Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62201
EXECUTIVES Business students found their own companies, get funding, sell products, and pay back their loans, all within the confines of a one-semester class. that it gives students a chance to actually run a small business, with all the demands and diffi- culties that implies. According to program direc- tor Larry K. Michaelsen, David Ross Boyd Professor of Management at the school in Norman, Oklahoma, "They have to write a business plan, get the bankers to look at it, determine what product they're going to sell, and decide how they're going to market it. If their idea works, great. If it doesn't, they have to say, 'Where is our thinking wrong, and how can we fix it?' That's where the learning comes in." Students also participate in a community service project which students not only learn key business concepts, but start and run their own businesses. To date, these student compa- nies have earned nearly $1 million in revenue, a little more than half of that in profit. The major advantage of the IBC program is University of Oklahoma's Price School of Business have a terrific instructor. Since 1995, the school has offered juniors a chance to enroll in the Integrated Business Core, a multicourse one-semester program in by donating both their time and the proceeds of their busi- nesses. Through these projects, they learn not only applied business theory but the importance of developing interper- sonal and group-interaction skills. Business Basics Oklahoma's IBC was based partially on a program at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Michaelsen joined with two other faculty members to cre- ate OU's integrated curriculum, which consists of the three core courses of management, marketing, and legal studies. It also requires a practicum course that counts as an upper- division business elective. The professors work together to sequence the topics in their own classes to correlate to the information students need to learn at specific times to set up their businesses. Nonetheless, the courses remain segre- f experience is the best teacher, undergraduates at the gated, and each teacher continues to grade independently. Every semester, the IBC format accommodates 140 stu- by Sharon Shinn illustration by Adam McCauley dents, who attend joint three-hour lectures and then split into four groups to form their companies. Each company is aided by a student advisor who is a former IBC student. Because students only have a semester to learn business basics, devise a start-up company, get it running, and make a profit, the class moves along at a pretty good clip. By the third week, each individual team must come up with a potential business for its company to con- sider. Each team does a SWOT analysis on its proposed business, analyzing "strengths, weak- nesses, opportunities, and threats." next week they have to do one," says Michaelsen. "They get the conceptual material, apply the conceptual material, and then use what they've learned to make decisions about their companies." By mid-semester, each company has narrowed its choices "One week they read about SWOT analysis, and the down to one, and the students have devised a solid business plan to support the venture. The next step is to pitch their ideas to local bankers and ask for a loan of up to $5,000. Says Michaelsen, "To make a case to the bankers that they have put together a viable business opportunity, the students have had to locate suppliers, do pricing, develop a marketing plan, and analyze the break-even point." Not all the student companies receive a loan on the first try. "Historically speaking, about 40 percent get what they ask for," says Michaelson. The rest must scale back their requests or do some remedial work on their projects before the bankers will approve the loan. "The program has been a tremendous source of publicity for the banks that have funded it from the beginning," says Michaelsen. Because every student company has earned enough money to pay back its loan, the banks have not lost a dime. "In terms of small business loans, this is the best they can hope for. There is almost zero risk." BizEd MAY/JUNE 2003 49