CWU College of Business Entrepreneurship Minor

This is a proposal for an entrepreneurship minor open to all CWU students to be included in the offerings of the CWU College of Business. Our intent is to fill a significant unmet need in the education market we serve, to add value to CWU student education, and to create a program that fits the mission of CWU, the interests of the stakeholders and the mission of the College of Business. The proposal will start with a short summary of the value of entrepreneurship programs in general to students. This will be followed by a situational analysis. This will be followed by a discussion of the proposed minor and its component courses both existing and proposed. The last section will estimate the needed resources for instructing courses in the program and their relationship to enrollment.

1. Value of Entrepreneurship Minors at Universities

The shared intention of entrepreneurship programs is to facilitate students’ in the pursuit of entrepreneurship as a career choice. Statistics suggest that the majority of students will pursue a different career choice beyond starting a business. Questions about whether entrepreneurship education leads to new venture creation by the students. Students tend to view entrepreneurship more for people who are well educated, well connected and for the financially secure. Most students in entrepreneurship programs find entrepreneurship education insufficient in fully developing their efficacy towards starting or running their own organization ().  While many programs focus on the ideal of young risk takers founding a high technology startup, students reject the ideal of this sort of young risk taker, seeing entrepreneurship for themselves in areas such as taking over family businesses, starting hair salons, or becoming lawyers or licensed professionals for themselves (). We found this when surveying CWU students in Winter Quarter, 2016, who were less focused on building a business around a particular vision than owning their own business as the vision itself.

 Students tend to view entrepreneurship as a career choice is something more feasible as a career choice later in their career (), a phenomenon supported by data where the average age of an entrepreneur is 40, who is twice as likely to start a venture as someone who is 20 – 34 (Wadhwa, Aggarwal, Holly, Salkever, 2009). Students tend to view entrepreneurship more as a competitive advantage at the workplace ().Our focus is on the development of skill sets that improve students’ ability to recognize opportunities, form partnerships to help plan, mobilize resources and execute these plans.

1. Analysis of Demand

Situational Analysis

One method of conceptualizing the fit of a project or program is through a SWOT analysis. This process involves the discussion of key internal facets of a program (Strengths & Weaknesses), the critical external realities of the program’s larger environment (Opportunities & Threats) and the fit between the two.

Strengths – Facets of program, college and university that provide competitive leverage compared to other options for similar offerings.

• Value – CWU is recognized as a value investment. Using the College Scorecard data issued September 2015 from the U.S. Department of Education, the Economist published their first ever rankings of U.S. colleges, (http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/value-university) where CWU ranked 124^th in the nation (top 10%), 1^st in the state and 2^nd highest in the region. According to the Economist, CWU graduates will make $4567 a year more in salary thank if they would have attended elsewhere. As a percentile comparison of rankings for the Washington State schools, CWU was the best at 90th, WSU 78^th , EWU 58^th, Seattle University 54^th, UW 49^th, WWU 48^th, Gonzaga, 27^th and Seattle Pacific University 10^th.
• Student centered focus =
  • Small class size
• College of Business
  • Accreditation – Starting 2010, CWU has maintained AACSB accreditation, which has both served as an asset for the College and it’s brand, but also as a measure of the quality of the program in terms of its mission, teaching, scholarship and outreach to the community. The accreditation involves a periodic comprehensive review of the college, programs, faculty and staff as well asin person visitation of a representative review team from AACSB to observe alignment between AACSB standards and the school of interest.
  • Faculty – Faculty at the college of business are research active, ensuring a currency in their respective fields. In addition to CWU’s standards for research, to maintain academic qualification, faculty are required to publish more frequently and in journals of a selective nature.

Weaknesses – Characteristics of program, college and university that provide a disadvantage with respect to other options for similar offerings.

