cowboy entrepreneur spring 2012

Presented by

Monday, March 5–Tuesday, March 6, 2012reed conference cenTer, MidwesT ciTy, oklahoMa

spears.oksTaTe.edu/iehFOr MOre InFOrMAtIOn COntACt

OsU Center for executive and Professional development PHOne 1.866.678.3933 • eMAIL [email protected]

An official magazine of the Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University School of Entrepreneurship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship

Spring 2012

Cover: Paul Morin looks over Cape Town, South Africa, one of the many new frontiers Cowboy entrepreneurs are exploring. Morin is participating in the Entrepreneurship Empower-ment in South Africa program, a partnership between OSU, other American universities and South Africa’s University of the Western Cape.Photo/ lauren dunagan

S TA F F OSU SPEARS SChOOl OF BUSiNESS DEAN

Larry Crosby

OSU SChOOl OF ENTREPRENEURShiP hEAD

Michael H. Morris

RiATA CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURShiP DiRECTOR

Nola Miyasaki

EDiTOR

Michael Baker

ART DiRECTOR

Ross Maute

PhOTOgRAPhERS

Phil Shockley Gary Lawson

ASSOCiATE EDiTOR

Janet Varnum

Oklahoma State University, in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This includes but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid, and educational services. Title IX of the Education Amendments and Oklahoma State University policy prohibit discrimination in the provision of services or benefits offered by the University based on gender. Any person (student, faculty or staff) who believes that discriminatory practices have been engaged in based upon gender may discuss their concerns and file informal or formal complaints of possible violations of Title IX with the OSU Title IX Coordinator, Mackenzie Wilfong, J.D., Director of Affirmative Action, 408 Whitehurst, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, (405) 744-5371 or (405) 744-5576 (fax). This publication, issued by Oklahoma State University, as authorized by the dean, Spears School of Business, was printed by University Printing at a cost of $9,010 (5M). 11/11 #3758

entrepreneurship.okstate.edu

2012 v1SPrIng

The Cowboy Entrepreneur is a publication of the School of Entrepreneurship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship in the Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business. All communication should be mailed to:

Oklahoma State UniversitySpears School of Business School of Entrepreneurship 104A Business BuildingStillwater, OK 74078-4011

2 | BEYOND ThE WAllS

The School of Entrepreneur-ship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship reach out to the OSU community and

beyond.

20 | VENTURiNg STUDENTS

OSU students go forth and explore new entrepreneurial

frontiers.

34 | ENTERPRiSiNg PEOPlE

The staff, faculty and those honored by the School of Entre-

preneurship and the Riata Center continue to push beyond the

envelope of theory and practice.

2011 © Oklahoma State University

Photo / garY laWSon

The entrepreneurial revolution is alive and well at Oklahoma State University. With the first entrepreneurship school at a major research university, the country’s most comprehensive entrepreneurship curriculum and more than 1,300 students in entrepreneurship courses, the energy and excitement are palpable.

The past few years have shown us that, when you combine an aggressive vision, the support of an entrepreneurial administration and committed entrepreneurial alumni, nothing is impossible in the tradi-tional halls of a great university.

I run into a lot of entrepreneurs who say “Gee, I wish they had taught that back when I went to school.”

You can do much more than take courses. You can get an under-graduate major or minor, a master’s degree, an MBA concentration and a doctorate in entrepreneurship at OSU. Students are starting busi-nesses in our two incubators, living in our entrepreneurship dormitory and competing in our $45,000 business plan competition.

The most exciting frontier, and one where we believe OSU can be the international leader, is university-wide entrepreneurship.

Eighteen unique initiatives connect entrepreneurship to a wide array of disciplines from veterinary medicine to architecture to art. These efforts range from courses or modules embedded in nearly every one of the university’s schools and colleges to shared faculty who champion entrepreneurship in their fields and to collaborative outreach programs that address such topics as green entrepreneurship, entre-preneurship in inner-city high schools and health-care entrepreneur-ship. The result finds the entrepreneurial spirit touching thousands of students from diverse majors and study programs each semester.

This first issue of the Cowboy Entrepreneur highlights some of the lessons learned as these initiatives have taken root at OSU. We also showcase a few of our entrepreneurship faculty and share insights from some of their leading-edge research. Our hope is that academics, entre-preneurs, alumni, students and anyone interested in making our world a more entrepreneurial one will enjoy the annual Cowboy Entrepreneur.

Michael H. MorrisHead, OSU School of Entrepreneurship

Welcome to our first issue of OSU’s Cowboy Entrepreneur magazine. The Riata Center for Entrepreneurship is the outreach arm of a broad, campus-based entrepreneurship program.

The Center is entrepreneurship education’s experiential-learning aspect, an integral component to the classroom curriculum and scholarship offered by the School of Entrepreneurship. Our programs help students understand and experience what it means to entrepreneurially act and think.

The Riata Center is fortunate to be able to offer a portfolio of deep and broad programs reaching well beyond the walls of the business school. The center’s programs appeal to diverse groups, including students, educators, aspiring entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, disabled veterans, disadvantaged individuals in the townships of South Africa and an adopted inner-city high school – our latest program in development which will be discussed in next year’s issue of Cowboy Entrepreneur.

While we are proud to showcase our student entrepreneurs and achievements of our program, we designed this magazine to enable people to find something of interest that is meaningful to their entre-preneurial journeys.

Oklahoma historically was part of the Wild West that made up the American frontier. The frontier spirit inherent in Oklahomans buoys the Riata Center’s efforts to bring a vibrant culture of entrepreneurship to our campus, across the state, throughout our nation and the globe.

Our frontier heritage also reminds us to stay on the cutting edge of entrepreneurship education and outreach for the benefit of young entrepreneurs, who hold the promise of the country’s future prosperity and competitiveness.

Well-known Japanese architect Tadao Ando challenged America to use “the frontier spirit to lead and show others that we need courage to go places where we have not gone before.” The Cowboy Entrepreneur magazine showcases our efforts to do just that.

Nola MiyasakiDirector, Riata Center for Entrepreneurship

OSU alumni Amy and Malone Mitchell 3rd donated $28.6 million in 2008 to launch the university’s School of Entre-preneurship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business.

The generous support was the springboard to attracting top-notch faculty, motivated students and reaching out to the OSU community and beyond.

With a loan of $500 in 1984, the Mitchells founded Riata Energy, now called SandRidge Energy. It grew into one of the largest privately held energy companies and the largest privately held land driller in the U.S.

The students, staff, faculty and leaders of the OSU School of Entrepreneurship and the Riata Center for Entre-preneurship extend their warmest thanks to the Mitchells.

OSU: A Frontier in Entrepreneurship Education

THANK YOU!

Transforming Cowboy Country

1COWBOY ENTREPRENEUR > SPRING 2012

Beyond Business School WallsEntrepreneurship’s cross-campus initiative is transforming the university

Entrepreneurship is not just about the business school; it’s a vehicle to transform an entire campus.

“Entrepreneurship is lightning in a bottle,” says Michael Morris, head of the OSU School of Entrepreneurship.

“When you can harness and direct it, the possibilities are limitless.”

This transformative enthusiasm lies behind OSU’s multi-pronged efforts to bring the entrepreneurial spirit to every nook and cranny of the campus, Morris says.

“Think of it as every faculty member, administrator, staff member and student as an entrepreneur – a place that is the home to over 23,000 entre-preneurially minded people who want

to make change happen and make OSU an even more incredible place than it is.”

The effort begins with a structure – the need to create a home for entrepre-neurial minded people from anywhere on campus. The Oklahoma Board of Regents established this home with a bold move: the creation of the first School of Entrepreneurship at a major American university.

More than just another department in a business college, the new school’s purpose is to support entrepreneurship as a way of thinking and acting at OSU.

Making this happen involves the following six critical components.

Photo/Gary LaWSon

One component of the School of Entrepreneurship is the Institute for Creativity & Innovation. Its annual creativity challenge contest and festival in the spring featured a theme of OSU as a creative local and global problem solver. Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scholars built a Twister board on the library lawn to creatively engage the campus and raise money for disaster relief. The 2011 festival attracted more than 1,000 people and attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the largest Twister game.

By n o L a M i ya Sa k i

Ph otoS By Ga ry L aWSo n

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ImaGINE > bElIEvE > cREaTE 3COWBOY ENTREPRENEUR > SPRING 20122

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Other initiatives allow students to start ventures while in college. They can base their businesses in the Cowboy Idea Hatch-ery or the Master’s in Entrepreneurship New Venture Lab. These on-campus busi-ness incubators provide office space, equip-ment, conference rooms, mentoring and a structured intervention model to help ensure milestones are established and met. More than 30 ventures are operating in the two incubators at any given time.

Finally, students receive support through the Cowboy Entrepreneurial Mentors Program. More than 2,000 OSU alumni have been identified as part of the Cowboy Entrepreneurs Network, and each year up to 200 of them work with students as mentors, coaches and in other capacities.

Component one: Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Academy

A module on opportunity identification might be developed for an undergradu-ate course in geology or engineering, or a module on risk management and mitigation might apply to a course in architecture or agriculture. The School of Entrepreneurship provides the foundation for such efforts by assuring entrepreneur-ship is consistently defined and deployed among diverse academic disciplines.

The academy represents a dynamic structure evolving in unique ways to serve the OSU community, weaving entrepre-neurship into the campus’ fabric.

Component two: Riata Faculty Fellows

The key to university-wide entrepre-neurship is engagement of faculty across the campus, not just in the Spears School of Business.

The Riata Faculty Fellows program was developed to invite and to provoke entrepreneurial thinking among nonbusi-ness faculty. Any faculty member at OSU can apply to be a Riata Faculty Fellow based on a specific entrepreneurial project proposed in his or her college or school.

The emphasis is to apply aspects of entrepreneurship to the faculty member’s discipline, either through a course, a research project or an outreach initiative. If a project is accepted, fellows receive a stipend to support their efforts. The fellowship is renewable for three years. Fellows present their work each year in a public forum.

At present, there are a dozen Riata Faculty Fellows.

Regents Professor Lin Liu is one of a dozen Riata Faculty Fellows. Liu is the director of OSU’s Lung Biology and Toxicology Lab at the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. As a Riata fellow he is developing student programs between the School of Entrepre-neurship and the veterinary school.

Students at the Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Living and Learn-ing Community take part in The Creative You class being taught by professor Tom Westbrook.

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The Interdisciplinary Entrepreneur-ship Academy engages faculty and serves students interested in entrepreneurial activity outside the business school’s walls.

Run by Rubin Pillay, the Daniel Jordan White Clinical Professor of Entre-preneurship, the e-academy is a hotbed of exciting, new and ongoing cross-disciplin-ary initiatives. Twelve such initiatives are in place.

School of Entrepreneurship faculty members work with colleagues in other departments to design course modules that can be applied into several courses.

Component three:Cross-Disciplinary Student Support

Several programs have been launched to support entrepreneurially minded students from any academic field.

The Riata Business Plan Competition, where over 90 teams compete each spring for $40,000 in prize money and another $15,000 in services, is entering its third year.

The Creativity, Innovation and Entre-preneurship Living and Learning Commu-nity is a place where students eat, sleep and breathe creativity. The CIE Living and Learning Community accommodates more than 40 students, who live together in a specially designated OSU residence hall at the edge of campus. Run by profes-sor Tom Westbrook, students take a course in the dorm called The Creative You and work on a range of projects that help them develop their creative skills.


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ImaGINE > bElIEvE > cREaTE

Component Five: Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative

The Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative identifies and supports inno-vations born inside OSU’s laboratories and classrooms by moving technologies closer to the marketplace through venture creation.

TEI utilizes graduate students’ talents to identify markets, determine market feasibility and move faculty and graduate student technologies to the next stage of commercialization.

TEI adds significant value to OSU’s intellectual property investment by connecting the resources of the entrepre-neurship program to technology research projects developed by faculty and gradu-ate students.

The program includes the active involvement of faculty and staff in the School of Entrepreneurship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship. Valuable

Component Four: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scholars

What happens when you put together a diverse group of top students from different academic fields, give them an extremely challenging task with tight deadlines, and provide a little support? Excellence happens. Magic happens. Transformational learning happens.

The Creativity, Innovation and Entre-preneurship Scholars demonstrate the potential of our best and brightest.

Top graduate students from across the OSU campus compete annually to be named to the program. A faculty commit-tee uses a rigorous process to select 10 MBA students and eight non-MBA gradu-ate students to become CIE Scholars.

The students are assigned to diverse, multidisciplinary teams and spend an entire year working on projects to contribute back to OSU. In the fall, they

OSU launched the Institute for Creativity & Innovation on Sept. 9, 2010. More than 400 students, faculty and staff attended an event where Jerry Bayliss, of the AT&T Foundation, spoke and presented a $25,000 check on behalf of Creative Oklahoma to OSU President Burns Hargis, right. Pictured behind Bayliss are entrepreneurship professor Melanie Page and OSU provost and senior vice president Robert Sternberg, who later gave a presentation on “Creativity is a Decision.”

help commercialize technologies being developed by faculty researchers in the sciences and engineering. In the spring, they compete in national competitions while also organizing the OSU Creativity Festival.

Support for the CIE Scholars program comes from Tiffany and Dan Howard, the Spears School of Business and the School of Entrepreneurship, as well as a grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. In addition to the MBA and Master’s in Entrepre-neurship programs, the scholars have been graduate students from chemistry, hospitality management, health sciences, agriculture, psychology, art, education and other areas.

The Novel Water Softening team of Creativ-ity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scholars won third place in the graduate division at the 2010 Oklahoma Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup business plan competition. Team members receiving their award from then-Gov. Brad Henry, second from left, are Kip Kelley and Samantha Collingsworth and faculty adviser Bruce Barringer, far right.

support comes from entrepreneurial advisers and mentors, the Riata Center Entrepreneurs in Residence and specific units across the campus, such as the New Product Development Center, the Inven-tors Assistance Service and the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center.

