ENHANCING REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH
ENTREPRENEURIAL ENGAGEMENT AT NCSC
2011 UPDATE REPORT WITH REVIEWER RESPONSE
Project Details
Enhancing Regional Development Through Entrepreneurial
Status
Engagement At NCSC
Category 2-Accomplishing Other Distinctive Objectives
Updated
Timeline
Reviewed
Planned Project Kickoff
Created
03-15-2011
Target Completion
Last
06-15-2014
Modified
Title
1.
REVIEWED
09-16-2011
09-24-2011
06-03-2011
09-24-2011
Project Accomplishments and Status:
Answer:
PAST TWELVE MONTHS
Fall 2010
- The Dean to his first NACCE (National Association for Community College
Entrepreneurship) Conference.
- The College signs a contract for two days of weekly on-campus consulting
service with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC).
- The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour visits NC State and the community. (Gift of
the College Foundation)
Winter 2011
- Contract with D. Baldwin ends as the Dean believed we had the person power,
skills and resources to move on.
- Incubator Opens at Kehoe with one student.
- Entrepreneur Faculty person hired
Spring 2011
- The Entrepreneur efforts are approved as an AQIP project by the President’s
Advisory Council.
Summer 2011
- The Dean and Entrepreneur Faculty member, Lynn Jones, visit Ivy Tech
Entrepreneur program in Bloomington, Indiana.
- The Entrepreneur Faculty member, Lynn Jones moves to Chair of Business and
Work Force Development position
- The Business programs move to Kehoe Center and a new division is created,
Business, Industry and Technology in part to create and exploit synergies with
Work Force Development.
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Commentary on the Table:

In the Spring of 2010, Dr. Greg Timberlake came to NC State as a Dean. The
college’s previous entrepreneur effort was part of the attraction that drew him to
the position. At that time, faculty member Ross Justice, with the help of an
adjunct, Susan Kubu were regularly offering Entrepreneurship Club meetings and
the Entrepreneur Room or “jelly” was open. The Entrepreneur Room was the
result of a gift from the College’s Foundation and developed with input from Ross
Justice and other faculty members.

It is important to note that the effort was begun without internal expertise in
entrepreneurship. While one faculty member in accounting has sustained a
private practice, none of the faculty desired to lead this effort beyond the short
term. Mr. Justice, whose expertise is economics, served the college by getting up
to speed while balancing his other duties and led the faculty effort to get us started
by:
-
Collaborating with the NC State Foundation in the design of the
Entrepreneur Room (“jelly”)
Developing the Entrepreneur Certificate
Starting the Entrepreneur Club

With the arrival of Dr. Timberlake, the business faculty, including Mr. Justice
reported that they would like to hire a faculty member more experienced or
interested in a long term commitment to entrepreneur development and execution.
The administration was supportive of this. The position description was
developed over the summer and announced. Mr. Lynn Jones was hired in January
2011.

Over the course of the Fall Quarter the Entrepreneur Club stopped meeting on a
regular basis. In the Spring (2011) with the help of a student work-study student
Mr. Jones re-started the Entrepreneur Club. It met regularly during Spring Quarter
-- again with low numbers and again with the support of Mr. Justice and Ms.
Kubu. While the numbers are not impressive, there are notable results:
1.
One student who came to us managing a shoe string vending operation
opened a new business, while pursuing his older vending business.
2.
One “older” student, formerly in the manufacturing sector, began
marketing and selling hand-made musical instruments.
3.
A student connected with the first Entrepreneur Club purchased a
successful business at a very good price in order to help the owner
transition into retirement.
4.
A successful Entrepreneur student was a speaker at one Entrepreneur Club
and his businesses have been supported by his pursuit of a degree within
the Business program.
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5.
Mr. Jones has been meeting with a young entrepreneur in collaboration
with an SBDC counselor over the course of the summer; this person is
hoping to open a store in downtown Mansfield.
6.
The SBDC and I are beginning discussions with an electronics student
who needs to slow down pursuit of his degree because he is selling more
product on-line than he anticipated (an electronic device he is selling to
musicians) and he is not sure how to manage his unexpected success.
We believe these successes are critically important; if properly publicized these
successes can bring additional interest to us from the student body and the
neighboring community.
Another nitty-gritty success is signing the contract with the SBDC to provide
services on our campus. This is bringing entrepreneurs to campus to meet with
the SBDC staff and exposing them to our programs and environment. This also
facilitates our students working with these counselors. And now one SBDC
counselor is an adjunct and two regularly visit classrooms at the request of
faculty.
