Brock School of Business Adds Entrepreneurship Major

Apr 21, 2008

Brock School of Business Contact: Kara Kennedy, Director of External Affairs, 205-726-4070, kkennedy@samford.edu

 By: Franz T. Lohrke, Management and Marketing Department Chair and
Entrepreneurship Programs Coordinator

Birmingham,  Ala.  -- Beginning fall 2008, the Brock School of Business will offer an Entrepreneurship major (pending final Board of Trustee approval at month’s end).   The major will provide a multi-disciplinary approach that focuses on building financial, marketing, management, and other business skills critical for starting and running new and existing small businesses.
           
Offering the major represents the most recent step in developing the Entrepreneurship program at the Brock School of Business.   Beginning as a single course in 2006, the faculty developed the program into a 4-course concentration in 2007, before expanding it into the current major.

Involvement in the Entrepreneurship curriculum will actually begin before students officially matriculate as Business students in their junior year.   In the spring of their freshman year, students will take BUSA 100, World of Business, which will not only introduce them to key concepts in business, it will guide them in writing a preliminary business plan through structured assignments and interaction with guest speakers from the entrepreneurship community (e.g., venture capitalists and business owners).  By taking this course during their freshman year, students will have the opportunity to refine their business ideas as they progress through the Business program.

Beginning their junior year, students will take an introductory course, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Concepts, which will build on their BUSA 100 experience, and introduce them to critical issues such as managing cash flow.  Other courses in the Entrepreneurship Core include Business Finance II, which focuses on developing financial analysis skills critical to running a business, and Quantitative Methods III, which introduces statistical forecasting methods.  Students will also have the option of taking a Management elective in Leadership or Management of Innovation, a Marketing elective in Market Research or Services Marketing, and a Legal elective in Human Resource Management or Business Law.  They will conclude the program by taking the capstone Entrepreneurship course and writing a comprehensive business plan.

Future plans for the Entrepreneurship program include adding new courses, such as Family Business Management, increasing the program’s “real-world” experiential components via the Brock School of Business’ internship and mentorship programs, and securing permanent funding for the Samford-in-Mission Social Entrepreneurship/NonProfit Management Fellowship.   In addition, the faculty plans to develop a business plan competition for senior Entrepreneurship majors and possibly for freshman Pre-business students completing the World of Business course.  Longer term initiatives may include setting up office (i.e., “incubator”) space for nascent businesses started by current students or recent graduates and providing seed money to student start-up firms, as facility space and funding permit.