The Neeley School of Businessis launching a new Values and Ventures Program, made possible through a gift from a private foundation.  The program features a Values and Ventures Competition, a national competition for undergraduate students that focuses on specific ways a new venture has strong business viability while creating value and meaning for the organization and significantly improving quality of life. The first Values and Ventures competition is set for spring 2011 at the Neeley School, for TCU undergraduate students and students from other leading national entrepreneurship programs invited to participate.

 

“While there are numerous competitions at the MBA level around the world, there are few national competitions for undergraduate business students,” said O. Homer Erekson, John V. Roach Dean of the Neeley School of Business at TCU. “The emphasis on opportunities for undergraduate students and the focus on values make the Values and Ventures Competition distinctive in the national higher education landscape while enhancing the brands of TCU and the Neeley School of Business and supporting economic development and new venture creation.”

 

In addition to highlighting the values-based criterion, the Values and Ventures Competition will provide opportunities for undergraduate business students in the Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition and New Venture Development courses to develop and evaluate values-based new ventures of their own creation or with intellectual property provided by internal or external sources. Winning plans will demonstrate specific ways the new ventures create value and meaning, such as contributing to sustainability, innovations in the health and life sciences, or opportunities for under-represented groups in business. The TCU chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Club (TCU CEO) will encourage students to participate from majors in and outside the Neeley School of Business at TCU.

 

The overarching Values and Ventures Program will include a speaker event focused on innovation. A separate gift has already made possible the Jane and Pat Bolin Innovation Forum, which will be held annually in conjunction with the Values and Ventures Competition and feature a speaker who has either transformed business or transformed the environment in which business operates.

 

The Values and Ventures Program also will include financial and logistical support of TCU MBA teams in national and international MBA business plan competitions. TCU MBA teams will develop plans that focus on integrating personal ethics and corporate values with innovation and creativity associated with commercializing appropriate intellectual property. The teams with the most promising plans will participate in national and international competitions.