• Few corporate sponsors – existing programs are backed by sponsors, typically in the form of seed money or start-up funding for business students. University of Washington sponsors business plan competitions giving away $75,000 with $25,000 as top prize, other prizes offered by various corporate sponsors. CWU I4IE does sponsor an annual business plan competition with $10,000 of grants for business plan finalists using a seed grant from the Herbert Jones Foundation.  This extends to the CWU College of Business, and CWU at large, which operates in an environment where competitors benefit from enormous endowments and similarly influential political resources and brand identities.  

• Research-Innovation – Larger schools are research based. University of Washington and WSU maintain steady stream of commercializeable discovery research that is made available to entrepreneurship program. I4IE has recently added an intellectual property specialist to its staff who assists course instruction, serves as an advisor for students and faculty for IP protection and is a member of a task force to develop IP policy for CWU.
• Funding – Budgetary constraints limit ability to grow programs with demand. The revenue increases from recent growth in College of Business enrollments haven’t been matched with increased budgeting for adding faculty. Presently there is capacity to incrementally launch a minor program. Projected demand is much higher than present capacity. Budget flexibility from the University would yield immediate returns on investment.
• Compared with UW and WSU, CB has a more engaged, student-centered education driven by small classes and faculty devoted to teaching.  CWU’s tagline is “where faculty know my name,” and this is particularly true in CB.

• While WSU and UW have more corporate sponsors, CWU business curriculum is arguably the most industry-engaged in the state.  Most CB students have engaged with industry by the time they graduate either through client projects, bootcamps, or field trips.  CB’s faculty engagement with industry – particularly in Supply Chain Management, Digital Marketing, and Sport Business – is distinctive.  Our Supply Chain Management undergraduate program is the best in state and among the best in the Pacific Northwest.

Opportunities – External events, trends, and situations that the program can leverage to further the mission of the program, college and university.

• Location.

Within the state of Washington, our competing schools reside on the east and west edges of the state of a distance of more than 100 miles on the westward region and 170 miles on the eastward. There is a significant population in this area for which CWU is the closest four year university with an AACSB or equivalent level business program. Using data of counties for which at least 80% of the area is closest to CWU Ellensburg, there are eight counties (There are another six counties for which half or more extend in this area. CWU also has a significant business program in Bellevue, Lynnwood and Des Moines). The population of residents in the region for which CWU Ellensburg is the closest option is more than 700,000.  County by county incomes and population figures are from Washington State Office of Financial Management 2014 survey estimate.

• County Population, median age, 10-19 Rank, 20 – 29 Rank, Household Income
• State:   6,968,170 -   -   (13%)  - (14%) - $60,153
• Benton, 175,177  36   - 7(15%)   -  15(13.1%) - $63,157
• Chelan:  72,543 – 39   - 12(14.2%) – 20(11.8%) - $50,825
• Douglas:  38,431  37   - 6(15.2%) – 21(11.8%) - $50,878
• Grant:  89,120   32  - 5(16.3%) -  10(13.6%)  - $50,356
• Kittitas:  40,915   32  - 11(14.7%) – 2(23.4%)          - $47,519
• Klikitat: 20,318   45  -  18(12.6%) – 29(8.7%) - $48,086
• Okanogan: 41,120     43 -14(12.9%) – 26 (10.2%) - $35,156
• Yakima: 243,231  - 32  - 4 (16.4%) – 11 (13.5%) - $43,050

• State statistics also show a static and even population decrease for the counties of this area which are easy to interpret as a hollowing out of the regional population. Looking at the age demographics, the counties of interest have higher than state average populations of children, followed by lower than state average young adults (excepting for Kittitas, a University town). One explanation for this is an observation made by members of the ESD 105 school district where young high school graduates relocate to the western Washington region for education and then economic reasons. Some have referred to this as the “brain drain” similar to experienced in developing economies. Providing not only a local option for entrepreneur education, but an outlet to facilitate business development in this region is a particularly valuable project by many stakeholders.

