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Entrepreneurship

Gustavson's Entrepreneurship Specialization is a single semester, integrated, experiential learning program that helps prospective entrepreneurs develop an entrepreneurial mindset and the skills, experiences, and knowledge needed to be an expert in some domain of entrepreneurship within five years.

We view entrepreneurship as new value creation (economic, social, and environmental value) and entrepreneurs as people who create new value in new ventures, existing businesses (corporate entrepreneurship), not-for-profit organizations (social entrepreneurship), or government. Sustainable entrepreneurship is a central program theme.

Develop expertise

We help you identify your passions, develop expertise, practice key skills and thinking, and develop strategies for attaining expertise. Expert theory suggests that cognitive systems are developed through deliberate practice of the right content, for the right duration, at the right intensity. We provide the right content and opportunities to practice in an integrative, cohort-based experience that many of our alumni say was the best educational experience of their lives. Our program has been recognized with a number of awards that recognize is as among the top programs to deliver entrepreneurial expertise.

Individual education

Learners want entrepreneurial skills for many reasons and have different goals, passions, and learning styles. That is why our "prime directive" is to clearly understand learner interests, and to provide needed information in the way that they need it. The program has customized elements that allow you to focus your time and effort in areas of interest to them. Core assignments help you build entrepreneurial competencies that the teaching team believes everyone should master. Skill building or custom learning assignments are designed to allow you to develop competencies related to your specific venture or interests, resulting in greater student engagement.

Immersion

To best develop an entrepreneurial mind-set, you are immersed in a program, designed to deliver requisite concepts, skills, and experiences in the order needed to create either a new venture, or new value in an existing organization. You are in class with the same colleagues three hours a day, five days a week for three months, with faculty and guest speakers coming in and out of the class as needed to learn the entrepreneurial process. From the student perspective, it looks like one big course, with a shared experience with other prospective entrepreneurs that builds valuable social and business networks.

Balance of theory and practices

While the Gustavson Business Entrepreneurship specialization has strong theoretical foundations in expertise theory and entrepreneurial cognition, our orientation is highly practical, experiential, and competency-based. The teaching team is made up of seasoned faculty and instructors who collectively have strong theoretical and industry backgrounds. We supplement the experiences of the teaching team by bringing in a number of guest speakers. The teaching team believes that the best way to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set is to practice being an entrepreneur. Consequently there are many experiential program elements designed to confront theory and concepts with reality. These include value creation projects, transaction creation exercises, expert entrepreneur interviews, simulations, case studies, elevator pitches, and presentations to external financial stakeholders.