A report from a UW-Madison working group says the university’s culture around entrepreneurship “emphasizes gatekeeping and risk management,” weakening its ability to attract startup talent.
The university yesterday released a report called “Empowering the Wisconsin Idea: The Future of Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,” authored by a group of business experts assembled by UW-Madison leadership.
Along with highlighting areas of weakness within the university’s framework for supporting entrepreneurship, the report also includes a series of recommendations aimed at improving related programs, internal coordination and private sector collaboration. The No. 1 finding from the working group is that UW-Madison is “well-positioned to achieve greater excellence” in this area.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who commissioned the study, touts the university as a “thriving hub of innovation and entrepreneurial excellence” but notes the opportunity for improvement as well.
“This report, and its recommendations, provide a roadmap not just to unify our existing programs, but to chart a new direction to further empower our entrepreneurial community to lead in ways that truly differentiate us on a national and global scale,” she said in a statement.
While the report critiques the university’s “bureaucratic environment” for hampering interaction with the private sector, it also notes the venture capital model of entrepreneurship dominates most training programs on campus, excluding other approaches to starting a business.
Authors also pointed to UW-Madison’s “respectable” portfolio of decentralized entrepreneurship programs, but said gaps exist in program goals, topics covered and coordination. They also said the university should engage more with outside experts in the private sector, including bringing in business experts to help craft entrepreneurship programs.
Recommendations include: making an “institutional commitment” to excellence in entrepreneurship with a focus on startup founders; creating an executive-level position to refine and execute this strategy as well as a related entity such as an institute to coordinate related activities; adjusting UW-Madison’s culture to put more of a focus on entrepreneurs; and improving access to capital.
While this last factor is outside the direct scope of the university, authors say the university should seek to establish processes that boost the “quantity and quality of investable companies” coming out of UW-Madison.
The report calls for working closely with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation — the patenting and licensing organization for the university — as well as the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the Wisconsin Foundation & Alumni Association and UW Athletics to improve capital access. It also urges the university to leverage alumni networks and other relationships to attract more investment dollars, though authors caution it should “carefully consider” and manage possible related conflicts of interest.
“However, the goal should be to create pathways to finance business through conflict management instead of viewing conflicts as barriers to harnessing insights from external experts who become involved in companies by providing capital,” they wrote.
The report committee was co-chaired by Jon Eckhardt, a professor of business leadership within the Wisconsin School of Business, who also has a position in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. Mnookin recently appointed Eckhardt as a special advisor for UW-Madison’s entrepreneurship initiatives.
“An intended impact of the founder-first strategy is to spur the formation of more companies across the region and state, extending our impact beyond Madison,” Eckhardt said.