Component Six: Institute for Creativity and Innovation

Society faces increasingly complex challenges ranging from job creation and health care to famine, war and clean water. To meet these challenges, the university must be a place where people are empowered and equipped to generate creative, innovative and multidisciplinary solutions.

The goal of the Institute for Creativ-ity and Innovation is to help OSU faculty, students and staff fulfill the potential of their creative ideas.

ICI is launching a creative-studies minor, which will be housed in the busi-ness school and education college and includes classes from other colleges. In addition, the interactive “idea portal” soon will be operating and encouraging people to post creative and innovative ideas for the OSU campus to discuss.

Psychology professor Melanie Page and a steering committee of faculty, staff, and students from all OSU colleges lead the institute.

Experts in creativity and innova-tion, as well as noted creative achievers, regularly visit the OSU campus through ICI sponsorship. Speakers have included professor Jeff Stamp, chair of Entrepre-neurship and Innovation at the University of North Dakota; Gerard Puccio, head of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State; Darden Smith, a singer and songwriter based in Austin, Texas; and Daryl Hawk, an adventure photographer.

Photo / CoUrtESy

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Creativity, Innovation &

Entrepreneurship Scholars

OSU School of

Entrepreneurship and

Riata Center for Entrepreneurship

• 10 MBA Students & 8 Grad Students

• Commercialize OSU Technologies

• National Competitions

• Host Annual Creativity Festival

• Faculty and Student Inventors Across Campus

• Staged Intervention Model

• New Product Development Center

• Inventors Assistance Service

• Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center

Crossdisciplinary Student Support

• Riata Business Plan Competition

• CIE Living and Learning Community

• Cowboy Idea Hatchery

• MSE New Venture Lab

• Cowboy Entrepreneurial Mentors Program

Institute for Creativity & Innovation

• Creative Studies Minor

• Idea Portal

• Annual Creativity Festival and Challenge

• Creativity Speakers Series

Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship

Academy

• Entrepreneurship & the Arts

• Psychology in Entrepreneurship

• The Entrepreneurial Geologist

• Green Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurship & Military Science

• The Architect as Entrepreneur

• Entrepreneurship and Veterinary Medicine

• Auditing & Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurial Perspectives on Communications

• Health Entrepreneurship

• An Entrepreneurial High School

• Entrepreneurial Competencies for Engineers

Riata Faculty Fellows

• Nathan Richardson, Architecture

• Liz Roth, Art

• Jason Vogel, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

• James D. Hess, OSU Center for Health Sciences

• Lin Liu, Physiological Sciences

• Melanie C. Page, Psychology

• Derina Holtzhausen, Media and Strategic Communications

• J. Cecil, Industrial Engineering

• Julie Croff, Education Psychology

• Nicholas Materer, Chemistry

• Allen Apblett, Chemistry

• Lloyd Caldwell, Theatre

Technology Entrepreneurship

Initiative

ConneCting the Dots

A university becomes an entrepreneur-ial institution by leveraging connections among its diverse assets.

The OSU entrepreneurial ecosystem is filled with connections that help to recognize and capitalize on opportunity, leverage resources and manage risks. The entrepreneurship program is a catalyst and a conduit for making these connec-tions happen.

The School of Entrepreneurship provides a strong core for the cross- campus initiative through its offering of 42 courses. Some classes are part of entrepre-neurship degrees; others are for those with specific disciplinary interests; and others are for any students, such as “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” or “Entrepreneur-ship for Women and Minorities.”

The school’s cross-campus initia-tive is designed to enhance the ability to realize the entrepreneurial potential of our campus. The goal is to engage diverse colleges and divisions at OSU, where fertile ideas can be identified and nurtured, and where entrepreneurial mindsets become the norm for value creation, economic advancement, and community development.

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With the goal of moving OSU tech-nologies into the private sector to help diversify the state’s econ-

omy, the School of Entrepreneurship, the Riata Center and OSU’s Office of Intellec-tual Property Management launched the Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative.

The initiative will help OSU’s mission as a land-grant university to support economic development and growth across Oklahoma.

The School of Entrepreneurship devel-oped the coursework for graduate students to learn about commercialization and to help fill the gap between university labs and the commercial market.

The course was designed for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Schol-ars, putting some of our best and brightest graduate students on market feasibility studies and business plans for the emerg-ing technologies.

The Lemelson Foundation, through the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, funded the curricu-lum with a two-year grant to support multidisciplinary teams from across the OSU campus.

The projects resulted in business plans that were presented at venture competitions and showcases in California, Texas and Oklahoma. Several of the technologies are now in the commercialization pipeline.

Moving technology to the marketplace

Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative

From left, entrepreneurship master’s student Kyle Eastman, MBA student Faith Garlington and mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Ali Kaan Kalkan work in a lab as part of a team commercializing the conversion of sunlight to chemical fuels through artificial photosynthesis. Garlington won the Paulsen Award at the Oklahoma Governor’s Cup and a $5,000 scholarship for demonstrating entrepreneurial leadership and potential.

From left are members of the Cold Plasma Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship team Annie Nsafoah, Michael Kavalier and professor Bruce Barringer at the 2011 Gover-nor’s Cup. The team is commercializing a device that can decontaminate and sterilize places where bacteria and microbes can cause disease or contamination.

Photo / Gary LaWSon

Photo / i2e

TEAM 1 Hydrogen Fuel Production from Photosynthesis

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Ali Kaan Kalkan, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Faith Garlington, MBA; Gerard Dumancus, Ph.D., analytical chemistry; Kyle Eastman, Master’s in Entrepreneurship

An approach for conversion of sunlight to chemical fuels by artificial photosynthesis, Kalkan’s invention breaks down water into its constituent elements — hydrogen and oxygen. Both are produced as salable products, hydrogen as a source of fuel and oxygen to commercial providers.

TEAM 2 Wireless Multi-Sensor Platform

PI(s): Satish Bukkapatnam, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, and the late Ranga Komanduri, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Trey Knight, MBA/Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine; Ahn Hong Tran, MBA; Gilpatrick Hornsby, Master of Science, hospitality management

The wireless multi-sensor platform is a cardiac monitoring device that serves as an early prognostic system for cardiac disorder among the risk population, which consists of critical care patients, high intensity training athletics and infants.

TEAM 3 Arsenic & Phosphate Removal From Water

PI: Allen Apblett, Department of Chemistry

Karen Steed, MBA; Vamishi Krishna Kolla, MBA; Jonathan Kelly, Master of Science, agriculture

An approach for removing arsenic and phosphorus from water based on the use of an insoluble metallo-organic compound. Especially useful for water filtration systems in semiconductor manufacturing, in which removing and disposing of arsenic from water is an expensive process. Arsenic is a naturally occurring substance found in water, and its toxicity has led to serious environmental problems and difficulties in procuring suitable drinking water in many parts of the world.

TEAM 4 Method for Fabricating Amorphous Coatings on Crystalline Substrates

PI: Sandip P. Harimkar, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Felicity Milton, Master’s in Entrepreneurship; Christopher O’Connor, MBA; Claude Kershner, MBA

Amorphous materials represent a class of advanced materials that exhibit properties of high strength, hardness and excellent wear and corrosion resistance. The materials can be applied to machine parts and consumer products to improve their durability, lifespan and perfor-mance. Harimkar’s invention relates to an improved method of processing iron-based amorphous coatings on metallic substrate.

TEAM 5 Plasma Apparatus for Biological Decontamination & Sterilization

PI: Jamey D. Jacob, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Annie Nsafoah, Master of Science, agriculture; Mike Kavalier, MBA; Mariena Hargrave, MBA

A portable device that uses atmospheric pressure plasmas to rapidly decontaminate and sterilize physical spaces and surfaces, prevent-ing bacteria and deadly microbes from lodging on skin, instruments or clothing, which is often the cause of disease or contamination. The invention is useful in a number of applications and across certain industries.

TEAM 6 Easy, Rapid Field Test for Canine Parvovirus

PI: Sanjay Kapil and Shashidhara Marulappa, Center for Veterinary Health Sciences Rebecca Crain, Ph.D., counseling psychology; Jacob Schroeder, MBA; Amir Bhochhibhoya, Master’s in Entrepreneurship

Canine parvovirus is the largest cause of puppy mortality worldwide. There are few in-office and field diagnostic tests for canine parvovi-rus-2. This approach represents a potential breakthrough in detection that is less expensive than the current solution, while also providing rapid results and diagnosis in the field and in larger kennels and similar environments.

CiE Scholar teams, Class of 2010-2011

For more information on the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, go to www.nciia.org.

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The MSE New Venture Lab is not a typical laboratory. Microscopes would likely gather dust within its walls. Gloves are hardly ever necessary.

The lab is a business incubator for Master in Entrepreneurship graduate students, who come to OSU from across the country to start their ventures.

All master’s students must start a venture while in the program. To meet this requirement, graduate students must fulfill seven of 12 criteria, such as presenting to an investor or banker, making a sale, applying for a patent or developing a prototype. The degree is designed as a one-year program requiring completion of 33 credits and is directed by professor Bruce Barringer, the Johnny D. Pope Chair in entrepreneurship.

The Cowboy Idea Hatchery is an incubator for student ventures from across the OSU campus.

Students from any school or college who have a venture or want to start a venture apply to become resident entrepreneurs. The Idea Hatchery offers cubicles, computers, shared equipment and a confer-ence room.

The Riata Center provides an entrepreneur-in-residence to advise the group regularly and assigns mentors to the businesses. In order to stay in the busi-ness incubator, students must hit agreed-upon mile-stones in moving their venture forward.

The MSE is a component of the university-wide entrepreneurship empha-sis at OSU targeted to students with a passion for entrepreneurship in for-profit, non-profit and public sectors.

The MSE New Venture Lab houses between 21 and 24 ventures at any time and provides a conference room, shared equipment, office space and the opportu-nity to network with each other and entre-preneurial mentors.

MSE ventures are mentored and advised by Pat Henriques, the Thoma Family Clinical Professor in entrepreneur-ship. The Riata Center provides additional entrepreneurial advisers and mentors.

MSE new Venture LabStudents Venture at the Cowboy idea hatchery A different kind of laboratory

Felicity Milton 1Point6 Fitness and training apparatus for muscle recovery

Kyle EasthamBold Step LLC Self-defense awareness program for women

Michael Wampler Classic Parts Finder Online classic car marketplace

Kip KelleyFull Cellar Farm Cooperative farming social venture in Maryland

Amirkaji Bhochhibhoya Metcel LLC Novel lightweight and impenetrable material for use in body armor, aerospace and other applications

Emily Kern Nickel Lane Fair trade home furnishing and clothing with custom art designs

Ryan SappingtonOpportunity One Auto Minority financing program for auto industry

Brackett Pollard Pollard Livestock Cattle investments in Colorado

Jason Hammock REI OK Real estate development

CleanNG Technology for high-pressure fuel tanks for natural gas vehicles (Spears School of Business; College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology).

Ebenezer Group Backpack manufacturing company with a social mission (Spears School of Business; College of Human Sciences).

Everterrestrial Truffle growers and producers (College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources).

MaxQ Technology to conduct zero gravity space research using an unmanned aerial vehicle (College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology).

NearDigital Software and hardware platform for mobile ordering, integrated with retail payment systems. (College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, Spears School of Business, College of Education).

Styro Insulations Eco-friendly insulation synthesized from recycled material (Spears School of Business).

XploSafe Technologies for explosives detection, chemical safety and handling of hazardous chemicals (Spears School of Business; College of Arts and Sciences).

The first class of MSE students launched diverse businesses in the MSE business incubator.

Businesses at the Cowboy Idea Hatchery begin with students from the diverse colleges at OSU.

Fall 2011 resident businesses: MSE Lab Graduates

A Multidisciplinary Approach

Right: In 2010, The Cowboy Idea Hatchery housed several award-winning student ventures. Seated, from left, are Shoaib Shaikh of Xplo-Safe, Ray Grandoit of Ray Grande Apparel and Michael Tate of CleanNG. Stand-ing, from left, are Emily Whitson of Ebengroup LLC, Nicole Vance of Nogginjog, Max Whitemyer of Brook-lyn Stone Packaging and Styro Insulations, Hatchery Student Director Claude Kershner, Matt Villarreal of CleanNG and David Sikolia of Nambari Search.

A peer-to-peer meeting at the MSE New Venture Lab includes, sitting from left, Jodie Navarre of Styro Insulations, Kyle Eastham of Bold Step, Ryan Sappington of Opportunity One Auto and Krista Looper of Capelli Salon. Standing, from left, are David Walker of Nanga Equipment and Shelly Henricks of FlavorAbilities.

Photo / Gary LaWSon

Photo / tony thoMPSon

The Cowboy Idea Hatchery and the MSE New Venture Lab are Oklahoma certified business incubators, which offer graduating businesses a seven-year tax break.

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In spring 2010, the Riata Center launched the Women Entrepreneurs Inspire Conference, held at the Cox

Convention Center in Oklahoma City. A full day of learning, inspiration and

networking by more than 650 women filled the ballroom with enthusiasm and energy, which spilled into the foyer at each break and breakout session.

Keynote speakers included Maxine Clark, chief executive officer and founder

Women Inspire WomenRiata Center event energizes women entrepreneurs

Television news anchor Kirsten McIntyre, far right, introduces a panel at the 2011 Women Entrepreneurs Inspire Conference. From left are Rebecca Boenigk, CEO of Neutral Posture Inc., and Susan Yamada, founder of TRUST e and Get2Hawaii.

