Supplement the learning environment with resources

Originally posted in our July 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. In a recent piece published by Yale, we see an interesting pattern emerging. While employers report a need for entrepreneurial skills, they are not very likely to hire startup founders who are applying, “according to a new study by Tristan Botelho, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM.” Interestingly, of the profiles Botelho reviewed, successful startup founders fared the worst in a job search study.…

Originally posted in our July 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Startups are often seen as risky, requiring significant time and monetary investment to get going. While that’s not an entirely false perception, we at ELI have found that there is much more we, as educators and entrepreneurial support workers, can do to prepare someone for the trials of starting a fledgling business. In this piece from CB Insights, we see the top 12 reasons (by their…

Originally posted in our June 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. For inspiration and to demonstrate to principles we’ve been thinking about this month, the ELI team wanted to highlight one entrepreneur who is making it work no matter what, DeShawn Willis. Owner of Lake Lawns in Toledo, Ohio, DeShawn is a prime example of the power of vision and persistence while showing us you do not need significant investment to start something sustainable. In this short…

Originally posted in our June 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. While we’re considering paths towards growth and innovation, we also need to think about developing effective systems to channel these goals. As this piece from 2019 suggests, many entrepreneurs treat each sale opportunity as a way to uniquely meet their clients’ needs. Initially, this is great for them to try out many little tweaks to their proposed solution. However, it very quickly limits you from scaling…

Originally posted in our June 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Continuing to think about future societal development, what do we mean when we say innovation? When organizational leaders use that word, how are they actually committing to it? In a recent McKinsey article, the authors begin to address these types of questions. As the writers outline in a sidebar, there are eight practices to commit to when embracing innovation. These are: aspire, choose, discover, evolve, accelerate,…