Creativity Doesn’t Happen Within Just One Silo
Want to create? It means more than just getting out of your own silo. You have to get into other silos, too.
At the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, its approach is to try to create an interdisciplinary atmosphere for students to engage in entrepreneurship and innovation, said Ken Szymusiak, managing director of the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Although his office is housed in the Broad College of Business, he spends a great deal of time working with students from across campus. He works with colleagues who span multiple colleges, and he always looks to encourage our students to engage with cross-functional teams to create the most value around potential problem solution.There is a deep discipline that comes out of the business college that is applicable to entrepreneurship and start-ups, but the reality is, most really great teams have a wide range of disciplines participating, said Szymusiak. So, the way MSU approaches entrepreneurship is really through an across-campus function.
For MBA students who arrive at the Broad College with an idea, the MBA program is becoming much more flexible in terms of its abilities to address that need. Outlined now are areas of interest for MBA students to pursue. The college has set aside these “impact areas” not as a core function of the discipline in which they’re getting their degree – like supply chain management or accounting or finance or marketing – but instead to allow students to have entrepreneurship as an area of interest, which frees them up to look at different ways they may engage in that space, Szymusiak said.
It can be as simple as working as an intern at a start-up as opposed to a more traditional Fortune 500 role. Students are also encouraged to get involved in other support systems on campus like MSU’s student business incubator called “The Hatch,” which has a support structure to assist graduate students and bring them into the fold. It has the ability to do seed funding; provide interns that may help with legal, graphic design, web, and marketing matters; assist with travel expenses. It’s hoped that these efforts will continue to grow.
The Broad MBA program itself hosts “Extreme Green,” where students do four intensive projects during their time in the MBA program, the last of which is focused on entrepreneurship. They go from idea to pitch in front of a venture capitalist in just three days. The college is making intense experiences that bring entrepreneurship to life in the most realistic ways possible within classroom settings. But it starts with getting out of your comfort zone – and your silo.
Ken Szymusiak is Managing Director of the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. The Burgess Institute is charged with developing and supporting entrepreneurship within the business college, as well as throughout the university student body of Michigan State University, through the development of curriculum, events, and entrepreneurial support structures.