Clockwise from top left: Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin presents a proclamation for Women Entrepreneurs Inspire Day at the 2011 conference. Boot Camp Digital CEO Krista Neher presents “Social Media 101: Getting Started.” Winners of the 2011 Distinguished Woman Entrepreneur Awards Adrienne Kallweit, founder of SeekingSitters, left, and Regina Pritchett of Turf Team Outdoor Manage-ment, right, with Honorary Chair Amy Mitchell, partner and managing member of Riata Management. Maxine Clark, founder and CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop, presented “Building a Company One Teddy Bear Hug at a Time” during the 2010 conference.

social entrepreneurs and technology entrepreneurs. The conference offered tracks for different stages of business ownership, appealing to a broad audience of women with idea-stage businesses to successful growth businesses.

The annual Women Entrepreneurs Inspire Conference has taken hold in Oklahoma, bringing together successful women entrepreneurs from across the country.

The next Inspire: April 4, 2012.

of Build-a-Bear Workshop; Cordia Harrington, the Nashville Bun Company chief executive officer and a serial entre-preneur; Susan Lacz, chief executive offi-cer of Ridgewells Caterers in Washington, D.C.; and Dian Stai, owner of Owen Medi-cal, now Cardinal Health Systems.

In spring 2011, an equally impressive line-up of women entrepreneurs, includ-ing Maria DeLourdes Sobrino, founder of Lulu’s Dessert Company, and Susan

Yamada, the founder of TRUSTe, spoke at Inspire.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin presented a proclamation for Women Entrepreneurs Inspire Day, and two successful women entrepreneurs were honored with the Amy Mitchell Inspire Distinguished Woman Entrepreneur Award.

Diverse industries were well repre-sented, from an oil company to a national communications company, as well as

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For military personnel, returning to civilian life can be a challenging transition, especially for those who

have returned home with life-changing disabilities. Statistics show disabled veterans have a harder time accessing high-quality resources in terms of small-business training and support.

To meet this need, the OSU School of Entrepreneurship successfully launched the Disabled Veterans Entrepreneurship Program in 2010 with 30 delegates, many from Oklahoma and Texas.

The delegates represented a cross section of veterans with disabilities who had an idea for a new business or had started a small business and needed assistance.

In 2011, more than 125 applicants competed for 30 spots. OSU accepted 12 additional delegates and a class of 42 disabled-veteran entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs from 10 states completed the program.

The CurriculumA team of world-class faculty, success-

ful entrepreneurs, subject-matter experts and MBA students work with delegates to provide a challenging, interactive and infor-mative experience over the course of a year.

An eight-day, on-campus boot camp at OSU provides delegates an intense, hands-on learning experience. More than 50 volunteers staff the program, includ-ing OSU ROTC students and the OSU Entrepreneurship Club. More than 40 faculty and guest entrepreneur lecturers from OSU and other universities such as the University of Colorado, University of Oklahoma and Texas Christian University teach the sessions.

At the end of the boot camp, delegates have the opportunity to pitch their

ventures and ideas to a panel of successful entrepreneurs, investors, attorneys and CPAs. The boot camp is followed by 10 months of mentoring and support by the Rotary Club of Tulsa, Okla.

The demand demonstrates the need for intensive, hands-on, high-quality entrepre-neurial training for veterans with disabilities. Private-sector donors fund the program, which is free to accepted delegates.

Positive Results to DateThe response from the delegates has

been enthusiastic and, according to some, life changing.

Eighty-six percent of 2010 delegates participated in the mentoring portion of the program from February 2011 until December; 83 percent remain actively engaged in developing their entrepreneur-ial concepts and business models; and eight who had not started a business have since launched their businesses based on their original concepts. Delegates with existing businesses reported increased sales, new customers and a seemingly greater sense of purpose.

Such results make the program a truly rewarding and worthy endeavor for the entrepreneurship program, donors and veteran entrepreneur delegates.

from Military heroes to EntrepreneursThe Disabled Veterans Entrepreneurship Program helps former military members make the leap

Former U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston speaks at the closing dinner of the 2011 Veterans Entrepreneurship Program. Ralston is a former Commander in Chief of the U.S. European Command. Prior to that position, Ralston was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s second highest-ranking military officer.

Opposite page: Michael H. Morris, right, head of the School of Entrepreneurship, and U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Robin Rand, center, listen as Nate Waters, left, speaks during the opening of the 2011 Disabled Veterans Entrepreneurship Program.

Right: Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, speaks with, from left, Brad Gallup, Joe Collins, Anthony Parkman, Luke McCauley and Winston Dixon at the 2010 program.

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Designed as an intense training program to whip entrepreneurs into business-creating shape, the OSU Cowboy Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs began two years ago in Tulsa, Okla.

In fall 2009, the Riata Center brought together six of OSU’s top entrepreneurship faculty, distinguished guests and close to 60 entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepre-neurs to launch the Cowboy Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs. After six Saturdays, the enlistees graduated with the enthusiasm and knowledge to start or take businesses to the next level.

The program grew in 2010, attracting more than 75 entrepreneurs and aspir-ing entrepreneurs. The boot camp was further supported by a partnership with

the Center for Entrepreneurship and International Business at the University of Tulsa. Graduate students from OSU and TU consulted program delegates.

The Cowboy Bootcamp has been so successful a satellite program was launched for small cities and rural areas in northwest Oklahoma. The 2010 Enid, Okla., Cowboy Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs worked with the Autry Technology Center and Ward Petroleum to bring together nearly 40 delegates in the city 65 miles northwest of OSU’s Stillwater campus.

For more information about the Cowboy Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs contact [email protected] or 405-744-7552.

Top: Kent Williams, senior partner at HRB Consultants, speaks about the fundamentals of human relations and staffing at the 2010 boot camp.

Above: Aspiring entrepreneurs watch and listen as professor Michael H. Morris, head of the OSU School of Entrepreneurship, teaches a 2010 boot-camp class.

an intensive Entrepreneurial Workout

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free Enterprise EducationOSU entrepreneurship school awarded grant

The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foun-dation awarded a $36,400 grant to the School of Entrepreneurship at

Oklahoma State University to encourage innovative thinking and market-based principles through four initiatives.

The school will develop Science of Liberty modules for its Introduction to Entrepreneurship course that focus on the roles of ethics, values, free enterprise and personal liberty in supporting entrepre-neurial behavior.

The second initiative involves promot-ing student development in topics related to entrepreneurial success.

The third initiative will encourage a liberty-advancing community at OSU and develop a new Liberty & Free Enterprise Institute to serve as a conduit for organiz-ing campus speakers, guest lecturers and student activities. This initiative includes appointing a faculty member as a Science of Liberty Fellow.

Lastly, the school will disseminate the results of the overall project to entrepre-neurship educators and researchers across the country at major entrepreneurial meet-ings and conferences.

The entrepreneurship program is honored to have an opportunity to develop the entrepreneurial principles in its curric-ulum that are core to the successful foun-dation of Koch Industries based in Wichita, Kan., and to facilitate these values across the OSU campus.


the economic future of the developing world is tied to entrepreneurship.

In most countries, government offi-cials, economic policy experts, academ-ics and those in the private sector acknowledge the vital importance of entrepreneurship.

Yet, there is not much agreement on how the role of entrepreneurship is played out.

OSU’s approach is a unique partner-ship with South Africa’s University of the Western Cape, the University of Colorado and Texas A&M University. In its third year, Entrepreneurship Empowerment in South Africa helps disadvantaged entre-preneurs grow sustainable ventures.

The American schools, each with top-rated entrepreneurship programs, select 25 applicants a year. The University of the Western Cape selects up to 20 South Afri-can students.

The students are put into consulting teams that match their education and work backgrounds, and balance American and South African students. Four faculty members, three from the American universities and one from UWC, guide the students. The teams work with entrepre-neurs for six weeks during June and July.

“Failure is not an option,” says Univer-sity of Colorado professor Frank Moyes.

“The key to success is to set the bar high

in terms of expectations, getting the students into their discomfort zone and providing strong mentoring.”

The program’s selectivity, rigor and systematic approach to working with the entrepreneurs makes it different. Faculty selects 16 disadvantaged entrepreneurs from an interview pool of up to 60. The entrepreneurs must have been in business for at least one year, have at least three employees, a passion for their business, a desire to grow and a willingness to share all aspects of their businesses with the student-consulting teams.

Engaging and Growing

Students spend three hours a day in class learning tools and techniques to help their clients; and up to six hours in the field meeting with clients, conducting research, and speaking with competitors, customers, suppliers and others. Faculty is available to mentor and coach the teams for five hours a day.

Students begin by applying the Supporting Emerging Enterprises model developed by professor Michael H. Morris, the EESA program director and head of OSU’s School of Entrepreneurship.

“The SEE model is a systematic approach to capturing the key issues and challenges in a given small business and then prioritizing needs and deliverables that the students can produce,” Morris says. “We do not want the teams simply focusing on what they know, such that every problem is a marketing problem if your degree is in marketing. One must look at every aspect of the business. The key problems are often not what the entre-preneur thinks they are.”

Each team produces at least four tangible deliverables for its clients. “A deliverable is not some sort of analysis or a report, it is a problem solved,” Moyes says.

Examples include helping busi-nesses obtain signage or equipment, development of improved bookkeeping systems, design of better production or operating methods, preparation of tenders, enhanced cash flow management approaches and more effective selling and marketing methods.

Clients have included everything from electrical contractors and butcheries to a township-based magazine, a frozen breads company and the first spa in a township.

Top left: EESA student Ben Steiger, left, speaks with client Xolile Citwa.

Bottom left: EESA students worked with entrepreneurs from impoverished neighbor-hoods in townships such as the one pictured here.

Above: EESA student Nathan Henson, center, with his clients, owners of Mzansi Restaurant.

EESA student Adam Jameson visits with a child in a township near Cape Town, South Africa, where OSU students spend six summer weeks working with local disadvantaged entrepreneurs.

a Unique helping hand for Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs

Program in South Africa allows OSU students to try to change the world .…and themselves

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Texas A&M Univ.College Station, TX

Univ. of ColoradoBoulder, CO

Univ. of Western CapeCape Town, South Africa

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partnership like this at our university. The students are taught by top faculty and learn how to solve real-world problems that are happening right outside the gates of this school.”

Solving Problems and Changing

“This program is explosive,” says Fred-die Esau, a management honors student at UWC. “It’s not just an assignment you turn in, we are actually working in the businesses and applying all that we have learned in a truly hands-on way.”

Texas A&M MBA student Justin Boeker says the reward is worth the challenge.

“We work every day and often late into the night on solutions for these clients,” Boeker says. “You find yourself going to sleep thinking about your clients, but no matter what, we walk away gaining so much more.”

A challenge for the American students is the different context and environment they are tossed into while being asked to fish for a lot of information to produce something relevant for South African small businesses. They have to catch up, know and understand this during the first week so they are able to consult. They end up creating invaluable tangibles with the support of UWC students.

Whatever the students do, they have to make sure the entrepreneurs and their employees are heavily involved in the implementation. It is a great learn-ing opportunity for the students and the entrepreneurs. The two-way relationship results in an experience that surpasses mere business. Both parties start learning more about different cultures, families and values.

During the program, different student teams act as one and consult each other.

The students have complementary abili-ties. The students also take time out from busy schedules for dinners together and other fun events to balance hard work and a social life.

In addition, students have the oppor-tunity to learn from each other’s cultures. American students not only get to know the South African students, they also form friendships with others at the campus.

Even after the program ends, students stay in touch with each other and the entrepreneurs. At the end of the program, lives are changed and there is a lot of inspiration and encouragement for both parties to go out in the world and be the best they can be.

The program changed my life. I had never had any entrepreneurship classes. During the first lecture I realized that it is what I wanted to do.

The lectures are structured in a way that the material taught in the morning is applicable at the client’s firm in the after-noon. There is no better learning than that.

The program since then changed my vision and goals for my future as I started realizing my full potential and also experienced a changed mindset. It gave me the opportunity to actually practice what I was learning. The intensity of the program pushed me to my limits and untapped some potential that I never knew I had. It changed my career path, which is the reason why I am currently at OSU pursuing a master’s degree in entrepreneurship.

I have very big dreams because of EESA and I have started acting upon those dreams.

ViCtor ChaitEzVi

“I could not be where I am at today if it had not been for the EESA program,” says Jerome Hekman, owner of Celkem, which produces and packages chemical concentrates. “I have been able to grow my company and just signed a deal with a company in Durban (South Africa) to distribute my chemicals.”

Luvuyo Rani has been a client three times and has grown to 17 locations for his computer training, Internet café and computer hardware company, Silulo Ulutho Technologies.

“They don’t have a formula, but instead really learn the business itself and develop customized solutions,” Rani says.

Once the six-week engagements are concluded, the work is not over.

“We have developed a detailed follow-up program with The Business Place in

the township of Philippi (South Africa) and in Cape Town, which will include six months of follow-up meetings with the entrepreneurs to track their progress and implementation of the deliverables,” Morris says. “These types of improvements help ensure that these entrepreneurs have year-round support.”

The University of the Western Cape provides housing, facilities and adminis-trative support.

“UWC is extremely proud to be the home for EESA,” says Ricardo Peters, interim head of the business and finance department. “There is no other

EESA clients show their appreciation by spelling out “thank u” using soccer balls and jerseys. South Africa was even more soccer crazy than usual because several matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup were played during the American students’ visit.

The class of 2010 EESA students with professor Michael H. Morris, front left, and professor Frank Moyes, front center, at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.

“This program is explosive. It’s not just an assignment

you turn in, we are actually working in the businesses and applying

all that we have learned in a truly hands-on way.”

— Freddie Esau, UWC student

to learn more about the Entrepreneurship Empowerment in South africa program

contact Dr. Michael Morris at [email protected] or 405 744-5357.

