Entrepreneurship Week 2009 is approaching FAST!

Monday, November 16^th 3:00pm – 7:00pm, MUB Ballroom A

Extreme Entrepreneurship Bus

Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour - Hear from 3 young entrepreneurs that have made it big before the age of 30 tell their story, participate in interactive workshops, help spark entrepreneurship in the Copper Country, have chances to win prizes! Don’t worry if you can’t be there for the entire event or for the start come and join in when you can. You can RSVP for the event at

http://www.journeypage.com/events/miteun/ , however RSVP is not required to attend. Help make this the largest Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour in the past 3 years at Michigan Tech.

Tuesday, November 17^th 5:30pm, DOW 641

Elevator Pitch Competition – Come hear the business idea pitches from the students of Michigan Tech and Finlandia at the 3^rd Annual Elevator Pitch Competition. Students will be pitching their ideas for a chance to win cash prizes. Students interested in competing visit http://www.centile.mtu.edu/elevator_pitch.html for instructions on how to enter, deadline is October 30^th.

Wednesday, November 18^th 10am in EERC B45, and again at 3:30pm in DOW 642

Entrepreneur and Author Poppy King will be on campus speaking. At the age of 18 Poppy started her own brand of lipstick that has grown it into a multi-million dollar company. She has authored a book called “Lessons of a Lipstick Queen” that takes you through her journey.

The events are sponsored by the Entrepreneurs Club, the School of Business and Economics, the Institute for Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship, with financial support from the Michigan Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Funding is also provided by Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Grant Funding, and the University Student Government.

The Entrepreneurship Club of Michigan Tech is a student organization in the School of Business and Economics. The club is comprised of a mixture of students in all majors with the same entrepreneurial spirit.

More information on the Entrepreneurs Club.

Rich Leimsider, Darrell Radson, Judith Samuelson

Dean Radson met with other award recipients of the Aspen Institute’s Top 100 MBA Programs at an event sponsored by Ernst & Young in New York City’s Time Square this past week.

Pictured to the left, Dean Radson is joined by Rich Leimsider, the Director of the Center for Business Education at the Aspen Institute, and Judith Samuelson, Executive Director of the Business and Society Program of the Aspen Institute.

Of the 100 schools recognized through the Beyond Grey Pinstripes event about 50 were in attendance at the ceremony.

“We are proud to receive this recognition and will continue to strive toward program excellence,” Darrell Radson, stated regarding the event.

Read more about our recognition.

Senior finance students, Eric Tangko and Ed Drouillard, in the School of Business and Economics at Michigan Tech were selected to receive 2009-2010 LSGI Mentoring Work-Study grants. The LSGI grant is awarded to students who display excellent academic achievement and demonstrate high moral and ethical characteristics.LSGI Advisors Inc. is a Texas corporation that acts as general partner for the LSGI Technology Venture Fund L.P., a private mutual fund for SEC accredited investors.

LSGI serves as an advisor to the Michigan Tech Applied Portfolio Management Program, overseeing finance students responsible for managing $1 million of the University’s endowment. They also instruct oil & gas and environmental law programs at Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas, Texas.

Eric Tangko and Ed Drouillard

Announcement featured in Yahoo! Finance.

More about LSGI Technology Venture Fund L.P.

Owners of KBC with Entrepreneurs Club

Owners of the Keweenaw Brewing Company, a microbrewery that resides in downtown Houghton,  Dick Gray and Paul Boissevain talked about their business plan, strategy, and goals with about 30 students and community members  during a question and answer session last week.

Gray and Boissevain discussed their motivation behind starting a brewery and the challenges they faced. “We wanted to drink good beer and we didn’t expect to grow as fast as we have. Now our challenges lie in distribution and we don’t have a written plan for how to get where we want to be, we’re taking it day by day.” said Boissevain.

This event was sponsored by the Entrepreneurs Club of Michigan Tech.

