Escape from Corporate UK

Top prizes in Said Business School’s recent Idea Idol competition were won by Jennifer Segal for her proposal to produce designer medical slings and covers for plaster casts and by Susana Pinheiro for plans to develop HIV prevention clinics in West Africa, funded through a new condom brand.

Tesia Hostetler, an MBA student at Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, was a prizewinner in the National University of Singapore’s business plan competition Cerebration 2005, while Maria Merce Serra, a fellow student, won General Electric’s Imagination at Work competition.

Is this a blip or a trend?

Here are some snippets from the article:

• The proportion of women who go on to set up their own businesses is increasing. Is there something in the culture of business schools which nurtures women as entrepreneurs? I certainly hope so.

• Most leading business schools focus strongly on enterprise, offering plenty of opportunity for women to consider setting up a business.

• Women are attracted to business schools because they want to run their own company and because they are inspired by what they learn, says Fiona Reid, director of entrepreneurship at Said, in Oxford.

• “We see some very strong entrepreneurial women who have good ideas and are very organised and determined. They walk in the door and you think ‘you’re going to make it’. They have the personal skills as well as the intellectual ability to be successful."

• Women entrepreneurs are very good at evaluating talent as well as business opportunities.

• Segal, of New Jersey, chose the Oxford MBA because of its emphasis on enterprise. She says: “If I wanted to start my own company it seemed a good place to jump from. You don’t have to go to business school to write a business plan but you’ll learn how to write a really good one.”

• Budding entrepreneurs need both an academic grounding and an understanding of the business world.

• “The best way to learn about running a business is from those who have done it,” she adds.

• Segal sums up the value of an MBA for women entrepreneurs: “It puts you in a different light with potential investors. It signals that you are an achiever who has what it takes to run a business.”

Read the complete article here: Women Get Ahead By Being Their Own Boss

Babson Women's Business Blog: Very Cool!

The Babson Women’s Business Blog is dedicated to a cause about which they are very passionate: the advancement of women and business. Their new blog just went live. Catch it here.

Where Are You Going Next?

This is an all encompassing article about both men and women confronting what they want to do next in their lives. One man shifts from Corporate America to independent consultant, another moves from independent consultant to running a consultancy and still another woman transitions from independent agent back to Corporate Amerca.

Most people want to make a difference in the world. Don't you? Climbing your own mountain has its rewards.

Capture the experience or essence of the article here.

Touched by an angel

Women control nearly half of the nation's wealth, but of about 225,000 angels -- wealthy people who invest on their own or in groups -- only 8 percent are women, said a report last month by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.

What women need are angels ... that is ... angel investors. Enter the Phenomenelle Angels -- Wisconsin's 14-angel investor group -- who plan to back 12 to 20 companies with $100,000 to $500,000 each.

Lorrie Keating Heinemann, secretary of the state Department of Financial Institutions, said female and minority entrepreneurs don't always get attention from male-only investor groups. "Realizing the potential and success of women-owned businesses is very important," she added.

"To me, it's an issue of opportunity. There are rising numbers of entrepreneurs who are women, black and Latino," said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. But he added, "At the end of the day, money is usually color- blind and gender-neutral. It should flow to where the best opportunities are."

Read the article "Angel Fund By And For Women" here.

In Honor Of Mother's Day ...

Look out world. Moms are about to shake it (you) up. Here's a new way for Moms to chart their destiny.



Business Schools Target At-Home Moms

Babson Program Targets Moms Returning To Work

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms who make a difference in our lives.

Lead Like An Entrepreneur

For those who absolutely cannot escape from corporate America, I've got just the little book to help you cope and become a leader who turbo-charges vitality into an organization. It's called "Lead Like An Entrepreneur" by Neal Thornberry, faculty director at one of my favorite entrepreneurial places -- Babson College -- renowned for its entrepreneurial education programs.

Here's what I found most fascinating about "Lead Like An Entrepreneur" and I probably should not be giving away my insight so freely, especially on a blog, but I feel compelled to do so. Thornberry states: "Organizations don't make things hapen -- people do. And entrepreneurial leaders make significant things happen." This is the key premise to finding hidden value not just in the book but within any organization.

Don't just get by. Thrive. And that's what "Lead Like An Entrepreneur" will do for you. Buy it. Read it. Learn from it. Become the entrepreneur you were meant to be ... whether within an organization or by building one of your own on "their" nickel.

Taking the Pulse of Women Entrepreneurs

Women-owned businesses are on the rise. Consider the following figures: According to the Washington-based Center for Women's Business Research, 48% of all privately held U.S. firms are 50% or more women-owned -- for a total of 10.6 million firms. They generate $2.5 trillion in sales and employ 19.1 million people across the country. Moreover, between 1997 and 2004 the number of women-owned companies grew 28.1% -- nearly three times the rate of all privately held businesses with employees.

Now what? Find out here.