In 2010, I was doing my undergraduate work in finance at the University of the Western Cape when I applied for Entre-

preneurship Empowerment in South Africa and was interviewed by Michael Morris, the program’s director. I was very happy to be selected to participate in the program and be assigned to one of the teams with U.S. students helping entrepreneurial businesses.

Disadvantaged individuals in differ-ent townships own the businesses. These entrepreneurs are real-life business owners at the breaking point and in need of help. The program looks to empower the business-owning entrepreneurs, most of whom lack a business background but have entrepreneurial mindsets.

I became a real-time consultant to such a business. I learned more about business in six weeks than I had learned in my 17 years in formal education.

My group chose the name Ukukhuthaza Consulting and worked with two businesses. The first was Litsha Magazine, a publication for townships. My group helped Litsha with formulating a record-keeping system, website, social media system, an advertisement contract process manual and an operations manual.

The second business was GX Security, a company offering event security in the townships and metro areas of Cape Town. Ukukhuthaza helped GX with a financial management system, a company legiti-macy plan, a human resources plan and marketing materials.

Both businesses have expanded and increased revenues and profits. Litsha has released more magazines and is increas-ing its market share. GX Security is in a better financial position and has retained existing and secured new contracts.

zimbabwe native and master’s student Victor Chaitezvi tells how the program led him to an entrepreneurial path

A Student’s EESA Experience

“It gave me the opportunity to

actually practice what I was learning. The intensity of the

program pushed me to my limits

and untapped some potential that I never

knew I had.”

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Two OSU chemistry professors and an MBA graduate launched XploSafe in 2009.

During the spring semester a team of MBA students developed a business plan for the explosive-detection products invented by professors Allen Apblett and Nick Materer in their lab. Shaikh was a member of that team. When he graduated he wanted to take to the marketplace those products that make detection of peroxide-based explosives easier and more accurate.

The company licensed from OSU two core technologies invented by Apblett and Materer. The company has since acquired multiple state and federal contracts and grants, including a recent grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

XploSafe products are carried by a major chemical distribution company and used nationwide in labs to maintain hazardous chemical solutions. XploSafe has been in business for two years, gener-ates revenues and is on its way to becom-ing a viable business.

What made you decide to start a venture with two faculty professors instead of taking a job when you graduated?

I had always desired to establish a venture and am motivated by some of the greatest entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and my own father.

From a resource perspective we had two dedicated scientists, a team of recent MBA graduates, and a new entrepreneur-ship program that was willing to help us and provided encouragement.

It seemed to be a good combination of opportunity and resources. It was compel-ling enough to convince me that we could be successful.

What kind of advice can you give other student entrepreneurs or first-time, start-up entrepreneurs?

Starting and growing a venture is a dynamic process, and one shouldn’t expect to achieve milestones and deliv-erables exactly as proposed in a business plan. It’s a constantly evolving process and requires patience and commitment.

The success of XploSafe is tied directly to the dedication of a lot of time and resources by many people.

As I continue to grow along with the venture, I have realized that I have to be patient when it comes to expectations but at the same time be extremely disciplined in completing tasks and goals. Not every-thing I do works, but every now and then I am positively surprised by the results achieved from the simplest tasks.

One of the core objectives of the entrepreneurship program at Oklahoma State University is to help students identify their ambitions and talents and let

those aspirations flourish.When students have the desire to be entrepreneurs and

to bring entrepreneurial thinking to whatever they do, it’s essential to help root their dreams in reality and it’s reward-ing to see them prosper.

Here are stories of three up-and-coming entrepreneurs who started businesses as students and undoubtedly will be changing the world in the decades to come.

the Heart of a Student Entrepreneur

What are the three most important ways the entrepreneurship program at OSU has helped you, and how can universities best help student entrepreneurs?

First, the entrepreneurship program provided XploSafe a lot of direction, support and access to resources over the first year and a half that we were in business.

Second, I was able to get introductions to successful entrepreneurs and experts that XploSafe has leveraged frequently in order to achieve goals and milestones.

In addition, I personally have benefit-ted in my growth and learning as an entre-preneur by attending several programs offered by the OSU entrepreneurship program including the Cowboy Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs, the Veterans Entrepre-neurship Program and the Women Entre-preneurs Inspire Conference.

Commercializing OSU TechnologiesShoaib Shaikh and XploSafe

Opposite page: Shoaib Shaikh outlines a sales strategy for his company, XploSafe, at the Cowboy Idea Hatchery at the OSU Riata Center for Entrepreneurship.

Above: Shaikh works at his desk in the Cowboy Idea Hatchery.

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Emily Kern, first and foremost, is a talented artist.

With an OSU art degree, Kern has successfully shown her art in galleries and high-end retail stores across Oklahoma.

Kern’s desire to use her talent to make a difference in the world motivated her to enter the Master’s of Entrepreneurship program and start her company, Nickel Lane. The company’s name is a combina-tion of her middle name, Nicole, and the middle name of her business partner and sister-in-law, Rachel “Lane” Kern, also an artist.

The company’s goal is to advance responsible, sustainable creativity in the marketplace through eco-friendly and fair trade products.

What made you decide to launch your business?

I wanted to do something that would make a difference; something that I felt was meaningful.

I am a creative, artistic person and I have experience in painting, sculpture and printmaking. I also have a logistics background in retail and financial experi-ence in banking. I had been approached by a couple of businesses about licensing my artwork to be printed on home acces-sories. I did my due diligence on these offers and discovered that almost all of these products were going to be made in sweatshops and facilities with question-able ethical standards.

I was uncomfortable with this means of production so I decided to try and find skilled artisans to partner with that could make products utilizing my artwork but in a humane, fair way.

Why did you think you could be successful when you started, and how do you feel about prospects for success now?

I know my designs are unique, and affordable home accessories manufac-tured with a conscience are rare.

In the world of instant access to infor-mation, people know more and demand to know more about how the products they

Social EntrepreneurEmily Kern and Nickel Lane

purchase are made. It is a new phenom-enon and has already taken root in the food industry.

I believe my company is beginning at the same time as the emergence of this new long-term trend and it is a great fit for this niche market.

My time at OSU has solidified this niche in my mind. It also has taught me the marketing, fundraising, management and finance skills I lacked to really make my entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

What important lessons have you learned about yourself?

I know I really can do what I want in this life.

I used to meet challenges or jobs that I had never done before by avoiding them because I didn’t already possess the skills or knowledge to meet the challenge.

I am confident that I can ask the right questions, acquire the knowledge and do whatever it takes to meet each challenge. I have also learned to keep an open mind.

I pursue a path in my career and with my company that is directed and deliberate, but I stay open to new opportunities that could take my business in new directions that I had never imagined.

What are the three most important ways having an entrepreneurship program at a university can help students become entrepreneurs?

It can help students develop the busi-ness skills to start their own company, especially if they have no background in business; provide mentors and access to entrepreneurial networks that, in my case, continue to help me further my career and reach my entrepreneurial goals; and help students find their entrepreneurial path.

The entrepreneurship program helped me identify what I really want to do with my life, to be a social entrepreneur.

Nickel Lane raw material is stored in Honduras. The company is focused on responsibly providing eco-friendly and fair-trade accessories.

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How did you actually get the business running when you knew nothing about candles?

The idea of making candles that smelled like my favorite foods always seemed like a great idea. In early 2009, I bought a candle making kit and started learning how to make candles. I perfected the candles, designed labels, developed my first eight fragrances, and had a logo and a website by May 2009.

How did you make your first sale? By June 2009, I had a few local small

shops carrying the product. I thought my candles were perfect for Hallmark stores, so I pitched it to a store a few miles away from where I lived. They turned me down and laughed at my idea. So I went to another Hallmark store six miles away. They loved the idea and were my first Hallmark store.

What are some key lessons that you learned?

One thing I learned is that the best competitive edge is to out service other businesses. I always work hard, and I answer phone calls and emails to everyone. Even if I don’t get an order from someone, I still provide service to them.

One of the things that enabled me to survive was that I controlled costs. My wife and I did everything and we worked out of our house as long as possible. We did that for almost a year. Then in October 2009 we were able to hire employees to make the candles in a company location. We are still very hands on, and continue to put all our money back into the company.

What are your top three tips for students who want to start a business while in school?

Don’t compromise your own values or ideas. Early on I got a call from an adult novelty store with a 3,000-store distribution. At that time, I only had five customers. It was tempting, but I knew it was the wrong customer for the brand and would not complement the gift stores I had started to sell to. The finished prod-uct needs to be quality. Refusing to cut corners and the quality of our product has been a key to my success.

Don’t give up; and make relation-ships a priority. Being an entrepreneur takes a lot of hours and there were times when I didn’t feel rewarded. I kept at it and with some luck things are paying off. One of the things that has worked for me is that I believe in developing relationships. In the beginning, I gave my cell phone number to all of my potential customers, and would take calls day or night. People whom I dealt with felt a sense of loyalty to my company. It’s important to remember that products and trends come and go, however, relationships last. I am work-ing hard on building relationships and a good reputation so that when I have new products, I can rely on the relationships I have built to help me market and sell other products that may be coming.

Ask for help. Don’t try to have all the answers. Fewer mistakes mean you can get your product or service out there faster. Ask professors for help too. Ask the Riata Center. One thing I learned and that I personally feel is that entrepreneurs always like to help other entrepreneurs — that’s the nature of entrepreneurs.

Johnson Bailey makes his pitch on Shark Tank.

Original Man Candle was created from one question: “Why are there no cool candles?”

In a world full of vanilla and mulberry scented candles, there was no place to get unique candles.

Johnson Bailey’s concept was to make candles the old fashion way, but with a new attitude that would appeal to a new segment of customers.

In 2009, he wrote a business plan for his entrepreneurship class at OSU-Tulsa. He would produce candles that smelled like some of his favorite foods — bacon, roast beef, barbecue. Less than two years later, Bailey was making candles in his garage and placing his products in more than 160 Hallmark stores. His best selling candle mimics the smell of a person passing gas.

Earlier this year, Bailey presented his company to three investors on ABC’s Shark Tank. While none of them invested in his company, saying it was too small, the television exposure catapulted the Original Man Candle into a hot gift item.

At the Dallas Market, the Original Man Candle was the No. 1 volume seller during the summer buying season.

Bailey also found an investor who has helped him ramp up the company and enabled him to hire a strategic marketing person to increase sales and exposure.

At the Philadelphia Gift Show in July, people lined up to get his autograph and take a picture with Bailey. By that that time, sales in the first half of 2011 exceeded his total sales for 2010 by 100 percent.

Shark Tank EntrepreneurJohnson Bailey and Original Man Candle

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The Riata Entrepreneurial Intern-ship Program accepted me in spring 2010, when there were more than

three applicants for each position.The program is a unique, hands-on

internship program open to undergradu-ate and graduate students studying in all disciplines across campus. The internships are paid and provide students with course-work credit through an entrepreneurship practicum.

Michael Morris, head of the OSU School of Entrepreneurship, Nola Miyasaki, director of the Riata Center, and Will Joyce, associate director of the Riata Center lead monthly interventions. Besides providing structure for interns’ consulting activities, the interventions allow interns to inter-act with each other and discuss current projects, business models and other issues pertaining to their internships.

At the beginning of the semester, an entrepreneurial host company hires one of the interns. For the duration of the semes-ter, the intern works as a consultant. The objective of the internship is to provide the company with new and valuable tools to improve its business, as well as to provide experiential learning for the intern in a fast-paced company.

I worked for TechTrol, a relatively new technology-based firm with an innovative product geared toward improving dairy-cattle health. My overarching project was to create a marketing plan it could use to increase sales and marketplace exposure.

I never thought I would work for a company specializing in radio-frequency technology, let alone dairy cattle.

The Riata program was great because it helped develop and sharpen my market-ing and analytical skills and challenged me to look at any business and find ways to improve it. The fast-paced work environ-ment allowed me to get a glimpse into the working world and see the types of issues that entrepreneurs face on a daily basis.

The following semester, another Riata intern worked on implementing the market-ing plan for TechTrol. It was gratifying know that the plan I wrote was being executed.

Overall, the Riata internship was a great experience. It gave me a newfound sense of confidence and perspective that motivated me to pursue my master’s degree in entrepreneurship.

k r i S ta Lo o PE r , M S E ’ 11

Learning by DoingMaster’s degree candidate Krista Looper shares her experience as a Riata intern

Top and above: Riata intern Krista Looper and TechTrol President Bill Ardrey at TechTrol in Pawnee, Okla., where Looper created a marketing plan for the company.

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ImaGINE > bElIEvE > cREaTE30

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With more than $40,000 in cash prizes for the top three teams, plus money for the best tech-

nology idea and social venture, and free legal services from Oklahoma law firms, the Riata Business Plan Competition is producing some exciting student start-up ventures.

The competition has attracted more than 95 entries from the OSU campus each year.

Faculty, staff and entrepreneurial coaches from the community mentor the teams for 3½ months during the spring semester. In addition, Oklahoma law firms provide legal services to help the teams incorporate, a requirement to receive the prize money.

Sixteen teams are selected from their written plans to be in the oral competi-tion, a two-day event culminating in the selection of the final four by 20 investors, entrepreneurs and attorneys from the private sector.

A judging panel of Riata Advisory Board members, successful entrepreneurs, and investors pick the big winners.

The business plan competition winners reflect the efforts of the entre-preneurship program to reach across the campus and engage not just students in the business school, but also students in other disciplines. As might be expected, Spears School of Business students do very well in the competition, but other colleges are well represented among the winning teams.

