By Ryan Schuster
Herald Staff Writer - 01/21/2008

When the Center for Innovation opened at UND in 1984, it was housed in a storage closet in Harrington Hall.

"They cleaned it out, gave me a World War II edition desk, a chair that was partially broken and a typewriter," said Bruce Gjovig, who launched the Center for Innovation and now serves as the center's director and entrepreneur coach. "That's how I started the Center for Innovation in 1984. In a closet with old furniture."

Twenty-four years later, one of the first entrepreneur outreach centers in the country has earned national attention, helped more than 400 start-up companies, manages two technology incubators, has formed three angel investing networks in the state and is home to the Dakota Venture Group the only student-managed venture fund in the country where students make investment decisions.

It has also received a bit of an upgrade in facilities from the early years.

The Center for Innovation is housed in the $4.2 million Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center and the $4 million Norm Skalicky Tech Incubator.

More than 200 UND students are enrolled in entrepreneurship classes, including nearly 60 Entrepreneurship majors. In addition, more than 300 UND students in their freshmen and sophomore years have indicated an interest in majoring or minoring in Entrepreneurship. But Gjovig said that while the number of Entrepreneurship majors is growing, most in the program have majors in other fields such as aerospace or engineering and are looking for ways to combine their existing knowledge in their career field with entrepreneurial skills.

Gjovig also said that many who major or minor in entrepreneurship either don't plan on starting their own business or haven't decided what type of business they will start. He said many students are more than willing to be matched up by the Center for Innovation with budding entrepreneurs starting their own businesses, providing the students valuable experience.

The Herald sat down with Gjovig last week for a wide-ranging chat about the Center for Innovation's success, how it differs from other college entrepreneurship programs, the growth of college entrepreneur programs and entrepreneurship in general. The following are excepts from the interview:

UND was recently ranked 9th by Entrepreneur Magazine and the Princeton Review in a list of the most entrepreneurial schools in the nation. Why?
We put together the right mix of really great students and experienced entrepreneurs who are engaged in the program, terrific faculty, strong experiential learning, a strong curriculum and a focus on performance and execution. It's that mix that is important.

What's different that you see in that list is the focus on experiential learning, learning by doing and the focus on innovation. They get to be with and around emerging and successful entrepreneurs, being part of a community of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is as much art as it is science. Knowing the art of entrepreneurship is knowing about creativity, innovation, living with ambiguities, knowing how to build and create beyond the resources you control. It is like many other art forms.

How is UND able to do better at entrepreneurship than larger business schools at more well-known colleges?
Most other programs focus on just the student-faculty interaction. They don't really put innovation first. Their entrepreneur curriculum really deals mostly with entrepreneurship issues. It doesn't really bring in innovation issues. Where does innovation come from? How do you innovate? How do you do opportunity analysis?

It's a focus on the real creative side of it and a focus on experiential learning and learning by doing. They have a textbook approach. It's like trying to get a superior surgeon without letting them do surgery. It can't be done in my opinion. It needs the practice. You can know all the science and still not be able to practice the art. Unless you can practice the art, you can't truly be good at it.

More than 2,000 colleges now offer at least one course in entrepreneurship. Have colleges started placing more importance on entrepreneurship?
There has been an explosion of entrepreneurship programs nationwide. That's a huge change. There was less than two dozen that offered any courses in entrepreneurship 20 years ago. We were among the first four entrepreneurial research centers in the United States, doing hands-on work through a university to work with entrepreneurs. We have been able to pioneer and be a leader in the field from the very beginning.
You were quoted in a recent U-Turn Magazine article as saying that college students don't want that Fortune 500 job anymore. What do you mean by that?
You take a look at all the surveys of high school students and college students. Where do they want to work? They say they are more attracted to working in an entrepreneur environment than they are to working in the corporate environment. I don't think there is hardly a family around that hasn't been impacted by layoffs, mergers and other problems in corporate life. They see that it is a long time for advancement. You can join a younger company, have more interest in exciting work and follow the growth of these companies as part of your career.

More students now expect to work for several companies. There was a strategy up to the 1980s where you would pick a good company and try to advance as much as you can in one company. Students today are more interested in having a variety of experiences. They expect to work for upwards of 10 companies in their career. If you are going to do that, it is more interesting to work in an entrepreneur environment, you get more skills, get more opportunity. Many of them also are interested in owning their own companies.
Are today's students less worried about the risk of starting their own company than in years past?
This generation is more interested in the rewards that come with risk. They realize that the security that they thought was in the corporate life isn't really that secure after all.

All industries are more driven by innovation and change. The marketplace is rapidly moving. Innovation and technology are rapidly changing. The marketplace is very dynamic. They understand they need to live in a world with more constant change than their parents or grandparents did.0

Has the view of the value of entrepreneurship in general changed?
When we started the Center for Innovation and all the way through the '80s, it was tough to talk entrepreneurship. It was not seen as a legitimate economic development strategy to grow companies and jobs through entrepreneurs.

But now there is nobody who doesn't have an entrepreneur strategy as part of their economic development program. The state has one through Innovate ND, which we operate for them. There are incubators, the colleges have entrepreneur programs. Everyone understands that the generators of new jobs and companies are in fact people who start companies.

Schuster reports on business. Reach him by phone at (701) 780-1107; by e-mail at rschuster@gfherald.com or view his business blog at www.areavoices.com/bizbuzz.

This complete article can also be found at http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=64582&section=Business.