Michigan Technological University’s School of Business and Economics MBA program has demonstrated significant leadership in integrating social, environmental and ethical issues into its MBA program, according to the Aspen Institute’s 2009-2010 edition of Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial survey and alternative ranking of business schools. The school has ranked 58 on a list of the Top 100 business schools.

“Our faculty earned this recognition through their commitment to teaching and research in social, environmental, and ethical stewardship as it relates to business. Our Tech MBA program focuses on conducting sustainable business in a technologically rich, constantly changing world, and our faculty and students rise to that challenge, “ said Darrell Radson, Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Michigan Tech.

While many MBA rankings exist, only one looks beyond reputation and test scores to measure something much more important: how well schools are preparing their students for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business.

This year, 149 business schools from 24 countries participated in an 18 month effort to map the landscape of teaching and research on issues pertaining to business and society. Relevant data collected in the survey, as well as the entire “Global 100” list of business schools, is available at: www.BeyondGreyPinstripes.org.

“The best business students move quickly into the front ranks of business–and the attitudes and values they bring to the table are deeply influenced by their time in business education,” said Judith Samuelson, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program. “Will they accept the status quo or act on their passion about the positive role business can play at the intersection of corporate profit and social impact? The schools that are competitive in the Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking are the real trailblazers–they assure that students have the right skill as well as the will to make things happen.”

“In these challenging economic times, the general public, not just scholars, are questioning whether the established models of business are broken,” said Rich Leimsider, Director of the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education. “Beyond Grey Pinstripes schools are thoughtfully pursuing new approaches. They are preparing students who take a more holistic view of business success, one that measures financial results as well as social and environmental impacts.”

Ruth Archer, Director of the Tech MBA program at Michigan Tech added, “Our students are very concerned about a sustainable future. They appreciate receiving a first-class MBA in managing technology and innovation at the same time that they learn how to integrate social value with corporate profitability. This recognition will enable us to attract more like-minded students.”

Sample Findings

• The percentage of schools surveyed that require students to take a course dedicated to business and society issues has increased dramatically over time, but at a slowing rate: 34% in 2001; 45% in 2003; 54% in 2005; 63% in 2007; 69% in 2009.
• Since 2007, the number of elective courses offered per school that contain some degree of social, environmental or ethical content has increased by 12%, from approximately 16.6 to 18.6 electives.
• The proportion of schools offering general social, environmental or ethical content in required core courses has increased in many business disciplines–Accounting, Economics, Finance, Management, Marketing, Operations Management–since the last survey in 2007.
• However, the percentage of schools requiring content in a core course on how mainstream business can act as an engine for social or environmental change remains low, at 30%.
• Approximately 7% of faculty at the surveyed business schools published scholarly articles in peer-reviewed, business journals that address social, environmental or ethical issues. The titles and abstracts of the 1,211 articles are available at www.BeyondGreyPinstripes.org.

“Supporting environmental sustainability is a major strategic goal at Michigan Tech. To support this goal and maintain our cutting edge graduate programs, we continue to integrate environmental sustainability management education, including application and tools. This ensures that our MBA grads have the latest management decision making tools upon entering their chosen careers,” stated Dana Johnson, Associate Professor of Operations Management in the School of Business and Economics at Michigan Tech.

School highlights from this Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey cycle are featured in a new guidebook for prospective MBA students, titled The Sustainable MBA, which is already available at Amazon.com and the Aspen Institute’s publication website.

The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education (Aspen CBE) equips business leaders for the 21st century with the vision and knowledge to integrate corporate profitability and social value. We help business educators incorporate issues of social and environmental stewardship into teaching and research by offering targeted resources, networks and a platform to share cutting edge practice among peers.

As part of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, Aspen CBE maintains close ties with over 150 MBA programs in 28 countries. Our websites draw over 100,000 visits monthly and our events and networks attract over 1,000 participants each year.

The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.