On a more media extraordinary note, our hosting of the Extreme Entrepreneurship
Tour was a very good community event bringing hundreds of high school students
to our campus and a number of entrepreneurs into contact with very successful
entrepreneurs who visited as part of the tour. This showed us the importance of
including high schools and local career centers in our future plans and that is
happening. For instance, Pioneer Career and Technology Center is bringing their
high school Business/Entrepreneur program to be housed at the Kehoe Center and
we have invited them to participate in our Entrepreneur activities.
A success with more limited scope right now is our opening of the incubator.
More will be said about that below, but success is manifested in the commitment,
skeletal policies, processes, and planning to align our Incubators at the Urban
Center and Kehoe Center with policy coherence.
Finally, the fact that this effort has become an AQIP project has led to very
quantifiable goals going forward. Subsequent reports will be more tailored along
quantifiable dimensions based on objectives met or not met as laid out in the
Action Plan.
Response:
The college appears to be on track with this project given the accomplishments
during the past year. The commitment of time and resources to the
entrepreneurship initiative is evidenced by a number of activities and actions
including the participation of the Dean in the NACCE conference, the addition of
a faculty member specific to the entrepreneurship program as well as the creation
of the incubator at Kehoe Center and the subsequent creation of a new division
within the college (Business, Industry and Technology) with the explicit intent of
connecting synergies of the college with work force development groups from the
area.
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This type of project is often difficult to pull together and operationalize however
despite some setbacks NCSC has remained focused on the ultimate goals while
maneuvering around the various delays that materialized over the past year. The
inclusion of outside entities such as the SBDC is further evidence of collaboration
and focus on stakeholders outside the physical walls of the institution, while also
addressing needs related to student learning (HLC Criterion Three, AQIP
categories two and nine).
2.
Institution Involvement:
Answer:
1.
From the outset, faculty, the president and the college’s Board of Trustees
have been important stakeholders in this work. All have had to adjust
their views and goals and hopes in order to sustain the work.
2.
The Extreme Entrepreneurship tour pulled in a number of community
stakeholders into more active roles and these relationships persist, with
high schools, the SBDC, career centers, and businesses such as banks who
will ultimately support new ventures.
3.
There were a number of visits made by various stakeholders to learn more
about entrepreneurship potential.
4.
Successful work has also required that we work across departments and
divisions including, Business Faculty, the Director of the Urban Center,
The Executive Director of the college foundation, and the Director of
Work Force Development.
Response:
The college has chosen a project that by its very nature leads to collaboration,
broad-based involvement, and engagement among and between various
stakeholders and divisions/departments within the organization. NCSC's
president and trustees, along with faculty, understand the importance of this
project to the greater good of the community and have a keen interest in its
success. By placing the focus of this project in AQIP Category 2, Accomplishing
Other Distinctive Objectives, NCSC has positioned the project and its outcomes
in a way that also impacts and demonstrates evidence for other AQIP areas such
as Category 3 (Understanding Students' and Other Stakeholders' Needs) and
Category 9 (Building Collaborative Relationships). While the college is to be
commended for the broad involvement thus far, as the project moves forward it
may be beneficial to revisit the initial project objectives and intentions related to
engagement from departments outside Business, Industry and Technology and
look for ways in which the other targeted departments (art, early childhood
education and health) may enhance the scope of the project.
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3.
Next Steps:
Answer:
Activity
Timeframe
Complete Community Advisory Composition and
invite to first meeting.
Review and move revised curriculum for Entrepreneur
Certificate through appropriate channels for use in
Semester.
Enroll fifteen students specifically interested in
entrepreneurial work.
Keep the Entrepreneur Club active and integrate it with
the Urban Center and other stakeholders such as
Pioneer Career and Technology Center.
Recruit six students for the incubator(s) (see note #1)
Continue to integrate the SBDC into the College’s
entrepreneur work – (e.g. participation on the incubator
selection committee)
Dean to work with Marketing department to quantify
their entrepreneurial outreach.
Develop an effective internal marketing plan
highlighting our entrepreneurial students.
Begin planning for the next Extreme Entrepreneur
Tour, budgeted by the College Foundation
September 2011
Fall - 2011
Winter & Spring - 2012
Fall - 2011
Winter & Spring - 2012
Fall - 2011
Winter & Spring - 2012
Fall - 2011
Winter & Spring - 2012
Fall - 2011
Winter & Spring - 2012
Fall - 2011
Winter & Spring - 2012
Fall 2011 and on-going.