The Riata Business Plan Competition

into the fireAbove: Winners of the 2011 Riata Busi-ness Plan Competition. Styro Insulations’ Max Whitemyer exchanges a high five handshake as he carries off a big check with teammate Jodie Navarre. Behind the pair, teammate Lynsie Morris exchanges a smile with well-wishers.

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WINNEr

MetcelThe team of engineering graduate students Balaji Jayakumar, Advait Bhat and Ganapathi Ranjan Mahadevan, along with MBA candidate Amirkaji Bhochhibhoya won $25,000 to commercialize a technology developed at OSU’s aerospace engineering department. Metcel’s plan to produce cost-effective, lightweight and high-strength material for aircrafts is valuable for the industry because of the proprietary technology in manufacturing techniques. Metcel was formed with faculty member Jay Hanan in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Since the competition, Metcel formed its Limited Liability Company and won an $18,000 e-team grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance to support prototype development and commercialization of its technology.

SECONd PLaCE

Integ MedicalJai Hari Rajendran, Aditya Machani and Yolando Odenyo won $10,000. Integ proposed to commercialize an intrave-nous catheter that will reduce secondary infections in patients, saving patients and hospitals money.

THIrd PLaCE

Turnout Solutions A team led by Donald Bowman, a student in OSU’s Fire Protection and Safety School, and James Bradley, a local fire chief, won $5,000 to provide high-quality, hassle-free maintenance for the flame-resistant coats and pants worn by firefighters.

OTHEr aWardS TECHNOLOgy PRizE – Metcel • DREAMER AND DOER AwARD – G4Social run by Claude Kershner and Grant Hartman • ENTREPRENEURiAL SPiRiT AwARD – Nambari Search owned by David Sikolia

2010 riata Winners

2011 riata Winners

ABOVE: Members of Metcel, winners of the 2010 Riata Business Plan Competition, are, from left, Amirkaji Bhochhibhoya, Balaji Jayakumar, Ganapathi Ranjan Mahadevan and Advait Bhat.

Members of Styro Insulations, winners of the 2011 Riata Business Plan Competition, are, from left, Lynsie Morris, Jodie Navarre, Cale Hyer and Max Whitemyer.

WINNEr

Styro InsulationsThe team of business and entrepre-neurship undergraduates Max White-myer, Lynsie Morris, Jodie Navarre and Cale Hyer won $25,000. Styro Insulations developed a method for recycling packing materials to make a home and commercial building insulation product. Since the competi-tion, the Styro team has formed its business, done additional testing and certifications, made two initial instal-lations with contracts pending for additional customers, and has leased warehouse space in Stillwater, Okla. With a growing potential market in Dallas, the company anticipates open-ing a second location.

SECONd PLaCE

CleanNG The team of business students Matt Villarreal, Michael Tate and Jacob Crawley and engineering student Alex Diamond won $10,000 for a proprietary pressurized natural gas canister for use in natural gas vehicles. CleanNG is a resident business in the Cowboy Idea Hatchery and appeared at several confer-ences during the year, including the Tulsa Technology Ventures Summit and the National SBIR Conference. CleanNG is incorporated and since has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Oklahoma Applied Research Support program.

THIrd PLaCE

Cold PlasmaMBA students Mariena Hargrave and Michael Kavalier, along with agriculture master’s student Annie Nsafoah won $5,000 to commercialize a device and method developed at OSU to replace current chemical submersion steriliza-tion methods for the medical field. Team members were part of the Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Schol-ars Program, and qualified for the San Diego New Venture Competition and the Oklahoma Governor’s Cup Competition.

HONOraBLE MENTION

Bold Step Entrepreneurship master’s student Kyle Eastham was lauded for Bold Step, which provides personal safety instruction and information to universities where the target audience is enrolled college women.

OTHEr aWardS BEST TECHNOLOgy - MaxQ founded by Saravan Kumar, Ashwin Ravi, Balaji Jayakuma, Ryan Jenkinson and Brandon Hawthorne • BEST SOCiAL VENTURE - Full Cellar Farm founded by Kip Kelley • ENTREPRENEURiAL SPiRiT AwARD

- Ebengroup founded by Emily Whitson, Candace McCreary, Chelsea Muncil and Yohanna Tamez • DREAMER AND DOER AwARD - Everterrestrial owned and operated by Alane Metcalf

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Photo / fELiSha WiLLiaMS


VEntUrinG StUDEntS


The School of Entrepreneur-ship recently added two clinical positions, thanks to the generosity and vision of Marilynn and Carl Thoma.

Henriques is an accomplished entrepreneur and successful exec-utive with more than 30 years of

experience in company growth, strategic business planning, business process re-engineering and financial management.

She founded and led Management Alternatives for 20 years, from inception to an industry-recognized, national leader in corporate relocation management. In addition to moving the Pittsburgh Inter-national Airport, her clients included the National Science Foundation, National Public Radio, Sprint, General Electric and the Department of Defense. After the 2002 sale of her company, Henriques formed The Henlee Group to work with executives to develop sound business strategies for emerging, high-growth and established companies.

Henriques served as the Distinguished Visiting Entrepreneur in Residence at the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship at OSU from 2009-2011. In addition to her teaching responsibilities at OSU, she is the director of the MSE New Venture Lab and entrepreneurial adviser to the MSE student entrepreneurs.

alumni Gift Supports two Professorships

Patricia HenriquesThoma Family Distinguished clinical Professor in Entrepreneurship


Marilynn Thoma is a graduate of the College of Human Sciences. Carl Thoma is a graduate of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Both are successful entrepreneurs. Marilynn owns and operates a family vineyard in Oregon, the Van Duzer Vine-yards. Carl is the CEO and managing

director of Thoma Bravo, a private equity group based in Chicago and San Francisco.

Their gift enables the School of Entre-preneurship to hire faculty who have industry expertise and experience, and whose main priorities focus on teach-ing and service for the entrepreneurship program.

Watters is an accomplished scholar, educator, entrepre-neur, manager and economic

development specialist. He brings a diverse background to OSU from the top-ranked entrepreneurship program at Syracuse University, where he led several educational and community engagement initiatives. He has worked with faculty across an array of disciplines on curricu-lum development and outreach programs related to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

He helped conceptualize and launch the highly successful South Side Entrepre-neurial Connect Project, which contributed to the transformation of an economically challenged community. Watters served as assistant dean for advancement in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse and as director of its economic stimulus center, the I-Launch Pad.

A former manager at General Elec-tric and Syracuse Research Corporation, Watters has extensive industry experience in project management and contracts administration. Watters has also launched two successful ventures. His recent publications include “Inner City Engagement and the University: Interac-tion, Emergence & Transformation” in Entrepreneurship and Regional Develop-ment (2011).

Watters holds a bachelor’s, a master’s and a doctorate degree from Syracuse University.

Craig WattersPh.D., carl Thoma Distinguished clini-cal Professor in Entrepreneurship

Photo / Gary LaWSon

34 ImaGINE > bElIEvE > cREaTE

EntErPriSinG PEoPLE


COWBOY ENTREPRENEUR > SPRING 2012

For all the research on entrepre-neurs and entrepreneurship over the past 50 years, we know surpris-

ingly little about what it’s actually like to create a new venture.

One might think it is like building a house. Start with a concept, develop detailed plans, obtain the necessary resources and, following sound principles, work through a set of stages to construct a structure.

In fact, creating a venture is nothing like this. While there might be a plan, and resources are brought together to build something new, and steps or stages may be in place, at this point the analogy ends.

Entrepreneurship involves creating something under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity, where the individual actu-ally controls very little and multiple forces conspire against success. What actually gets created is typically very different from what was intended. What was intended as a high-growth venture turns out to be a lifestyle venture, or what was intended as a product-focused business selling to younger women ends up as a service-based venture targeting middle-aged adults in the midst of a career transition.

An entrepreneur is an actor in a play, but the play is unscripted. Moreover, an entrepreneur is acting in multiple roles (marketer, cash flow manager, inventor, production manager, procurer, negotiator, budgeter, planner, supervisor, etc.), each of which is only loosely defined, with no pre-established lines or actions laid out for the part.

Entrepreneurs must design and learn the roles as they fill them. Stated differ-ently, entrepreneurship is an impro-visational performance, where people learn the parts as they go.

While much research looks at ventures retrospectively, a better way to make sense of things is to approach venture creation as an evolving, lived-through experience. The core argument is entrepreneurship can best be understood by considering how daily and weekly developments in the early stages of a venture impact and are impacted by an entrepreneur.

People trying to start a venture are in the midst of things, in the moment, actors in an unfolding drama, experiencing a continual stream of new and novel events. Based on how they process, interpret and react to these events, entrepreneurs are constructing their own reality. For this reason, no two individuals experience entrepreneurship in the same way.

Consider the first three or four years of a venture when an entrepreneur encoun-ters several salient events such as winning a patent, losing a key employee or ruined inventory (Table 1). These events are not simply part of the venture-creation experience, but they define the experi-ence. They represent the very essence of entrepreneurship.

Opening day

Purchase of defective goods for the business

Significant criticism of your business idea

Testimonial from major customer

Rejection of loan request by multiple banks

Major unexpected tax bill

First time seeing your signage on the building

Write up of business in newspaper

First sale or first deposit of customer check

First long term client contract

Closing a major customer deal

Insufficient funds notice from your bank

Hiring first employee

Loss of key account

Hours or days with no customers

First period of profit

Inability to make payroll

Supplier cuts you off

Failure to fulfill a major order

Distributor agrees to carry your product

Move from home base to own premises

Partner disagreement and departure

Receipt of major loan from bank

Major customer commitment not honored

Employee theft

Loss of key employee

Winning a patent

Bank calls a loan

Divorce because business is so absorbing

Purchase of major piece of equipment

Bounced check from customer

Angel investor agrees to invest

Need to sell or mortgage personal asset to keep business going

Fine or regulatory restriction imposed by government

Bad publicity of your business in media

Significant employee accomplishment

Hiring your 10th or 100th employee

Offer from someone to buy your business

Competitor directly copies something unique you are doing

Technology you have spent money developing fails to work

properly in key test

Major piece of equipment is defective

Employee strike

Weather, flood or fire disaster

Robbery

Business wins award

Lawsuit from a customer or competitor

Firing an employee

Asking family member to leave business

Landlord forces you to move

Major insurance claim against your company

Addition of new product/service to your line

Opening an additional location

Expansion of facilities

Bank grants you line of credit

Purchasing your own building

First time that demand exceeds your capacity

Customer fails to pay

Books do not balance

Personal injury to or death of an employee

Bribe demand from key customer or regulator

Business is able to give back to community

First time you advertise in major medium

Elimination of key product or service or withdrawal from a particular market

Contractual commitment from supplier, customer or distributor is not honored

New competitor enters with serious advantage

Company’s inventory is damaged or becomes obsolete

Paying off business debt

Company goes public

First major exhibition of your product at a trade show

Failure of your product in the field

Understanding the Entrepreneurial ExperienceHow ventures create entrepreneurs

(story continues)

TaBLE 1

Examples of Salient Events as a Venture Evolves

By M i Ch a E L h . M o r r i S , Ph . D .


EntErPriSinG PEoPLE


COWBOY ENTREPRENEUR > SPRING 2012

Taking Stock

Many occurrences that happen as a venture unfolds are largely ignored or taken for granted. A subset of these events is given saliency as the entrepreneur attaches significance to them. Two differ-ent individuals will see a given event in different ways. The significance attached to an event is based on its:

• Novelty

• Expectedness

• Complexity

• Consistency with the individual’s assumptions and knowledge base, and

• Perceived implications.

Novelty is likely the most critical factor. Something novel must be interpreted to give it meaning, and sense must be made of it. However, any of these criteria could contrib-ute to the saliency attached to an event, and not all need be present.

Thus, the need to sell some personal asset to keep the business going could be expected or unexpected, but dealing with it, especially the first time it occurs, is a novel experience, and so the event is likely to be salient. Similarly, an event could have been anticipated and may have occurred before, such as the loss of a key account, but it remains salient because of its serious implications for company survival.

Some of the events form streams, where in the entrepreneur’s mind a set of developments are connected in some way.

An entrepreneur, for example, receives that first check from an angel investor. The stream of experience in which this instance is embedded might encompass the experience of determining financial needs, searching for venture financing, a number of rejections, deferring payment of bills and various daily aspects of being an entrepreneur. In each of these events, there is a path-dependent quality to the stream, such that each instance interacts with the next.

The overall accumulation of events and event streams at any point in time forms the entrepreneur’s stock of expe-rience, which has important implica-tions as it influences how new events are

interpreted and responded to. Ultimately it determines both the entrepreneur’s engagement levels in and satisfaction with the venture-creation experience.

Thus, if serial entrepreneurs are compared with those involved in their first venture, how they interpret a given devel-opment, such as the loss of a key account, is likely to differ significantly. And, when people describe what it is like to be an entrepreneur, they reflect on the stock of events that define the experience.

The Three V’s

Venture creation can further be described in terms of the volume, veloc-ity and volatility of the events being encountered.

Volume is the sheer number of salient events, or how many developments such as those in Table 1 occur as a venture is launched, takes form and becomes sustainable. High volumes of events create distinct challenges in information process-ing, emotional reactions and the entrepre-neur’s sense of control.

Velocity is the rate at which entrepre-neurs encounter significant new develop-ments that they must process. It concerns how rapidly events come at the entrepre-neur. Higher volumes of events generally mean higher velocity, although the pace at which events are encountered likely varies over time. There could be periods of extremely high velocity and periods of relatively low velocity.

Planning becomes more problematic when the pace at which salient events are encountered is high. The abilities to prop-erly interpret a given event, understand its meaning, emotionally adjust and behav-iorally respond can be compromised by high levels of event velocity.

