Business Boot Camp at Santa Clara University Allows Tech Executives to Help Social Entrepreneurs.SANTA CLARA Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif. -- Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society will kick off a two-week program in which local tech experts and business executives will trade ideas with social entrepreneurs A social entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who works to increase social capital, often by founding humanitarian organizations. Historical examples of leading social entrepreneurs
Armed with the knowledge that good intentions alone do not make a successful venture, 15 social entrepreneurs from around the globe will come to Silicon Valley this summer to endure a two-week "boot camp Software from Apple that enables an Intel x86-based Macintosh to host the Windows XP operating system. Boot Camp is used to divide the hard disk into Windows and Mac partitions, to install the necessary drivers and to create a dual boot environment. " with a mission: To emerge with a cohesive business plan that could bring their life-altering ventures to resource-strapped regions of the world. The two week residential camp, July 30 - Aug 12, is designed to give social entrepreneurs from around the world the business acumen they need to move their projects forward and combines case studies with classroom training and real-world mentoring. The goal: Create a plan to expand their work using Silicon Valley business models. But what does a Santa Clara tech firm have in common with the designer of sanitary toilets in Nigeria? More than you'd think, says co-founder and executive director Jim Koch. He believes some concepts developed in Silicon Valley -- such as the elevator pitch Elevator Pitch A slang term referring to the 20-60 seconds an entrepreneur has to interest a venture capitalist (VC) in his or her business idea. Notes: Entrepreneurs have about the same amount of time to pitch their idea to a VC as they would if they ran into the VC in and a focus on companies cooperating with one another rather than competing -- can easily be applied to organizations working in developing countries. "Silicon Valley has a regional advantage and lots of experience in what it takes to grow rapidly, and there are a variety of approaches that have potential spillover spill·o·ver n. 1. The act or an instance of spilling over. 2. An amount or quantity spilled over. 3. A side effect arising from or as if from an unpredicted source: benefit in the social-benefit arena," Koch said. SCU's Center for Science Technology and Society devised the boot camp -- the Global Social Business Incubator Business incubators are organizations that support the entrepreneurial process, helping to increase survival rates for innovative startup companies. Entrepreneurs with feasible projects are selected and admitted into the incubators, where they are offered a specialized menu of -- three years ago, tapping into a surge of interest in "social entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. ," and attempting to give these budding CEOs an intensive training ground for getting innovations as varied as Third World tech training to sanitary toilet systems up and running. "These are award-winning innovations from international communities who have a demonstrable idea, not pie-in-the-sky dreamers," says Patrick Guerra, cofounder co·found tr.v. co·found·ed, co·found·ing, co·founds To establish or found in concert with another or others. co·found for the Global Social Business Incubator. For more information, visit www.scu.edu/sts/programsandpartnerships/gsbi/ About Santa Clara University Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers its 8397 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the third-highest graduation rate among all U.S. master's universities, California's oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. More information is available at www.scu.edu. |
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