Threats – External events, trends, and situations that may compromise the ability of the program to further the mission of the program, college, and university.

• Regional/local competition from University of Washington & Washington State University. UW hosts relatively frequent business plan challenges and contests awarding start-up funding for students in excess of $200,000 yearly. The contests are open to full-time students attending any accredited college or university in Washington State. In conjunction with these competitions, the Buerk Entrepreneurship Center conducts pre-event workshops at various locations across the state hosted by one or more ambassador students from a local college and an entrepreneurship specialist from UW. The Center was launch in 1974, and along with the UW Foster Accelerator, has amassed $181 million in endowments to their business school (MZines.net, 2013).  Their Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship conducts workshops in conjunction with their competitions introducing the students from other colleges to both the competition and also the UW entrepreneurship program.

• Compared to UW, WSU has a relatively smaller but well financed entrepreneurship program. Since 2009 the program has raised $9 million in financing for startups. From 2009 until 2016, WSU has launched 30 startups, 15 of the 30 from 2016 with their winning of a National Science Foundation grant to launch their “LEAN Accelerator Program for the commercialization of WSU research (https://news.wsu.edu/2016/03/01/146084/). WSU Business plan competitions are focused on Washington State High School and WSU students, requiring teams to have at least two WSU students. The prizes amount to $50,000 in yearly winnings for the contestants. Competitions are sponsored by the Herbert Jones Foundation, Boeing, and several local sponsors. The high school and WSU competitions are supported by local “Resource Nights” where notable locals provide lectures and Q&A’s about competitive topics such as financial planning for a startup, delivering a pitch, legal issues and keys to entrepreneurial success.

Competitor Analysis

This program would serve unfilled demand outside of CWU, and it would satisfy a significant unmet need within our University. There are six Universities in Washington State that offer entrepreneurship majors or minors. There are two schools that do east of the Cascades, and none in the Central Region of Washington State. Eastern Washington University has no entrepreneurship major, minor, or certificate program.

Entrepreneurship Programs at CWU Peer and Competitor Institutions:

Gonzaga University, Spokane WA, provides a minor to business and non-business majors through their “Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program.” The three year program is based on an idea to solution model typical for technical startup based entrepreneurship programs. The 18 hour program is geared toward non-business majors, whereas business majors are required to take more class work towards the minor (24 hours). The culminating experience is a New Venture Lab, where students are charged with being involved in researching and planning new ventures in an applied setting. Program is treated as an “Honor’s Program”, maintaining exclusivity to a limited group of students.

Gonzaga Full time In-state tuition: $37,990

Seattle Pacific University, Seattle WA, provides a business major with an entrepreneurship emphasis as well as an entrepreneurship minor. The 30 credit program requires students to take basic business core courses including accounting, marketing, organizational behavior, operations, ethics and a five credit course on entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship incorporated in general business classes rather than a program focused on entrepreneurship.

SPU Full time In-state tuition: $37,086

Seattle University, Seattle WA, provides an “Entrepreneurship & Innovation” minor, no major or certificate. Students are required to take 5 hours of accounting and 5 hours of marketing. In addition they are required to take 10 hours of additional courses of their choice in either a select group of marketing courses or in a course with innovative content from another department. There are two entrepreneurship core courses required, Entrepreneurship Essentials and Business Plan Development.

SU Full time In-state tuition: $39,690

University of Washington, Seattle WA, provides a major, minor and a graduate level certificate in entrepreneurship. The minor has two tracks for students – one with 15 credits of economics and accounting and another track with 9 of accounting courses, for total credits of 31 and 29 each. The program reserves the remaining credits for students to take a wide variety of entrepreneurship courses in innovation, technology, investing entrepreneurship as electives. The minor requires every student to take both an introductory entrepreneurship class as well as a sequence of two four hour entrepreneurship courses that require students to start a business in teams.