Volatility is the extent to which events vary in their degree of intensity. Events can be positively or negatively intense. Volatility captures the degree of variance, and hence the peaks and valleys, associated with the events being experi-enced. As with velocity, volatility likely varies over time, and one would expect it to lessen as a sustainable business model takes root and the venture stabilizes.

However, high rates of venture growth, ongoing innovation and new market entry are factors that would likely contribute to greater velocity and volatility. The wide swings associated with a more volatile venture-creation experience are likely to result in stronger emotional swings. These ups and downs can contribute to dysfunc-tional behaviors, such as employee abuse, alcoholism and poor eating habits.

Increased volume, velocity and vola-tility can produce a more interesting, engaging, challenging and fulfilling entre-preneurial experience. Similarly, all three can contribute to the levels of stress, anxi-ety and physical exhaustion. They have implications for the entrepreneur’s behav-ior and decision-making and, ultimately, for the type of venture that emerges.

There is a rich fabric to the venture-creation experience. As the many unex-pected and novel events are encountered, entrepreneurs attempt to impose struc-ture on them, making them intelligible. They must give meaning to and make sense of them.

Processing these events occurs at multiple levels, some sub-conscious and involuntary, and involves more than cogni-tive effort or rational thought. Processing is also highly emotional, as entrepreneurs feel stress, fear, frustration, exhilaration, loneliness, boredom, anger, helplessness and fulfillment. At the same time, these events give rise to physiological reactions, such as fatigue, release of adrenaline, sleeplessness, appetite loss and headaches.

Consider an entrepreneur who real-izes a key order is not coming through, only $1,000 remains in the bank, a large payment is due and a major investor is arguing the business model is flawed. This temporal event produces physiological reactions such as loss of appetite and nervousness that interact with emotional responses such as frustration and panic, which simultaneously result in cognitive reactions such as heightened awareness, biases in information processing and some sort of decision about cutting prices.

The conclusion is that the entrepre-neurial experience involves the complex cognitive, emotional and physiological processing of a wide array of salient events varying in their velocity and volatility.

Emotions and feelings, or affect, are especially important in understanding how entrepreneurs experience venture creation.

Range of Emotions

Robert Baron, the Spears Chair in Entrepreneurship at OSU, has done semi-nal work on the role of affect in entrepre-neurship. He argues positive and negative emotions can influence the individual’s perceptions of the external world, levels of creativity, use of heuristics in decision-making, memory, motives and cognitive strategies. There is an impact on speed of decision-making and choices regarding resource acquisition, development of skills and social networks, and how to respond to environmental dynamics.

More recently, when a large sample of entrepreneurs was asked to describe what it felt like in the midst of venture creation, they used 48 emotional terms to describe their experiences (Table 2).

The primary implication of an expe-riential view is the need to approach entrepreneurship as a journey over time. Unfortunately, the temporal nature of entrepreneurship is missed in much of the existing research. Yet, it is this temporal quality that brings us to the concept of emergence.

At its core, entrepreneurship is all about emergence over time. More than simple change or evolution, with emer-gence a phenomenon is becoming some-thing it was not before. New patterns and properties are arising. Three parallel types of emergence take place in a new venture: the opportunity, the venture and the entrepreneur.

First, the opportunity that underlies the venture is emerging. Opportunities are not fixed things. They evolve and are affected by the way in which entrepre-neurs interact with them.

The nature of relevant target audi-ences, their needs, the gaps between these needs and competitor offerings are all subject to evolution and change. While Steve Jobs may have pursued the iPad based on some sense of a given market

TaBLE 2

Descriptors Associated with the Entrepreneurial Experience

(story continues)


EntErPriSinG PEoPLE

39

opportunity — a need for better, more mobile, more flexible (and more legal) access to music — he is not likely to have foreseen how this opportunity would morph into iTunes, or a vehicle to bring music companies, who themselves were under assault, together on a novel platform that would redefine an entire industry.

Ventures also evolve. The path to a sustainable venture involves considerable trial and error. The ability to recognize and address errors in the midst of expe-riencing them is tied to how a person processes immediate events, connects them to past events and anticipates the future. Meaning can be difficult to assign to cues, especially where experienced events are novel.

The resultant stream of actions, or inactions, can profoundly impact the venture. Entrepreneurs’ risk orientation and goals may be changing as they react to

ongoing events, leading to changes in the relative aggressiveness, innovativeness or growth orientation of the venture.

Finally, entrepreneurs evolve. That is the moral of this story.

Those creating their first venture often have little in their backgrounds to prepare them to be an entrepreneur. An individual does not start as an entrepreneur, he or she becomes one.

Evidence suggests successful entre-preneurs tend to be tolerant of ambigu-ity, calculated risk takers, independent, open to learning, adaptable and have good networking skills, among other characteristics.

Yet, people do not necessarily start with such characteristics. As the context is filled with events that are ambiguous, uncertain and require adaptability, it is possible that exposure to such conditions results in self-development as entrepreneurs learn to cope,

especially when these events lead to strong negative and positive affect.

As people assign meaning to experi-ences, they put them in context with the rest of their lives and exemplar experi-ences. Entrepreneurs are placing them in an existing mental classification schema, relying on experience in securing and shaping a personal identity in the face of disruptive and often highly emotional events that influence knowledge construc-tion. Through ongoing interaction with the venture, entrepreneurs are being continually reconstructed in real time.

It is the venture and how it is experi-enced that molds entrepreneurs and helps foster the development of an entrepre-neurial mindset.

It is the venture and how it is experienced that molds entrepreneurs and helps foster the development of an entrepreneurial mindset.

Michael H. Morris, Ph.D., N. Malone Mitchell Jr. Chair in Entrepreneurship, is a professor and head of the OSU School of Entrepreneurship.

Photo / Gary LaWSon

EntErPriSinG PEoPLE


JuSTIN WEBB, assistant professor in the School of Entrepreneur-ship at Oklahoma State University, with Ohio State University’s Geoff Kistruck and chris Sutter, and Texas a&m’s Duane Ireland, recently published findings of a study exploring the efficacy of microfranchising in the journal Entrepreneur-ship theory and Practice.

Spawned by an interest in the effectiveness of this entrepreneurial strategy in extremely impoverished markets and given that scholars have primarily studied franchising in more-affluent and developed settings, this study involved observations of and interviews with health care, education and durable-goods microfranchisors and microfranchisees in Kenya, Guatemala, India and Iran.

The study suggests the franchise model faces significant challenges because of the local context of these impoverished base-of-the-pyramid markets. The study also provides key implications for transferring strategies and practices from developed to base-of-the-pyramid markets.

Consider 7-Eleven, McDonald’s, Ace Hardware, Meineke Car Centers and Sylvan Learning Centers.

Each of these companies has experi-enced enviable growth through franchis-ing, an entrepreneurial strategy that has become common across many different industries. A franchisor firm licenses a business concept, operational system or trademark to franchisee firms, facilitating the franchisor’s ability to take advan-tage of opportunities across broader geographic markets.

(story continues)

Social Entrepreneurship: Microfranchising as an Economic Development Strategy

The benefits of franchising relative to growing a company via internal means are based on two primary mechanisms: creating alignment of interests and shar-ing costs.

By owning and investing in their specific stores, franchisees have a vested interest in their respective outlets’ perfor-mance. This vested interest increases alignment with overall company interests.

In comparison, internal growth requires a company to hire managers for each outlet. Salary-earning managers’

interests are not as strongly aligned with the company, as their compensation does not increase with outlet performance.

As a company grows across broader markets and monitoring becomes difficult, franchisees are less likely to shirk respon-sibilities or require additional incentives, decreasing the company’s costs for dealing with such issues relative to internal growth.

Franchisees also share growth costs with the franchisor. Franchisees are often responsible for significant start-up costs, such as purchasing new locations

Weaver in GuatemalaPharmacist in India


and training new employees. By sharing growth costs, the franchisor can focus on establishing the chain’s brand and stan-dardizing routines.

In comparison, internal growth requires a company to assume all costs associated with expansion.

Therefore, franchising accelerates market expansion, enabling economies-of-scale and a stronger market presence, relative to internal growth.

Given the significant benefits of fran-chising, scholars and practitioners have touted franchising as an attractive option for addressing the social and economic needs of base-of-the-pyramid markets.

Base-of-the-pyramid markets, located primarily in developing and emerging economies such as India, Brazil and Kenya, refer to extremely impoverished markets where the average individual lives on one or two dollars per day. Seventy percent of the world’s population lives in base-of-the-pyramid markets, and the extreme levels of poverty create not only poor living conditions but also major health-related issues.

The needs of these markets historically have been served via charitable solutions. More recently, however, the vast needs of base-of-the-pyramid markets and increased competition for charitable funds have led to the realization that charity alone cannot provide an effective, scalable solution.

Instead, efforts have turned to market-based solutions. Market-based solutions draw upon charitable funds to provide technical and organizational skills to local individuals so they can become self-sustaining and a foundation for local growth. Borrowing on the more widely known concept of microfinance, micro-franchising refers to a market-based solu-tion in which the franchise model has been used to address social and economic needs in base-of-the-pyramid markets.

For an example, Drishtee is a social enterprise that has established health care oriented microfranchise operations primarily in rural India. The microfran-chise outlets sell various products, such as contraceptives, medicines and feminine-hygiene products.

As the microfranchisor, Drishtee provides microfranchisees support in

assessing community needs, customizing services, establishing local infrastructure and promoting transactions within the community, among other forms of support. With a small financial investment, accessed perhaps via microcredit loans, local individuals can assume the role of microfranchisees.

The microfranchisees benefit from the structure provided by Drishtee and income provided by having this job, and the local community benefits from access to health-related products.

VisionSpring is a second example of social enterprise using a microfranchis-ing approach. VisionSpring provides local communities with eyeglasses as a means to increase work productivity and overall quality of life.

Local individuals serving as micro-franchisees are provided a “Business in a Bag” — products and marketing-related materials, a three-day training session and ongoing sales support from Vision-Spring’s staff. Microfranchisees, in turn, conduct screenings, sell over-the-counter reading glasses and refer customers with complex needs to eye-care specialists.

Similar to Drishtee, VisionSpring’s motives balance social and economic needs in providing a scalable solution for base-of-the-pyramid markets.

In addition to the extreme poverty levels in base-of-the-pyramid markets, the local contexts are characterized by a lack of formal institutions.

Variance exists across base-of-the-pyra-mid markets; however, these markets gener-ally lack legal structures, such as formal property rights and contracts, as well as infrastructural elements, such as education, transportation, communication and utility infrastructures. Instead, economic transac-tions are strongly guided by local norms and beliefs that differ significantly across regions. While informal structures may exist, they are largely inefficient.

A few examples can highlight some of the challenges.

First, the ability to share growth costs with franchisees is a major benefit to a franchisor. In base-of-the-pyramid markets, however, extreme levels of poverty mean the microfranchisor usually has to

carry a heavy financial burden in help-ing the local microfranchisees start up local outlets. A common theme is a lack of money available from the microfranchisees and the presence of only inefficient and extremely risky means of securing funding.

Inefficiencies also surface in base-of-the-pyramid markets in terms of building market awareness and leveraging stan-dardized routines.

The lack of widespread communica-tion and transportation infrastructures undermines the ability of microfranchi-sors to efficiently create market awareness of their chain. Moreover, a distrust of outsiders, due to cultural nuances and a high incidence of violence in base-of-the-pyramid markets, hinders the microfran-chise’s ability to serve these markets.

As one microfranchisee remarked, “In the rural areas, there are so many differ-ent dialects; I mean different types, 42 types, so if you are not from the same dialect, you cannot be accepted because people talk in their own vernacular and you can’t present the problem in their mother tongue. At that time, they will usually say, ‘I don’t understand.’ There is a lot of taboo in communities and people who believe in them.”

Likewise, significant differences in local norms and beliefs across regions hinder the microfranchisor’s ability to standardize routines.

Local norms and beliefs shape expec-tations of how products and services should be provided. While standard-izing routines can help franchisors gain economies of scale, the significant differences across regions undermines standardization.

A nurse from a health care microfran-chisee noted, “Standardization doesn’t make sense because each place has its own technique. If you move west down the coast, the houses are not the same, so you cannot have the same style of room, but you must look to adapt depending on the location.”

Alignment of interests is an issue in microfranchises as well.

Because of the extreme poverty, local individuals prefer to have a job with a steady income. Likewise, local individu-als would prefer not to assume the risks of becoming essentially a self-sustaining entrepreneur. Therefore, the microfran-chisee signs the contract but then expects the microfranchisor to assert control and make all of the decisions. In cases in which microfranchisees take over respon-sibilities and enjoy some success, the lack of a strong legal structure enables the microfranchisees to act opportunistically.

As noted by a microfranchisor, “So you give your business format; you set it up. But after about two or three years every-thing that could be taught to a franchisee has been taught, and it’s a 10- or 20-year contract, and if it’s a 20-year contract, they start to think, ‘Why should I be paying this guy x dollars a year when they aren’t any value to me anymore?’

“So they go out and try to find a way around the contract, and because the systems in this part of the world are weak in the sense that it would take a year for a lawsuit to come, they roll the dice and say, ‘You know what, I’ll remove the sign and put my own sign there and say come sue me.’ What do I do? If I sue the guy it’s going to cost me and I probably am not going to win it. I can’t afford to pay the system.”

Despite the challenges, the study’s findings also pointed to creative

adaptations of the microfranchise concept that create optimism for use in economic development.

One microfranchise employed a local person to walk from one community to the next to raise awareness of the micro-franchise. The walker helps to overcome the lack of communication infrastruc-tures by creating awareness of the micro-franchise’s products.

