Small Firms Headed Back to School
10/11/2006 (Kelley Indianapolis)
Students aren't the only ones who can benefit from business schools these days. Small and midsize companies also can take advantage of educators' expertise, thanks to a new partnership between the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis and the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.
The partnership, which begins Nov. 3, aims to help firms thrive and keep the school's curriculum relevant. The initiative expands on other, less formal programs that expose students and teachers to real-life business challenges.
Business schools nationwide are forging such relationships so they can serve companies better and provide students with experience outside the classroom. It's part of their mission, observers said.
"That's the whole reason we have business schools," said Steve Parscale, director of accreditation at the Kansas-based Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs. "The primary objective of the business schools is to foster and grow the economy."
Kelley's partnership with the Chamber will target small and midsize businesses through what's being called the Main Street Institute. About 20 Kelley faculty members will teach monthly workshops in areas such as sales and marketing.
With about 70 percent of the job growth coming from such businesses, Chamber President Roland Dorson said it is important to provide affordable, easy access to educational opportunities.
Companies with fewer than 50 employees make up 80 percent of the chamber's nearly 4,000 members, he said. Statewide, small businesses employed nearly 50 percent of the non-farm, private-sector work force, according to a report released this month by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
"We're in Indy and Indy's future is going to be attached with small and medium-sized businesses that start to become big businesses," said Roger Schmenner, associate dean of Indianapolis programs.
Kelley also will pair students with businesses as part of the Main Street initiative. What the students will be doing hasn't been completely developed, said Mary Chappell, the school's director of external affairs.
After conducting market research, Kelley learned half of its Indianapolis MBA students come from small to midsize companies. The school wanted to find a way to reach those students and companies, so Chappell began searching for an organization Kelley could work with.
At the same time, the Chamber was refocusing its efforts on small-business education. Dorson said the sheer number of training programs available can be confusing for business owners, so the partnership seemed natural.
Universities have made a habit of creating more economic-development programs in the past five years, said Robert Velasquez, president of the University Economic Development Association.
As institutions strive to be involved with economic development, they also are developing a way for students to get a more hands-on education, said Arthur Kraft, chairman of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
"Business education in general is dynamic and creative, and it strives to find areas that can enhance its value-added proposition for its students," he said.
Since the early '90s when magazines and newspapers started ranking business schools, institutions have been developing programs that are focused on students' experience outside the classroom, Kraft said.
"That gives good practice training to the student," he said of the Main Street initiative. "It's much like a science major working in a lab. In this case, the laboratory is the city at large."
Kelley and other local business programs already encourage students to get hands-on experience helping area businesses. However, the Main Street initiative will be larger and more formal, Schmenner said.
With more than 85 percent of the university's alumni staying in central Indiana, Chappell said it makes sense to target area businesses.
"If we help the business grow in Indianapolis, that helps the support for the school grow," Chappell said.
