MBiz

the stu clark centre for entrepreneurship Changing Course Community beComes Classroom for asper students by Pat St. Germain T he Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship is moving in a new direction — out of the classroom and into the community. Stuart Henrickson, I.H. Asper School of Business executive director of entrepreneurship since October 2012, says he wants the centre to help students bridge the gap between academics and the business world. To that end, he's been busy forging strategic partnerships, creating opportunities for students to work with entrepreneurs and establishing a community-service component for the centre. "We feel that entrepreneurship is not limited to one location," Henrickson says. "We feel it's more of a mindset and a way to really facilitate it for students is to get them in front of like-minded individuals." Business incubator The Eureka Project, the Manitoba Metis Federation and startup collective Ramp Up Manitoba are new collaborators, and the centre has formed alliances with Junior Achievement of Manitoba, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. Henrickson, who spent over 25 years advising businesses of all sizes, hopes the Junior Achievement connection will increase participation in the centre's Manitoba High School Investment competition, in which students pitch products and compete for financial prizes. The competition typically attracts seven to 10 teams, but with more than 100 high schools across the province, there's plenty of room for growth. Big Brothers Big Sisters will benefit from a giveback program that gives I.H. Asper students a chance to work with a business in the community. This year, students are creating mascots for Great Big Adventure indoor fun park. They'll present marketing plans and the mascots will go up for auction at the end of the process, with proceeds going to Big Brothers Big Sisters. "One of the things I want to do with our students is provide them the opportunity to work on real- life projects as opposed to text-book (cases)," Henrickson says. Some students are working with Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project. They'll help the organization put together a marketing plan in an effort to earn recognition as a UNESCO world heritage site. The Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship will also host a series of special events, including business camps for kids ages 10 - 12 and aboriginal teens ages 14 - 16. The inaugural Visions to Ventures event in January will allow inventors to collaborate with investors and people who have expertise in commercializing new ideas. Researchers from the University of Manitoba and RRC will present 12 projects and entrepreneurs will assign themselves to different ventures and try to secure financing to get the projects off the ground. Each year, students from 16 business schools compete in the Stu Clark Investment Competition, presenting business plans for a chance to win startup funds. A dozen schools are expected to compete in the final Wes Nicol Investment Competition in February. Henrickson plans to launch a new competition that will be open to students from across Manitoba and Saskatchewan next year, a plan that's in keeping with the centre's new spirit of wide-open collaboration. "We're a reach-out organization," Henrickson says. "We don't view anybody as our competition, we view everybody as a potential partner." stuart henrickson is reaching out to the community as head of the stu Clark Centre for entrepreneurship. Photo courtesy of I.H. Asper School of Business WINTER 2013 'peg biz | 19

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