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January 2013

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Headlines:


Exciting Changes to Core Entrepreneurship Course

The Role of Entrepreneurship in America’s Competitiveness in the Global Economy

Changing the World One Scalable Startup at a Time

Competition Executive Summaries Due Next Week

Upcoming Events:

Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series:
Secrets to the Successful Business Pitch: Tips from VCs and Entrepreneurs
Tuesday, February 5, 2013

 

Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series:
Most Common Legal Mistakes of Entrepreneurs
Tuesday, March 19, 2013

 


Exciting Changes to Core Entrepreneurship Course


The Lester Center’s core entrepreneurship course will feature some exciting changes this spring. Professor Toby E. Stuart, Helzel Chair in Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation at Berkeley-Haas and the Lester Center’s Faculty Director, will be teaching two sections of the course this semester, open to both full time and evening-weekend MBA students.

Toby Stuart

Lester Center faculty director Toby Stuart

The course focuses on the distinctive context, characteristics, and skills required of the entrepreneur. Most students will contemplate a number of managerial career options. Students in this course will have the opportunity to use the case protagonists (including guest speakers and the resources of the Lester Center) to consider whether they are best suited for a traditional business school career path, or whether a more entrepreneurial role is right for them. With this is mind, the course has three, primary objectives: first, to encourage students to contemplate their career plans and to equip them to think realistically about what it would be like to pursue an entrepreneurial career. Second, to present a set of frameworks students can employ to evaluate opportunities, craft business models, and implement ideas for new, high potential businesses. Third, the course aims to build practical skills by discussing four skills that are important to entrepreneurs’ success. These skills will be useful to Berkeley-Haas students in their business life, whether or not they choose to work in an entrepreneurial setting.  The skills include lean experimentation, negotiations, deal structuring, and cash flow modeling.

We at the Lester Center are excited to have Professor Stuart at the helm this semester. He has previously been The Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; the Arthur J. Samberg Professor and Faculty Director of the Eugene M. Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School; and the Fred G. Steingraber-A.T. Kearney Professor of Leadership & Strategy at University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. He received his first chaired, full professorship at the University of Chicago at the age of 32. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He holds an A.B., summa cum laude, in economics from Carleton College.  At Harvard Business School, he served as the head of the required course in Entrepreneurship. Currently, he advises five startups founded by great entrepreneurs.



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The Role of Entrepreneurship in America’s Competitiveness in the Global Economy

 

 

Lester Center Faculty Member Mark Coopersmith has been recently heating up the airwaves discussing America’s competitiveness in the global economy. As a serial entrepreneur, business leader and educator, Mark has spent more than 20 years launching, building and restructuring businesses ranging from startup ventures to new business units inside global enterprises such as Sony Corporation and Newell Rubbermaid.

 

Peter Molloy

As Managing Director of The Argonauts Group, Mark and his team of operating executives and advisers are brought in to restructure and transform underperforming businesses, identify new opportunities, and drive the development of new products, revenues and shareholder value.

As part of a restructuring program for clean tech company ETwater – a comprehensive “deconstruction and reconstruction” as he would put it - Mark and his colleagues recently “reshored” manufacturing to America from China.  Since then ETwater has been showcased by the US Department of Commerce as a leader in this trend, and featured on the topic of reshoring in The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News, The Financial Times, The Huffington Post, and a Boston Consulting Group report on American competitiveness, among others.  The company has also been the subject of research by academic institutions such as Harvard University and Ohio State University.

Mark’s recent insights on entrepreneurship and American competitiveness have focused on several key topics:

In much of this recent press coverage Mark has used the specific example of ETwater as a case study, highlighting core entrepreneurial practices such as rapid, market-facing product and business-model iteration, along with reinforcing the benefits of fundamentally sound business practices that have been installed at this emerging clean-tech company. In an age of increasing climate uncertainty and water shortages, ETwater is redefining green technology with advanced weather-based irrigation management systems that incorporate wireless machine-to-machine connectivity, cloud computing and remote web-based management to deliver irrigation water savings of up to 50% and more. 

 

Watch a video of Mark's remarks on re-shoring, excerpted from “Made In America” on
Huffington Post Live:

 


 

For the complete panel discussion, click here.

For more information on Mark’s appearance on the John Batchelor Show on ABC Radio, click here.

This semester Mark will be teaching "Entrepreneurship – Workshop for Startups," a hands-on course in which graduate level business and engineering students build entrepreneurial ventures in real-time, incorporating entrepreneurship teachings, lean startup principles, substantial in-class discussion and real-world business-model experimentation and iteration.  The class also benefits from the active involvement of many seasoned entrepreneurs, subject-matter-experts and investors. Prior sessions of this course have produced numerous ventures which have attained revenue, funding and market traction – many of which are still on their exciting entrepreneurial journey.



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Changing the World One Scalable Startup at a Time

 


We’re pleased to announce the Lester Center’s new blog on scalable startups. Bloggers include our Executive Director, Andre Marquis, as well as guest bloggers including Morten Lund, a serial entrepreneur, the chairman of LundXO and Tradeshift, and the backer of many successful technology startups, including Skype, BullGuard and Zyb; and Adii Pienaar, Founder of WooThemes. The blog focuses on current trends, advice, and general information for scalable startups. Be sure to sign up to be notified when new entries are posted, via RSS or email, as future blog posts include investment tips and more!

Follow our blog here: http://scalablestartup.berkeley.edu/

 

 

Scalable Startups

 

  


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Competition Executive Summaries Due Next Week


With the entry deadline next week, now is the time to finalize your team, if you haven't already, and submit an executive summary. Executive summary deadlines are Wednesday, January 30 for the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) and Thursday, January 31 for the UC Berkeley Startup Competition (Bplan). More information about how to enter the Competitions is below.

 


              Bplan                           GSVC        



Next Steps to enter Bplan

  1. Form your team if you haven’t already. 
    Visit the Bplan team formation web page for more information    . 

  2. Review the rules and entry requirements. 
    Click here for the rules page.

  3. Check out our Resources page for lots of useful information about the executive summary, business model canvas, and more.

  4. Apply by Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 11:59pm PST by clicking here.

Next Steps to enter GSVC

  1. Form, join or lead a dynamic team.
    Still need to form or join a team? Fill out the Team Formation Form and view the Team Matching List.

  2. Review the rules and entry requirements here.

  3. Pull together a 3-page executive summary outlining your social venture.

  4. Apply by Wednesday, January 30, 2013 (US, Canada, Central and South America) by clicking here.




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GET INVOLVED!

Get involved with Entrepreneurship and Innovation!  The Lester Center's programs offer the inside track on entrepreneurship by bringing entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other industry leaders to the Haas School and provide opportunities for interaction and the development of entrepreneurial ideas. Please check out the The Lester Center's website to view the wide variety of opportunities.


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INNOVATION ARCHIVES


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