It has been very enjoyable to get out and speak to people about the insights from Roadside MBA – over the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to participate in a few nice events and tell some of our best stories. Several of these events have been organized through the Kellogg Alumni Association. The school had a great program in downtown Chicago and I sat on a panel discussing growth opportunities and strategy. My two fellow panelists were Kellogg grads with impressive entrepreneurial resumes: Scott Dorsey, who co-founded the digital marketing company ExactTarget after graduation, and a very successful private equity investor named Larry Gies. Kellogg has active alumni groups all over the world; I also spoke recently at alumni club events in San Diego and Miami. It was great to see former students, meet new interesting people and share some of what we learned on the road.
While I was in Miami, I also made it over to Miami Dade College. That’s where another Kellogg alum, Rafo Saldana, recently became dean of the business school and is starting some wonderful initiatives connecting education and entrepreneurship. I spoke to a group of about 100 students, faculty and community members in a brand new building on their campus in downtown Miami (look, palm trees!)
We are particularly excited about opportunities like this, because what we learned throughout our travels are things that can help business owners of all kinds. Too often in business schools, we think as entrepreneurships as guiding high-tech startups and establishing innovation hubs. As we discovered, while there are great business opportunities in areas like these, small business can mean everything from fire hose to foundries. There was great energy among the group at Miami Dade College – I could see some of the students running businesses that we’ll interview for the year 2030 edition of Roadside MBA!
Leave a Reply