A New York Times article on December 28, 2015, entitled “Universities Race to Nurture Start-Up Founders of the Future“ said that in 1985 colleges offered only about 250 courses in entrepreneurship.  In 2013, more than 400,000 students were taking such courses demonstrating a significant increase in teaching the skill sets that entrepreneurs need.

That’s wonderful, but not enough.  I did an analysis which follows what they are offering and what should be offered. Forty, that’s right, forty major topics are missing from their curriculums.

Entrepreneur Education

According to the article, the training revolves around “risk-taking”, “office space”, “mentoring” from alumni, “broadening people’s mindsets and capabilities” with an attempt to “parrot, ‘innovate and disrupt’ a Silicon Valley mindset including “how to interview potential customers or pitch to possible investors…”

Teaching entrepreneurship “is hot,” says Gordon Jones, the dean of a new College of Innovation and Design at Boise State University in Idaho and the former director of Harvard’s Innovation Lab.

As one who has worked on over 70 products and services and has been in Silicon Valley with the training and experience in the management of products at HP and Apple, I think it’s wonderful that our colleges and universities are finally jumping on the bandwagon. Much of what I learned as have millions of others have been on the job.

Just before that article came out, I was just finishing my upcoming textbook to be pushed by Wiley entitled: “Foundations in the Successful Management of Products” which includes a chapter on the successful management of products in startups.  It is just one chapter of 130 for which I used in my discussion below.

Successful Products

I did an analysis of what needs to be done to have successful products keeping in mind somewhere between $.64 Trillion and $1.44 Trillion was wasted on product failures in 2014.  This number is based upon Battelle’s, a nonprofit research organization, a study that found the world spent about $1.6 Trillion on research and development in 2014.

This higher number calculation is based upon the common assertion that 80-90% of products fail.  But…

It is repeated widely and, as a result, according to George Castellion of SSC Associates and Stephen K. Markham of North Carolina State University, it is an urban myth as they discuss in their white paper entitled: “Myths About New Product Failure Rates: New Product Failure Rates: Influence of Argumentum ad Populum and Self-Interest”.

They say, “The common assertion that 80-90% of products fail is an “urban legend.”  The empirical literature does not support this popular belief. No matter how many times it is asserted or how many people believe it, the idea that 80% of products fail is as common as it is wrong. The actual product failure rate is around 40%.”

Nevertheless, the world could save at least $.64 Trillion a year if we just learned how to successfully manage our products and services.  So now let’s take a look at what topics these institutions offer:

Current Entrepreneur Institutional Curriculum

My analysis is based, upon evaluating the Princeton study: ENTREPRENEURSHIP THE PRINCETON WAY: REPORT OF THE PRINCETON ENTREPRENEURSHIP ADVISORY COMMITTEE, and shows how these programs could do better with the curriculum offered by Kauffman.

That study makes three recommendations: 1) An ecosystem of entrepreneurial alumni  2) A Certificate Program and 3) Physical space.  The first two are important but I propose to you that, especially in this day an age of working effectively virtually, there is little relationship between physical space and success.

In my experience, the “innovation center” is driven by a real estate play whereby somebody wants to find people that will rent their office space.  Let’s face it, the days of shared fax machines and Centrex phone systems have gone the way of the pet rock.

They also talk about helping with funding and offer these courses:

• EGR 201: Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship
• EGR 392: Creativity, Innovation, and Design
• EGR 437: Innovation Process Leadership
• EGR 491: High-Tech Entrepreneurship
• EGR 492: Radical Innovation in Global Markets

• EGR 494: Leadership Development for Business

• EGR 495: Special Topics in Entrepreneurship

• EGR 497: Entrepreneurship Leadership

• EGR 498: Social Entrepreneurship

• COS 448: Innovating across Technology, Business, and Markets
• ECO 417: Venture Capital and Private Equity Investing

• ENV 324: Environmental Entrepreneurship

• MAE 437: Introduction to Innovation Process Management
• MAE 445: Entrepreneurial Engineering

• ORF 492: Leadership and Organizational Dynamics
• SOC 214: Creativity, Innovation, and Society
• EGR 493: Managing Entrepreneurial Ventures

This curriculum and others like it could be significantly enhanced if the following subjects were also covered.  They all fall in the six areas I have identified as keys to product success (SPICES):

1. Strategy
2. Process
3. Information
4. Customers
5. Employees
6. Systems

What Should Schools of Entrepreneurship also Be Teaching?

So here is the result of the analysis.  

The additional subjects that entrepreneurial curriculums should care about and cover in more than a superficial manner are:

1. Understand what their customers “do” and basic market research
2. Know what is going on in the market and what the competitors are up to
3. Agreeing to and following a product lifecycle framework and process
4. Market Identification and Sizing
5. Clearly identifying and communicating the product’s value proposition, market vision, opportunity and description
6. Customer Personas
7. Market status and adoption factors, a window of opportunity
8. Personas for product development and for marketing
9. Target Markets, market segments, and addressable markets
10. Competitive Analysis
11. Product positioning and Roadmaps
12. Product Portfolios
13. Roadmapping
14. SWOT Analysis
15. Channels/Partners/Distribution
16. Pricing Strategy
17. Training for sales, marketing, channels, partners, affiliates, operations, support, and service
18. Budgeting, expense control, and ROI calculations
19. Metrics
20. Intellectual Property
21. Organizational structure
22. Staffing
23. Employee training
24. Values and Vision
25. Value proposition
26. Marketing
27. Messaging
28. Media
29. Media Mix
30. Scheduling
31. Packaging, bundling, and promotions
32. Metrics and reporting
33. Networking with people
34. Negotiation and Mediation
35. Program Management
36. User Experience and User Interface
37. Prioritization techniques
38. Research and Development
39. Product testing
40. Agile market strategy development

Some of Princeton’s courses might touch on some of these subjects.  But I don’t know since I don’t have access to their detailed curriculum.  But I found similar weaknesses in Kauffman’s entrepreneurship programs which is licensed by a number of institutions.
Frankly, I was amazed at all the topics today’s entrepreneurs still have to learn in the school of hard knocks and on the job.  (At least until my book comes out :), but you can get started today on many of the topics with my online courses.)

⇒ Building Insanely Great Products
http://bit.ly/BIGPLinkedin

⇒ “Do”, Innovation and Value Proposition
http://bit.ly/1jzQuSc

⇒ Agile Product Market Strategy
http://bit.ly/productmarketstrategy96

⇒ Elements of Marketing in a Digital World:
http://bit.ly/creatingmarketingplan

⇒ Social Media Marketing Demystified
http://bit.ly/socialmediamarketingdy

⇒ Personas
http://bit.ly/LinkedinFullPersonas

⇒ Positioning
http://bit.ly/postiioning96

⇒ Tell Your Story: How to create your best elevator pitch
http://bit.ly/createelevatorpitch