Historically, employment growth in the United States has correlated directly with new business growth.  From 1977 to 1990, small entrepreneurial firms created the most net new jobs in the U.S. economy, according to the textbook Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Approach (Donald Kuratko, Richard Hodgett, 1998).  Small, entrepreneurial venures now account for the greatest share of growth, with more than 807,000 new small firmsestablished in 1995. Those trends have caused an explosion in entrepreneurial education, with the number of colleges teaching a new-ventures or similar course growing from as few as two dozen 20 years ago to more than 500 today.  Success magazine recently named UofL as one of the nation's top 25 best business schools for entrepreneurs.

Americans are fascinated by "self-made" moguls, those men and women who have built business empires out of guts, determination, and great ideas. They are the stuff of legend: aircraft inventor Howard Hughes, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and Mary Kay Cosmetics creator Mary Kay Ash.

The entrepreneurial mystique and its relationship to the American Dream has to do with how easy it appears to be. Many of us feel we are just one great idea away from such success ourselves. When we hear of the ideas of an up-and-coming entrepreneur, we are likely to say to ourselves, "I could have thought of that."

But the truth is that entrepreneurial ventures are risky and many fail. So, what is it that makes some entrepreneurs so successful? What qualities do those individuals have? Are those qualities innate or can they be taught? In other words, is entrepreneurship an art or a science?

According to Van Clouse, associate professor in the College of Business and Public Administration and one of the founders of its MBA program concentration in entrepreneurship, it’s a combination of both, with a little luck thrown in. Successful entrepreneurs do need to have the right idea at the right time. In addition, Clouse says, they need to think creatively, have strong leadership skills, and use proven methods of evaluating ideas.

"Our students leave this program with the tools, the techniques, the self-confidence, and the network to be able to actually launch a business," Clouse says. "Those are critical factors for entrepreneurial success. I’ve seen lots of people who had good ideas, but they never went beyond an idea because they didn’t know what to do next."

U of L’s hands-on, practical, and successful approach to entrepreneurship was recently recognized by Success magazine, which named the university as one of the nation’s 25 best business schools for entrepreneurs. U of L was cited for having strengthened its curriculum, support programs, and faculty in the entrepreneurship concentration since it was named as an "up-and-coming" program on last year’s Success list.

The entrepreneurship concentration was introduced in 1989 and has been grown and developed by Clouse and Jeffrey Bracker, professor in the College of Business and Public Administration, who was recruited to U of L in 1991 to fill an endowed chair in entrepreneurship funded by Louisville-based tobacco company Brown & Williamson.

All of the program’s faculty have first-hand entrepreneurial experience. Clouse, for example, owned and managed food service businesses, with about 250 employees, in South Carolina and Georgia, before pursuing an academic career. David Doctor, an "entrepreneur-in-residence" with the program, is a successful Louisville entrepreneur who founded Entrade, a natural gas trading company.

Course topics include new venture creation, business plan development, financing new ventures, and new venture implementation. A major component of the program is the development of a complete business plan, including a presentation to local bankers and venture capitalists to seek funding.

"Entrepreneurial thinking is the ability to identify and seize opportunity," Clouse explains. "It is also a willingness to take calculated, acceptable risks. The faculty have been through the process of starting new businesses ourselves, and we know where the pitfalls are. We help students identify the issues they need to consider to minimize the risk of failure and create the best chance for success."

Clouse also notes that entrepreneurial thinking does not have to be confined to those who want to start their own businesses. Increasingly, large and well-established corporations are relying on corporate entrepreneurs, or "intrapreneurs," to help them create and develop new ventures. Intrapreneurs use the same skills and methods as entrepreneurs, but they do it within a corporate structure.

"Companies today want their employees to think creatively and act aggressively within established organizations," says Clouse. "We want to create experiences for our students that encourage them to be entrepreneurs in their current careers, to be willing to take risks, have new ideas, and be seen within those companies as people with great potential."

One of the major goals of the program is to make an impact on the local economy, according to CBPA Dean Robert Taylor. He believes the program will strengthen the ties between U of L and the area business community.

"As local business people look to get an MBA, we want them to choose U of L because we offer the tools and experiences that will make them more valuable to their companies. They’ll learn how to analyze market opportunities and create a workable business plan from an idea. We want our graduates to define those local companies for the next generation.

"Ultimately, business leaders will be able to judge the success of our program by the number of jobs created and dollars added into the local economy."

For those students who are ready to take the plunge into establishing their own businesses, U of L offers a number of support services to help them get off the ground. One of those is the "Ideas Into Action" program at the Telecommunications Research Center on the Shelby Campus. This program offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their ideas for information technology products and services into thriving enterprises. It provides support services for entrepreneurs and their young companies for 24 to 48 months until they are ready to operate independently.

"What makes our program different from entrepreneurship programs at other universities is the commitment and infrastructure we’ve created to actually launch new businesses," he says. "We’re putting our resources behind our students and their businesses, and that’s pretty gutsy and unusual. I don’t know of any other school that makes this kind of commitment."