As a second example, a micro-franchisor used a local nonprofit as a social auditor to resolve disputes with a microfranchisee. As a nonprofit having served the community over an extended period and also with the ability to remove resources from the community, the social auditor had local influence in the commu-nity but also was perceived as an unbiased mediator. The social auditor was able to resolve the issue for the microfranchisor by influencing the community to place pressure on the local microfranchisee.

There are other adaptations that have been attempted that have not been as successful.

However, continuing efforts to intro-duce microfranchising may produce addi-tional adaptations to the model that will make this an effective economic develop-ment strategy.

These findings certainly are important to successfully deploy social entrepreneur-ship to support developing countries as an alternative or complement to govern-ment aid.

In addition to the extreme poverty levels in base-of-the-pyramid markets, the local contexts are charac-terized by a lack of formal institutions.

Local norms and beliefs shape expectations of how products and services should be provided.

All quotes in this article come from the authors’ paper: Kistruck, g.M., webb,

J.w., Sutter, C., & ireland, R.D. 2011. “Microfranchising in base-of-the-pyra-

mid markets: institutional challenges and adaptations to the franchise

model.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(3): 503-531.

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Durable goods salesman in Iran

Justin Webb


EntErPriSinG PEoPLE


Can Entrepreneurs Be Too Positive? Perhaps

As a group, entrepreneurs are known to be very upbeat, positive, enthusiastic and optimistic. It’s

widely assumed this tendency is a key strength. It arms entrepreneurs with the resilience to recover from setbacks and continue pursuing their dreams even under very difficult conditions.

But is this strong tendency to expe-rience positive feelings, moods and emotions always beneficial? Can there be too much of a good thing where the tendency to be upbeat is concerned?

Film star and master of the double entendre Mae West once remarked, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”

Some research findings appear to confirm this view, suggesting the tendency to remain upbeat is significantly related to many beneficial outcomes, ranging from enhanced career achievement through formation of satisfying personal relationships, and even improved physical and emotional health.

Psychology professors Sonja Lyubomir-sky, Ed Diener and Laura King outlined such findings in a 2005 edition of Psycho-logical Bulletin. The team of researchers found that positive affect — the role of positive emotions such as happiness and optimism — engenders success.

A strong tendency to experience positive feelings, moods and emotions increases energy and confidence, contrib-utes to creativity and strengthens the abil-ity to cope with high levels of stress.

Yet, there is a growing body of recent evidence suggesting it’s possible to be too upbeat. It can increase susceptibility to cognitive errors, such as unrealistic optimism; reduce attention to negative information, which can be a very seri-ous problem for entrepreneurs; lead to a tendency to overvalue and fall in love with one’s own ideas; create unattainable goals; and increase impulsivity. This is just a partial list of the potentially detrimental effects of being upbeat much of the time and across many different situations.

By ro B E rt a . Ba ro n

Robert A. Baron, Ph.D., is the Spears Chair of Entrepreneurship at OSU. This article is based, in part, on findings presented in Baron, R.A., Hmieleski, K.M., & Henry, R.A. “Entrepreneurs’ dispositional positive affect: The Potential benefits—and potential costs—of being ‘up.’” Journal of Business Venturing (in press); and Baron, R.A., Hmieleski, K.M., & Tang, J. “Entrepre-neurs’ dispositional positive affect and firm performance: when there can be ‘too much of a good thing.’” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (2011).

Does this mean that entrepreneurs should do everything in their power to be gloomy, negative and sad? Far from it.

As noted, a large body of research indicates being upbeat does indeed have many benefits on the persons who experi-ence it. Yet, it is important to recognize it may also generate detrimental outcomes and processes.

When positive feelings, emotions and moods are excessive, they can get in the way of the clear thinking and effective decision making crucial for entrepre-neurial success. The key task for entre-preneurs is to learn to reign in their own pervasive tendencies to be upbeat so they can maximize the potential benefits they confer while simultaneously minimizing the hazards it can sometimes pose. As in many other spheres of life, moderation, not excess, is the key.

Photo / PhiL ShoCkLEy


EntErPriSinG PEoPLE


Nancy R. Mata, a graphic design professor at Mill-ersville University in Pennsylvania, partici-pates in a classroom exercise during the 2010 Experiential Classroom clinic at OSU.

Photo / Gary LaWSon

Entering its 12th year of teach-ing teachers, the Experiential Classroom has moved from

Syracuse University to Oklahoma State University.

This intensive, three-day clinic exposes faculty to the best practices in entrepreneurship education, curricu-lum development and program building.

Each year, 75 faculty members are selected to participate in the program. The delegates include established faculty from a diverse array of disci-plines, entrepreneurs coming back to teach, center and program directors and recent doctoral graduates.

During the most recent Experien-tial Classroom, delegates represented 63 universities and colleges, 29 states and 10 countries. Over the first 11 years, more than 800 educators have attended the Experiential Classroom.

The Experiential Classroom is designed to help those new to teaching entrepreneurship provide students with the skills they need to become successful entrepreneurs. Twenty-seven top educators and thought lead-ers in entrepreneurship present the program.

Experiential Classroom Based in oklahoma


EntErPriSinG PEoPLE


Steven Griggs Ph.D., Adjunct Lecturer

Robert Baron Ph.D., Professor and William S. Spears Chair

Bruce Barringer Ph.D., Professor and Johnny D. Pope Chair

Kyle Eastham Adjunct Lecturer

Donald Eller Adjunct Lecturer

Vance Fried J.D., CPA, Riata Professor of Entrepreneurship

James George Adjunct Lecturer

Crystal Guthrie Administrative Coordinator

Patricia Henriques Thoma Family Distinguished Clinical Professor in Entrepreneurship

Col. Kevin Kriner Executive in Residence

Michael H. Morris Ph.D., Professor, N. Malone Mitchell Jr. Chair and Head of the School of Entrepreneurship

Brandon Mueller Ph.D., Assistant Professor

William Paiva J.D., Adjunct Lecturer

School of Entrepreneurship

F A C u LT Y & S T A F F

Janette Hudson Administrative Coordinator

Melanie Page Ph.D., Associate Professor, Riata Fellow and Director of the Institute for Creativity & Innovation

Elizabeth Payne J.D., Adjunct Lecturer

Rubin Pillay Ph.D., Daniel Jordan White Clinical Professor in Entrepreneurship and Creativity

Craig Watters Ph.D., Carl Thoma Distinguished Clinical Professor in Entrepreneurship

Justin Webb Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Tom Westbrook Ph.D., Clinical Professor of Creativity

Jon Wiese MBA, Riata Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurial Practice

William Joyce J.D., Associate Director

Nola Miyasaki J.D., MBA, Norman C. Stevenson Chair and Director

Brooke Stuart Events and Marketing Specialist

Riata Center for Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Ph.D. CandidatesEric Arseneau first year

Blakely Davis first year

Rebecca Franklin-Bryant second year

Jun Fu first year

Chris Pryor second year

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Photo / Gary LaWSon

Photo / CoUrtESy

Mueller recently completed his entre-preneurship doctorate with a strategic management minor at Indiana University.

His research interests are pioneering activities of companies, opportunity discovery, organizational learning and the development of entrepreneurial expertise. His doctoral dissertation was entitled, Teaching the Individual to Fish: The Influence of Expert Opportunity Recognition Process Modeling upon Aspiring Entrepreneurs.

Mueller received his MBA from Iowa University and his bachelor’s in accounting and management information systems from Luther College in Iowa.

Brandon Mueller Ph.D., assistant professor

William Joyce J.D., Riata center associate director

Joyce practiced business and real estate law for several years at a major St. Louis law firm before joining the non-profit start up Live

at Peace Ministries, which provides mediation services for businesses and individuals in St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Joyce was instrumental in the growth and expansion of the business from a five-person operation to more than 20 employees. As director of operations, he was responsible for doubling revenues and tripling donations over a two-year period.

Joyce returns to OSU, where he obtained his bachelor’s in English. He received his juris doctorate from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

As the Riata Center’s associate director, Joyce is responsible for overseeing programs and daily operations, including management of the Cowboy Hatchery and MSE New Venture Lab student business incubators.

Presidents, business founders and CEOs consititute the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship Advisory Board. Each member has risen to high ranks within their professions and offers valuable insight to OSU’s entrepreneurship school.

Riata Center Advisory Board

Jack Allen Jr. Chairman and owner, CFR Tulsa, Okla.

Joe Eastin President, ISNetworld Dallas

Gordon Eubanks Former CEO, Symantec and Oblix Monterey, Calif.

Rhonda Hooper CEO, Jordan Associates Oklahoma City

Steve Irby President, Stillwater Designs Stillwater, Okla.

Liz Norris McKinley President, Pinnacle Petroleum Huntington Beach, Calif.

Malone Mitchell 3rd Partner and Managing Member, Riata Management Dallas

Tiffany Sewell-Howard CEO, Charles Machine Works Perry, Okla.

Ron Siegenthaler Former Chairman, Xeta Technologies Director, CharityCall Tulsa, Okla.

Russ Teubner CEO, HostBridge Technology Stillwater

Carl Thoma Managing Partner, Thoma Bravo Chicago

New HiresThe School of Entrepreneurship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship have

both recently added new members.

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Robert A. Baron Baron, R.A. and R.A. Henry. “Entrepreneurship.” In Handbook of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, edited by S. Zedeck, 241-275. American Psychological Association, 2010.

Baron, R.A. “Effectual Versus Predictive Logics in Entrepreneurial Decision Making: Differences Between Experts and Novices. Does Experience in Starting New Ventures Change the Way Entrepreneurs Think? Perhaps, But for Now ‘Caution’ is Essential.” Journal of Business Venturing 24 (2010): 310-15. Baron, R.A. and R.A. Henry. “How Entrepreneurs Acquire the Capacity to Excel: Insights from Basic Research on Expert Performance.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal 4 (2010): 49-65. Baron, R.A. “Job Design and Entrepreneurship: Why Closer Connections = Mutual Gains.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 30 (2010): 1-10.

Baron, R.A. “Opportunity Recognition: Evolving Theoretical Perspectives.” In Historical Foundations of Research, edited by H. Lundstrom and F. Lohrke. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011.

Baron, R.A. and J. Tang. “Positive Affect, Creativity, and Innovations in New Ventures: A Moderated Mediation Model.” Journal of Business Venturing 26 (2011): 49-60.

Nambisan, S. and R.A. Baron. “Different Roles, Different Strokes: Organizing Virtual Customer Environments to Promote Two Types of Customer Contributions.” Organizational Science 21 (2010): 554-572.

Neuman, J. H. and R.A. Baron. “Workplace Bullying: A Social Interactionist Perspective.” In Workplace Bullying: Development in Theory, Research and Practice (2nd ed.), edited by S. Einarsen, H. Hoel, D. Zapf and C. L. Cooper. London: CRC Press, 2011.

Bruce R. Barringer Barringer, Bruce R. “How Much Pre-Launch and Post-Launch Planning Takes Place and How Much Difference Does It Make.” Paper presented at the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, June 9-12, 2010.

Barringer, Bruce R. “Contrasting the Discovery and Creation Theories of Entrepreneurial Action: A Comparative Case Study.” Paper presented at the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, June 9-12, 2010.

Barringer, Bruce R. and Duane Ireland. Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2011.

Zhang, Z. and Bruce R. Barringer, “Alliance Experience and Service Quality.” Journal of Business and Policy Research 5 (2010): 100-18.

Vance FriedFried, Vance. Better/Cheaper College: An Entrepreneur’s guide to Rescuing the Undergraduate Education industry. Washington, D.C.: Center for College Affordability and Productivity, 2010.

Fried, Vance. “The Endowment Trap.” Clarion Call (Pope Center for Higher Education Policy), March 29, 2011.

Fried, Vance. “Federal Higher Education Policy and the Profitable Nonprofits.” Policy Analysis 678 (Cato Institute), 2011.

Fried, Vance. “Opportunities for Efficiency and Innovation: A Primer on How to Cut College Costs.” Future of American Education Project 2011-12 (American Enterprise Institute), 2011.

Michael H. Morris Morris, Michael H., J. Allen, D. Kuratko and D. Brannon. “Experiencing Family Business Creation: Differences between Founders, Non-family Managers and Founders of Non-family Firms.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 34 (2010): 1057-1084.

Morris, Michael H., S. Coombes, J. Allen and J. Webb. “Behavioral Orientations of Nonprofit Boards as a Factor in Entrepreneurial Performance: Does Governance Matter?” Journal of Management Studies 48 (2010): 829-853.

Morris, Michael H., J. Webb and R. Franklin. “Understanding the Manifestation of Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Nonprofit Context.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 35 (2011).

Morris, Michael H., C. Watters and M. Schindehutte. “Inner City Engagement and the University: Mutuality, Emergence & Transformation.” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (2011).

Morris, Michael H. and A. Kocak. “Entrepreneurial Exit and Re-entry: An Exploratory Study of Turkish Entrepreneurs.” Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship 15 (2011): 439-460.

Morris, Michael H., D. Kuratko and J. Covin. Corporate Entrepreneurship and innovation (3rd ed.). Cincinnati: Cengage Publishing, 2011.

Morris, Michael H. “Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship.” In World Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, edited by Léo-Paul Dana. London: Edward Elgar, 2012.

Morris, Michael H., D. Kuratko and M. Schindehutte. “Framing the Entrepreneurial Experience.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (forthcoming). Brandon A. Mueller

Mueller, B. A., V.K. Titus, J.G. Covin, and D.P. Slevin. “Pioneering Orientation and Firm Growth: Knowing When and to What Degree Pioneering Makes Sense.” Journal of Management (In press). Justin W. Webb Combs, J.G., D.J. Ketchen, R.D. Ireland and J.W. Webb. “Leveraging Strategic Resources Through Expansion Strategies: The Role of Resource Flexibility.” Journal of Management Studies 48 (2010): 1098-1125.

