Dean Larry Gianchetta Awards $5000 to the 2005 first place team for their plan, Great Northern Auto Finance.
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In an effort to reach out to students across the UM-Missoula campus who may have interest in opening their own business one day, SoBA announces a new Entrepreneurship course for non-business majors beginning in Fall 2006. Dr. Jeff Shay has taught similar courses to non-business major students from around the world for the past six years in London (at the London School of Economics) and in Beijing (at Peking University). Students from these courses have gone on to launch businesses such as www.benbarry.com, www.ecourier.co.uk, and www.coffeefarmerscoop.com, all successful start-ups. Dr. Shay discussed the idea of offering a similar course at the University of Montana with Dean Larry Gianchetta, Professor Nader Shooshtari, and the Montana Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, and all enthusiastically supported the new course offering. Dr Shay commented, “This is an exciting opportunity for students from all disciplines to acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to launch their own business. It has worked overseas and I’m sure we’ll have great success stories here in Montana as well.” If you are interested in learning more about the course please read the following description and then contact Professor Shay at: jshay@business.umt.edu.
MGMT395 Entrepreneurship for non-business majors
Course description:
This course provides students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to plan, finance, develop and operate a new business venture. By analyzing case studies on entrepreneurial ventures and writing their own business plans, students learn how to assess the attributes of entrepreneurs, determine the attractiveness of new venture opportunities, and gather the resources necessary to convert a viable opportunity into an entrepreneurial venture. These case studies also provide the opportunity for students to acquire a basic understanding of management, marketing, and finance as they relate to launching a new business.
This course concentrates on:
- searching the environment for new venture opportunities;
- matching an individual's skill set with a new venture opportunity;
- evaluating the viability of a new venture;
- obtaining financial resources for a new venture; and
- starting up and operating a new venture.
This course uses lectures, case studies, class discussions, and experiential exercises to expose students to the challenges that entrepreneurs face in conceiving, planning, financing, and operating a new business venture. It provides students with a framework that can be applied to assessing their own business ideas in the future. The main project for the course requires student teams of four to five students to develop a business plans for a new business venture of their choice.
Students:
Although similar to MGMT348 Entrepreneurship, offered to business school students, this course has been tailored to meet the needs of students without previous coursework in the field of business.
About the Professor: Dr. Jeff Shay (Ph.D. Cornell University, MBA and BS Babson College) has been teaching Entrepreneurship for the University of Montana for seven years, earning six teaching awards along the way. Dr. Shay has taught similar courses to students from around the world at the London School of Economics and Peking University and has been an invited speaker at the Swedish Trade Council, Penn State, Cornell, Babson, and UNLV. Dr. Shay continues to be actively engaged in consulting, having worked recently with Big Sky Brewing, Western States Insurance, e-Courier.com, PowerWater, Precision Partners, and several other firms. His research has been published in top tier journals and presented at leading conferences.
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