My most useful class this semester was Entrepreneurial Strategy taught by Gary Williams. Great class taught by a man who has been very successful but has also had longings to be teaching in academia--I don't think you get a lot of people like that in business schools.
So we had to read 3 books for this class. Inside the Tornado, Innovator's Dilemma, & Good to Great. Looking for some Christmas reading material, I also asked about other potential reads and he suggested the popular books by the author's of the books above and also: Execution, and Blue Ocean Strategy. Looks like a great list of ideas and models to know before going to raise funding.
In separate teams we analyzed for different companies very deeply. This week, we had to give them a final strategy that we felt they should follow. Most of us anlayzed using G2G's Hedge Hog Model and ITT's Bowling Alley Model.
I've got Good to Great down pretty good, but ITT was packed with info. I've got to go back and learn this stuff a little better-- I think it will make me infinitely better at startups.
I also learned a higher degree of professionalism in this project. We were dealing with very busy professionals and had to earn their trust in order to be taken seriously. Sad to say, but I only give myself a 5 out of 10 on my professionalism & earning Allegiance's CEO's trust.
Oh yeah, Allegiance was the company we did this report on.
The learning of professionalism and modeling was great and I think it will serve me as I become a stronger business developer.
Putting a lot of thought into it this semester at BYU, I definitely want to get into Biz-Dev after my MBA.
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2 comments:
It appears from your blog that your VC and entrepreneurial ambitions are similar to mine. I'm looking at a BYU MBA and I'm wondering how you would rate the environment there versus other schools (stanford for example) that seem to have more of an emphasis on these areas. What is the faculty's attitude toward entrepreneurship and what opportunities to get into VCs are there?
Things at BYU are starting to tip in the entrepreneurial direction. A few weeks ago, our career center sent out postings asking why not as many people were applying for the fortune 500 jobs anymore.
There is still a Fortune 500 emphasis here though, but I feel you can get most the exposure you want to VC's & Entrepreneurship. Stanford might get you in touch with Kleiner Perkins or Benchmark-- BYU probably won't open those doors. But students are able to interface with VSpring (who I think is top in the state) and UV Partners.
I think you can get what you want out of BYU, but it is probably easier at Stanford & Wharton. Dollar-wise though, BYU makes sense if you're going to start a company later. And Provo is pretty hot for start ups.
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