SMG offers four-month diploma for entrepreneurs
Taking a business to the next level with or without an MBA
This fall, aspiring entrepreneurs will find that their plans to start a business could come to fruition in the near future — in four months, to be exact.
The School of Management’s Entrepreneurial Management Institute (EMI) and BU Global are offering a new four-month graduate diploma in entrepreneurial management beginning this semester. The program is the latest fast-track educational opportunity at BU Global, a division of the University that specializes in international and exchange programs in a variety of fields and has drawn students from all over the world.
“There was this incredible need for people who might already have an MBA, or didn’t want an MBA but wanted a specific set of courses in entrepreneurship,” says Elizabeth Nassar, the director of SMG’s executive education program, who helped develop the graduate diploma program. “These are people who have family businesses and want to bring them to the next level, or who are just very interested in entrepreneurship.”
The program combines courses in finance, startup strategy, and marketing with guest lectures from venture capitalists and site visits to local corporations such as Genzyme and EMC. Participants learn to recognize and assess opportunities, build resources, and develop successful strategies for new ventures — and reap the benefits of affiliation with EMI, one of the country’s top-ranked entrepreneurship organizations. Internship opportunities with local companies will also be available.
Participating EMI faculty include Peter Russo, an SMG professor of strategy and policy and director of the Institute, and Michael Lawson, senior associate dean and a professor of information systems. This semester, 15 students have enrolled.
“We always start them off very small,” says Nassar, “to make sure there’s a lot of one-on-one attention and we’re doing our very best.”
BU Global offers five other intensive four-month diploma programs: banking and financial services, hospitality and tourism management, information systems and security, international marketing, and project management.
For more information on the program, visit www.bu.edu/entrepreneurship or www.bu.edu/global.