an option in this first year, much more of the planning/scheduling work associated with a Spring Boot Camp should be completed in the Fall term. • No advertising/promotion of the event was done outside of the University; however, calls were fielded from the local community and other schools. Clearly, with planning, there is potential to expand future events to these constituencies. Student Involvement • Student involvement (in this case, students from the Spring entrepreneurship class) was essential to the event’s success. Their work on the design/structure of the Boot Camp not only improved upon several aspects of the original plan but also insured that their “ownership” of the event would translate into increased attendance by their peers. • Never underestimate the creativity of students who participate in coordinating an event like this. The Graphic Design student-developed logo is one example, which has already been discussed. Two Food Service/Nutrition students helped to find a way to reduce the food costs to about 50% of what was anticipated. Administration • Dominican University’s match of the Coleman Foundation’s support made it possible to offer this initial Boot Camp free to students – resulting in registrants’ having nothing “at risk.” While 85 students participated in the Boot Camp, this was considerably less than the 106 who had registered. As a result, there was a higher level of waste than desired. • Scheduling of the Boot Camp would be better done earlier in the Spring term – so that it was not as closely located to final exams and other end-of-term activities. This will, however, require much more planning to be shifted to the Fall term. SO WHAT? At schools like Dominican University, many business students and virtually all non-business students take no course in entrepreneurship as part of their undergraduate curriculum. How can the University reach out to this constituency to provide them with at least some of the fundamentals of the entrepreneurship process (as a minimum) and/or to increase their likelihood of formal study of entrepreneurship (as a goal)? Encouraging entrepreneurship across a university community can take forms other than curricular changes (e.g., establishing an interdisciplinary program or minor, requiring a course, etc.), which are often difficult to achieve. The “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” conducted by Dominican University in April 2005 would appear to be an effective (and complementary) alternative to such curricular changes. As described in this paper, Dominican University’s daylong Boot Camp brought together students, faculty, and entrepreneurs within the context of a

four-component (morning plenary, core, afternoon plenary, and elective sessions) “Boot Camp” experience. Students’ knowledge of and interest in entrepreneurship was substantially increased, based upon attendee feedback. In addition, 2005-2006 pre-registration results for the University’s introductory entrepreneurship course show that over 55% of students are nonbusiness majors – substantially higher than the historical level of 20-30% and an all-time-record for the University! CONCLUSION Based upon the results of this year’s Boot Camp, Dominican University’s School of Business is confident that future Boot Camps could be largely self-sustaining. Were attendees charged a fee of between $30 and $40, at least two-thirds of the estimated recurring costs would be met with program revenues. Based upon attendees’ feedback, this would not have a large impact on likely attendance. (As a benefit, students would be less likely to “no show” under these conditions.) Alternate versions of this basic model may be offered to the community surrounding Dominican. In fact, the University is in the early stages of planning a franchised-focused Boot Camp with some of the entrepreneurs who participated in this first Boot Camp. Finally, this approach – and its results! – are likely scalable to other institutions. In fact, the University has already discussed the Boot Camp model with personnel from several other private, liberal arts colleges for possible use in their efforts to expand entrepreneurship beyond traditional business students. REFERENCES Barker (1993), Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future, Collins. Carrison and Walsh (1998), Semper Fi: Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way, American Management Association. Hines (2005), “The Practical Side of Liberal Education: An Overview of Liberal Education and Entrepreneurship,” Peer Review, 7(3), pp. 4-7. Maranville (1992), “Entrepreneurship in the Business Curriculum,” Journal of Education for Business, 68(1), pp. 27-31. Peabody (2004), Lucky or Smart?: Secrets to an Entrepreneurial Life, Random House. Rogers (2003), “Report on the ADA 2002 Dietetics Compensation and Benefits Survey,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association,103(2), pp. 243-255. Ryan and Hise (2001), Entrepreneur America: Lessons From Inside Rob Ryan’s High-Tech Start-Up Boot Camp, Harper Business. Shaver (2005), “Reflections on a New Academic Path: Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Sciences,” Peer Review, 7(3), pp. 21-23. Weaver, Schoen, and Dorland (2004), “A Boot Camp Approach to Develop an Entrepreneurial Focus Among Technology and Science Professionals,” Proceedings of the NCIIA 8th Annual Meeting, pp. 49-52. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Dominican University’s “Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp” was made possible, in part, by an Elevator Grant from The Coleman Foundation.