Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/54913
Ten months after the management, marketing, sociology, engineering, economic geography, creativity, and business strategy. EPI offers mentorship and peer counseling as well as business training. Members of the initial EPI class have begun doing business with each other and requested ad- ditional training sessions from us. Since graduation, they have formed an alumni group that organizes conferences, seminars, and speak- ers, and now includes the second class of EPI graduates. There have been dramatic indi- vidual success stories. For instance, Utterly Global, a company that provides anti-bullying programs to schools, parents, and civic groups, not only saw its revenues jump by more than 150 percent, but also re- cently won a $62,000 contract from the New York City Family & Youth Services. The owner of storage com- pany Box Butler used his newfound knowledge to obtain a loan that increased his revenue and allowed him to add more than 15 jobs last year. Other business owners have learned how to run more efficient operations, renegotiate leases, cre- ate productive networks, fund the purchases of new equipment, and expand to additional locations. Exporting the Program Now we have an opportunity to take EPI beyond New Jersey. Recently, after I gave a talk at the Melbourne Business School in Australia, we were asked to consider implementing a similar program in that country. We've joined forces with MBS and began working with Ian Williamson, director of the Asia Pacific Social Impact Leadership Centre and the Helen Macpherson Smith Chair of Leadership for Social Impact. first EPI class graduated, Rutgers evaluated the impact the program had had on participants and compiled these statistics: 40 percent had increased revenue. 25 percent had increased the number of workers they employed. 30 percent had started additional business ventures. 65 percent had consolidated their operations. Williamson and his colleagues want to adapt the EPI model to foster entrepreneurship within Australia's indigenous communi- ties, which are often pushed to the edge of the economy. The chal- lenge is to help them create skill sets and opportunities that will offer them a path into Australia's economic mainstream, and en- trepreneurship is one way to do this. At the beginning, we expect the program to be taught by both Rutgers and MBS professors, with additional instruction offered by community service providers. Rutgers will be involved until the program is running on its own. We have also been invited to help develop EPI programs for communities in Africa, Brazil, and China. We consider it essential to partner with universities for these programs, because universities bring a set of resources that are critical to a community-centered wealth development program. We realize that we can't just lift a program from America and in- stall it as-is anywhere in the world without evaluating the culture, business practices, and local condi- tions. As we set up the program in other countries, we might need to offer additional training in soft skills that increase self-esteem and self-sufficiency. As we did in New- ark, we will draw on the support of community groups to help us un- derstand the best way to implement the EPI program, and we will rely on EPI program members to help us deliver needed services. With adjustments, we believe that the basic program can be transplanted to many other communities. We will also bear in mind that nothing is sacrosanct. Our No. 1 job is asking, "What will work best here? What new tactics should we inte- grate? Can we tweak our program, or do we need a brand-new model?" But that's the very basis of social entrepreneurship. It starts with the talents and resources, however meager, that are already available, and uses them to create wealth, foster economic growth, and ame- liorate social ills. dt ogilvie is associate professor of man- agement and global business at Rutgers Business School in Newark, New Jersey. She is also founding director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at the school. More information about EPI can be found at www.business.rutgers.edu/ cueed/in-the-news. BizEd May/June 2011 35