The Daily Bulletin Archive

Please join us for the professional development workshop "Heel, Disrupt, and Conquer: What Higher Education Can Learn from Entrepreneurial Leadership,” presented by Bhakti Sharma, associate professor of interior design, on Monday, October 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Assembly Hall.

Higher education institutions are the moral, intellectual, and cultural economy of the society. Enrollment, retention, budget and resources, branding, culture, and innovation—these challenges and opportunities that higher education is facing are no different from the challenges and opportunities of new business development, client retention, and risk taking that entrepreneurs face. To generate new growth and preserve existing infrastructure, higher education stakeholders are starting to think of ourselves as entrepreneurs and innovators. We should not focus merely on incremental growth but leverage our existing resources to create next-generation solutions. 

The corporatization of higher education has been ongoing for quite some time now. But the c-word does not have to be bad if we adopt the promising practices that apply to our context. By adopting and learning from entrepreneurial values such as risk taking, innovation, prototyping, and diversity in teams, we can become entrepreneurs with values, whether in the classroom or as leaders. 

The Program Higher Education Entrepreneurial Leadership (HEEL) has been designed to develop proactive leadership capabilities that will help participants think with the mindset of a founder and a primary stakeholder, and inspire pockets of innovation across the campus or in their department. Principles of design thinking, innovation excellence, and value leadership will be embedded throughout the workshop, equipping participants with new information about entrepreneurial leadership skills and behaviors necessary for leading transformation in the twenty-first century. As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to

• recognize entrepreneurial and innovation styles, strengths, and development opportunities;
• understand how to lead change by taking risks;
• apply the benefits of design thinking and innovation to develop new solutions to higher education challenges;
• recognize a model for rapid and efficient decision making;
• develop an understanding of how to create a culture to succeed by failing forward and prototyping.

Light snacks will be provided. Please register through the Workshop Registration System.