Each week, professors in the BYU Marriott School of Business Department of Information Systems mentor students who come in to pitch their business ideas. In pursuit of the next big thing, these students come to faculty seeking advice to get their projects and businesses started.
Dr. Jeff Jenkins talks about the role he plays in helping students develop their business ideas.
“I mentor eight different entrepreneurship groups and people who are actively going out and trying to launch start-ups. Some of them are further along than others, but most of the time I play an advisement role. They come with questions and I advise them what the next steps are in the business. Or if they run into roadblocks, I advise them how to get around them.”
This form of mentoring helps provide students many opportunities that they might not be able to create for themselves.
“Typically I run with those students, and I’ll take them through the process of doing their product research to figure out if their idea already exists, customer research to see if the customers even want it, and a feasibility analysis to determine the best way of going about all of it,” says Dr. James Gaskin.
Dr. Gaskin himself has started multiple businesses, and his entrepreneurial background and leadership has helped several students build their ideas to the point of securing patents, attracting investors, and making profits.
However, not all entrepreneurial ideas necessarily lead to the next breakout company, warns Dr. Gaskin. Nonetheless, those ideas often lead to meaningful experiences for students that help them land quality internships and jobs.
“Students learn many things that they may not learn in class, or at least augment what they’re learning in class. These students augment their education and they become more powerful so that they can actually get paid more when they get a job out of college.”
While professor mentorship is important, education is also key in starting a successful business. The information systems program helps students gain the skills and training they need to supplement their business ideas.
“Ideas are a dime a dozen,” says Dr. Greg Anderson. “Going through the information systems core, you learn technical skills to turn those ideas into something that’s real. Ideas are great, but you have to have the technical skills to back them up.”
Connor McLeod, a senior majoring in information systems, is currently working on a start-up that makes sensors to open doors for people with mobility disabilities. Starting a business certainly hasn’t been easy, says McLeod, but it has provided him with invaluable experience.
“Every day in class or when I’m working on the project I feel like I’m learning what the real world is like. We talk with hundreds of potential customers and users, we build things that don’t work initially, we fix those things, we create prototypes that are eventually scrapped, we see if people are willing to pay money for what we make. The value I’ve gained is the opportunity to get in the real world and see what programming and product and project management really look like.”
McLeod attributes much of his success to the help and mentorship provided by Dr. Anderson.
“Dr. Anderson has been a fantastic resource along the way. He has referred me to students looking for jobs, mentored me concerning starting my own business, and given me general business advice. He also has helped me weigh different options for my academic career many times. He is always willing to give it to me straight, but has a very tactful way of doing so. His mentorship is fantastic.”