UW Full time In-state tuition: $11,839

Washington State University, Pullman WA, provides both an entrepreneurship major and minor. The minor consists of 18 credits of business courses with a 3 hours accounting class and a 3 hour entrepreneurship survey course required. A management course in business or engineering, a 3 hour marketing course in business or communications, and 6 hours of business planning courses in new venture startup or bio engineering are required. Content and program focused more on innovation to market, some market testing. Culminating project is a business plan.

WSU Full time In-state tuition: $11,967

Western Washington University, Bellingham WA, provides an “Entrepreneurship & Innovation” minor, no major. Students’ progress through a series a four credit hour entrepreneurship courses, each which are repeatable for credit. The first course covers theoretic foundation for innovation and organization knowledge, as well as how to bring innovations to market. Second class focuses on student venture development and mentoring junior students. Third class involves mentoring and class project engagement with outside companies.

WWU Full time In-state tuition: $8611

(Proposed) Central Washington University, Ellensburg WA, proposes an entrepreneurship minor, no major. The proposed minor consists of 27 credits, focusing on self-developmental behavior, teambuilding and identifying market demand from which to develop or innovate solutions. Minor requires students to start business as culminating project “Plunge” class.

CWU Full time In-state tuition: $8688

Summary

Washington State, the primary focus of CWU’s market has six significant university level entrepreneurship education programs, two of which are well established and well-funded programs that actively prospect students from across the state. All of the existing programs are primarily focused on research to commercialization models of entrepreneurship to leverage the intellectual property creation of university students and faculty. The central corridor of Washington State, while possessing a significant population and economic capacity, lacks a substantial outlet for individuals seeking entrepreneurship education. While CWU has a relative disadvantage in funding and reputation as an option for helping students become entrepreneurs, it does have an advantage in its reputation as an institution focused on delivering value and an advantage at lean operation, both fundamental qualities in many types of entrepreneurship. The location of CWU Ellensburg in the Central Corridor is also a positional advantage in that the program can serve the educational vacuum, and also attract students from the other universities who aren’t satisfied with the offerings that are closer to home.

1. CWU Entrepreneurship Minor

Purpose: To help student develop skills, perspectives and behaviors that make for a successful entrepreneur.

This program would focus on helping students develop the skills, perspectives and relationships that make for a successful entrepreneur. This program would play to the strengths of the University by complementing the offerings of Departments across the University and the needs of students who are interested in fields where self-employment is a valuable option or where successful employment involves entrepreneurial capabilities.

Process of Developing the Program:

Given the charge of not only providing a program for students in the Central Washington corridor, but also to provide a meaningfully different option for students in areas closer to existing programs on the edges of the state, the process for designing the program relied less on adapting existing entrepreneurship program designs to CWU and more on identifying needs of CWU type of students and experiences of entrepreneurs of the region and seeing the program as a solution to those needs. As a result, this program design is a product of collaboration of students, regional entrepreneurs, industry professionals and individuals with expertise in developing entrepreneurship programs in higher education. It is also a product informed by the findings of current research in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education.

We started this process by querying students (136) and entrepreneurship professionals in the region to define the needs and requirements of an effective program in their eyes.

Some of the primary considerations that emerged:

• Entrepreneurship as a sense of responsibility and ownership for something
• Entrepreneurship as an act of creating value first, capturing value second.
• Entrepreneurship as non-profit/profit
• Entrepreneurship as trust & collaboration
• Entrepreneurship as hard work, experimentation, and learning from mistakes.
• Entrepreneurs are made, not born.
• Program focuses on needs of people, particularly customers.
• Entrepreneurship is about the student, not their business.
• Program must be experiential.
• Program must base its success on measured results.

While this seems a disjointed list, a fairly distinctive set of characteristics from regional and CWU culture is represented. It is an idea of a CWU entrepreneurship program as instilling a way of thinking and being as well as a particular set of skills. Building a program around these would provide a clear differentiator from the other available options in Washington State.