Donna Fenn

The State of Small Business, Part 4: How It Ties to the Future

A look at the next big ideas that will change our world.

 

PART 4: HOW IT TIES TO THE FUTURE

This section examines big ideas that are changing our world.

"Most professors ... regard it as unethical to invest or take equity in companies founded by their current students. Many, however, are quick to become involved with companies being started by students who are not in their classes -- or with recent graduates, which leaves open the possibility that the professors could become involved informally long before they cross the ethical line in the sand. ..."

"De Noble says that his students look to him to illuminate the problems and challenges of starting a company. The truest path to enlightenment, he says, is the boardroom. ... And if teaching entrepreneurship ultimately leads to tremendous financial gain, so much the better. "I didn't take a vow of poverty when I went into academics," he quips."

From "The Profit-Minded Professor," which reveals how business-school faculty members are flooding to join student start-ups.

PART 4 ARTICLES:
The Profit-Minded Professor
The Sacred and the Mundane
It's the PCs that Got Small

PART 1: How It Feels at This Moment
PART 2: How It Looks from This Place
PART 3: How It Works in the Real World

Donna Fenn is the author of Upstarts! How Gen Y Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit From Their Success (McGraw-Hill, 2009), about ways Gen Y is changing the entrepreneurial landscape. @donnafenn