Fall 2011
Winter 2012
Note: After reviewing our goals with the incubator and consulting with others, including
the Assistant Director at Braintree Incubator and Ivy Tech, we are beginning to
view “incubation” as perhaps more of a process than a place or a room. Given the
relative ease of access to computers most entrepreneurs can function from their
homes or coffee shops and may not want a room. However, access to consulting,
access to expertise, access to capital and access to a program may still be
attractive. We have to plan this direction of activity a bit in the Fall Quarter 2011
and re-set our goals around that.
Response:
The steps outlined above address specific outcomes and timelines identified in the
original project. These specific activities are key to moving forward and securing
the foundation for the future of entrepreneurial activities at the college and in the
greater community. Based on conversation and activity of the past year, the
college has recognized that one of the key components (that of incubation) does
not necessarily require physical space; rather it is a process that can be completed
and demonstrated in other ways. Plans to adapt their approach are integrated into
the review process for Fall 2011 and will most likely identify other revisions.
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4.
Resulting Effective Practices:
Answer:
As a relative newcomer to the college Dr. Timberlake has been impressed with
the level of integration and support coming from the College Foundation
especially focused on innovative concepts such as this project. For instance, they
have agreed to fund the Extreme Tour again and they have agreed to support the
project with scholarships and marketing in the years to come.
He also has been very impressed with the fact that clearly tying this work to
regional economic development helps gather community support from many
sources and is important enough internally to be stronger than personal feelings
and institutional politics.
Response:
The college may wish to consider sharing this collaborative process with the
greater community of higher education. While collaborative relationships are
always important to institutions, they are even more so in our current economic
environment. As the college experiences even greater success in implementing
change and creating a positive environment for economic growth, it can
demonstrate to other institutions how to implement ideas that lead to sharing of
resources and collaboration among various stakeholders. NCSC might also find it
beneficial to create a mechanism that monitors the activities and outcomes of the
various components of this project and then utilize that information to make
changes to their own process.
5.
Project Challenges:
Answer:
Traction is a word that resonates when describing our entrepreneur efforts,
traction and its opposite, lack of traction. This effort is a lot like driving in mud
but an amazing process too. This effort is is not going away; the project’s
ultimate goal of regional economic development is so highly valued by every
stakeholder that the project will be successful despite slippage, stoppage and restarts. In some respects, progress has been slowed at times in order to make sure
we were building an effective infrastructure, either processes or people, believing
that this infrastructure is really the key to our long term success. So balancing
short term successes with long term bigger success involves compromise,
persistence and sacrifice by many at various points. The President has been
patient and understanding in this. The faculty despite setbacks have come back
and re-engaged because of their commitment.
The temporary halt to Entrepreneur Club activity during the Fall Quarter 2010 is a
good example of the slippage in traction. Another example of slippage is the fact
that due to budget constraints we have lost our work study student for the coming
academic year which will likely make it harder to ramp up again in the Fall
Quarter 2011.
-6-
That work study position was a great way to support an entrepreneur student, who
because of this position had the opportunity to work with the Dean and Faculty in
a one-on-one way while advancing the goals of the e-club. That student, in part
because of these involvements, ended up starting a new business and expanding
his existing business during this year.
Another example of slippage in traction is the incubator. We opened the Kehoe
Center incubator to one student and offered admissions to two others. For
different reasons, their work never took off and they are no longer in the incubator
and the incubator is in fact, empty. We believe that this is still an important longterm goal and an important piece of the entrepreneurship puzzle; but as noted
above it may be most effective as a program including involvement with faculty
and SBDC counseling as opposed to a place.
In summary, we have had notable successes, a lot of activity and some notable
set-backs. The most exciting part of this, in my opinion is the power of the long
range vision of enhancing our region’s economic strength. This vision along with
our successful pioneer students and faculty in the program will begin to build a
record of achievement which will bring others forward.
Response:
While NCSC acknowledges the difficulty in gaining and sustaining "traction"
with this project, care should be taken to also celebrate those small successes that
have taken place. Recognizing the need to slow down, or even back up, in order
to secure an appropriate and strong foundation for the program is essential
to long-term success. By doing so, NCSC has set a course that is certain to
accomplish the long-term vision of creating and enhancing economic growth in
the community. The activities involved are much like planting a garden. The
ground must first be made ready to accept the seeds; the seeds must then be
planted and nurtured in order to ensure a healthy start; and finally, after much care
and attention, the crop can be harvested and used for its intended purpose. It is
the harvesting and use of the crop that will evidence the accomplishment of other
distinctive objectives for NCSC.
aqip\entrepreneur-update-review-2011.docx\oct’11\kp\kme
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