Coombes, S.M.T., M.H. Morris, J.A. Allen and J.W. Webb. “Behavioral Orientations of Nonprofit Boards as a Factor in Entrepreneurial Performance: Does Governance Matter?” Journal of Management Studies 48 (2010): 829-853.

Kistruck, G.M., J. W. Webb, C.J. Sutter and R.D. Ireland. “Microfranchising in Base-of-the-Pyramid Markets: Institutional Challenges and Adaptations to the Franchise Model.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 35 (2011): 503-531.

Morris, M.H., J.W. Webb and R. Franklin-Bryant. “Understanding the Manifestation of Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Nonprofit Context.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (forthcoming).

Porter, C.O.L.H., J.W. Webb and C.I. Gogus. “When Goal Orientations Collide: Effects of Learning and Performance Orientation on Team Adaptability in Response to Workload Imbalance.” Journal of Applied Psychology 95 (2010): 935-943.

Webb, J.W, D.J. Ketchen and R.D. Ireland. “Strategic Entrepreneurship Within Family-Controlled Firms: Opportunities and Challenges.” Journal of Family Business Strategy 1 (2010): 67-77.

Webb, J.W., G.M. Kistruck, R.D. Ireland and D.J. Ketchen. “The Entrepreneurial Process in Bottom of the Pyramid Markets: The Case of Multinational Corporation/Non-Government Organization Alliances.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 34 (2010): 555-581. Webb, J.W., R.D. Ireland, M.A. Hitt, G.M. Kistruck, and L. Tihanyi. “Where is the Opportunity Without the Customer? An Integration of Marketing Activities, the Entrepreneurship Process and Institutional Theory.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (forthcoming).

The School of Entrepreneurship’s professors annually teach about 1,300 students. They participate as conference presenters at OSU and around the nation. And they continue to prolifically publish their entrepreneurial research and theories.

From July 2010 to June 2011, the faculty published more than 30 articles and books and ranked 10th in the nation for entrepreneurship research productivity.

Recent Faculty Publications

P U B L I C A T I O N S


Donald F. Kuratko was recognized as the 2010-2011 Riata Distinguished Scholar.

Kuratko is the Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship and executive director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneur-ship & Innovation at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

He also serves as executive director of the Global Consortium of Entrepre-neurship Centers, an organization of more than 250 top university entrepre-neurship centers.

Kuratko is a top scholar and a global leader in the field of entrepreneurship. He has published over 180 articles on aspects of entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship. The Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Strategic Management Journal,

Journal of Operations Management, Acad-emy of Management Executive, Journal of Small Business Management, Family Business Review and Journal of Business Ethics have published his work.

Kuratko has authored 24 books, including one of the field’s leaders, Entre-preneurship: Theory, Process, Practice, Eighth Edition (2009). Other books include Corporate Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Third Edition (2011) with Michael H. Morris and Jeffrey G. Covin, and New Venture Management (2009).

Over the years, Kuratko has received numerous national awards and recogni-tions, including being honored by his peers in Entrepreneur magazine as the No. 1 Entrepreneurship Program Director in the nation and selected as one of the Top Entrepreneurship Professors in the United States by Fortune Small Business

magazine. He was also named one of the Top 50 Entrepreneurship Scholars for the last 10 years.

Kuratko has been honored with The George Washington Honor Medal, the Leavey Foundation Award for Excel-lence in Private Enterprise, the NFIB Entrepreneurship Excellence Award, the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship National Model Innova-tive Pedagogy Award for Entrepreneur-ship, USASBE’s National Outstanding Entrepreneurship Educator and the John E. Hughes Entrepreneurial Advocacy Award for his career achievements in entrepreneurship.

In addition, the National Academy of Management presented him with the Entrepreneurship Advocate Award for his contributions to the development and advancement of entrepreneurship.

riata Distinguished Scholar award honors hoosier Professor

Photo / CoUrtESy

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Russ Teubner is a classic garage.com story.

He started a company in his living room and worked all hours of the night while holding down a full-time job at Oklahoma State University. In 1983, the computer whiz saw a need for large IBM mainframe computers to talk to smaller servers and PCs. He developed the soft-ware to enable that communication. The rest is history.

Teubner & Associates was founded in 1983. Within a decade, the company was named to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in America for three consecutive years. The company was known for bringing the first Web-to-host product to market in 1995. Software developers working for Teubner gravitated to Stillwater, Okla. By 1996, the company had customers in 31 countries on six continents.

In 1997, Teubner spun out a division of the company, which located in Denver, and successfully merged Teubner & Asso-ciates with France-based Esker S.A.

In 2000, Teubner founded another technology startup in Stillwater, Host-Bridge Technology. The company provides solutions to problems associated with the integration of IBM mainframes with Web-based and cloud-based applications.

Teubner retains a sense of humility and a sense of humor. His advice to young, aspiring entrepreneurs: “Just because something has never been done before, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. If you have the courage to take the next step, the main thing is to make sure someone will buy it.”

In 1997, President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton honored Teubner and his wife, Julie, for promoting family friendly employment policies in organizations.

As a young mother of three and the wife of a passionate entrepreneur with a global vision, Julie Teubner says she learned to be independent and self-sufficient. While her husband traveled the world to sell his products, she held down the home in Oklahoma. The couple’s three children live in London, Oklahoma City and Los Angeles, pursuing diverse careers in insurance, fashion and philosophy.

Teubner obtained a bachelor’s from Oklahoma State University, and is a gradu-ate of the MIT Birthing of Giants program.

2010 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the yearRuss Teubner was honored as the 2010 Riata Distinguished Entrepreneur of the year for his entrepreneurial endeavors, which began with his first successful startup company, Teubner & Associates. The Stillwater-based venture became a global technology company and revolutionized the way mainframe computers communicated with smaller servers and PCs.

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Russ Teubner


When Ron Siegenthaler speaks to students, he often tells them grades do not determine entre-preneurial success – based on the fact that he was far from an “A” student.

Siegenthaler began his entrepreneurial journey in 1974. He and a partner formed the first company of a group of companies that eventually would become the domi-nant provider for specialty steel distribu-tion centers covering the Oklahoma, Texas and other Gulf Coast areas. During the next 25 years, these supply companies exceeded $100 million in annual revenues and through acquisition became a part of the Home Depot Supply Group.

Siegenthaler believes his work ethic and ability to build relationships and make sales was critical to his success. A pragmatic approach to business, as well as to life, has worked well for the serial entrepreneur.

Until recently, Siegenthaler served as executive chairman of the board for Xeta Technologies, a Nasdaq listed company he helped fund in 1984. Xeta Technologies was acquired earlier this year.

He also provides sales and marketing services through his consulting and invest-ment firm, Myriad Technologies. Siegent-haler has been a partner, shareholder, officer, director or sole proprietor of a number of businesses involved in fabrica-tion and marketing of steel, steel products and other raw materials, real estate, oil and gas, and telecommunications.

He is a director and major shareholder in the startup company CharityCall LLC, which is deploying a new technology in the mobile application market.

Siegenthaler says he is a “ground-up kind of guy,” and likes to start companies from the beginning to ensure they are going in the direction he wants to take them.

Siegenthaler received his bachelor’s in liberal arts from Oklahoma State Univer-sity. He and his wife of 46 years, Dee, have roots in Henryetta, Okla.

2011 Distinguished Entrepreneur

of the yearRon Siegenthaler was

honored as the 2011 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the year for his achievements

as an entrepreneur and investor. From his first venture

in the steel business to funding a telecommunications

company publicly traded on Nasdaq, Siegenthaler

has demonstrated what an entrepreneur with small-town

roots can accomplish.

Ron Siegenthaler

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Visiting Entrepreneur in Residence Larry Calton has been at the Riata Center since 2010, and has worked

closely with technology startups and student entrepreneurs.

Calton is director of the North Texas Enterprise Center, which he launched several years ago. The center is a large technology-business incubator in North Dallas that houses startups in the medical device and energy sectors.

Before joining the enterprise center, Calton served as director of e-business and startup services for KPMG in Dallas, where he worked with public and private technology companies.

In January 2000, KPMG selected Calton to lead business development initiatives relative to venture-backed startup technology companies. Calton directly supported startup company clients and worked closely with local

first- and second-tier venture capital firms, as well as corporate venture capital clients, area technology lenders and attor-neys, and prominent technology service providers and vendors.

Calton was KPMG’s primary commu-nity leader for emerging technology company activities and sat on both the STARTech Stakeholders Advisory Board and the Executive Committee for the MIT Enterprise Forum-Dallas. He is also one of the founding members of the recently formed Medical Device Action Alliance, which is charged with regional awareness and education of the medical device industry.

Calton attended Oklahoma State University, obtaining a bachelor’s in accounting. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the Texas Society of CPAs and the American Insti-tute of CPAs.

Entrepreneur in residence

Top: Riata Center Visiting Entrepreneur in Residence Larry Calton, left, advises students Jodie Navarre and Max Whitemyer of Styro Insulations, winner of the 2011 Riata Business Plan Competition.

Photo / Gary LaWSon

Photo / Gary LaWSon


In the past year, the entrepreneurship program at OSU has been recognized in various listings of top programs:

National recognition was bestowed on two faculty members and two doctoral students for special achievement in entrepreneurship education and research:

top Gun Entrepreneurship rankings and awards

Professor Robert Baron, Spears Chair in Entrepreneurship, received the Best Paper Award at the 2011 Babson Research Conference for his publication

“Linking Shared Authentic Leadership to Firm Performance: A Study of New Venture Top Management Teams.” Baron was also honored with the 2010 Best Reviewer award from the Academy of Management Journal.

Baron is well known for his work on cognition and affect in entrepreneurship, and seeks to apply psychology principles and findings to answer important ques-tions about entrepreneurship.

Professor Michael H. Morris, N. Malone Mitchell Jr. Chair in Entrepre-neurship, received the Best Conceptual Paper Award from the United States Association for Small Business and Entre-preneurship for “The Rhythm of Entrepre-neurship: An Experiential Perspective.”

He also received the Paul Hersey Award for 2010’s best article from the Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship for “Resource Accelera-tion: Extending Resource-based Theory in Entrepreneurial Ventures.”

Morris also was recognized with the Leavey Foundation Award for excel-lence in private enterprise education.

The Metro Tulsa Chamber of Commerce also awarded Morris as the Champion for Veteran Small Business as a result of his creation and direction of the Disabled Veter-ans Entrepreneurship Program.

Rebecca Franklin and Chris Pryor, first-year entrepreneurship doctoral students, had papers accepted into the Best Paper Proceedings at the 2011 Academy of Management Conference.

Franklin’s paper, co-authored with Morris and professor Justin Webb, was

“Benchmarking Entrepreneurial Activity in an American Indian Nation: Extending the GEM Methodology.”

Pryor’s paper, co-authored with Webb was “Choosing their Battles Wisely: An Intentions-based Perspective on the Insti-tutional Entrepreneurship Process.”

Top 25 Graduate Programs

and Top 25 Undergraduate

Programs in the U.S. by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine

No. 10 in World Entrepreneurial Research Productivity

by M.J. Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University


aWarDS

The OSU E-Club is No. 9 on a top 20 ranking of student entrepreneur clubs. FledgeWing, a website serving as a toolbox for student entrepreneurs, released the first such rankings earlier this year.

The rankings are “to begin an annual tradition of recognizing the accomplish-ments of the top clubs, while also fostering a sense of competitiveness between them to continue to grow, build collaborative communities and ultimately help put student entrepreneurs on the path to developing and growing innovative start-ups,” according to information on FledgeWing.com.

About the OSU E-Club, the website noted, “Students were particularly enthu-siastic about their club.”

oSu e-Club recognized as a top entrepreneur Club

the ranKIngS1. The Web Startup Group (Brigham Young University)2. Yale Entrepreneurial Society3. Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Club4. Cambridge University Entrepreneurs5. Oxford Entrepreneurs6. Northeastern Entrepreneurs Club7. Haas Entrepreneurs Association (University of California, Berkeley)8. University of Minnesota Entrepreneurship Club9. OSU E-Club 10. Stanford Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Club11. University of California, Los Angeles, Entrepreneur Association12. London Business School Entrepreneurship Club13. University of Michigan Entrepreneur & Venture Club14. Temple Entrepreneurial Student Association15. Syracuse Entrepreneurship Club16. University of San Diego Entrepreneurship Club17. University of Southern California Entrepreneur Club18. Entrepreneurship Club at Boston University19. Carnegie Mellon Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Club20. INSEAD Entrepreneurship Club

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OSU’s E-Club members had a rare opportunity to visit the offices of private equity firm Thoma Bravo in Chicago and to speak with alumni and managing partner Carl Thoma. From left are Trebel Fuller, Matt Villarreal, Jack Lee, Jessica Grimes, Nicole Paquette, Thoma of Thoma Bravo, Hijung Kim, Justin Walmer, Ray Grandoit, Matt Barbel, Brittney Melton, Tyler Van Arsdale, Michael Tate, Adam Hammock.


Presented by

Monday, March 5–Tuesday, March 6, 2012reed conference cenTer, MidwesT ciTy, oklahoMa

spears.oksTaTe.edu/iehFOr MOre InFOrMAtIOn COntACt

OsU Center for executive and Professional development PHOne 1.866.678.3933 • eMAIL [email protected]

School of Entrepreneurship and Riata Center for EntrepreneurshipCONTACT USPhONE 405-744-3325FAx 405-744-7679EmAil [email protected]

104A Business BuildingSpears School of BusinessOklahoma State UniversityStillwater, Oklahoma 74078-4011

Oklahoma State University School of Entrepreneurship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship

NON-PROFITORGANIZATIONU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDSTILLWATER, OK

PERMIT #191

Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-4011

cowboy entrepreneur spring 2012

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