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Ventures, Values TCU's Raymond Smilor won the John E. Hughes Award for Entrepreneur- ial Advocacy from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USABE) at its annual conference in January. There, the entrepreneurship program at TCU's Neeley School also was named the 2011 National Model Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Program. At TCU, we have a program called Ventures and Values, which has two objectives. First, we help students improve their strengths, instead of trying to improve their weaknesses. Second, we help them determine their core virtues. Then we say, "Build an enterprise that reflects both your talents and core virtues." In my opportunity recognition class, I teach creativity and feasibility assess- ment, where students learn that every- one is creative—just in different ways. We do a "jam session" exercise, where student teams choose musical instru- ments and take 20 minutes to prepare an original score that they must perform for three minutes. While some claim they're not musical, each group always manages to create successful songs. Then I debrief them. "Who wrote the music? Maybe that person is inno- vatively creative. Who did the organiz- ing? Maybe that person is adaptively creative." This exercise helps students identify their creative strengths. In the "flying device game," students use any material to build something that will fly across the room; the winning entry goes the farthest in the straightest line. Afterward, students reflect on how they treated each other to better under- stand how they would like to act in their own companies someday. We're in the process of launching a business plan competition, involving other schools, which will be an extension of this approach. We'll ask students to present a plan that's not only economi- cally viable, but also reflects their values. In all these efforts, we make it clear there has to be a social dimension to any organization students create. They need to base their businesses on their values and the things that have meaning for them. If they do that, the money will follow. 26 May/June 2011 BizEd In fact, both sides of the social entrepreneurship equation are com- ing to the conclusion they need each other, says Raymond M. Smilor, the Robert and Edith Schumacher Executive Faculty Fellow at Texas Christian University's Neeley School of Business in Fort Worth. "You can have a social enterprise, but unless it's also a business, it's not going to be sustainable," he says. "And you can have a for-profit business, but if you don't create meaning along the way, you're less likely to succeed in the marketplace." That puts a challenge straight before the growing number of busi- ness schools designing social entre- preneurship programs today: How can they teach students to build businesses that are both sustain- able and profitable? What kinds of classes should they deliver, and what kinds of experiences should they offer? Here, five experts in the field offer eight ways to make social entrepreneurship a key part of the business school curriculum. 1. Capitalize on student interest. Students no longer want to wait until they're 50 to start giving back, says Pamela Hartigan, director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneur- ship at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School in the U.K. "They want to start now to make meaningful choices in their careers." In fact, these experts say, to some extent social entrepreneurship initia- tives have always been driven by the demands of students, no matter what their ages. For instance, older students such as executive MBAs are experiencing a "craving for meaning" in their lives and jobs, believes Johanna Mair, associate professor of strategic management at the University of Navarra's IESE Business School in Spain. But younger students, the so- called Millennials, are also agitat- ing for social entrepreneurship, says Townsend of NC State. Ideal- istic and community-oriented, these students are determined to save the world once they learn the skills. "For all the criticism they get, the members of this generation are an amazing bunch with a tremen- dous amount of potential," says Townsend. "If we can give them structure and turn them loose, they're going to accomplish some incredible things." Others agree. Smilor notes that more than 350 students belong to TCU's College Entrepreneurs Organization. And many students are coming to school with a whole new set of motivations, says Cheryl Kiser, managing director of the Lewis Institute at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Kiser adds, "Most have already done significant community service, and they've been raised to under- stand social issues. They want to work for companies that are responsible. They care about the opportunities that can be met by the tools of business." 2. Infuse social entrepreneurship throughout the coursework. As students and schools become more committed to social entrepre- neurship, the topic is increasingly integrated across the curriculum. "In our practicum courses, stu- dents go after opportunities that create social and economic value," says Townsend of NC State. "In our business plan competition, they come up with ideas for social entrepreneurship ventures. We