Leading American business schools value entrepreneurship

You don't need to be an investment banker or consultant to land a spot at a top MBA program. In fact, breaking free from your corporate bonds can help differentiate you in a very positive way from your competitor in the next cubicle.

Of course, the halls of the top B-schools -- Harvard, Stanford and Wharton to name a few -- are still teeming with alums of Goldman (GS), McKinsey, and Blackstone (BX). But today, unlike in the mid-2000s, spaces in each entering business school class are reserved for entrepreneurial types. MBA admissions deans are often looking for people who have launched successful, or even unsuccessful, businesses to fill spots in entrepreneurial labs and other programs.

This shift has been important for international as well as American applicants. In the past, international applicants needed the brand of a well-known firm to have any real chance of admission to a leading school, but entrepreneurs from around the world are now regularly accepted to top schools.

My firm recently worked with a student who had left behind the comforts of consulting to go it alone in the global technology space. While few had ever heard of her service, which is related to clean energy, she earned a spot in arguably the nation's top business school. Another successful entrepreneur left the trappings of corporate life behind to start a food services firm, the modest success of which has propelled him into a top-five MBA program.

There are a few factors contributing to this trend. It is partly a result of the fascination with startups. Business schools have come to respect and admire the incredible value generated by today's generation of young, often tech-focused entrepreneurs. Also, business schools are noticing the migration of some top-tier candidates from more traditional firms like McKinsey and Goldman Sachs to more entrepreneurial firms like Facebook (FB). Lastly, schools are starting to believe that the way out of the current economic downturn is growth fueled by entrepreneurship, and they want to play a role in this transformation.

As they recruit more entrepreneurs, business schools are investing heavily in new classes and entrepreneurship programs. University of California Davis recently announced a new $5 million investment in an interdisciplinary institute devoted to innovation and entrepreneurship, which builds on the school's successful Center for Entrepreneurship. And Columbia Business School is developing a third-year entrepreneur-in-residence program for its students.

Similarly, Harvard Business School is making a significant bet that the next generation of business school students will need to be more entrepreneurially minded by launching an innovation lab that offers a hub where students, entrepreneurs, and local businesses can share ideas and collaborate. Harvard has also added a first-year course called Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD), which, among other activities, splits students into groups and gives them seed funding ($3, 000 to $5, 000) to build a real company.

美國名校商學院看重創(chuàng)業(yè)經(jīng)歷

    并不是只有投資銀行家或者咨詢師才能進入頂級MBA學院。事實上，脫離公司的羈絆反而能讓你脫穎而出，越來越多的美國頂尖商學院開始看重申請人的創(chuàng)業(yè)經(jīng)歷。

    當然，包括哈佛（Harvard）、斯坦福（Stanford）和沃頓（Wharton）在內(nèi)的頂級商學院里還是充斥著高盛(GS)、麥肯錫和黑石(BX)的前雇員。但和21世紀第一個十年中期不同，現(xiàn)在每個商學院的新生年級都會為創(chuàng)業(yè)者保留一席之地。主管MBA招生的院長們正在為他們的創(chuàng)業(yè)實驗室和其它項目尋覓有創(chuàng)業(yè)經(jīng)驗的學生，至于是成功還是失敗他們并不在乎。

    這種變化不只是針對美國學生，對國際學生也一樣重要。在過去，國際申請人需要依靠知名公司的名氣才有機會進入名列前茅的學校，而現(xiàn)在，世界各地的創(chuàng)業(yè)者被頂級學校錄取的現(xiàn)象屢見不鮮。

    我的公司最近服務(wù)的某個學生毅然辭去咨詢工作，獨立投身于全球科技行業(yè)。雖然幾乎沒人聽說過她那家與清潔能源相關(guān)的公司，錄取她的卻可以說是全美最好的商學院。另一個成功的創(chuàng)業(yè)者掙脫公司的枷鎖，開創(chuàng)了一家食品服務(wù)公司，這一小小的成功就足以讓他加入排名前五的MBA。

    促成這個趨勢的有幾個因素。一部分是由于大眾對創(chuàng)業(yè)公司的迷戀，商學院轉(zhuǎn)而尊敬、贊賞今天的新一代技術(shù)性創(chuàng)業(yè)者所取得的巨大成就。同時，商學院也注意到一些頂級人才開始從其傳統(tǒng)聚集地麥肯錫、高盛流向像Facebook這樣更具創(chuàng)新性的公司。最后，學校也開始認識到走出當前的經(jīng)濟低谷的必經(jīng)途徑是由創(chuàng)業(yè)推動的增長，他們同樣希望在這一轉(zhuǎn)變過程中發(fā)揮自己的作用。

    除了擴大創(chuàng)業(yè)者的招生名額，商學院還投入巨資開設(shè)了新課程和新的創(chuàng)業(yè)項目。加州大學戴維斯分校（University of California Davis）最近宣布投資500萬美元設(shè)立跨學科的創(chuàng)新和創(chuàng)業(yè)研究所，取代其成功的創(chuàng)業(yè)研究中心。而哥倫比亞大學商學院（Columbia Business School）則為三年級學生提供了內(nèi)部創(chuàng)業(yè)項目。

    哈佛商學院也不甘人后，押注于更有創(chuàng)業(yè)精神的新一代商學院學生，其新開設(shè)的創(chuàng)新實驗室為學生、創(chuàng)業(yè)者和當?shù)仄髽I(yè)提供交流想法和合作的據(jù)點。哈佛還新增了一門一年級課程：領(lǐng)導力培養(yǎng)的實地投入體驗，其中的一項活動就是將學生分成小組，給予啟動資金（3-5千美元），用于創(chuàng)建實體企業(yè)。